‘I’ll Never Buy Another Dog!’: Sam Asghari Cuddles Homeless Pups in Campaign for PETA

For Immediate Release:
December 20, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Newly single actor, model, and personal trainer Sam Asghari shows off his softer side in a new PETA campaign, in which he poses with adorable homeless puppies from the HIT Living Foundation and encourages everyone to find lasting love at their local animal shelter—because you don’t have to be famous to be the star of your dog’s world.

In an accompanying video, Asghari says that he purchased his beloved dog, Porsha, but now that he’s learned about the homeless animal overpopulation crisis, he’ll never buy a dog again. “Every time an animal is purchased from a pet store or a breeder, an animal in a shelter loses an opportunity to find a loving home,” he says.

Around 70 million dogs and cats are homeless in the U.S. at any given time. Many animal shelters are warehousing dogs in stacked crates for weeks or months on end and turning animals away, leaving the most vulnerable with nowhere to go—all so they can avoid euthanasia and advertise high “save rates.” Many end up abandoned on the streets, where they may be hit by cars, infected with diseases, or hurt by cruel people—and leaving them to reproduce makes the companion animal overpopulation crisis worse.

That’s why PETA urges shelters to accept all animals in need, advises guardians to have their animal companions spayed or neutered, and reminds everyone never to acquire a dog or a cat on a whim or as a gift, as animals are individuals with complex needs, not stocking stuffers.

Asghari is part of a long list of celebrities—including Ron Perlman, Tom Hardy, John Stamos, Ryan Eggold, Theo Rossi, and Cristin Milioti—who have teamed up with PETA to promote responsible adoption.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.