PETA Asks POTUS to Spare Dogs Heatstroke in Champ’s Honor by Banning Chaining

For Immediate Release:
June 22, 2021

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

This afternoon, PETA sent a letter to President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden offering condolences for the recent loss of Champ and suggesting a lifesaving way to honor the first dog’s memory: an executive order banning the cruel practice of keeping dogs chained continuously outside, which is resulting in dogs’ deaths from summer heat. Chained dogs also suffer greatly when left outside in winter storms and cold and are sometimes found frozen to death.

PETA points to the case of Star, a dog found dead by PETA fieldworkers in North Carolina on May 28, when the temperature reached 95 degrees—and Star, badly tangled in a chain, couldn’t reach water or shade. Without a ban on keeping dogs chained outdoors 24/7, watching as life goes by, many more lonely “backyard dogs” will suffer and die in this summer’s blistering heat.

“All dogs deserve what Champ had: a long life with people who love them as members of the family,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA urges President Biden to turn this time of grief into one of hope for American dogs by sparing them miserable lives and often hideous deaths on a chain.”

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 or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to the Bidens follows.

June 22, 2021

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden Jr.

President of the United States of America

Dr. Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President and Dr. Biden:

We hope this message finds you safe and well. Please accept our deepest condolences on your loss of Champ, who enjoyed the life, love, and respect that all dogs deserve but few experience, as our fieldworkers and Emergency Response Team members can attest.

You may know that many dogs in America are deprived of not only consideration for their individual needs and personalities but often the basic necessities of life as well. On May 28, a PETA fieldworker in rural North Carolina found a chained dog named Star who had died of heatstroke. The high temperature that day was 95 degrees, and Star had no access to water or shade. The climate crisis bodes ill for chained dogs. PETA’s fieldwork division visits “backyard dogs” like Star every day but can cover only a limited area, so countless “backyard dogs” will suffer terribly across the country this summer, and some will die outright. PETA’s new public service announcement warning of the dangers of hot weather is currently running on TV stations across North Carolina and Virginia: You can view 60- and 30-second versions at https://f.io/YZMUx_rB and https://f.io/hvp86d_V, respectively.

In memory of Champ and Star, please will you consider an emergency executive order to ban the cruel practice of keeping dogs chained outside? These social pack animals deserve better than perpetual loneliness and exposure to all weather extremes. Like Champ, they deserve a long life with people who love them as members of the family.

All dogs deserve to be respected and cherished as Champ was.

With great respect,

Daphna Nachminovitch

Senior Vice President

Cruelty Investigations Department