PETA Offers $1000 Reward for Help Locating Ailing Senior Dog in Urgent Need of Veterinary Care

For Immediate Release:
June 27, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Roanoke Rapids, N.C. –

PETA is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the location of a 10-year-old white German Shepherd named Aspin, who had previously been confined outside 24/7 in a backyard on Madison Street and was last seen with fluid draining from a tumor in her ear canal.

PETA fieldworkers had regularly visited Aspin to bring her food, shelter, and flea prevention, and to clean out the often-filthy pen she was kept in. Fieldworkers had informed Aspin’s owners that she was in dire need of veterinary care to address the tumor—but despite her suffering, her owners refused to seek treatment for months until PETA contacted authorities, who required Aspin’s owners to take her to a veterinarian. Shortly after, Aspin’s owners claimed to PETA that they had given Aspin to a relative but refused to divulge her current location to allow fieldworkers to verify her safety and well-being.

PETA urges anyone with information about Aspin’s whereabouts to contact 1-800-566-9768.

Aspin was last seen confined to a pen in the backyard of the Madison Street residence on March 21. Credit: PETA

Aspin’s coat was drenched with fluid draining from the tumor in her ear. Credit: PETA

“We know that Aspin has remained in the area, and she depends on caring community members to speak up and let us know where she is, so that we can get her the help she desperately needs,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA asks anyone who knows where Aspin is to please give us a call—it’s the right thing to do.”

Every year, PETA’s fieldworkers visit thousands of neglected dogs—forgotten, ignored, often found without shade, drinkable water, or any other way to cool down (or stay warm and dry in winter). Dogs relegated to the outdoors are at the mercy of weather extremes, like this summer’s dangerous heat waves, and are often deprived of veterinary care, exercise, companionship, or even a kind word, and are kept confined to the same few square feet of space day in and day out. That’s why PETA urges everyone to keep dogs indoors and works with government officials to require adequate food, water, and veterinary care to prevent suffering.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.