PETA Protesters to Westminster: Call Off the Doggone Show
For Immediate Release:
June 11, 2021
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
Ahead of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show—an annual event that evaluates individual dogs as “breeding stock” and promotes buying “purebred” animals instead of adopting homeless ones from shelters—PETA supporters are leaving colorful messages in downtown Tarrytown, the town hosting this year’s show, noting that “Breeders Kill Shelter Dogs’ Chances.” On Saturday, they’ll hit the streets with signs revealing how breeding dogs for appearances causes congenital defects—including diabetes, which is common in standard poodles, 2020’s Best in Show winner.
When: Saturday, June 12, 12 noon
Where: At the intersection of Broadway and Main Street, Tarrytown
“With its reckless promotion of purpose-bred dogs, Westminster emboldens greedy breeders who exacerbate the national animal homelessness crisis and jeopardize dogs’ health,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “To celebrate dogs, PETA recommends skipping the pageant and adopting one of the millions of lovely, deserving ones awaiting homes in shelters.”
PETA notes that puppy mills, brokers, and auctioneers as well as pet-store owners all cash in on the demand for purebred puppies, who are bred and produced en masse after a Best in Show win. Meanwhile, around 70 million dogs and cats are homeless in the U.S. at any given time, and only an estimated 10% of them end up in animal shelters, where many must eventually be euthanized for reasons including injury, illness, old age, emotional and psychological damage, and a lack of good homes.
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.
