Video: Formerly Chained, Starved Chihuahua Has a New ‘Leash on Life’ After Rescue
For Immediate Release:
November 20, 2025
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Pup pup hooray! A new PETA video shows how a Chihuahua named Chico found his happily ever after with a loving adoptive family after PETA fieldworkers found him malnourished and without water in a rural North Carolina trailer park, where he was kept tied up 24/7 to an old trampoline with just 2 feet of tangled tether.
As the video reveals, when PETA fieldworkers first encountered three-year-old Chico, the small Chihuahua was isolated outdoors with nothing to curl up to except a hard, heavy concrete block, and his ribs and hipbones were clearly visible. Despite Chico’s obvious suffering, his owner initially refused to allow PETA to take custody of the neglected dog—but the fieldworkers didn’t give up, and their persistence paid off when they finally convinced the owner to let PETA get Chico the care he desperately needed.
After a short stay with a foster guardian—who reported that Chico was “full of heart” and “the best kind of friend”—Chico was quickly adopted into a home where he’d be treated like a family member, with kindness and respect.
“Every day, PETA fieldworkers find dogs just like Chico who are chained up like old bicycles and left to languish outside without adequate food, water, veterinary care, or even a kind word,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA urges everyone to bring their dogs inside with the rest of the family where they belong, to report cruelty and neglect wherever they see it, and to push for chaining bans in their community.”
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.
