Please enjoy this article from the latest issue of our magazine, PETA Global. To begin your subscription, become a PETA member today!
Faith was treated like trash–literally. The young pit bull’s only shelter was an overturned garbage can–until PETA came along. That’s when she became one of the 7,264 dogs so far who have received free, custom-built PETA doghouses to provide them with lifesaving protection from winter cold snaps and the scorching summer sun.
Imagine if Your Only Home Were a Cabinet
Every week, PETA’s fieldworkers find and help dogs who are chained or penned outdoors 24/7, with nothing but a drafty plastic carrier, an overturned barrel, or a ramshackle assortment of junk for “shelter.” Life is miserable for them, and in extreme weather, their lack of adequate shelter can be deadly. PETA works to make such treatment illegal, but in some jurisdictions, even government officials keep their dogs this way.
Robo had no choice but to huddle in a rickety old cabinet with a chain wrapped directly around his neck, metal to flesh. PETA’s fieldworkers replaced his heavy chain with a collar and a lightweight tie-out and gave him a real doghouse to curl up in. They still visit regularly to make sure he’s OK–or, at least, that things aren’t getting any worse.
Some dogs–like Duke, a pug mix found tied up outside an abandoned house in subfreezing temperatures–have no shelter whatsoever. He probably wouldn’t have survived much longer if a PETA fieldworker making doghouse deliveries hadn’t miraculously spotted him amid a cluster of garbage cans, piles of drink containers, and an abandoned car. PETA enlisted the help of the local sheriff’s department to confiscate the little dog, and today he’s living the warm, cozy, indoor life that he has always deserved.
Stuffed With Straw and Built to Last
PETA’s fieldworkers always counsel people on proper animal care and urge them to let their dogs live indoors and to treat them as family members–and some do. But most refuse, so fieldworkers do everything they can to improve the animals’ lives and protect them from the elements. In addition, doghouse recipients get “housewarming gifts” of toys and treats as well as a supply of straw bedding, which PETA also gives away in its parking lot all winter long, to help fend off the cold. The fieldworkers try to visit the dogs regularly to check on their health, replenish their straw, and dole out food, toys, and much-needed attention.
No doghouse can ever make up for the love that these lonely, neglected dogs are deprived of, but for some, like Faith and Robo, it can provide enough warmth on a freezing night to mean the difference between life and death.
Take Action Now!
Visit PETA.org/Doghouse to support PETA’s doghouse program: $265 will cover the cost of one house, but a gift of any size will help change a dog’s life. Thank you!
