To encourage people to keep their animal companions indoors throughout the winter and all year round, PETA is running a public service announcement starring Tom Hardy, Casey Affleck, and Priyanka Chopra in notoriously cold Detroit.
In the video, the actors give voice to the plight of lonely and neglected “backyard dogs” like those who are featured in the real-life footage recorded near PETA’s Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters, where the group’s fieldworkers serve as a 24/7 resource for animals in need by providing them with free shelter, straw bedding, food, water, veterinary care, and other necessities.
The video spot will air a total of 10 times over the next two weeks on local TV channels. It begins with a shot of a chained dog sitting alone in the snow as Hardy asks, “When you first got me, did you know that you were going to chain me up and leave me outside?” It goes on to show footage of other shivering, hungry, and sad dogs forced to live outside with no protection from the elements.
Every year, PETA — whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” — receives thousands of complaints about people who leave dogs outside in the cold. Dogs and other animals can become dehydrated when water sources freeze and can suffer and die from frostbite and exposure. PETA advises anyone concerned about an animal’s welfare to alert local law-enforcement agencies or PETA’s first responders immediately. Last year, a dog froze to death in Detroit after being abandoned in a cage overnight, while another was found frozen to death in a crate in the middle of the road.
