Golden Globe winner Brian Cox — who plays the head of one of TV’s most dysfunctional families in Succession — appears in a new PETA ad declaring, “For the Family You Can Choose. Adopt. Spay. Neuter.”
In an accompanying video, he “interviews” an adorable cat from London’s Mayhew animal shelter named Patches, who has since been adopted into a loving home.
In the video, Cox asks Patches about whether she’s spayed (“That’s rather personal, but yes.”) and wearing her own fur (“I don’t really have much of a choice.”) before revealing that he is a huge fan of felines overall. “The thing I love about cats is … they’re very dependable,” he says. “They have an instinct about what you need, and sometimes you don’t always know, and then a cat comes, and then you go, oh, thank you …. Now, if you’re looking to bring a companion animal into your house, just remember: Adopt—don’t shop. And remember to spay and neuter. That’s very important.”
The actor shares his New York home with two adopted cats, Pishi and Princess, and advises fans to consider expanding their family by two if they have the space and resources, adding, “I believe in cats in pairs. Because they are very independent, but they sometimes need companions.”
Cox urges people to do right by cats like Patches by always adopting them from animal shelters and never buying them from breeders or pet shops, which only contributes to the homeless-animal overpopulation crisis. Every year, more than 6 million dogs and cats end up in U.S. animal shelters, and about half of them have to be euthanized because there aren’t enough good homes for them all. The solution, as Cox notes, is prevention through spaying and neutering.
