EYE-OPENING VIDEO REPORT: PETA's Rescue Team's Work and the Animals It Helped in 2024

NORFOLK, Va., Jan. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- While many animal shelters and veterinary clinics nationwide reduced services, particularly critical spay/neuter and end-of-life services, PETA's mobile spay/neuter clinics and team of fieldworkers stepped up their free services in the underserved regions surrounding PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. PETA's rescue team—which responds 24/7—is the only resource for people who cannot access timely and affordable euthanasia services due to the skyrocketing cost of veterinary care, clinics with no appointments available for weeks or months; emergency centers limiting hours or even closing; and many animal shelters turning away desperate people and animals so as to keep their "save rates" up. Watch highlights from PETA's 2024 community work here.

PETA is urgently appealing to government officials and the public to help end the homeless-animal crisis via prevention: spaying or neutering, helping others do the same, and adopting instead of buying animals from breeders or pet shops. As millions of unwanted dogs and cats continue to flood animal shelters nationwide, many shelters are adopting "no-kill" policies that make it difficult or impossible for anyone to turn in an animal or even act as a good Samaritan when they find a stray dog or cat. Every week, PETA hears from people who've tried to bring an animal to a shelter only to be told the shelter is "full" or that there's a long waiting list, admission fees, or policies such as not accepting homeless cats at all. This means unwanted animals are abandoned and continue to reproduce, exacerbating the problem.

PETA never turns away animals in need. The organization provides free, end-of-life services for people on a fixed or no income who can't afford to pay for their sick and dying animals to be put to sleep at a private vet clinic, and is the only open-admission animal shelter in the entire region that takes in all animals—without restrictions, appointments, waiting lists, or admission fees. In 2024, PETA spent $3,065,829 on regional services, including the following:

• Providing more than 3,000 families with free supplies, counseling services, and veterinary care for animals
• "Fixing" 11,515 animals on its mobile clinics, preventing millions from being born into homelessness
• Custom-building and delivering 158 free sturdy doghouses and straw bedding to dogs tethered or penned outside 24/7
• Providing more than 7,000 dogs kept chained or penned outside 24/7 with free flea and flystrike prevention, water, food, and toys
• Helping more than 520 animals find loving homes, many via partnerships with local shelters and adoption organizations
• Providing 2,213 elderly, feral, sick, dying, aggressive, and otherwise unadoptable animals with compassionate end-of-life help—668 of whom were brought to PETA by destitute guardians desperate to alleviate their animals' suffering, as well as others turned away by "no-kill" facilities that reject unadoptable animals
• Providing free transportation to nearly 840 animals to and from its clinics for guardians without transportation

"The problems for dogs and cats are overwhelming and while PETA works hard to ensure that every animal is cherished and treated as an individual, we cannot do this alone," says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Everyone can save lives by sterilizing their dogs and cats, actively fighting for anti-tethering laws, and always choosing to adopt—never shop."

PETA points out that Every Animal Is Someone. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.

SOURCE People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)