Bitten star Laura Vandervoort has teamed up with PETA for a new video that calls attention to the plight of “backyard dogs” who are chained up outside to shiver all winter long, sometimes year after year for their entire lives.
Wearing just a few layers of clothing, Vandervoort huddles and shivers for warmth in a massive industrial freezer.
“I’m really trying to last a while because I know dogs don’t have a choice,” she says. “But it’s cold. People wouldn’t leave their kids out in the cold like this. Yet some people think it’s OK to do it to a dog. It’s not fair.”
After 20 minutes, she escapes from the freezer and urges viewers to take action, saying, “If you see animals being mistreated, talk to the owners, call the police. We need to be a voice for them.”
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 and cats outside in the cold, where they can suffer from frostbite and exposure and become dehydrated when water sources freeze. Some animals are even found frozen to death. Vandervoort and PETA urge families to keep dogs indoors with the family, during the winter and all year long.
