Comedian, actor, and activist George Lopez is encouraging people to adopt shelter dogs instead of buying pets from stores or breeders.
In a recent video for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) – the largest animal rights organization in the world – Lopez urged viewers to consider choosing rescue dogs instead of store-bought animals.
“I’ve rescued all my dogs – five of ’em,” he said in the video. He added that he’s “sick” of seeing people online claiming to have adopted their purebred dogs.
“They say they adopted the dog. They didn’t adopt it. They bought it,” he stated. “Adopting a dog means that you go to your local animal shelter or to a rescue organization and you give a dog there a good forever home.”
“Buying a dog is when you go to a store or a breeder and you pay a lot of money for a dog,” he said. “Let me tell you this, they’re going to have health problems because those purebred dogs that you’re buying? They’re actually inbred dogs.”
The video was released at an apt time. In a press release, PETA points out that every year after the holiday season, shelters experience a “spike in homeless animals” as people give up animals given as gifts.
Every year in the United States, more than six million dogs and cats are put into shelters, PETA highlights. Roughly half of these animals will be euthanized because they are not adopted.
“When you buy a dog from a breeder, a dog in a shelter loses the chance of finding a good home. And many of these dogs will be euthanized because there’s not enough homes for them,” Lopez explained.
Lopez joins many celebrities who have rescued dogs instead of purchasing them. “Jackass” star Steve-O adopted a stray dog that he found whilst filming in Peru. Zac Efron saved a pit bull from euthanasia back in April and Bradley Cooper cast his own rescue dog, Charlie, in the film “A Star is Born.”
“Listen. Don’t buy animals,” Lopez said in the PETA video. “Do what I did: Adopt one from a shelter.”
Image Credit: George Lopez
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