Snowstorm Reminder From Jets Defensive Tackle Solomon Thomas: Keep Your Dogs (Cats, Too) Inside During Harsh Winter Weather – Like You, They Suffer Adversely From Cold Conditions

Jets’ Solomon Thomas Has a Message for Fans Amid Blizzard

Editor’s Note: As readers may remember from PETA’s previous article about dogs and cats at shelters, cats should always be kept indoors for the safety of local wildlife.  The legality of leaving dogs outside varies by municipality, but it is always cruel to leave them outside in the cold, with insufficient shelter.  Even though they have fur, it cannot protect them from bitter cold and snow.  

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

As much of the region is experiencing blizzard conditions, Jets defensive tackle Solomon Thomas—who’s usually on the field rushing QBs—is bringing the pressure for PETA in a new video urging people to keep dogs indoors, where they’re safe and warm, and never isolated on a chain or in a pen outside.

Proving that his compassion extends to all species, the Heisman Humanitarian Award winner stars in the video alongside a new teammate—a pup named Freddy::

“Imagine looking into your house and seeing your family warm, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company,” Thomas says. “You’re alone outside, stuck on the end of a chain, and unable to escape the cold and loneliness.”

Every single day, PETA’s field team finds dogs confined to pens and/or tethered by heavy chains around their necks. Many are deprived of basic necessities like food, water, shelter, and veterinary care—not to mention affection, respect, or the opportunity to run and play. It’s not uncommon for fieldworkers to find sick, injured, and even dying dogs who haven’t been checked on by their owners for days. In recent weeks, the team found three dogs who had perished—all still attached to chains outside—while their owners were unaware that the dogs, who were confined 24/7 and isolated outdoors, died alone and in pain.

“They just want to be with you,” Thomas says in conclusion. “Walks, play time, a safe place to call home, family. Please, don’t chain your dog.”

PETA urges everyone to alert law-enforcement agencies to any dog kept chained or penned outside 24/7 without adequate shelter and to push for dog-chaining bans in their communities. In its field service area of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, PETA builds sturdy doghouses for dogs in need, free of charge, and delivers them stuffed with insulating straw bedding.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

Banner Image: Solomon Thomas and his dog. Image Credit – PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, and PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally. PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in laboratories, in the food industry, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment business. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of rodents, birds, and other animals who are often considered “pests” as well as cruelty to domesticated animals. PETA works through public education, investigative newsgathering and reporting, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.