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| NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. [PHOTO: Ted Murphy/Flickr/CC BY 2.0] |
As the group explains in its letter to Earnhardt, "6 to 8 million animals" enter animal shelters in the U.S. every year—including thousands in Earnhardt's home state of North Carolina, where PETA works to counter this flood of homeless animals by offering thousands of low- to no-cost sterilization surgeries every year—and half of them must be euthanized for lack of good homes. According to PETA, the solution is simple: Get your dogs and cats "fixed."
"PETA knows that Dale cares about animals, and we'd
love to have his help in fighting the animal-overpopulation crisis in North
Carolina and across the U.S.," says PETA President (and longtime racing
fan) Ingrid E. Newkirk. "A spay-and-neuter message on No. 88 could inspire
millions of NASCAR fans to take the simple but lifesaving step of 'fixing'
their dogs and cats."
In North Carolina, PETA's Community Animal Project rescues
animals directly; supplies food, doghouses, and straw bedding to neglected
animals; and offers low- to no-cost veterinary services for families who cannot
afford to have their animals spayed or neutered. In the last 10 years, PETA's
mobile veterinary clinics have performed—speaking of No. 88—nearly 88,000
sterilization surgeries.