Los Angeles – Partner up—with adoption! To mark the upcoming 20th anniversary of Dancing with the Stars, Sasha Farber strikes a pose with his forever dance partner—his dog, Ruby—in a celebratory PETA campaign encouraging people to always adopt animals from shelters and never buy them from pet shops or breeders.
In an accompanying video spot, the professional dancer shares that, as soon as he took Ruby home, she wouldn’t let him out of her sight—and since then, the well-traveled pup has accompanied him on ten tours of Dancing with the Stars.
“Getting to know a rescue dog is definitely like a dance,” says Farber. “You don’t know what you’re doing until the end, but what you will get is a dog that loves you and will have your back no matter what.”
With millions of homeless dogs and cats in the U.S., animal shelters across the country are constantly overburdened. Some shelters with misguided “no-kill” policies are warehousing dogs for months or even years and turning away animals, leaving the most vulnerable ones with nowhere to go—and those who reproduce fuel the companion animal overpopulation crisis. That’s why PETA urges shelters to accept all animals in need, advises guardians to have their animal companions spayed or neutered, and asks everyone to adopt animals instead of buying them from breeders or pet stores.
Dogs are so connected to humans that research indicates that dogs’ heart rates can sync up with that of their guardians—and dogs and humans can even experience mutual oxytocin release.
Farber joins a long list of celebrities—including Leah Kateb, Dylan McDermott, Kathy Griffin, Lisa Ann Walter, Ron Perlman, Tom Hardy, John Stamos, Ryan Eggold, Theo Rossi, and Cristin Milioti—who have teamed up with PETA to promote adoption.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
