Animal Champion
Silver screen and singing legend Doris Day recorded more than 650 songs and starred in nearly 40 films, but PETA will always remember her for her most important role: animal champion.
Day did not turn away when she saw an animal in need. While filming Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much” in Morocco in 1956, she was so distressed about the starving goats, horses, cows, dogs and other animals she saw on and around the set that she refused to continue working until the animals were helped.
Closer to home, Day personally rescued, fostered and found loving homes for hundreds of animals, earning her the affectionate nickname, “The Dog Catcher of Beverly Hills.” Recognizing the need to stop animal homelessness at its source, she founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has saved countless animals’ lives by providing grants for spaying and neutering.
She also formed the Doris Day Animal League to lobby for humane legislation. DDAL was a key supporter of PETA’s campaign to reduce the number of animals who are tormented and killed in cruel toxicity tests.
In recognition of her work for animals, former President George W. Bush honored Day with the Medal of Freedom. If the thousands of animals she helped throughout her lifetime could give awards, they would surely give Day an Oscar for Best Actress in an Animal-Saving Role.
Lindsay Pollard-Post
The PETA Foundation
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