"Animals speak with pure affection. It's important to me to get something going in NY so we can get to be a no-kill city, and give the animals homes and more attention and love"
About this Quote
Peters isn’t just praising pets; she’s reframing animals as moral communicators in a city that’s famously transactional. “Animals speak with pure affection” is strategically disarming. It turns advocacy into something intimate, almost reciprocal: we don’t “save” animals out of abstract virtue, we answer a kind of uncorrupted emotional language. Coming from an actress known for warmth and theatrical precision, the line reads like a performer’s instinct for audience connection, repurposed as a political tool. If affection is “pure,” then the failure isn’t the animals’ behavior but our systems.
The second sentence shifts from sentiment to infrastructure: “get something going in NY” signals the grind of coalition-building, fundraising, policy meetings, and shelter reform. She keeps it colloquial because celebrity activism works best when it sounds like a neighbor talking, not a white paper. “No-kill city” is the headline phrase, but she doesn’t linger on metrics or definitions; she anchors it in outcomes people can feel: “homes,” “attention,” “love.” That’s not softness, it’s strategy. The kill-rate debate can get technocratic and divisive, so she re-centers it on care as a civic identity.
The subtext is also reputational: New York as a place capable of tenderness without losing edge. Peters implies the city can be modern in the most basic way - treating animals as beings whose value isn’t conditional on convenience. Her intent is persuasion through affect, a Broadway-level emotional cue aimed at turning private compassion into public policy.
The second sentence shifts from sentiment to infrastructure: “get something going in NY” signals the grind of coalition-building, fundraising, policy meetings, and shelter reform. She keeps it colloquial because celebrity activism works best when it sounds like a neighbor talking, not a white paper. “No-kill city” is the headline phrase, but she doesn’t linger on metrics or definitions; she anchors it in outcomes people can feel: “homes,” “attention,” “love.” That’s not softness, it’s strategy. The kill-rate debate can get technocratic and divisive, so she re-centers it on care as a civic identity.
The subtext is also reputational: New York as a place capable of tenderness without losing edge. Peters implies the city can be modern in the most basic way - treating animals as beings whose value isn’t conditional on convenience. Her intent is persuasion through affect, a Broadway-level emotional cue aimed at turning private compassion into public policy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Pet Love |
|---|
More Quotes by Bernadette
Add to List








