Kevin Nealon pitches NKLA

By Francis Battista

June 19, 2012

“Weeds” star and “Saturday Night Live” alum Kevin Nealon has been a longtime animal advocate. He first worked with Best Friends on a PSA in 2005 for a month-long Los Angeles spay/neuter campaign called Desex and the City, which featured billboards, bus sides, and radio and TV spots directing the public to participating clinics throughout L.A. Kevin did an off-the-cuff riff on his Hans and Franz “Saturday Night Live” character. Very funny.

When Best Friends launched NKLA (No-Kill Los Angeles), this insightful and dedicated advocate/actor was at the top of our wish list to do an attention-grabbing spot for the campaign.

NKLA, which is explained in considerable detail here and here, is a coalition of 48 rescue organizations, spay/neuter providers, animal welfare organizations and Los Angeles Animal Services. The focus is on increased adoptions, targeted spay/neuter for the city’s lowest-income pet owners, foster networks to save the most vulnerable shelter animals, and a variety of other activities designed to decrease the number of animals entering city shelters and increase the number getting out alive.

The campaign is already gaining traction. Shelter killing is down at L.A. Animal Services by more than 1,000 between January and May of this year. Coalition partners have placed 1,692 more L.A. Animal Services dogs and cats since last October than they did in the data collection year of 2010, and over $360,000 has been given in grants by Best Friends to NKLA partners for targeted spay/neuter projects that will begin to have an impact later this year.

As expected, Kevin stepped up to the plate and, predictably, knocked it out of the park. The result, in my opinion, is the best and funniest PSA I have ever seen. You decide, but before you watch it, please take this little quiz: What do infantile baldness, texting while scuba diving, Canadians and lazy ear have to do with making Los Angeles a no-kill city?