Gimme Shelter

Sports stars advocate for pet adoption in a new television special.

- Stephanie Apstein

DAVID BACKES lined up at the face-off spot and tried to focus. He was representing the United States at September’s World Cup of Hockey in Toronto, and each play mattered. So he was startled when his opponent spoke.

“Hey, whatever happened to those dogs you brought home from Sochi?”

Backes laughs remembering it. “I’m like, Listen, I’d love to tell you the whole story, but we’ve got to drop the puck right now.”

This kind of thing happens a lot. Backes, a Bruins right winger, estimates that hundreds of people have told him that his story inspired them to adopt. But he was an activist well before he became one of four U.S. athletes to fly home from the 2014 Olympics with at least one Russian stray in tow. Backes couldn’t keep them; he and wife Kelly, who in ’13 founded a nonprofit called Athletes for Animals, which works with shelters to raise awareness, were already taking care of two rescue cats and four rescue dogs at the time. (To answer that opposing player’s question, Sochi Jr. and Jake ended up with Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk’s parents and Rangers center Derek Stepan, respectively.)