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When Josh Hutcherson sits down with me on a video call, he's just spent the entire day playing with dogs and cats at the Pasadena Humane Society. He might be partnering with NBCUniversal & Hill's Pet Nutrition on their Clear The Shelters campaign, but spending a whole afternoon with animals isn't out of the ordinary for the actor.
"It's hard for me to come to a shelter and not leave with more members of my family," he tells Brit + Co. "I'm telling myself, 'I have a flight right now, I can't bring animals. Just keep it professional.'"
Here's what Josh Hutcherson had to say about the Clear the Shelters campaign, adopting his dog after The Hunger Games, and if he'll return for Sunrise on the Reaping.
Josh Hutcherson's love for dogs intertwines with his love for acting.
Michael Simon for Hill’s Pet Nutrition
Josh Hutcherson has had a lifelong love of animals. "I mean, as a kid, I grew up with dogs all the time," he says. "They have like such a capacity for love. So many things that humans do a little bit wrong, I feel like dogs make up for."
"I live a pretty chaotic life and my dog just very much [grounds] me," he continues. "They're full of love and energy, and it's just great to be around."
And if he were an animal himself? "I would be a dog, 100%," he says without hesitation (and with a laugh). "It's pretty straightforward. It's pretty evident."
Making those emotional connections at such a young age is good for any kid, and Josh says it helped inform his approach to humanizing characters and developing empathy within a story.
"I think as a kid I was always very open and like a very empathetic kid," he says. "I think that it's an openness to feeling, and I think that dogs have so many big feelings, whether they're excited or scared or whatever, you know what I mean? They're very like it's all there, it's all evident and there's no masks and things like that. So yeah, I think that part of me being [an] empathetic and open kid definitely made be drawn to animals as well as as acting."
And he thinks Peeta Mellark is a labrador.
Lionsgate
And, without a doubt, the most empathetic character in his filmography is The Hunger Games' Peeta Mellark, who falls in love with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and risks his own life countless times to protect her. After Peeta and Katniss made a surprise appearance in the epilogue of Sunrise on the Reaping (published in March 2025), rumors started swirling that Josh and Jennifer would reprise their beloved roles. So, duh, I had to ask.
"Yeah, no, that'd be cool," Josh Hutcherson exclusively tells Brit + Co. "No, I know nothing in that world right now."
Even though he says his focus for the day is getting all the pets in the animal shelter adopted, he does tell me, "Hunger Games is amazing, and I've loved it for many years and I will love it forever."
Josh Hutcherson opens up about his dog adoption story.
Josh adopted his first dog around the time he began his Hunger Games journey. "When I got Driver, he's 13 now, I got him when I was like 18 years old, and I was going through so many crazy things in my life," he says. "That's right around the time where I started doing Hunger Games and everything, and just having him, it gave me such a grounding feeling. He's not a technical service dog, but for me, he definitely is [because of] what he does for my anxiety, for when my head's spinning and there's a lot of big things going on. That relationship with him is so solid and grounded."
"And then when I got Manchi, who's 9 years old, when when he came into the family as well, it's just, it's my little unit, you know what I mean?" he continues. "It's like my little safe place, and no matter where in the world I am or how long I've been gone, when I'm back with them, it just feels like a feeling of home."
Josh admits his favorite activity is staying home to cuddle with his dogs, but he also loves letting them play outside. "My pit bulls love swimming so much. You throw a ball and they'll just leap off the side and swim and bring it back to you and they'll just do that for hours until they're barely floating," he says. "They just they love it so much."
"When I'm here at the shelter, it's really just like getting to know the dog," he continues. "It's a lot of like close contact and holding and scratches and trying to find the dog's perfect scratch spot to get like the leg going. That's that's the main goal."
And his biggest summer goal is "clearing the shelters."
Michael Simon for Hill’s Pet Nutrition
His dream for the Clear the Shelters campaign is that every animal in the shelter would find a forever home. "The Pasadena Humane, where we are right now, it's an amazing facility," he says. "We've got so much space. Everybody that I've met that's worked here just loves what they do, has really been like taking great care of these animals until they can find their homes."
"There's just so many pets that don't have their homes right now, and, thankfully we have these kind of shelters as an interim solution for them, but we really need people to come and find these animals and bring them into their homes," he continues. "That's why I wanted to be a part of this campaign with Clear the Shelters, was really to — during the month of August — try to get as many people as possible to go to their local shelters, go online, and really try to find find that right furry friend to bring home."
Love all things canine? Check out 46 Cute Dogs Guaranteed To Make You Smile for some adorable pictures.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
