PETA Killed 97 Percent of ‘Companion Animals’ in 2006
It’s true that I am not a PETA fan. For one thing, they have declared war on hobby dog breeders — a quite irrational position. Anyone with a brain should be able to distinguish between people who breed as a hobby and try to improve their breeds and large commercial breeders. But PETA tells you there is no such thing as a “responsible” dog breeder. For another thing, I think they’re media sluts. They will say or do anything for attention, whether or not it helps animals in the long run. Most of the things they say and do smack of juvenile stunts. And, for yet another thing, they have financial ties, as well as philosophical ones, to domestic terrorists.
But all of these things pale when you look at the simple number of animals that PETA kills each year. It’s staggering. For years they have euthanized many times more than the other shelters near them in Norfolk, VA. Now they have finally furnished their figures for 2006 (nine months past their deadline) and the numbers show that they killed 97 percent of the companion animals that they took into their shelter. That compares to only 34.7 percent for the rest of the state of Virginia. How on earth can they possibly explain putting to death 97 percent of the animals they took in? They adopted out only 12 animals!
Yet PETA is often cited in news stories as “experts” on animals? And they continue to beat the drum about overpopulation. Killing 97 percent of the animals you take in is not the way to help animals.
I would keep any pet I cared about far away from PETA employees.
It’s important to keep in mind that PETA is an animal RIGHTS organization, not an animal welfare organization. There is a difference. Animal rights groups are ultimately committed to seeing the end of pet ownership, even if that means the death of cats and dogs. They believe, at their core, that cats and dogs are better off dead than “enslaved” to humans as pets. Looks like PETA certainly made that come true for 97 percent of the animals it took in during 2006.
You can look at the numbers yourself at this site.
A note on those “reclaimed” animals that show up in one column — PETA counts animals brought in for spaying and neutering as pets reclaimed by their owners in order to improve their figures. But it doesn’t change the 97 percent of animals that stayed in the shelter which were killed.
From CentreDaily.com
PETA Killed 97 Percent of ‘Companion Animals’ in 2006, According to VDACS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - An official report from People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), submitted nine months after a Virginia government agency’s deadline, shows that the animal rights group put to death more than 97 percent of the dogs, cats, and other pets it took in for adoption in 2006. During that year, the well-known animal rights group managed to find adoptive homes for just 12 pets. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is calling on PETA to either end its hypocritical angel-of-death program, or stop its senseless condemnation of Americans who believe it’s perfectly ethical to use animals for food, clothing, and critical medical research.
Not counting animals PETA held only temporarily in its spay-neuter program, the organization took in 3,061 “companion animals” in 2006, of which it killed 2,981. According to Virginia’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), the average euthanasia rate for humane societies in the state was just 34.7 percent in 2006. PETA killed 97.4 percent of the animals it took in. The organization filed its 2006 report this month, nine months after the VDACS deadline of March 31, 2007.
“Pet lovers should be outraged,” said CCF Director of Research David Martosko. “There are thousands of worthwhile animal shelters that deserve Americans’ support. PETA is not one of them.”
In courtroom testimony last year, a PETA manager acknowledged that her organization maintains a large walk-in freezer for storing dead animals, and that PETA contracts with a Virginia cremation service to dispose of the bodies. In that trial, two PETA employees were convicted of dumping dead animals in a rural North Carolina trash dumpster.
Today in Southampton County, Virginia, another PETA employee will face felony charges in a dog-napping case. Andrea Florence Benoit Harris was arrested in late 2006 for allegedly abducting a hunting dog and attempting to transport it to PETA’s Norfolk headquarters.
“PETA raised over $30 million last year,” Martosko added, “and it’s using that money to kill the only flesh-and-blood animals its employees actually see. The scale of PETA’s hypocrisy is simply staggering.”
To speak with a spokesman contact Tim Miller at 202-463-7112.
For more information about PETA’s massive euthanasia program, visit the PetaKillsAnimals web site.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:59 AM
First, the headline of your story is inaccurate. 97% of all the world’s companion animals have not died.
Second, it’s important to know who this information is coming from. The Center for Consumer Freedom was founded with money from the tobacco industry to put a positive spin on smoking. (For more information, visit Source Watch.) When that failed, they turned their efforts to protecting the restaurant, alcohol, meat and dairy industries.
Their MO is to try to discredit any group that opposes them. For this reason, the CCF has spewed propaganda about Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
While you may dislike Peta — and I know many people do — please realize that not all animal-rights groups are alike. Many, like Vegan Outreach and Farm Sanctuary, seek to protect animals from suffering through less-outrageous tactics than Peta does.
Also, please realize that not all animal-rights supporters want to do away with pets. I, for one, love my dog, and I foster for a dog rescue organization. I would never want to live without a pet. And many, many animal-rights supporters feel the same way.
I’d like for animal-welfare advocates and animal-rights advocates to come together. After all, we all care about animals.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Seriously, the person quoted in the story is from the Center for Consumer Freedom, but the statistics are from the Commonwealth/State of Virginia, and ultimately from PETA. No one has played with them. I don’t see this as an effort by the CCF to discredit PETA. The numbers speak for themselves. I have read previous stories about PETA’s euthanasia numbers. I don’t see how anyone can defend them.
I hope you will take this opportunity to explain what you see as the difference between animal rights and animal welfare. I do believe that we have an obligation to care for animals, whether they are our pets or not. I particularly think we have to care for them because, in the world we have created, they are often not able to care for themselves any more. We can’t turn cats and dogs loose to fend for themselves in the wild. They depend on us to take care of them.
However, I don’t think that they have the same rights that humans have. They can’t make the same moral distinctions between right and wrong. Therefore, they need people to make decisions for them. And I think their role is to be pets and helpers. That has always been their role since they joined with humans and I think it has worked for animals and humans.
If you look at any serious writing about animal rights from the leaders of your movement, they all state that animals should not exist as pets. They think that being pets demeans them. They want animals to have their own rights, separate from people — even the right to be free. I’m sure you’ve seen the quotes from Ingrid Newkirk and Wayne Pacelle, among others.
So, if you think that not all believers in animal rights want to give up their pets, please go ahead and explain it. Isn’t that really animal welfare?
Thank you for writing. I hope you will take this chance to write more and let us know what you think.
Carlotta