PETA is killing animals?

Yes. While all the attention is centered on their activism and advertising antics, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is quietly killing most of the animals in their shelter. Under the guise of compassion, or overpopulation, or several other excuses. 

Turns out they kill 96 percent of the animals brought to their Virginia headquarters.

The high-profile charity, famous for its “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” campaigns, has euthanised more than 20,000 pets in the last decade, according to figures it has supplied to Virginia state officials.

Peta insists that homes could not be found for the dogs and cats, usually because they were in such poor health or because they were “unsocialised” and aggressive, usually because of bad treatment by their owners.

But the organisation, which does not run its own animal adoption programme and does not accept animals into its care elsewhere, admitted to The Sunday Telegraph that some treatable and adoptable animals were also among those killed by lethal injection.

PETA doesn’t run an animal adoption program? Isn’t that antithetical to the purpose of their existence?

“America is facing an epidemic of overpopulation. Six to eight million unwanted pets are turned in to shelters each year and half of them have to be euthanised. Our euthanasia programme is no secret.

“It’s a societal problem. We’re not going to turn our backs on these animals just so that our figures look good. We’re not saying that all the animals we euthanise are suffering from incurable conditions. But overpopulation is a crisis. It’s a matter of actually finding a good home.”

Now critics of the group are accusing it of being more interested in using its $32 million annual budget to fund its campaigns against the fur and meat industries than helping the cats and dogs in its backyard.

In the past year or so they certainly have received high profile media attention for their racy ads. But if that campaign has drawn more supporters, they should be aware their money may be funding….the campaign to draw supporters.

“Many people who contribute to Peta’s funds will be very disturbed to learn that their money is going towards killing animals,” said David Martosko, director of research at the US-based Centre for Consumer Freedom (CCF).

“It’s inconceivable that Peta is taking in only the least, last and lost of the animal kingdom. The odds that Peta is only receiving unadoptable animals are about the same as me winning the lottery and being struck by lightning on the same day. The reality is that Peta has no interest in trying to find homes for unwanted animals as they want to use their money to fund their political campaigns.”

It’s not a stretch to say that the mentality behind this behavior and its justification is not far from that of the people euthanasia movement. The ‘death with dignity’ groups pushing euthanasia are using the same excuses for putting humans down. Overpopulation, lack of resources, abandonment, sickness or impairment, quality of life…..