Peta Kills Animals Yet Pretends To Protect Them

PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) is an international organization with a budget of about $35M is a great public demonstrator with major stunts to highlight things like the fur trade but how good is it at looking after its own clients ie. the animals it rescues.

It is estimated that 4 million animals are put down every year in the USA. The reasons are many and varied, it might be illness, injury, temperament, behavior or just simply that they are not wanted, but for whatever reason it is a shocking figure. so of course a major campaigner like PETA will be working to end this situation.

In reality PETA kills animals! Yes read that again PETA kills animals. Figures from the Virginia Department of Agriculture have been obtained and widely published in the world wide press that in 2011 the Norfolk rescue center run by PETA rehoused 34 pets, a wonderful result you might say except that in the same period they destroyed nearly 2000 potentially rehouse-able pets.

This compares with a humane rescue site in Nevada which has been trying to achieve a no kill policy and in 2011 managed to achieve its aim. Last year not one single animal rescued by them was killed.

So what are PETA's excuses? PETA kills animals, or so it claims, because they are mostly in the categories described above: ill, injured, bad temperament/behavior or just completely unwanted. To me this carries no weight whatsoever! PETA receives huge annual donations and as I said above a budget of over $34M, not to mention the huge numbers of unpaid volunteers it makes full use of.

On Valentines day PETA ran a campaign in Dublin with two topless models (exploitation?) discreetly hiding behind anti fur, heart shaped placards (small but well positioned placards). I prefer the PETAKillsAnimals website promotion in which the poster (held up by a hidden naked woman) says "if I show you my boobs will you forget that PETA kills animals".

There really has to be a better way. Indiscriminate breeding/irresponsible breeding has a lot to answer for, many rescue centers regularly have unwanted pets dumped on their doorstep,also the existence of semi wild/feral animals is a major reason for the problem existing in the first place.

Feral populations of cats as a problem seems to crop up regularly in US new feeds. Recently it has resulted in a case of closure and possible prosecution of a supposed rescue center for cats in New York state. Sadly the owner had several hundred cats but foul conditions, but then again he did not have a $34M budget.

So why does PETA kill animals? The general opinion seems to be just pure laziness and lack of interest. This is really no excuse though, why run an animal rescue center that is the exact opposite yet claim to protect animal rights at the same time?

You decide. Is PETA a real animal rights group or does PETA kill animals and just conveniently try to cover up the facts?