PETA Killed 95 Percent of Adoptable Pets in its Care During 2008

[Dragon_Farm_Queen]

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/pressRelease_detail.cfm/release/258

Hypocritical Animal Rights Group’s 2008 Disclosures Bring Pet Death Toll To 21,339

WASHINGTON DC – Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) published documents online showing that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed 95 percent of the adoptable pets in its care during 2008. Despite years of public outrage over its euthanasia program, the animal rights group kills an average of 5.8 pets every day at its Norfolk, VA headquarters.

According to public records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 2,124 pets last year and placed only seven in adoptive homes. Since 1998, a total of 21,339 dogs and cats have died at the hands of PETA workers.

Despite having a $32 million budget, PETA does not operate an adoption shelter. PETA employees make no discernible effort to find homes for the thousands of pets they kill every year. Last year, the Center for Consumer Freedom petitioned Virginia’s State Veterinarian to reclassify PETA as a slaughterhouse.

CCF Research Director David Martosko said: “PETA hasn’t slowed down its hypocritical killing machine one bit, but it keeps browbeating the rest of society with a phony ‘animal rights’ message. What about the rights of the thousands of dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens that die in PETA’s headquarters building?”

Martosko added: “Since killing pets is A-OK with PETA, why should anyone listen to their demands about eating meat, using lab rats for medical research, or taking children to the circus?”

CCF obtained PETA’s “Animal Record” filings since 1998 from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Members of the public can see these documents at PetaKillsAnimals.com.

(Skeptical? Click here to see the documents.)

In addition to exposing PETA’s hypocritical record of killing defenseless animals, the Center for Consumer Freedom has publicized the animal rights group’s ties to violent activists, and shed light on its aggressive message-marketing to children.

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.

For media comment, contact our media department at 202-463-7112 ext. 115

[Scarpetta]

I won't dispute the article but there is always another side. What does one do? I know that in my own area the Humane Society has a looong waiting list and the other shelters are desperately fighting for funds, so the euthanasia of healthy pets becomes standard. Hard to accept but , what do they do?

The 'Other' side would be the PETA explanation, and be reminded, the article is hard to read and the pictures are worse.

It's easy to point the finger at those who are forced to do the "dirty work" caused by a throwaway society's casual acquisition and breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted, but at PETA,

http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/03/why_we_euthaniz.php

[Coolwater]

There's nothing on it on Snopes. And I am a bit skeptical; I'm not a PETA fan, but this seems odd. Why would they take in animals if they have no place to put them?

[Scarpetta]

Too many?

I would dispute the 'adoptable'. You did see the pictures on the PETA site? If you love animals, that hurts, but I wonder what the conditions of many are, and what it would take in medical care to make some of them 'adoptable'? You know that when a majority of animals get there they are not in pristine shape.

I'm wondering what the 'agenda' is of the reporting agency CCF.

I believe it is the responsibility of pet owners to 'alter' the pets they have, to lessen the numbers, but many people do not. " a throwaway society's casual acquisition and breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted" comment on the PETA site is the core problem.

As I mentioned my own area has offered pleas for cash support, volunteer support for shelters of abandoned pets. Without enough of either, what do they do, to feed, shelter, care for them, even if they can be 'altered' (vet fee, or a volunteer contribution) and made available for adoption. That would be the somewhat healthy ones.

So we all can help in our own areas. Volunteer and donate.

[Coolwater]

I often take hopeless feral kittens to the shelter knowing that they'll probably be put down. We have a cat lady here who feeds them, so they multiply like mad, but there has been a plague of feline influenza every summer as long as I've lived here. The kittens get sick and crawl out of the nest, often under my neighbor's deck - she doesn't feed them. They cry. The mother doesn't retrieve them (is she sick, too?) and after a few hours, rather than have our dogs get them, I go get them. If they look healthy and are nearly weaned, I try to find a home, but usually they are very ill, and too young, so off we go to the shelter. Now, I could kill the poor things myself, but if there is a tiny hope that the shelter folks can nurse them back to health, I'd like to take it. Usually, though, they just shake their heads. :(

[appeace]

Just a thought--perhaps SPCA needs be notified of the cat lady since there are diseases transmittable from feline to humans??? They might have a talk with her about supplying the means for the cats to eat and reproduce and live trap the sick ones and have her fix the ones she keeps?????
Of course, if you have an SPCA like we do---they will not do anything. I hate taking animals to the shelter but its better than them dying of starvation, injuries, diseases, or spreading rabies or other diseases to humans.
However, I try to use rescue groups first.

[Coolwater]

We don't have a good animal control set-up here. The county pays a shelpter to take them but has been fighting with the shelter about how much a cat or dog's care is worth, and how long the shelter should keep it for the money. It doesn't matter, though, as the cat lady isn't cooperative. There is even a group that will neuter the cats and put them back! She won't have it, though, because she thinks it is cruel.

[appeace]

Do you have a state SPCA? Sometimes they will step in especially where disease in the animals is already present. We had a similar experience with the lady who lived next to our farm. We would take the cats to the vet and have them neutered and let them live in our barns, but she just kept "collecting" and feeding and finally we had to call the Texas SPCA and they contacted the closest office and they went out. They restricted her to the legal pet limit and neutered them and trapped the rest. Its a good thing to because she was living in filth and was already sick too.

[Coolwater]

We do (and they sent a lot of money to help with flood victim relief), but Darla isn't hoarding cats, she's feeding feral ones. Not to mention the opossums and raccoons. As long as she's tidy about it, that is legal.

What the neighborhood has done is to contact her son, and social services, mostly because we were worried about Darla. She's pretty tough, though. She's in her 80s and still rides her bike all over the place. When her son refused to help her feed the cats, she started walking her wheelbarrow to the store and carting home 50 pound bags of cat food! :eek: Darla won't accept rides, except once when it was too icy and she was having trouble getting her bike home from the store. Her immediate neighbors check up on her because they worry she'll get into trouble and not be able to call for help, but I think she may outlive a bunch of us.

[appeace]

Well--there are many of the "older generation" who are "tough as nails"!;)
My grandmother was one. However, I would certainly be very worried about the spread of disease through out the animals and then to humans-----

[Coolwater]

Yes, anytime you have animals flocking that don't normally flock, illnesses get shared. Rabies is always a worry, and flea- and manure-borne parasites, and of course any loose house cat is at greater risk for feline influenza and feline leukemia than it would be in a neighborhood with no feral cats.

Woh, Sam, do you remember the Great Cat Die-Off in the early '80s? Half the cat population of Georgia died because the drought allowed millions of fleas to grow, and carry 'fee-luke". Thank goodness for pharmaceutical flea control!!!

[Sam]

;) Yep Cool I remember. I lost my first dog as an adult to it. His name was JYD. He was a mixed breed pup who's mother was a stray that gave birth to him in a junkyard.
We also had a HUGE problem in the 90's with cats dropping like flies from Feline Aids.:(

[appeace]

I need suggestions, please friends. My neighbor has a neutered, male, orange cat. He is allowed to run loose in the neighborhood and is a sweet cat who will come and rub on folks. However, he has taken up residence on my front porch, wicker furniture and pulls holes in the cushions!
In addition, I am highly allergic to cats, tho I do love them. I cannot sit out on the furniture for fear of an attack, and I do mean the kind which can close my throat! Also, I have a pair of nesting Cardinals in the shrubs along the side of the porch which he has been "stalking" lately and I know he will get the chicks when they hatch!
How do I keep him off my property without harming him and short of having him picked up. We have no shelter here and the closest one has been accused of putting unwanted cats and dogs in with pits for sport.

Help--anyone????

[Scarpetta]

Can you talk to your neighbor and explain your health concerns?

Cats can't be 'fenced' in but they can be house contained. A good neighbor would consider this if you tell them what a danger to your health the cat presents.

Domestic cats kill more wild birds then just about any predator. They may be cute and cuddly (if you aren't allergic) but they are hunters. Short of outlawing them, all you can do is implore your neighbor to see what a reaction can do to you, and if they are willing to pay for the medical expense if it should.

[appeace]

I have repeatedly asked my neighbor to contain the cat and my health risks. They always give me a "yes, we will take care of it" but the only thing they have done in the 6yrs I have lived here, one time was purchase and spread around my shrubs and porch was a box of something which was supposed to keep the cat away. Evidentially it has worn off and at 90.00 a box, I dont think they will repeat the application.
The lady across the street did have the cat in her house for awhile, but I dont know why it is now loose again.

[Sam]

:( Appeace I would simply send them a letter reminding them of the situation and telling them that their cat was back it it was time to have the area retreated. But make sure you make a duplicate. You send them the duplicate and you keep the original! If they don't take care of the matter....then you can use the original copy to take them to small claims court. I know you wouldn't want to but you really can not take a chance on your life just to keep an inconsiderate neighbor happy.
As owners of the cat it is their responsibility to not only keep their pet safe but their neighbors safe from their pet.

[appeace]

Thank you for the sage advice, my friends. I think the cat has gone back across the street not having seen him in a few days now. I just feel so sorry for the poor thing being brought in and then tossed out every-so-often.:(

[Littledevil]

Something else you might consider in addition to talking to and sending letters to your neighbor would be to get some Cat Repellent Spray. It is relatively inexpensive at your local pet shop. They seem to work well at keeping pets or strays off areas you don't want them on or around. Your neighbors should be more considerate than they are being. They could stil allow their cat outside but install an invisible fence around their yard. They bury it in the ground and the pet wears a device on the colar and when they try to cross the barrier it gives them a little signal they can't cross. It doesn't hurt them and is humane and they learn rather quickly where they can go and can't.

[appeace]

I will look into the spray, thanks. However, "fencing" their yard is not feasible since we live in the country and the "yard" pasture is large.