I actually know quite a bit about PETA & their "humane" treatment of animals, someone I know did a lot of research on this particular subject. Just Google around and then read up about what PETA did at their 'shelter' in Norfolk, Virginia. Depending on which source you believe, they killed anywhere from 86% to 97% of the possibly-adoptable animals that have come to that shelter since 1998.
PETA has to file what is called an "Animal Report" with the Virginia Department of Agriculture. These documents are now a matter of public record because another group sued to make them so. This anti-PETA bunch unfortunately seems to have its own particular agenda, but the facts as presented in the official filings with the Commonwealth of Virginia are:
Out of 9695 dogs & cats that came through PETA's Norfolk facility in 2008
7502 were reclaimed by owners,
4 dogs were adopted,
3 cats were adopted,
2124 were euthanized.
agnes!
I have been a PETA member for a long time, and they have never hid the fact that they have to euthanize a lot of the animals they get from shelters. Most are too sick to be adopted or have diseases that cannot be healed. They dont euthanize animals to be mean.
Now, in our home, we catch and release critters that might get in - except for roaches! Ahh!!! I am an animal loving lady, but those buggers scare the you-know-what out of me.
People may not believe in everything that PETA does, but you have to remember, they are an animal activist group.
Flame away!
No flames here, but I think you might have misunderstood what the Norfolk shelter is. In this instance,
PETA itself IS the shelter, they control everything about it, it's the only one they actually run in the country. After accounting in the statistics for all the pets that were reclaimed by their owners, PETA didn't euthanize a lot of the animals, they basically euthanized them ALL. It is just interesting to me to see how their press releases match up with their real-life experiences. In 2008, they adopted out
7 cats & dogs while euthanizing over
2100. Some of their 'shelter' employees are also on record as having been arrested for transporting and dumping animal carcasses over the state line into North Carolina. A website, the non-partisan "Pet Connection", has some interesting comments & quotes about about the Norfolk facility:
http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2008/03/27/letter-from-peta/
In 2005, on "Anderson Cooper 360", CNN aired an investigative report which included an interview with Dr. Patrick Proctor, a North Carolina vet. Dr. Proctor repeatedly gave shelter employees pets after they told him they were finding homes for the animals.
Here are some quotes from that newscast:
SANCHEZ[reporter]: Here at the Ahoskie Animal Hospital in rural North Carolina, veterinarian Patrick Proctor was used to seeing PETA representatives, especially a woman named Adria Hinkle. Hinkle would stop by regularly when Dr. Proctor had unwanted animals, ones he thought PETA might be able to find a home for.
This past summer, Hinkle and her colleague, Andrew Cook, came by in their van for this cat, named Jet (ph), And two of her kittens.
PATRICK PROCTOR, AHOSKIE ANIMAL HOSPITAL: As they were picking them up and taking them out of the cage, they were saying, my, what beautiful animals. We will have absolutely no trouble finding homes for these.
SANCHEZ: Proctor and his staff believed that PETA representatives would try and find the cats a home. They had no reason to believe otherwise.
The complete broadcast transcript is here:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/16/acd.01.html
If one takes a look at the complete death statistics for PETA's Norfolk, Virginia shelter, they are even higher if you include all other pets at this facility.
agnes!
Now THAT would be a tag I would like to have! LOL!
