The Ugly Truth About PETA -They’re Not What You Might Think
I hesitated to write this post, because I don't do controversy, but I feel strongly that someone needs to set the record straight. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) does very little to help animals. Instead, they promote terror campaigns and kill animals – even going so far as to steal family pets out of people's homes. I had no idea how bad the situation was until I started digging – then I was horrified. In this post, I'll share the ugly truth about PETA. It's time that the information was known, so homesteaders who raise their own meat don't have to face these ugly attacks alone.
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PETA Shelters Have Some of the Highest Kill Rates
The article PETA's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad History of Killing Animals notes that “the PETA adoption rate in 2011 was 2.5 percent for dogs and 0.4 for cats”. The website Why PETA Kills (http://www.whypetaeuthanizes.org/photos/) has photos of the PETA carnage and a copy of a state inspection report indicating that the “shelter” inspected had no adoption hours, no way to promote adoptions to the public, and employees that were not even aware it was a “shelter”. It's pretty hard to get animals adopted if you have no means for people to meet the animals.
PETA Promotes Violence
“If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then, of course, we're going to be blowing things up and smashing windows. For the record, I don't do this stuff, but I advocate it. I think it's a great way to bring about animal liberation, considering the level of suffering, the atrocities.”
“I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories and the banks who fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it's perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through windows. Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.”
The pamphlets that PETA promotes to children are also horrific. The title “Your Mommy Kills Animals” paired with a blood soaked image of a crazed woman wielding a knife would be enough to give some kids nightmares. (They have a Daddy Kills Animals version, too, lest the gentlemen think they've been left out.)
PETA Workers Have Taken Pets from People's Homes
In the article The (Death) Cult of PETA, author Nathan Winograd describes how PETA personnel went into a trailer park, entered people's homes, and removed and killed their family pets. There is video clearly showing the PETA van pulling up and a person removing a pet to corroborate the story. This is not standard PETA practice (unlike the issues raised above).
“The PETA employees backed their van up to the porch and threw biscuits to Maya, who was sitting on her porch, hoping to coax her off her property and therefore give PETA the ability to claim she was a stray dog “at large” whom they could therefore legally impound. In Virginia, PETA is licensed as an “animal shelter.” But Maya refused to stay off the property and after grabbing the biscuit, ran back to the safety of her porch. Knowing that no one was around—not only because they knew the schedules of the families, but because they paid local children money to leave the area—one of the employees went onto the property and stole Maya. But larceny wasn’t the only law the PETA employees would break. Virginia law requires dogs to be held for five days before they can be killed by shelters. It also requires private shelters like PETA to notify the municipal animal control shelter of any “stray” dogs they take in. PETA would do neither. Within hours, Maya was dead. PETA had killed her with a lethal dose of poison.
…
Had a surveillance video not been available, the killing of Maya would have remained unknown, as were the fates of other animals who also went missing that same day, but which a subsequent investigation into the killing of Maya by the Virginia Department of Agriculture (VDACS) uncovered were also taken from that trailer park that same day and likewise killed. Among the dead were two four month old kittens, a six month old puppy, a one-year-old lab-mix, and another Chihuahua.“
The Ugly Truth About PETA – Online PETA Attacks
The original motivation for writing this post came when a fellow homesteader and blogger put up a photo of the steer that they had raised for meat for their family. The photo showed the beef being processed, and she noted that it had had a name and been well cared for and loved. She was vilified for posting this, and both she and her family were threatened. PETA acolytes launched a full scale attack on her Facebook page, attempting to get it removed as a hate page.
Anyone who has ever raised animals for meat knows that it is one of the hardest parts of homesteading – but if you choose to eat meat, I think it's important to know where it came from if at all possible, and that the animal was well cared for and treated with respect. If being meat free is the right choice for you, that's fine too. (I know some pretty cool vegan foodies.) Just don't attack people who are trying their best to provide for their families responsibly.
Below are screen shots taken from the LivinLovinFarmin Facebook page before they were deleted due to violent and inappropriate content. WARNING – graphic and foul language. Note first comment comparing meat eaters to Jeffrey Dahmer comes directly from the PETA leadership.
The virtual shitstorm unleashed by so-called animal rights activists does NOTHING to help animals. Instead, it brutalizes the very people who are working to give animals the best possible lives.
My friend isn't the only one who's been attacked. A chef was forced to drop an item off the menu of his restaurant due to death threats. Another friend got fallout over raising meat rabbits. I know there are many more, and if you are a writer or cook who has been attacked by militant vegans, send me a screen shot and I'll add it to the post. Mold doesn't grow when exposed to sunlight.
PETA's Legacy of Hate – Time for a Change
There are thousands of wonderful advocacy groups who do real work helping to improve the quality of life for animals. PETA isn't one of them. Whether you choose to eat meat or not, it's time to end the hatred and vicious attacks. The hatred doesn't help animals – it's just a tool to fill PETA's coffers. Let's revive the art of civil discourse, and agree to disagree on some issues while still being able to find common ground on others.
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Thank you Laurie, I had heard this before, about the PETA kill rate. I did not know about the abductions but they have to keep the funding coming in somehow, I suppose.
Absolutely disgraceful to pretend to be FOR animals. I am one who countenances the killing of animals for food. I do not think highly of hunting for sport…OR PETA’s actions. Let’s all keep it real folks.
I also believe in God, and he gave man dominion over animals. Both to protect and care for them, but also to use for food. New studies show that Veganism IS NOT superior to eating meat for health.
I have nothing against vegans or vegetarians, although I do agree that most of what I’ve seen supports an omnivore diet as a best choice for most humans. I’m not a fan of trophy hunting, either, but I certainly wouldn’t threaten to kill someone over it. Hate is rarely a good solution to a problem.
I guess it depends on your definition of “hunting for sport”. My husband hunts because he enjoys it, and yes, he likes to get the one with the big rack or whatever… But we eat everything he kills. (Aside from coyotes, which are hunted for fur and to manage the population to keep the deer herds healthy. He rarely hunts those. But if he got one, we wouldn’t eat it.) I believe hunting is much more healthy, animal friendly, and ethical than buying conventional meat at the grocery store.
And I agree with you, according to the Bible we have dominion over the animals. It’s doesn’t give us the right to treat them poorly, they are gods creations. But we can eat them.
You don’t see the vegans and animal rights activists throwing fits because tigers eat other animals. Since most of them think we are just evolved animals, I don’t understand why they feel it’s OK for other animals to eat other species but not for us.
Other animals that eat meat are carnivores and do so raw and with their bare hands. We are not carnivores.
This reminds me of the argument that no other animals drink milk from other species. An online search will quickly demonstrate otherwise.
We are omnivores, but true carnivores are more than happy to eat cooked meat if the opportunity presents itself. Some folks are more than happy to eat raw animal flesh, as evidenced by sushi, tartare, ceviche…
If you choose not to eat meat, that’s your choice to make. Given genetic variations, some people people do fine without meat, but others do not.
Humans were originally carnivores. You didn’t ever see an early human eating an herb salad.
Animals are innocent. They never sinned. WE did. We are responsible for everything we do, they are not. Every animal is the victim of the sin WE humans brought upon the world. Therefore, it is not the animal’s fault for eating meat, but rather ours. That result was because of OUR sin, otherwise it would not have been that way. In the garden of Eden, before sin, every creature in existence ate ONLY a plant-based diet. Re-read Gen. 1.
God gave humans dominion over the creatures of the earth yes, but he never gave us permission to eat them. We ALL originally ate plants, every one of us, and that is how it was supposed to be. God would NEVER give us leave to feast and gorge on his glorious creation. Never.
Read Gen. 1:29.
Read Genesis 9:1-6 The only things humans aren’t allowed to eat is humans and blood.
Read 1 Timothy 4:1-6
It is difficult to believe that anyone who has read Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus could think that God would never give man permission to eat His creation. God explicitly states that He made His creation to serve the needs of man.
That is very egotistical in my opinion. We should not be considered higher than and in that case forget that we coexist with these animals that also deserve love and respect. All animals deserve to live and be here as much as we do. We wouldn’t want to be eaten and they do not want to be eaten, so why do that if it is not necessary? We can be a higher creation of God by instead showing compassion and respect and allow for all life to prosper around us.
You talk about others being egotistical, yet you’ve come on this forum and tried to force your view on everyone else.
Show me examples of large scale, thriving vegan societies. They don’t exist.
I agree wholeheartedly.
Because we are not ruled over by our instinct alone. We have the ability of higher thinking and also the ability to feel compassion and love towards something and in this case an animal. Another good reason is that we do not have to subsist from animal meat, we can thrive from legumes, grains, fruits, herbs, veggies, etc.
No, not everyone can thrive on that diet.
What studies show that veganism is not superior to eating meat for health Alice?
None. Veganism is indeed superior to a meat-bases diet.
Hi! You seem like a nice person open to have a productive conversation. I don’t mean any disrespect but we no longer have to eat meat for sustenance. We have other options besides having to take a life of an animal that feels fear and who you can also befriend. I don’t believe God gave us dominion over the animals to kill. He also gave us a Garden full of all of the grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and herbs to eat from if you want to take the Biblical route.
Plants also feel fear and pain – they just don’t have the same means to express it.
Read “The Lost Language of Plants” and “The Secret Life of Plants“.
Some people do very poorly on a vegetarian diet.
Wow, I had a feeling PETA was like that but had no idea they were that bad. I also can’t understand why all the hate. Didn’t God provide animals and vegetation for us to live on?? If you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all is what I believe! Is there anyway I could post your post on my blog?? Or maybe just linking to it would be better? Sorry people can’t just get along with all of our differences.
If you’d like to reprint part of it, I allow the use of one photo and an excerpt with link back to the site.
I think the relative anonymity of the internet has removed people’s filters. Most (not all) wouldn’t say things face to face that they say online.
Excellent post! Thank you for being g brave enough to share it. I’ve always wondered why people thought PETA was such a wonderful thing. You don’t have to look very far to see how awful it truly is.
Thanks, Amanda. I hadn’t paid much attention to PETA because our “rescue animals” have basically shown up at our door or been given to us, but after what happened to Katie I had to take a closer look.
Thank you so much for your courage to post this truth. It is truly heartbreaking to see how vicous people can be. I don’t think anyone has the right to tell anyone they are wrong for choosing a life style that they feel good about, as long as it is free of abuses. In all the articles I have read on all the homesteading sites I have followed not once have I seen a vegan rudely called out by meat eaters for their life choices however many of those who process their own livestock are subjected to brutal threats and accusations of being horrible human beings, I take these instances as proof that having a varied omnivore diet is better for not only your health but also happiness.
Thank you so much for your courage to speak up against PETA too… It’s horrific what they’ve been doing, and how people can take to social media and behave in a way that can facilitate suicide.
I thought PETA was against violence. I thought vegan were against violence. What an outpouring of violence… from supposedly non-violent people. Wow. I don’t understand the whole part with dogs kidnapping, why would they do such a thing? What logic is there to it? Is it some kind of mercy killing, their twisted mind believing that these dogs are better off killed rather than living with a loving family?
Kudos to you Laurie for standing your ground. I would eat at your table 1000 times, without any second thoughts. I wonder why PETA doesn’t target big meat producers, and their more than suspicious practices, instead of targeting the true stewards of the land and the animals. Probably because it’s much less risky. Shame…
When PETA acts as a shelter, they are subsidised by the state based on number of animals they handle. They could claim they picked them up as strays and had to euthanize for whatever reason. that way they a) didn’t run the risk of getting busted by having a number of stolen pets at their shelter, and b) they didnt have to pay extra $ to feed/house. Their execs make big BIG bucks and they want to keep it thst way instead of money on the animals they claim tonsave.
Their leader, Ingrid Newkirk, feels that animals are better off dead then left in “slavery” to humans. She wants to end all human-animal interaction like zoos, pets, biomedical research, petting zoos, farms, etc.
Not all of us vegans are pro-violence; that’s kind of the point of what a true vegan stands for.
Yes they actually do think it’s better for a loved pet to be dead rather than live life as a slave.
That’s why their “shelters” have the highest kill rates.
They don’t want to adopt out animals, the literally went all house pets dead.
Well said Laurie. I grew up on a farm where we not only grew our own produce, but also raised animals that would be on our dinner table later in the year. We gave them a good life, treated them well, and we in turn knew where our food came from.
I had no idea this was going on. Thanks for sharing. I stopped sponsoring them because of their nasty attitude towards non-vegetarians. Hatred is never a solution for anything.
All it took was a quick Google to get a little more information, you should do more research to be a little more accurate when posting.
I won’t link to the site you listed, because they are well known to routinely support Big Pharma and Big Ag, but I have included a screen shot below, where they AGREE with what I have posted. I did not say that this was routine, only that it had happened and been documented. Maybe you should actually read a post before commenting so your comments are a little more accurate.
in your newsletter you asked “When did the family unit get completely ripped apart?”. I think it began around 1979. That was when my grandma died and all of the rest of the family started drifting away. I still keep in contact during family reunions (which happen every year) but the family back east, or out of country do not return. We lose touch when we cannot afford to reunite. It seems that the economy, or politics, or loss of local employment opportunities drives all of us away from our families, our communities, and our country.
I know when my mom passed away several years ago, it changed our family forever.
My husband’s family fell apart when their mother died and dad remarried less than 8 months later. All the kids were adults at the time but it upset them since they were never given time to grieve before a new “mommy” was thrown into their lives. And she acted like she was their mom telling them what to do etc.
And just as soon as their dad passed the new wife was gone in less than 2 months never to be heard from by any of the kids.
That’s sad.
There was an article a few years back regarding PETA and the money they bring in vs what they actually spend on saving animals. The top guns make ludicrous salaries. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I was told that PETA gets a certain amount of money from the state when they are acting as shelter, so they would take in dogs and cats to “register” them and then simply euthanize them so no firther money to feed or house them or provide veterinary care was necessary. Pure profit. I am an LVT with a couple decades of experience in the field. People would come in and proudly an ounce they were PETA supporters and we would just groan because we knew thst was essentially a guarantee they were batshit crazy.
Actually I just did a Google search and they do, in fact, get subsidised by the state based on the number of animals taken in vs number of euthanasias because they were almost the same. Less than 4% of the animals they take in ever get adopted…
Maybe you’d consider making the whole “stealing dogs from inside people’s homes” thing a little less prominent in your post here, since when you look into it the story of Maya the chihuahua it was clearly a mistake. PETA had been asked to come in to the area, had provided dog shelters for the 2 other family dogs that were tethered and not taken, and were gathering feral animals at the request of the trailer park.
I read many newspaper reports based on the arrest records and evidence obtained and Maya had been wandering loose with no collar, etc. – they took her off the porch but she had been in and out of outbuildings and they had no way to know she wasn’t one of the feral critters they had been asked to remove. They could have and should have given it a little more thought when the dog took the biscuit on the porch (if you know dog behavior, they take food home like that) but ignorance or lack of attention is not willful murder of a family pet.
Killing Maya so quickly – way, way bad. The jerks leaving all of those nasty comments on your friends Page – nasty work. But it’s the nasty work of people who aren’t necessarily operating under PETA orders or claiming to be PETA management – anyone could claim something in their name or even just give the impression of being in their name because of the subject matter or whatever – perhaps PETA has a policy to encourage nastiness, but if that’s the case, that’s what should be tracked down here. I get why blaming PETA for it is easy, but it may or may not be true, there are all kinds of trolling jerks out there with networks to gang up on people like that.
I have no truck with PETA one way or the other but when only certain facts are highlighted that can then be shown to be “not quite” as claimed, it undermines your whole thing. In this paragraph, unless you are going to talk about a second incident that can be documented, the pluralization of the charges needs to be made singular – there was one dog, one home, etc., I *starred* the erroneous pluralization below:
PETA Takes Pets from People’s Homes
In the article The (Death) Cult of PETA, author Nathan Winograd describes how PETA personnel went into a trailer park, entered people’s home*s*, and removed and killed their family pet*s*. There is video clearly showing the PETA van pulling up and a person removing a pet to corroborate the story.
The last line is truthful; the first line is based in truth, but doesn’t share the whole truth, and with the use of the plurals it is taken to the point of hyperbole. I believe you are hesitant to attack anyone by writing this article, so please see if you can agree that allowing this kind of hype in is perhaps not showcasing your intent best? The story is enough on it’s own merits, without even slightly sensationalizing. And just assuming a bunch of people who may or may not be PETA people are in fact representing them in some way, because the first post on your friends page echoed something out of the PETA playbook…that’s just not real stuff either. The nasty FB post people don’t belong in a post about PETA, or the post should have a different tack…it’s conjecture and should be presented more clearly as such unless you have more proof that these post-ers are PETA acolytes. Or present the article as that being the question – but *assuming* is not good journalism or fair play (and it seems implicit that you decry *their* lack of fair play?)
It’s a very broad brush being used here for not wanting “controversy” and for just wanting to “set the record straight.” I believe in your good heart, but I wonder that passion can carry us all away, make us not as pointedly careful as we perhaps should be, especially when we see friends being hurt and attacked so ruthlessly as is illustrated here. I think they can set their FB page so no one can comment ON their page, only by private message, which only helps so much, but…they probably already know this by now?
Anyway, I have to feel that this has not set 100% well in your gut. Some expository/actual factual mitigating background information, some lightening of declaratory and accusatory terms, not pluralizing when it was one incident to conflate it to be the policy of the entire organization to steal family pets to kill them…there’s a lot that can be done to make this a a more solidly factual piece that won’t leave you open to criticism as a fanatic yourself. Because that is what’s at risk here, truly, despite what you say at the beginning of the piece. If you want to do no more than angrily smear them, then you accept the mantle of fanatic yourself happily. If you want to be fair and real and expose things that aren’t wonderful at all about PETA, the unvarnished truth is all it takes.
You have two somewhat complementary but competing themes here. One is PETA and it’s kill policies – which should certainly mention the “troubles” with the “dog-napping” in this case but not unfairly casting people, who actually made an understandable (if unconscionable) mistake with one poor little dog. My search shows two cases nation-wide, Maya the chihuahua and one from the side of a highway, not a home, but where the dogs radio collar was abandoned – so not good for those folks, but not a tidal wave.
The other theme is on the horrors of your friends FB page – certainly it is fair enough to cross-reference between the two themes, but they are two separate issues unless your only intent is to smear PETA no matter what. Again, they do enough harm to themselves for you to not have to inflate and conflate. Just the facts, ma’am, and people can come to their own conclusions.
I’ve enjoyed much else in your posts, and thank you for taking the time to share so much wonderful information with us and for careful consideration of what I am sharing with you here.
There’s an easy way that that the PETA workers could have known Maya was a family pet – ask the family. If I saw a dog on a porch, my first reaction would be that the dog belonged with the house, unless proven otherwise. It was also indicated in the source article that several pets were removed from the trailer park, although as you have pointed out, there was not a mention that PETA was requested by anyone in the trailer park.
Why should the blogger who was attacked be forced to turn off all comments? She did nothing wrong, and had no issues until the extremists attacked. That’s like telling a rape victim they had no right to go out in public because then they were seen by someone who wanted to rape them. She deleted the comment and banned the commenters, but they just kept coming. She also got messages sent to her, so even if she had not allowed comments, she would have still been attacked.
I wasn’t suggesting that the blogger turn off her posts so she could emulate rape victims, I was just offering a helpful suggestion to what must be a horrible situation for them. I hear you, but I wasn’t saying they are somehow responsible or should have to do that, in a sane world.
I was suggesting that engaging in hyperbole and half-truths doesn’t make your argument very sound, and there’s enough that IS sound that those tactics don’t need to be engaged in – though I am also not suggesting you used them as a “tactic”, I can understand getting wrapped up in the emotion of it all…it’s a bad situation and your friends do not deserve that treatment.
If you feel comfortable with what you wrote, despite what you know to be true, that’s on you. If the people had been home, which was not their fault (just horribly unfortunate) that they weren’t, the dog would still be alive in all likelihood. PETA was there at the request of the trailer park and had even provided dog houses to the same people who lost Maya. It was a terrible mistake but when you dig even a little deeper than the claims in your article it’s clear that – in this case – it was not a PETA move to willfully kill people’s beloved pets, as you article infers. And there is no long list of such things happening that I can find, it was more or less a one-off, and a massive horrible mistake.
Again, I am not a PETA person, have never supported them or really paid that much attention. I don’t condone kill-shelters, taking family pets, or a lot of their sensationalism. But I am a person who doesn’t believe in spreading fear-based rumors and half-truths. Within minutes of researching this, I knew your article wasn’t representing things factually, which puts you in the same league with them if you don’t correct the post, or add a little light to the darkness – that is actually now being promoted by it.
From all of the posts I’ve received from you on topics I am interested in and living daily, I wouldn’t believe you to be that person and don’t want to say such harsh words but I don’t see how you can defend it. Then when you compare me to rapist-colluders because of a benign and helpful suggestion I made, it does take me aback, however. Please find the light in your heart around this.
Per your concerns, I have edited the post to make the purposeful pet killing less of a focus in the piece.
Thank you, Laurie. I just saw this second reply from you and I’m so very glad you were able to hear me on that point. My faith in humanity is restored, because your last comment kind of pissed me off, so this made me feel much better. Thank you for that! <3
Maya the dog was one that those employees knew and had met before, they knew they were taking a family pet. If you closely watch the video of her theft it looks like they euthanize her right there in the back of the truck. Why would they euthanize a dog “at large” immediately then wait 3 days to inform the family? Anyhow the big question is how the employees that have previously assisted that family could not distinguish Maya from a random stray dog.
I followed the Maya case closely and more disturbing was the admonitions from locals about animals randomly disappearing never to be seen again. What they did was coordinated, that was not a one-off mistake by some new bumbling employee. This was their “abolishing animal slavery” by well established employees who routinely cook the books on euthanasia dosages to hide the fact that they euthanize more animals than they record. The day Maya was taken 2 reportedly sick 4-7 week old kittens were taken and euthanized the same day- their recorded weight was grossly exaggerated at about 7lbs each. Why were 2 young kittens the same weights as adult cats? What happened to the extra drugs that would not have been needed for those kittens? If anything the author could have written more about the Maya case and still not have covered enough about it.
Doesn’t seem my last comment “took” – I just saw your second reply and thank you very much for taking that action and hearing me, it made me feel much better after feeling very upset by your first reply. I appreciate it. <3
Your original comment seemed to place the blame on the victim, which pissed me off. I led with the animal stealing originally because it was the most striking element of the material that I found while researching. Nevertheless, it isn’t everyday behavior, so I moved it down in the post.
Every comment approved on this blog (over 16,000 and counting) gets read by me before it’s allowed to go live to catch anything that was missed by the spam filters, thus the delay before a comment shows up.
Thank you for your Posts!
I like it so much how you state facts and I agree 100% with you. The kind amd honest way you did it also!
Wow, I knew you had gotten attacked but these people are sick. I am pretty sure most of them ad eggs and bacon for breakfast and wiped the grease from their fingers to jump on the attack band wagon while sitting in their cushy leather office chair…
I have never been a fan of PETA, they have always seem a bit to underhanded for my taste and opening up their dishonest practices to the eyes of the world is very honorable and I thank you for doing so.
I believe you have awesome information to share on your blog and if it wasn’t so well thought out and informative you wouldn’t have been attacked so thoroughly. It just means you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work.
K
We live near PETA in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. These people are absolutely crazy. The head of PETA regularly protests in the nude, with nothing but a sandwich board to cover her. PETA is in the news several times a year for kidnapping and killing pets, harassing local businesses, committing vandalism, and other crazy antics.
A few years ago, PETA attacked and vandalized Central Meats, a local butcher shop that is family owned, spray painting vulgarities on the buildings and unplugging thousands of dollars worth of refrigerated meats. (Interestingly they never took on the much larger Smithfield Foods. which is also nearby.)
A few years ago, our local news stations all carried the story of a Chinese restaurant in nearby North Carolina accused of killing dogs. A large number of dead dogs had been found in the dumpster behind the Chinese restaurant. The owner of the restaurant, in broken English, stammered in a panicky voice that he did not know anything about how the dead dogs got there. He was met with general derision and scorn, and his restaurant lost its business.
Well, it turned out he was telling the truth all along. PETA workers had come along in a white van, picking up dogs on the way to and from North Carolina, and rather than taking the dogs back to their so-called shelter, had killed them, pulled up to the Chinese restaurant’s dumpster, and tossed them in. Someone else in the shopping center saw the dead dogs in the dumpster and reported it, assuming the restaurant was to blame.
It is beyond me how PETA continues to operate with any kind of state license in Virginia. It should have been shut down long ago, and criminal charges should have been filed against its top leadership and on down the chain. It is basically a fundraising scam, no more. It gets all kinds of celebrity endorsements and contributions from people like Mary Tyler Moore and Betty White who have no idea what it’s really up to. Just take a look at its employee salaries in its form 990s, and find an image of the swank new headquarters it built on the Norolk waterfront. That’s all those contributions paid for: excessive salaries, a lovely building, harassment and phony propaganda, kidnapped, stolen animals, needless suffering and death.
I’m sorry that you have to put up with this, but I appreciate that you were willing to share your firsthand experience. I’d guess that Smithfield Foods has much better lawyers than the small local grocer, which is why they haven’t been hit. Bullies like to attack those who can’t defend themselves.
The idea of the animal rights movement is do away with all animal use and liberate them to the wild of mother nature’s arms…..Whew…..we all know mother nature is cruel.
The worse thing about this movement is not to live and let live but purely of misanthropy of people who do eat meat, breed animals, have farms, go to zoos, or believe that animal research has led to billions of saved lives. It is the human hatred that bothers me. Perhaps the mob rule is another and the bullying.
PETA is a slaughter house for pups that should go to new owners – 95 percent kill rate. People who have worked at PETA has begged for an animals life but NOOOOOOO. It is the campaign of better dead than fed! So disheartening.
Thanks for posting. I was wondering if you have looked into their activities against research facilities? I am a researcher myself and know that they, and groups like them, can do serious damage to scientific and medical advancements. Despite what PETA says, research animals, most of which are rodents, are very well cared for. And the whole industry is highly regulated. Everyone I know who works with research animals is an animal lover and has pets of their own, sometimes multiple species. None of them would put up with an animal being abused, or being in any more pain than absolutely necessary. (pain meds and anesthesia are used when needed, and euthanasia if necessary)
I appreciate you getting the word out about this horrible group and their lies.
[The German High Court found PeTA guilty of paying people to skin animals alive. The witness who committed this act for PeTA, a videographer, told the court that he didn’t understand why they wanted it done that way, but he needed the money. This video was made in a third world country and the prosecutor found the man in the video who skinned the animal.
The German High court also found PeTA’s vet who had made the charges against the agricultural industry in Germany guilty of making false charges and in the verdict required PeTA to turn over all information about their videos and to list all person in their videos so they could be contacted to determine the facts presented in the videos. To date, PeTA has not turned over any videos or information. One has to conclude that… all of their videos on skinning animals alive were paid for by PeTA and therefore do not represent the norm. These organizations cannot stand up to the scrutiny of the courts as now PeTA and HSUS are being sued under the RICO act for racketeering.]
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52418359
8 Things You Didn’t Know About PETA
(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
1) According to government documents, PETA employees have killed more than 33,000 dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens since 1998. This behavior continues despite PETA’s moralizing about the “unethical” treatment of animals by farmers, scientists, restaurant owners, circuses, hunters, fishermen, zookeepers, and countless other Americans. PETA puts to death over 90 percent of the animals it accepts from members of the public who expect the group to make a reasonable attempt to find them adoptive homes. PETA holds absolutely no open-adoption shelter hours at its Norfolk, VA headquarters, choosing instead to spend part of its $32 million annual income on a contract with a crematory service to periodically empty hundreds of animal bodies from its large walk-in freezer.
2) PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk has described her group’s overall goal as “total animal liberation.” This means the complete abolition of meat, milk, cheese, eggs, honey, zoos, aquariums, circuses, wool, leather, fur, silk, hunting, fishing, and pet ownership. In a 2003 profile of Newkirk in The New Yorker, author Michael Specter wrote that Newkirk has had at least one seeing-eye dog taken away from its blind owner. PETA is also against all medical research that requires the use of animals, including research aimed at curing AIDS and cancer.
3) PETA has given tens of thousands of dollars to convicted arsonists and other violent criminals. This includes a 2001 donation of $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an FBI-certified “domestic terrorist” group responsible for dozens of firebombs and death threats. During the 1990s, PETA paid $70,200 to Rodney Coronado, an Animal Liberation Front (ALF) serial arsonist convicted of burning down a Michigan State University research laboratory. In his sentencing memorandum, a federal prosecutor implicated PETA president Ingrid Newkirk in that crime. PETA vegetarian campaign coordinator Bruce Friedrich has also told an animal rights convention that “blowing stuff up and smashing windows” is “a great way to bring about animal liberation,” adding, “Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.”
4) PETA activists regularly target children as young as six years old with anti-meat and anti-milk propaganda, even waiting outside their schools to intercept them without notifying their parents. One piece of kid-targeted PETA literature tells small children: “Your Mommy Kills Animals!” PETA brags that its messages reach over 1.2 million minor children, including 30,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 12, all contacted by e-mail without parental supervision. One PETA vice president told the Fox News Channel’s audience: “Our campaigns are always geared towards children, and they always will be.”
5) PETA’s president has said that “even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we would be against it.” And PETA has repeatedly attacked research foundations like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, solely because they support animal-based research aimed at curing life-threatening diseases and birth defects. And PETA helped to start and manage a quasi-medical front group, the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, to attack medical research head-on.
6) PETA has compared Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust to farm animals and Jesus Christ to pigs. PETA’s religious campaigns include a website that claims—despite ample evidence to the contrary—that Jesus Christ was a vegetarian. PETA holds protests at houses of worship, even suing one church that tried to protect its members from Sunday-morning harassment. Its billboards taunt Christians with the message that hogs “died for their sins.” PETA insists, contrary to centuries of rabbinical teaching, that the Jewish ritual of kosher slaughter shouldn’t be allowed. And its infamous “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign crassly compared the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide to farm animals.
7) PETA frequently looks the other way when its celebrity spokespersons don’t practice what it preaches. As gossip bloggers and Hollywood journalists have noted, Pamela Anderson’s Dodge Viper (auctioned to benefit PETA) had a “luxurious leather interior”; Jenna Jameson was photographed fishing, slurping oysters, and wearing a leather jacket just weeks after launching an anti-leather campaign for PETA; Morrissey got an official “okay” from PETA after eating at a steakhouse; Dita von Teese has written about her love of furs and foie gras; Steve-O built a career out of abusing small animals on film; the officially “anti-fur” Eva Mendes often wears fur anyway; and Charlize Theron’s celebrated October 2007 Vogue cover shoot featured several suede garments. In 2008, “Baby Phat” designer Kimora Lee Simmons became a PETA spokesmodel despite working with fur and leather, after making a $20,000 donation to the animal rights group.
8) PeTA just lost a lawsuit against Ringling Bros. Circus in Federal District Court alleging elephant abuse. The circus filed a lawsuit against PeTA and their fellow members of the animal rights industry under Federal Racketeering laws (RICO) and won a settlement of $15.7 million dollars.
Want evidence? Visit:www.AnimalScam.com • http://www.ActivistCash.com • http://www.PetaKillsAnimals.com
While you are investigating you might want to take a long look at the Humane Society of the United States which is nothing more than PeTA in a business suit. 10 Things You Should Know About HSUS
1. HSUS raises millions of dollars from American animal lovers through manipulative advertising. An analysis of HSUS’s TV fundraising determined that more than 85 percent of the animals shown were cats and dogs. However, HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter and only gives 1 percent of the money it raises to pet shelters while sucking money out of local communities.
2. HSUS’s own donors and local shelters feel wronged. A poll of self-identified HSUS donors found 80 percent thought HSUS “misleads people” about their connections to pet shelters and 75 percent were less likely to support the group when they found out the truth. And according to a poll of animal shelters most agree that “HSUS misleads people into thinking it is associated with local animal shelters.”
3. HSUS puts more into its pension plan and Caribbean hedge funds than it gives to pet shelters. Between 2012 and 2014, HSUS put over $100 million in Caribbean investments while also putting nearly $10 million into its pension plan.
4. While it raises money with pictures of cats and dogs, HSUS has an anti-meat vegan agenda. Speaking to an animal rights conference in 2006, HSUS’s then-vice president for farm animal issues stated that HSUS’s goal is to “get rid of the entire [animal agriculture] industry” and that “we don’t want any of these animals to be raised and killed.”
5. In May 2014, HSUS was part of a $15.75 million settlement of a federal racketeering lawsuit. Feld Entertainment sued HSUS, two of its in-house lawyers, and others under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act for bribery, obstruction of justice, fraud, and other torts. Court documents indicate that HSUS sent several checks as part of an alleged witness-payment scheme.
6. HSUS’s senior management includes others who have voiced support for terroristic acts. HSUS chief policy officer Mike Markarian has written that “A perfect example of effective rebellion is an Animal Liberation Front raid on a laboratory.” HSUS food policy director Matt Prescott, meanwhile, has written that “I also believe in the actions of the ALF and other such groups.” (Prescott is a former PETA activist.)
7. HSUS’s senior management includes a former spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a criminal group designated as “terrorists” by the FBI. HSUS president Wayne Pacelle hired John “J.P.” Goodwin in 1997, the same year Goodwin described himself as “spokesperson for the ALF” while he fielded media calls in the wake of an ALF arson attack at a California meat processing plant. In 1997, when asked by reporters for a reaction to an ALF arson fire at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah (which nearly killed a family sleeping on the premises), Goodwin replied, “We’re ecstatic.”
8. HSUS receives poor charity-evaluation marks. CharityWatch (formerly the American Institute of Philanthropy) has issued several “D” ratings for HSUS in recent years over the group’s wasteful spending practices. Additionally, the 2013 Animal People News Watchdog Report discovered that HSUS spends 55 percent of its budget on overhead costs.
9. HSUS’s CEO endorsed convicted dogfighting kingpin Michael Vick getting another pet. After Vick got out of prison, HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle told the press that he thought Vick “would do a good job as a pet owner.” This startling comment came after Vick’s new employer, the Philadelphia Eagle, made a $50,000 “grant” to HSUS.
10. Given the massive size of its budget, HSUS does relatively little hands-on care for animals. While HSUS claims it “saves” more animals than any other animal protection group in the US, much of the “care” HSUS provides is in the form of spay-neuter assistance. In fact, local groups that operate on considerably slimmer budgets, such as the Houston SPCA, provide direct care to more animals than HSUS does.
Isn’t it all convenient how PETA never mentions the animal deaths at produce and grain farms, where animals are routinely poisoned, mauled, or trapped and killed to keep them from eating or contaminating fruits, vegetables and grains with urine and feces ?
They complain about rabbits, hares, rats and mice being experimented on in labs but the above mentioned subject matter appears to be taboo, even though it also involves cute squirrels and chipmunks.
Apparently the fact that some “meat alternatives” are well traveled and wrapped in plastic appears to also be of no consequence to PETA, as well as the fact that some include palm oil, a product that promotes the depletion of rainforests worldwide.
By well traveled I of course mean imported from other countries, an environmentally dubious choice in comparison to buying local because of the fuel consumption required.
The production and use of oil products displaces, poisons and kills animals so buying is vastly superior to importation.
My milk and cheese is from my own area code and neighbouring area codes. My beef and poultry is mostly from my own province and Alberta. And the feed used through-out Canada is domestic, not imported, so the rainforests are irrelevant to my consumption of meat and milk products.
The retorts PETA peddles are not only fallacious but simply do not apply to me.
Let’s face it, peta should stop viewing everything to do with animal agriculture in the same evil ultraviolet light!
People Eating Tasty Animals: Useless bimbos for animals since 1980
Hello, I appreciate what you wrote and everything is very true. Unfortunately, now peta is trying to enter in countries in South America as the Peru. They are advertising with a small sterilization campaigns and mislead the people. link http://elcomercio.pe/wuf/noticias/peta-albergues-son-ultimo-recurso-noticia-1913084.
You cannot defend the life of some animals and kill others, that makes Peta, WSPA and other evil organizations.
Sorry to not write well in English.
i am umamageswaran, from madurai, Tamilnadu, India, as much i hate peta as deep of my soul. As i know, Scientist Jagadish Chandra bose, former nobel prize winner, has found that even plants has also lives. They are also living being. Not only that, all wild animals depends on some animals for their food. Beyond their classification as herbivorous and something meat eating animals. what about human, ancient and recent food habits. left that. i am talking about animals. particularly, domestic animals. what is the truth behind that such animals have become pet and / or domestic animals. Any universal significance behind that. our gods from any religion, related some domestic animals. All religious books, portrayed many animals. which means, there is always some association with animals by humans. Food habit must be analysed scientifically with past and ancient instructions. PETA – Does it apply scientific approach to its demand humans to be vegetarian. Does it consider, what is the future to the animals to which it acts as protectors. Definitely is there any need PETA to continue in our world?
PETA prays on people’s hopes and fears for their own profit.
We are all entitled to our opinion. However bully tactics and malicious behavior and vulgar language only demonstrate ignorance and lack of tolerance to each others beliefs. Its sad that as people the supposedly most intelligent mammal on the planet cannot accept one anothers beliefs of diet, religion, or even skin color. I applaud your stance Laurie. If only we all could have normal neighbors like you.
Yep that’s peta for you, a swimming Vat of hypocrisy and hatred. They have a problem with people raising their own meat but don’t have an issue killing other people’s happy and healthy family pets. They are nothing but a bunch of crazy zealots who don’t know how to look at the world through a practical lense. Everyone even them are part of the food chain. They may not be eating animals but they’re still taking life forms. Plants are alive though peta often forgets this. Both animal and non animal life is important to the earth and peta seems to forget this.
Terrorism undermines their supposed cause to end suffering and punishing people who want first hand involvement in raising their meat so they don’t have to wonder what kind of life their animals lived is counter productive to their cause which I would assume is the Ethical treatment of animals. Although, with all the bombs and the kidknapping of beloved pets and forcing carnivorous pets to go vegan it seems to me that there is a different agenda st work here.
Thank you for this great article! I really, really, hate factory farming, but people should understand their ARE good farmers, that take good care of their animals, who lead happy lives. And killing animals for food is the circle of life. -Mas killing so we can eat 5 times as much meat than as is healthy in unnecessarily violent and inhuman ways to make yourself a billionaire, is a different story. I personally don’t enjoy meat, and to easily make sure I didn’t accidentally buying meat from a bad company I was vegetarian. But I’m a dedicated 2 sport athlete, and was anemic, which wreaked havoc on me and all my dreams. So now I do eat some meat, because it has high levels of iron. Although I miss being vegan, because I’m honestly not a fan of the taste of meat. I’m not saying you can’t get iron from plants, but this is way easier than me. I just research before I buy, and I buy a lot from friends farms, that I get to see the inside of.
No, I’m not evil. I do support other animal rights associations though. I hate people who think their educated because they watch doctor oz, read some activist magazine, or are #feminism because it looks good on their instagram. No, that’s not being educated. Looking at many resources, not blindly believing, and finding and figuring out on your own, is being educated. But god, how can factory farm owners be so NASTY? WTFing evil is wrong with them? They gotta be twisted.
Not even all factory farms are completely nasty, but those that are treat animals as a commodity, and are responding to consumer demand for cheap, cheap, cheap food. When you don’t consider secondary costs – water and air pollution, illness, etc – then the “obvious” choice is to crank that “meat product” out as cheaply as possible.
P-E-T-A Pedantic, Enticing, Tyrannical, Ass wipes
I WANT PROOF
Screenshots are in the article and there are multiple links throughout the article to supporting information.
I knew what PETA was all about when I was 6 years old. Back in the early 80’s they poisoned and killed my best friend so they could lie to the public about the circus, I caught them in the tent feeding her a few hours later she dropped dead. That 4-year-old elephant was seen by a vet the day before for its updated health certificate and given a clean bill of health. The circus finally let them win and shut down, leaving millions without a job. And half the animals had to be put down because they went stir crazy in a sanctuary not doing their jobs.
PETA takes videos of themselves abusing animals to lie to the public, like the poor animals they skinned alive for one of their ‘no fur’ ads. Their employees have to sign a contract that states if they speak about anything they will get sued (a few have ended up dead for speaking out). And now they have taken over Facebook and has been shutting down a lot of animal groups and pages (as if hacking rescue pages wasn’t enough). Their number one goal is to ban ALL animals as pets including cats and dogs (which is why they started BSL and support kill shelters), but people are so brainwashed by them they don’t even realize the truth and when its placed in front of them they still do not believe it
Thank you for sharing your experience, and sorry for the loss of your elephant.
Animals have worked and lived with humans for millenia. PITA is illogical.
PETA always gets the usial useful idiots from Hollywood(Alec Baldwin, Pamela Anderson Etc)to do stupid ads for them because liberals are suckers for everything with a silly liberal cause such as Gun Control, Climate Change or Animal Rights their the kind of people P.T. Barnum was talking about when he said THERES A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE
Any politician or celebrity who crusades for stripping us law abiding Patriots from bring able to hunt animals for food and clothing, and defense against tyrannical politicians and cold blooded killers always have armed guards protecting them, elitist hypocrisy at its finest.
Going completely dairy free is as unhealthy as going completely meat free.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/diagnosis-diet/201903/the-brain-needs-animal-fat
https://www.holistichelp.net/blog/12-reasons-you-should-eat-more-meat/
The “P” in PETA stands for psychotic.
70 to 80 percent of the animals PETA categorize as rescued from abusers are euthanized.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/diagnosis-diet/201903/the-brain-needs-animal-fat
https://www.holistichelp.net/blog/12-reasons-you-should-eat-more-meat/
Completely eliminating ingestion of dairy products is also a complete lack of ignorance as to the health benefits that consumption of dairy products which have been scientifically proven.
Keep up the good work. It was so refreshing to read common sense on the internet. Such a rare thing. It also helped me to feel that I’m not alone in this mad, mad world.
Sending you light and love and gratitude for your courage to say it like it is – with real intelligence.