PETA’s Killing, Cognitive Dissonance, and What We Owe Animals
Photo: a puppy killed by PETA being handled by an official in a hazmat suit and another is behind him. PETA promised to find the puppies a home, described the puppies as “adorable” and “perfect,” and immediately put them to death in the back of a van, a donor funded slaughterhouse on wheels. Their bodies, along with dozens of others PETA killed, were found in a supermarket dumpster. Learn more at www.whyPETAkills.org
This week, over 4 million people have seen my Facebook posts. Yesterday’s post about PETA’s killing of 2,324 of the 2,626 dogs and cats they impounded in 2014 and only adopting out 39 (1% of the animals) has been seen by over 1 million people alone. And given the comments, it is clear that this is news to many people, even though it has been going on for years, even though they openly fight shelter reform efforts, defend abusive shelters, have called for the killing of every pit bull in every shelter, for the round up and killing of community cats, and have put to death 31,250 animals over the last 12 years, including healthy puppies and kittens after promising to find them homes and animals they have stolen for the purpose of killing. You can find links to the evidence below. But because this is news to a lot of people given what PETA pretends to be, my reporting on it often leads to confusion, with people unsure of whom to believe, as if the right or wrong position comes down to personalities, rather than the objective facts and the outcomes for animals resulting from them.
I understand that what those facts are telling us are in direct contravention to what most people think PETA represents. Many people believe, and the media often portrays, PETA as a “radical animal rights” group, and therefore some people have a difficult time assimilating all the evidence that proves otherwise—that, in fact, PETA actively harms thousands of animals every year by injecting them with a fatal dose of poison and even seeks animals out for this very purpose. When I first learned about this news two decades ago as a PETA volunteer, I, too, was stunned. But my response was markedly different than that of many PETA supporters who come onto my page. I researched the evidence, weighed it against my values, and determined that I could no longer, in good conscience, continue to support a group that—despite their public persona—undermined, rather than furthered, the cause I believed in. Unfortunately, not everyone who claims to care about animals is inclined to do the same. There are some people who are so heavily associated with the PETA brand—animal activists whose Facebook pages are filled with PETA links, whose cars are covered with PETA bumper stickers, and whose friends and family associate them with being an ardent PETA supporter—that when they read information that proves that PETA does not, in fact, represent what they thought it did, feel that their entire identity is under attack, and they lash out, shooting the messenger—me—and grant PETA absolution to keep on killing, thereby defending the very harm to animals that caused them to start supporting PETA in the first place. It’s bewildering how casually and capriciously such people surrender the values they claim to believe in and the lives of defenseless animals for the benefit of an institution they lionize.
After years of fighting to expose the truth about PETA, I have learned that such individuals are often beyond reach. Rare is the person from this category that I am ever able to convince because the truth is not conducive to their needs. But as for the others who are struggling to overcome the cognitive dissonance between what PETA is believed to be and what the facts prove it actually is, I implore you to take a little time to follow the links I provide that prove that what I am saying is true. They link to information reported to the Commonwealth of Virginia by PETA itself, or to letters written or statements made by PETA’s President Ingrid Newkirk herself admitting that they kill healthy animals, arguing that all pit bulls and free-living cats should be killed, and statements in which she has made it clear that she believes animals want to die and to kill them is to give them, in her words, “a gift.” Read these links, and you’ll discover that in fact what you presumed PETA stood for is wrong. Then decide for yourself whether or not PETA is behaving in a manner that you want to support, that reflects your values and will result in the sort of outcomes you, as someone claiming to love animals, want to see. Whatever you decide, and given what is at stake, the very least you owe the animals is an open mind, and the few minutes it takes to scrutinize the evidence for yourself.
- Here is the data, self-reported by PETA to the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, showing roughly 9 out of 10 animals they seek out are killed by them: http://bit.ly/1LsjPrn
- Here is an inspection report by the Virginia State Vet showing PETA kills 90% of animals within 24 hours without even trying to find them homes: http://bit.ly/1eHkWlD
- Here is an OpEd piece written by PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk which appeared in newspapers across the country where PETA says it supports a policy that all pit bulls should be killed in all shelters in America: http://bit.ly/XrvcKf
- Here is a newspaper article about the 2007 trial of PETA employees after they were found to be rounding up and killing animals in the back of a van after promising to find them homes: http://bit.ly/XCSdI3
- Here is the news station report of PETA stealing Maya, a “happy and healthy” dog and killing her: http://bit.ly/1EIsEHq
- Here is the surveillance video of the theft: www.whypetaeuthanizes.org/maya
- Here is an article where PETA says community cats are better dead than sterilized and fed: http://bit.ly/1Eux7Sm
- Here is a video made by Shelby County KY shelter volunteers after PETA celebrated when that shelter announced it was going to resume killing after four years as a No Kill shelter: http://vimeo.com/48651351
- Here is a letter by the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies asking the State Vet to revoke PETA’s ability to take in and kill animals: http://bit.ly/ZgBzfb
- Here is a petition to the State Vet that the No Kill Advocacy Center wrote asking the same: http://bit.ly/ZK4kjj
- Here is a letter written by PETA to a Mayor telling him to kill all pit bulls, not to foster animals, and not to work with rescue groups: http://bit.ly/ZAnrvQ
- Here are photographs of animals PETA has killed: www.whypetaeuthanizes.org/photos/
- Here is a video where Ingrid Newkirk admits they kill healthy, adoptable animals: www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=14568
There’s more. Much more. PETA is letting loose upon the world individuals who not only maniacally believe that killing is a good thing and that the living want to die, but who are legally armed with lethal drugs which they have already proven—over 30,000 times—that they are not adverse to using.
P.S. If you do want to learn more about me, I am a former criminal prosecutor, shelter director, animal control officer and currently I run a national non-profit dedicated to ending the systematic killing of animals in U.S. shelters, the NO Kill Advocacy Center. I have been a vegan for 25 years and also run a vegan advocacy website: www.allamericanvegan.com I am also a former PETA volunteer. My story can be found here: http://bit.ly/13qMs4a
————-
Have a comment? Join the discussion by clicking here.