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May 9, 2005
PETA Kills Animals. We're Serious.
Anyone familiar with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) knows that its activists complain bitterly about meat eating, livestock farming, biomedical research, and every other sensible use of animals by humankind. Hooking a striped bass, says PETA, ought to be a crime. And raising a chicken for food? Forget about it. PETA's philosophy is built around the idea of "total animal liberation," a strange utopian vision that requires us to treat animals as our equals. But PETA, it turns out, doesn't practice what it preaches. This weekend the Center for Consumer Freedom unveiled a gigantic billboard in New York City's famed Times Square to announce that PETA kills animals.
Anyone familiar with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) knows that its activists complain bitterly about meat eating, livestock farming, biomedical research, and every other sensible use of animals by humankind. Hooking a striped bass, says PETA, ought to be a crime. And raising a chicken for food? Forget about it. PETA's philosophy is built around the idea of "total animal liberation," a strange utopian vision that requires us to treat animals as our equals. But PETA, it turns out, doesn't practice what it preaches. This weekend the Center for Consumer Freedom unveiled a gigantic billboard in New York City's famed Times Square to announce that PETA kills animals.
It's true. PETA has been running its own doggie death chamber since at least July 1998. Through the end of 2003, PETA killed over 10,000 dogs, cats, puppies and kittens at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. That's more than five animals every day. Instead of actually caring for these thousands of pets (the same creatures PETA calls "companion animals"), the group killed them. And PETA continues to lecture the rest of us.
In a 2000 Associated Press story, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk complained that actually taking care of animals would cost more than killing them. "We could become a no-kill shelter immediately," she admitted.
She's right. PETA raked in nearly $29 million last year, much of it from pet owners who think their donations actually help animals. That kind of dough could provide food and shelter for every stray animal in PETA's area code. But PETA has other priorities for its money: equating people who eat chicken with Nazis, lying in wait to indoctrinate small children with anti-milk propaganda, strong-arming restaurant executives, and even intimidating businessmen and their families in their own neighborhoods.
PETA has also spent tens of thousands of dollars defending arsonists and other violent extremists. But it kills most of the animals it's asked to protect.
Hypocrisy is the mother of all credibility problems, and PETA has it in spades. For more information, visit PETAKillsAnimals.com.
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