Press Release | PETA Employee Arraigned On Felony Dog-Napping Theft Charge

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Home / Press Center / Press Releases Posted On August 14, 2007
PETA Employee Arraigned On Felony Dog-Napping Theft Charge Snatched Hunting Dog May Have Been Slated For Death At PETA's Norfolk Headquarters Courtland, VA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) employee Andrea Florence Benoit will be arraigned today in Southampton County (VA) Circuit Court on a felony charge of stealing a local Animal Control officer's hunting dog. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, which tracks PETA's program of killing adoptable dogs and cats at PETAkillsAnimals.com, is calling on the animal rights group to stop playing God with other people's pets. Benoit was indicted by a Grand Jury on July 16. Benoit was arrested in October 2006, shortly after allegedly abducting a free-roaming Walker hound. Police stopped her PETA-owned van as she attempted to transport the dog to PETA's Norfolk office. During a preliminary hearing on June 27, police testified that Benoit initially lied about having taken the animal. But after the owner described it in detail, she changed her tune, saying "Oh … that dog. It’s in the back." The dog's owner also testified that when the dog was taken, it was wearing an identification collar bearing his name and cell phone number. The dog's coat was also marked with an identifying number and the owner's initials. On June 27, Benoit's attorney stated that the dog was perfectly healthy when Benoit took it, and that she and an alleged accomplice "did what was, quite frankly, consistent with their training" at PETA. "It's no secret that PETA doesn't like hunters, but the group has no business stealing their dogs," Center for Consumer Freedom Director of Research David Martosko said today. "Judging from PETA’s 80 percent kill rate, it's likely this animal was headed for the death-chamber at PETA's Norfolk headquarters when police intervened. This is the kind of behavior PETA would be condemning if its own employees weren't responsible for it." 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	A Mother's Concern About PETA In this Center for Consumer Freedom ad, a young mother discusses teaching her children to love and respect animals, but also notes that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) take animal rights to dangerous extremes. She points out that PETA condones arson and has given money to violent criminals. click to view » Missing seeing eye dog PETA is so radical that it even opposes seeing eye dogs for the blind. Animal rights groups that go to extremes shouldn't have the right to tell us what to wear, how to live, and what to eat. click to view » Put Helmsley's billions to use in animal shelters PETA and HSUS have announced their intentions to claim big slices of the $8 billion bounty. But neither one has the track record to handle such a responsibility. read more here » California Focus: The new animal-rights battleground The animal-rights movement is far from harmless. And since California seems to be the current animal-rights Ground Zero, it's worth considering what the movement stands for. read more here » Humane Society Changing HSUS president Wayne Pacelle's insistence that his group is "not telling people to become vegetarians" doesn't jibe with reality. read more here » Cancer Project actually has ties to PETA I'd like to correct some misconceptions about an animal rights group that posed as a legitimate medical-advice charity. read more here » Meat-diabetes link questioned There's a good reason Caroline Trapp argues that eating meat is responsible for climbing diabetes rates in every corner of the world. read more here »