PETA still kills animals: 2011 edition

I honestly wonder how the self-professed “animal lovers” at PETA can defend their claims of protecting the very creatures they’re so busy slaughtering in record-breaking numbers:

In 2011, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) behaved in a regrettably consistent manner: it euthanized the overwhelming majority (PDF) of dogs and cats that it accepted into its shelters. Out of 760 dogs impounded, they killed 713, arranged for 19 to be adopted, and farmed out 36 to other shelters (not necessarily "no kill" ones). As for cats, they impounded 1,211, euthanized 1,198, transferred eight, and found homes for a grand total of five. PETA also took in 58 other companion animals -- including rabbits. It killed 54 of them.

These figures don't reflect well on an organization dedicated to the cause of animal rights. Even acknowledging that PETA sterilized over 10,500 dogs and cats and returned them to their owners, it doesn't change the fact that its adoption rate in 2011 was 2.5 percent for dogs and 0.4 for cats. Even acknowleding that PETA never turns an animal away -- "the sick, the scarred and broken, the elderly, the aggressive and unsocialized..." -- doesn't change the fact that Virginia animal shelters as a whole had a much lower kill rate of 44 percent. And even acknowledging that PETA is often the first to rescue pets when heat waves and hurricanes hit, that doesn't change the fact that, at one of its shelters, it kills 84 percent of supposedly "unadoptable" animals within 24 hours of their arrival.

To cap it all off, a PETA spokeswoman claims that “euthanasia is a product of love” for unloved animals and deflects questions about the group’s 95% kill rate by tu quoque-ing about “animal shelters and veterinary offices” who also kill some of their charges because they can’t find homes for all of them.

You know, I do my best to avoid erecting cartoonish villain-like depictions of these sorts of people in my mind, but I just can’t see how any group that claims to support animal rights can then get away with putting down the very vast majority of the creatures they supposedly care so very much about, especially on a $30 million budget. It’s hard to know whether to blame it on balls-out evil or sheer incompetence – both fit the bill equally well with these creeps.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: PETA • People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals • Peta Kills Animals