This morning comes word that in 2008 PETA killed 95.8 percent of the dogs, cats and other pets put into its care last year. In fact, during all of 2008, PETA found adoptive homes for just seven pets out of 2,216 animals taken in. To be clear, the animals that were put down where not sick and injured animals: they were animals that PETA simply did not try to get adopted despite an annual operating budget of $32 million. You will not find PETA's shelter in Norfolk, Virginia on Pet Finder, nor are there any visiting hours. Posters are not placed on coffee shop bulletin boards, nor do they work with Pet Smart or anyone else to find homes for dogs and cats relenquished to them. Instead, PETA injects killing solutions into almost all the animals handed over to the them, and then it contracts with a waste disposal company to have several tons of animals a month trucked away, out of sight and out of mind. Why? Simple: they believe a dog in a shelter is better dead than kenneled for even a few days, and they oppose pet ownership entirely. They prefer the animals dead than in the hands of loving owners, and they cannot be bothered to take time away from media-whoring to do the grunt work involved of actually helping real animals in need.
PETA, of course, tries to hide all of this, but the state of Virginia is not having any part of it. Virginia has a legal requirement that all shelters report out how many dog, cats and other animals come through their dooor, how many are placed, and how many are rehomed. PETA refuses to fill out the forms correctly, however, and ever year a little charade occurs. This charade is designed to slow down the posting of information to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services website. PETA, you see is embarassed by their own numbers. Not embarassed enough to change, mind you, just embarassed enough to lie. And so, instead of reporting the data correctly, PETA mixes in unrelated spay and neuter data to try to slow or prevent the true number from being posted on the Virginia state web site. To be clear, no other shelter in Virginia does this or even tries to do this. And you know why? Because the other shelters are not afraid of telling you what they are doing because most of them are at least trying to get dogs and cats adopted out. PETA, on the other hand, does nothing to try to get animals placed. That's too much like work and there's no look-at-me publicity in it. The blue solution of death is so much easier. And so PETA injects, dumps, and runs off to do another titty-show protest somewhere. Yippee! Look at me. I am nekkid!
So how do we know what PETA's numbers are for 2008? Simple: Just because PETA intentionally mangles the paperwork so that the data does not show up up on time on the Virginia state web site does not mean that they do not file something as a place holder. That paperwork does exist, and you can read it yourself and tease out the kill data, just as I have. You can also compare it to the track record of other Virginia animal shelter facilities right here, and you can also compare it to past years of corret PETA data by looking at the table below:
To cut to the chase, here's how the data breaks down for dogs and cats put in PETA's care in 2008:
Of 584 dogs surrendered to PETA's "shelter" last year, 555 were killed by PETA and only 4 were adopted out. Another 21 dogs were transferred to the Virginia Beach SPCA, and 15 dogs were still "on hand" with PETA as of December 31, 2008. Of 1,589 cats surreneder to PETA's "shelter" last year, 1,569 were killed by PETA and only 3 were adopted out. Another 13 cats were transferred to the Virginia Beach SPCA, and 2 cats were still "on hand" with PETA as of December 31, 2009
Now here's the important part: PETA is very clearly in violation of Virginia state law. Last year I noted that PETA is licensed under Virginia law to run an animal shelter or humane society. Under Virginia law, an animal shelter means "a facility, other than a private residential dwelling and its surrounding grounds, that is used to house or contain animals and that is owned, operated, or maintained by a nongovernmental entity including, but not limited to, a humane society, animal welfare organization, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, or any other organization operating for the purpose of finding permanent adoptive homes for animals." Under Virginia law, a humane society means "any incorporated, nonprofit organization that is organized for the purposes of preventing cruelty to animals and promoting humane care and treatment or adoptions of animals." Under Virginia law, adoption means "the transfer of ownership of a dog or a cat, or any other companion animal, from a releasing agency to an individual."
In short, PETA is very clearly not running a legal shelter or humane society, and their license needs to be revoked by the state. PETA can then re-apply with the Virginia Department of Agriculture to run a slaughter house. And no, the slaughter house designation is not hyperbole. In 2008, PETA's shelter in Norfolk, Virginia took possession of 2,216 dogs, cats, and other “companion animals” and killed all but 7 of them -- a 95.8 percent kil rate.
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