Animal Activists Outraged with PETA for Euthanizing Dogs and Cats at Shelters
A Rebuttal To, "PETA: The Unethical Treatment of Animals," by AC Content Producer Shanika
This article is a response the Associated Content article entitled PETA: The UNethical Treatment of Animals by Content Producer Shanika. Her article was written out of pure passion, so much so, that readers were left with a severely biased outlook on the organization. PETA takes great strides to ensure all animals, even the unwanted ones, are treated humanely and with dignity. She also suggested that PETA as a whole is a cruel and heartless organization due to the criminal actions of two employees back in 2005. Her words can easily be translated into blatant flaming, so I've decided to put the rest of the story out there.
On June 15th, 2005 PETA employees Andrew Cook and Adria Hinkle were arrested for disposing 18 euthanized adult dogs and puppies in a dumpster behind a supermarket and for carrying 13 more dogs and kittens in their PETA van. The workers were arrested. All in all about 100 animals over a period of a month were suspected of being dumped by these employees.
Fellow PETA members were outraged. Those who were more involved with the group knew about the humane euthanasia training programs but they too were outraged and embarrassed by the actions of these two staff members.
Many animal lovers don't understand why PETA euthanizes animals to begin with but when they heard that PETA members dumped these dead animals in a dumpster the public went ballistic and started labeling PETA an undercover organization of animal murderers. As word spread it turned into a bad game of telephone. Facts either got misconstrued or the whole story wasn't given which blew the situation out of proportion and left PETA with an unfavorable impression to this day.
Cook and Hinkle went to jail on 21 counts of felony cruelty to animals charges and made bail later that day. A few months later they went to court and on February 2nd 2006, the judge reduced their charges to 8 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty and 1 count of littering. The court deemed that the state failed to prove malice or a motive.
The workers said that on the day in question it was over 100 degrees out and their van only had air conditioning in the front, so the smell of the carcasses was becoming too much to handle. They were supposed to drive these animals from North Carolina to Virginia but the smell was too much so they decided to "lighten their load" by putting the more offensive bags of dead dogs into a dumpster. Cook and Hinkle were supposed to cremate these animals back in Virginia. Bad judgment prevailed that day but they had admitted to using the same dumpster on other occasions during the month of June, which made their crimes less forgivable.
Many hard-core PETA members believe no animals should be killed whatsoever. They argue that unwanted animals should go to "no-kill shelters." Dan Matthews, Senior Vice President of PETA says this is unrealistic. In a recent radio interview, Mr. Matthews said people who push for no-kill shelters only are living in a fantasy world. He said, "All that means is that somebody else kills them as no-kill shelters have to shut their doors at a certain point. People who are turned away from closed no-kill shelters in the deep south either abandon their animals in the street, shoot them or take them to a traditional shelter in a different county where they are later put down if they aren't adopted.
There are simply not enough homes for all of the unwanted animals in the United States. PETA is licensed to euthanize animals in the state of Virginia where PETA is based and have taken a responsible step by teaching shelters not just in the south but all across the United States how to humanely euthanize unwanted animals in overcrowded shelters.
Despite being an organization of self-proclaimed rabble-rousers and naked Hollywood celebrities, PETA is a realistic group that does the best it can considering the staggering amount of unwanted animals out there. If there was any way to avoid putting down around ten-thousand animals a year, believe me, they would have come up with a different solution a long time ago. PETA doesn't deserve to be labeled as a callous and two-faced organization due to the insensitive actions of these two people.
Published by Alicia White
Alicia is a former air traffic controller who lived in Japan for several years. She's currently a freelance writer in California, and a full-time student majoring in digital media/graphic design. View profile
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12 Comments
Post a CommentAnd all the time these PETA wanks blabber about compassion yet shows no compassion to all those animals they have killed
scale, but everybody does their part with the resources available to them. I'm sure if people are not happy with the way PETA is running their campaigns, than the best thing to do is make suggestions. I think they have something on their website that provides the opportunity to submit your ideas. Keep in mind though that PETA's campaigns are nothing new to the social justice movements. Nudity, for example, has always received attention. If it didn't work for women's rights, environment, etc. they wouldn't waste their time with it. Or do what my friend did, intern or volunteer. The key is to work together on a global level. Thanks again!
Tammy G. let me first say, that's a great article. There is so much misinformation out there about PETA and other organizations that share the same mission--to make the world a better place for all living beings. The source of misinformation comes from a company that discredits and lies about them and is paid by the food, alcohol, firearms, and pharmaceutical industries to do so. Unfortunately, the media is also bought and paid for. What saddens me the most is the response from the animal rights community. PETA is a great organization and has made a tremendous difference in this world for all living beings, and the people are kind and compassionate. I know this because someone closed to me was an intern and had a chance to get up close and personal with them. I also had a chance to meet them myself. I will say they're not perfect, but their doing the best they can, even with the obstacles thrown at them. I would like to see other animal rights activists join in the effort on a grander
PETA actually stood outside the student union of my college about 4 years ago and the sad thing was nobody was paying them any attention and kept walking past them with turkey sandwiches, chicken salad, sushi, hamburgers, hot dogs, and country fried steak patty meals laughing hysterically at these idiots for showing graphic videos of cows and veal being slaughtered and nobody was amused.
In response to the comment on graphic leaflets to children: This is done by members that may not be directly affiliated with PETA. These leaflets are sent to people free upon request from PETA. And those leaflets in reality are no worse than parents taking their children to the circus to watch animals being beaten for a few hours or walking down the meat isle in the grocery store. Now that's what I call graphic!
PETA's intentions are genuine. The organization as a whole is dedicated to education and awareness about animal abuse and should not be judged by those few who chose to make bad decisions. These people who have dumped bodies in dumpsters are serving time and being punished, as they rightfully should. This case was made public because of their involvement with PETA and this is the ONLY reason they are being punished. There are millions of animals who are abused and killed everyday by people who will NEVER be rightfully punished. Some PETA members tend to be radical and over the top, but PETA is a great organization to get information from and use as a animal rights resource. Just imagine how uneducated the country would be about animal abuse if it weren't for PETA. We would not have those behind the scenes documentaries of factory farms or circuses or see the faces of the baby seals before they are turned into coats. They make people see the reality behind their choices and I love that
I completely agree with you. They will gladly hand out scary, graphic leaflets to children with their mothers in fur coats outside ballets, with an image of a blond woman sticking a knife into a rabbit, blood splattered all over the page, to kids as young as 6, get celebrities to pose naked and then aim their campaigns at children. Although this is off topic, it still needs to be viewed.
To toss dead animals in dumpsters in anything but ethical. People need to wake up and see that PETA is a hypocritical, completely hype-run organization.
i dont like what they are do in to the animals
Lynne, I'm with you on the whole naked celebrity thing but, overall, I quite like PETA. Plus you simply cannot judge an entire organization on 2 people's actions. That's just silly. PETA have done amazing things over the years.
Well-written article! As with most companies or organizations, I'm sure there are both good and bad people involved. Now , I'm off to read Shanika's article.