PETA Trial, Day 3:
Opening Statements, Legal Maneuvers, and 92 Dead Animals

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January 24, 2007 | Day Three at the PETA-Kills-Animals trial saw opening statements, some witness testimony, a request for a mistrial, and new revelations about events surrounding the 2005 arrests of PETA employees Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook.

 

One juror was sent home before the trial got underway, presumably for medical reasons (she arrived in court wearing a hospital bracelet), so the first "alternate" juror has been promoted to the real thing. The jury now includes nine African-Americans and three Caucasians, and is split 50-50 between men and women.

 

District Attorney Valerie Asbell opened the trial with a 16-minute opening statement, walking the jury through an outline of her case. We learned that June 15, 2005 wasn't the first time dead animals were found in a trash dumpster behind an Ahoskie, NC Piggly Wiggly store. The same thing happened on the mornings of May 19, June 2, and June 9. On those three Thursdays, police found trash bags containing the bodies of 58 dogs and 3 cats. The final 31 dead animals were recovered on June 15 after Hinkle and Cook were taken into custody.

 

So when the next week rolled around, Detective Jeremy Roberts testified today, police were ready. They staked out the dumpster on Wednesday afternoon. They followed Hinkle and Cook as they drove to a veterinary clinic, to an animal shelter, and to the Piggly Wiggly. And they asked an animal-control officer to take photographs of all the shelter's animals for comparison with anything they might recover from the dumpster. (Not surprisingly, they matched.)

The most heart-wrenching detail in the prosecution's case so far involves a cat and two kittens Hinkle and Cook allegedly took from the Ahoskie Animal Hospital on the false promise that PETA would find them adoptive homes. Asbell describes the scene:

 

On this day, on June 15, [an Ahoskie Animal Hospital employee] called and said that they had a momma cat and two kittens, and they were in good shape. They wanted to adopt them out. When Ms. Hinkle and Mr. Cook went to the shelter on that date, they walked inside, and Ms. Tonya Northcott, one of the employees at the Ahoskie Animal Hospital, came out from the back, and said "You're here for the kittens, the cat and the kittens."... And she said "yes." She went back to the back, got the carrier, got the momma cat, got the two baby kittens, brought them out, and handed them to Ms. Hinkle.

 

Ms. Northcott said to her: "These animals -- you're not going to have any -- well, you'll be able to adopt these cats out. We've socialized them, we've played with them, they've had their shots, everything's fine with them." Ms. Hinkle looked at Ms. Northcott and said: "We'll have no problem finding homes for these cats. None at all."

 

There was a little girl standing in the front as well. And the little girl had adopted the brother of one of the kittens. And she was looking at the kittens. And Ms. Hinkle looked at her and said: "We'll have no problem placing, we'll have no problem helping these cats." At that point, Ms. Hinkle and Mr. Cook left, they took the cats, left, went out and got back in the van.

 

Those cats ended up in a trash dumpster less than an hour later.

 

Detective Roberts also provided a firsthand account of the discovery of PETA's "death kit" -- a tackle box filled with lethal drugs and syringes:

 

Inside the tackle box were several needles, and several bottles of drugs. Some of the bottles still had needles stuck in the top of them. There were syringes in the tackle box that were already pre-loaded with the drugs, inside the syringes. Also in the van, we found manuals from the organization, PETA.

 

Roberts later described those "manuals" as "S.O.P. manuals" -- short for PETA's Standard Operating Procedures.

Lawyers for the two defendants spent over a half-hour on their opening statements. PETA's arguments (or excuses, depending on your point of view), are:

• Hinkle and Cook "acted out of love for animals" and "had no criminal intent."
• PETA kills animals because "there's an enormous animal overpopulation problem."
• Hinkle and Cook were just doing their job. PETA issued "a work order" (literally) and the employees did the work. Hinkle "was assured by PETA that it was perfectly proper and legal for her to go out and administer lethal injections of sodium pentobarbital."
• "Those animals would have been put down anyway."
• "It was a hot day. They had a van full of animals that were deceased. There's a certain stench," but as far as the dumping goes, "they shouldn't have done it."

The morning's biggest controversy erupted when Asbell asked Detective Roberts if Hinkle and Cook said anything when they were arrested. "Only that they wanted a lawyer," Roberts replied. "It was the first thing to come out of their mouths."

Asking for an attorney is something guilty people often do, and rather quickly. With this cat out of the proverbial bag, defense attorneys asked before lunch for a mistrial -- quickly denied by Judge Grant -- complaining that the jury shouldn't have heard about it.

 

The afternoon was all about exhibits -- more than 70 in all. The prosecution admitted into evidence several dozen photographs of dead animals, and pictures taken inside the PETA-owned van. They also presented boxes of black trash bags, a digital camera, PETA's tackle-box "death kit," samples of drugs recovered from inside, and syringes loaded with the deadly barbiturates.

 

Will PETA's arguments work with a jury? A jury that's been shown grisly photos of dead dogs and cats and a sinister-looking tackle box full of drug-filled needles? Time will tell. And if today is any indication of the pace of things, this trial will consume lots of time.

 

The prosecution's witness list is over 30 names long. The same goes for the defense. We heard from only two witnesses today. The smart money is on a trial that lasts well into next week -- unless, of course, PETA recognizes the visual power of the prosecutor's evidence and angles for a plea bargain.

Visit www.PetaKillsAnimals.com every day for the latest news from inside the courtroom.

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