Author Archives: petakillsanimals

1. Are Your Kids Getting PETA Propaganda in School?

   May 20, 2022 4:42 pm Leave a Comment

   The activists behind PETA have made it clear: From Holocaust comparisons to nude demonstrations, they will go to extremes to push their agenda. So it should concern every parent that PETA has campaigns targeting children of all ages.

   PETA has been targeting children with harmful and inappropriate messaging for years. In the past, PETA has used body shaming to convert kids to vegan diets, including a “Tubby Tammy” trading card that told children she could “barely button her pants” because she ate chicken.  PETA has also developed a sexually suggestive video game for children called “breasts or bunnies.”

   PETA received blowback in the past for these campaigns, but that hasn’t slowed the organization down. Here are the four ways PETA continues to target minors today. 

   Students Opposing Speciesism

   SOS is a “PETA-backed revolt against human supremacy for students ages 13 to 24.” The organization aims at recruiting children in high school and college to participate in activism and demonstrations on PETA’s behalf. 

   SOS has many campaigns taking place in schools throughout the country. One campaign is aimed at getting schools to stop dissection lessons on frogs and instead practice dissection on toys. Another campaign is aimed at demanding vegan school lunches in cafeterias. PETA staff also offer to host virtual lessons directly in classrooms. 

   PETA has many incentives for students to join SOS. They provide “Anti-Speciesism Starter Packs” for students to distribute at schools. They also offer “one-on-one help or an interview” to help students with their homework. 

   SOS currently has several ongoing campaigns. One encouraged students to protest inside Starbucks to encourage the company to stop charging more for milk alternatives. (Arrests have been common at several recent Starbucks protests.) Another campaign urges students to confront their peers who are members of FFA to discourage animal agriculture, writing, “The only way to ensure that animals aren’t subjected to acts of violence in schools is by not having them on campus to begin with. If you’re a member of FFA or another animal agriculture program, please quit, go vegan, and speak out against speciesism.”

   PETA Kids

   PETA Kids is targeted at children under the age of 13. The website has information for both children and parents on how to be activists. 

   Children are incentivized to plan and carry out 12 different activism goals to obtain a PETA Kids membership card. PETA Kids is more about indoctrination than activism and a lot of the materials are more subtle than the arguments made at SOS. 

   PETA Kids has a YouTube channel with nearly 16,000 subscribers. Many of the videos feature celebrities urging children to “speak up” for animal rights or to become vegan. Other video playlists include “captivity kills,” “adopt, don’t buy,” and “cool animal facts.”

   The PETA Kids website also hosts several video games that have suggestive themes, including “Peta’s Pokemon, Gotta Free ‘Em All” and “Butcher Goes Vegan.”

   In addition to directly targeting kids, the PETA Kids website also hosts resources for parents. The website includes information about how to cook kid-friendly vegan meals and how to spot “red flags” in the classroom curriculum. It also has a blog on how petting zoos give the “wrong lessons about consent.”

   PETA Little Kids

   PETA Little Kids is aimed at even younger children, including those in pre-K. Much of the content is focused on activities with subtle PETA messaging, including coloring book pages and songs. One arts and crafts activity includes making a Christmas ornament of a pig that reads “I’m not meat.” 

   Additionally, PETA Little Kids features remixed nursery rhymes to change the words into pro-PETA messages. A few examples include:  “Bah Bah Black sheep, can I have your wool. No sir, no sir, that’s not cool.” and “Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all ran after the farmer’s wife. They told her ‘thank you’ for saving their life.” and “Pop goes the bubble” instead of Pop goes the weasel. 

   Teach Kind

   Unlike the previous three groups, Teach Kind goes after children through a third party: teachers. The program provides educators with a curriculum to teach children about PETA’s principles – no matter which grade they teach. PETA has developed lesson plans for students as young as pre-Kindergarten and as old as grade 12. Many of the lessons involve watching PETA-approved documentaries, such as Seaspiracy, to turn children against animal agriculture.

   The lessons also include many other divisive themes beyond PETA’s animal rhetoric. One lesson is titled “environmental racism in the meat industry.“

   As if there was any doubt as to how biased these lessons are, PETA included “debate and persuasive argument” lessons which only include the pro-animal-rights side of the debate. 

   Each year, PETA recognizes “Teachers of the Year” for “continuing to teach young people to respect and be kind to all sentient beings—no matter their species.” Previous winners have been lauded for using PETA’s curriculum in the classroom. One teacher had his students compete in a “compassion challenge” which ranked students on how much of a vegan diet they would vow to maintain, starting with recognizing Meatless Mondays and ending with full veganism. 

   PETA officials have claimed feeding children nutritious meat is “child abuse.” They’ve also stated: “We’re at war, and we’ll do what we need to win.”
   
   You may not want your children to hear this extreme rhetoric, but PETA certainly does. Parents should be aware that PETA is working to groom the next generations of radical activists. Make sure your child isn’t one of them. 

2. PETA Killed 1,700 Cats and Dogs in 2021

   February 9, 2022 2:31 pm Leave a Comment

   It’s 2022 and animal shelters are saving more cats and dogs than ever. Yet PETA is still killing pets. By the truckload.

   While PETA may act high and mighty, it has an alarmingly high kill rate at the “shelter” at its Virginia headquarters. According to new filings PETA made with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the organization killed 1,699 cats and dogs last year (and about 50 other animals), for an overall 76 percent euthanasia rate.

   The same database shows private shelters in Virginia euthanized 6 percent of their dogs and cats in 2021. Public shelters euthanized 11.24 percent of their sheltered dogs and cats.

   PETA is a ghoulish outlier.

   PETA reports adopting out only 27 dogs and cats. According to statistics from pet adoption organizations including Adopt-a-Pet.com, Shelter Animals Count, 24PetWatch and Spots.com, “the uptick in adoptions that began during the pandemic last year has continued, with 977,202 pets adopted in 2021, resulting in a 61 percent adoption rate—the highest rate in the past six years.”

   As animal lawyers at Duane Morris note:

   As it has in the past, PETA continues to defend its euthanasia rate by asserting in its 2021 report that it is “the only private truly open-admission animal shelter in our region (and perhaps the entire state) . . . ,” but our prior research (here and here) belies that claim. There are numerous open-admission shelters in Virginia. They just don’t kill animals at the rate that PETA does. 

   Why would PETA kill pets year after year? Because PETA is an animal liberation group that is against pet ownership. Ingrid Newkirk, president and co-founder of PETA, has said, “If people want toys, they should buy inanimate objects.” If they want companionship, they should seek it with their own kind.” PETA sucks in many people who don’t know better. Make sure everyone knows the truth.

3. PETA and the Vaccine

   October 18, 2021 10:31 am Leave a Comment

   Of all the outlandish viewpoints held within the animal liberation movement, its opposition to medical testing on rodents may be the most dangerous. 

   Almost all human medicine is developed in part by using studies on animals, typically mice and rats. Researchers have operated for decades under the principle to “reduce, refine, and replace” the use of animals in research where possible, but in many areas, it simply isn’t possible. That’s because there is no practical or accurate alternative–computers cannot simulate a living organism well. Universities and other research centers have Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees to oversee research and ensure animal welfare. 

   Against this background, we were curious to see how animal liberation groups were treating the COVID-19 vaccine. Would groups like PETA take a principled stance against the COVID vaccines, which were developed using animals? 

   Apparently not. Groups like PETA have cleared the way for their staff and supporters to get vaccinated–while acknowledging that the vaccines were tested on animals.

   “While science is changing, we still live in a world in which tests on animals are a legal requirement for many medicines and animal-friendly substitutes aren’t available,” the organization stated. “If we were to refuse medical treatment for ethical reasons, it could lead to a decline in our health—and our ability to speak up for animals in the future might be limited.”

   So PETA allows its staff to use animal-tested vaccines to keep themselves safe and healthy so they can continue to fight for what they believe in. Yet they are actively working to stop the use of animals in medical testing for the development of new drugs that could also keep their members–as well as the citizenry at large–safe and healthy. 

   By the same logic, we have to wonder: What if a PETA staffer said that eating meat increased his ability to advocate? High-protein diets are often recommended for people looking to lose weight and live healthier lives, and obesity significantly increases one’s chance for a severe reaction to a COVID-19 infection. 

   Would PETA be down with that? We doubt it.

   Naturally, hypocrisy from PETA isn’t new. After all, this is a group that kills pets at its headquarters.

   A former vice president of the organization, Mary Beth Sweetland, was very open about the fact that she needed insulin to control her diabetes. She used the same reasoning that current executives are using with the vaccine: she needs it to keep fighting for animals.

   “I’m an insulin-dependent diabetic. Twice a day I take synthetically manufactured insulin that still contains some animal products — and I have no qualms about it … I’m not going to take the chance of killing myself by not taking insulin. I don’t see myself as a hypocrite. I need my life to fight for the rights of animals,” Sweetland said at the time. 

   The fact is that animal testing is an essential part of drug development. The reason Pfizer and Moderna were able to rapidly develop mRNA vaccines to fend off COVID is because they had spent decades testing this science on animals. Since the 1990s, scientists have slowly improved the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines based on data collected from mice, rats, golden Syrian hamsters and rhesus macaque monkeys. 

   They did not know at the time that the data used to improve mRNA treatments would be needed during an emergency pandemic, but luckily for us, it was all there. The same may not be true for future generations if animal testing is outlawed. 

   If PETA supporters are okay with the use of the animal-tested COVID vaccines because it could keep the next generation of animal rights activists healthy, they shouldn’t obstruct animal testing. After all, no one knows what pandemic PETA supporters of the 22nd Century may face. 

4. PETA Begins New Hypocritical Ad Campaign

   August 2, 2017 1:23 pm Leave a Comment

   
   There are few certainties in life. Death and taxes head the list, but near the top is the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) using hypocritical rhetoric to obnoxiously push its radical vegan agenda. Focusing on the Newark, NJ, area and looking to expand to the New York City suburbs on Long Island, PETA has begun a new campaign near fast-food restaurants that reads “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the individual. Go Vegan.”

   Known for its stunts like lettuce-bikini models and celebrity protests, PETA is perhaps the most well-known animal rights organization in the world. But its proclivity for rhetoric that equates rats to people flies in the face of the practice of its own “animal shelter.” Since 1998, PETA has killed over 36,000 animals at its Norfolk headquarters.

   What’s even grimmer, after being busted for dumping the bodies of dead animals in a strip mall dumpster, a veterinarian that turned the animals over to PETA testified that the dogs had been healthy and adoptable, directly refuting the popular claim by PETA that the animals it kills are “unadoptable.”

   If we follow the “logic” of the new ads (that animals and humans are equals) and its shelter philosophy of killing over 85% of the animals in its care, what is PETA’s position on “unadoptable” children? Let’s hope they stick to only killing animals.

   So as Newarkers and New Yorkers face a new onslaught of PETA propaganda, they should remember that PETA can’t even practice what it preaches.

5. Former PETA Employee: PETA Killed Adoptable Puppies and Kittens

   March 28, 2017 4:03 pm Leave a Comment

   

   A new document filed in the ongoing dognapping lawsuit against the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demonstrates the long-term, systemic pattern of trespassing, pet theft, and killing that occurs as part of PETA’s pet slaughterhouse operation at its Norfolk headquarters.

   Heather Harper-Troje, a former PETA employee who worked on its Community Animal Project, recently submitted an affidavit in the lawsuit making shocking claims that, during her employment, PETA regularly rounded up and slaughtered healthy cats and dogs and even misled their owners:

   • “While employed at PETA, my primary responsibilities included gaining possession of as many cats and dogs and possible, almost all of which were euthanized.”
   • “Ingrid Newkirk was in charge of the Community Animal Project and Ingrid became my supervisor.”
   • “[Newkirk] said that an effort to adopt out an animal was a waste of PETA’s money and effort.”
   • “I was specifically told by my supervisors at PETA to tell people that we would find good homes for the dogs and cats, even though we knew the animals would be euthanized.”
   • “If we saw animals loose, even on someone’s property, we were to take them whenever we could. PETA would not hold them for five days. We would not obtain signed releases if an animal was stolen, but would euthanize the animals immediately.”
   • PETA focused on impoverished neighborhoods because “people from low income neighborhoods were more likely to relinquish their pets to us.”
   • “We would routinely euthanize healthy puppies and kittens and other highly adoptable animals.”
   • “I was instructed by Erica to over-estimate the size of the dogs and cats when euthanizing them so that there would be additional drugs that could be used kill dogs and cats ‘off the books,’ meaning that dogs and cats could be euthanized without reporting their death to the State. Erica told me these instructions came directly from [Newkirk].”
   • “Killing animals ‘off the books,’ was done so that PETA’s kill rate would not look as bad.”

   These claims, made in a sworn affidavit, finally shed light on the abhorrent practices that PETA has engaged in over the past two decades.  Earlier this month, we reported that PETA had killed 1,411 cats and dogs last year, which brought its pet slaughter total – since reporting began in 1998 – to 36,000 animals killed.

   The lawsuit heads to trial in September. There’s little doubt if it gets that far that PETA will be scrambling to settle with a gag order and sweep the mess under the rug. But that would just be setting things up for PETA to continue business as usual. Hopefully Mr. Zarate, the plaintiff, will do the world a favor and expose PETA’s internal killings to the public.

   For more information please visit PETAkillsAnimals.com

6. PETA’s the Best—At Killing Dogs and Cats

   March 10, 2017 10:24 am Leave a Comment

   Another year, another pile of dead dogs and cats for the crematorium, courtesy of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Late Tuesday night—almost literally at the last minute—PETA filed its 2016 animal custody information with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) admitting it had killed nearly 72% of the cats and dogs that came through the “animal shelter” at its headquarters. That’s 1,411 dead dogs and cats at the hands of PETA last year alone.

   Since reporting euthanasia statistics became mandatory in 1998, PETA has killed over 85%, or 36,000, of the animals at its Norfolk “shelter.” A 2010 audit by a VDACS veterinarian found that most animals were killed in their first 24 hours at the facility.

   A deeper look at the numbers shows even more appalling statistics: PETA’s kill rate for dogs was 16.3 times the rate of other private shelters in Virginia.

   Bear in mind that PETA is under no government responsibility to run a shelter or to euthanize animals. They openly admit to the killings of these animals because they say these animals are in some way “unadoptable.” But even a cursory look at statistics from other shelters in the commonwealth shows that PETA is an extreme outlier in their keenness to utilize euthanasia. And when they were caught throwing recently-killed dead dogs and cats in a strip mall dumpster, their victims were cute, adoptable pets.

   PETA should know better but they continue to act in ways that are antithetical to their grandiose name. Join us at www.facebook.com/PETAKillsAnimals and share the news about PETA’s hypocrisy with your friends.

7. India Has a Cow About PETA Bull

   January 25, 2017 4:48 pm Leave a Comment

   PETA has really stepped in it. The organization is facing calls to be banned from India after its advocacy to shut down Jallikattu, a tradition in southern India. People have taken to the streets to protest PETA—both in India and in Norfolk, Va., where PETA’s headquarters is located. (And where PETA has killed tens of thousands of animals.)

   Haven’t heard of Jallikattu? We hadn’t, either. It’s a several-thousand-year-old tradition during the January harvest festival whereby a bull is released into a crowd and individuals try to ride or hold onto the bull long enough to grab money or tokens from its horns. It seems a little like rodeo—a test of manhood (some might say stupidity) for the participants, but the animals aren’t harmed or killed. After all, cows are considered sacred in India.

   But PETA, which wants to ban everything from owning goldfish to eating cheese, naturally doesn’t like the tradition and wants to get rid of it. And what’s a more PETA-like thing to do than launch a campaign of cultural imperialism? (PETA gave $650,000 in cash and services to its India office in 2015, according to its tax returns.)

   PETA has found some traction. India’s supreme court banned Jallikattu following a petition from PETA, despite the country’s legislature attempting to protect the tradition. And that has people in southern India all riled up this month. The provincial government has pledged to look into banning PETA India, with a minister saying they’ll consider it. PETA has received a demand for apology and legal threat from a famous actor. And tens of thousands took to the streets in protest in India, along with a bunch of people at PETA’s HQ and in Dallas this past weekend (see video here).

   Now, momentum seems to be turning against PETA. On Sunday, the ban on Jallikattu was lifted temporarily following the massive protests. And considering India banned Greenpeace in 2015, PETA ought to be worried it’s overplayed its hand. Instead of Jallikattu, it could be PETA India that’s history.

   Memo to PETA: If you mess with the bull, you get the horns

8. PETA Tries to Make Nice with Congress

   January 17, 2017 5:45 pm Leave a Comment

   We received notice today that PETA will be handing out awards on Thursday night in advance of the Presidential Inauguration. Awardees include Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.).

   We’re wondering: How much does the party cost—it’s at the ritzy Willard hotel in D.C.—and how many animals could that money have saved from death at PETA’s own hands? Since 1998 PETA has killed 35,000 animals at its headquarters, while wasting money on countless press stunts.

   The event is being hosted by longtime PETA spokes-bimbo Pamela Anderson and political strategist Mary Matalin. Curiously, Matalin is married to political consultant James Carville—reportedly a big fan of The Palm, a high-end steakhouse. In fact, Carville said last year that he and his wife re-opened the Caribbean Room at the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans. The menu there includes animal products in every dish—including foie gras, a big PETA no-no.

   Do you want Members of Congress taking legislative tips from PETA—a group so crazy that its president calls pet ownership an “abysmal situation”? Do these legislators endorse PETA’s vision of killing healthy, adoptable animals and banning everything from bacon cheeseburgers to zoos and aquariums?

   Write them on their Facebook walls and ask:

   • Sheila Jackson Lee
   • Dina Titus
   • Earl Blumenauer
   • Vern Buchanan

   And, please do spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. If there’s one thing most Americans on both sides of the aisle can agree on, it’s that if PETA makes policy, the country is truly going to the dogs.

9. PETA Hit With Two Lawsuits in One Week

   January 9, 2017 10:03 am Leave a Comment

   PETA, say hello to 2017. Last Thursday, the animal rights group was slapped with a defamation lawsuit filed by a primate facility in Missouri. That follows a belated Christmas present PETA received the previous week: A second defamation lawsuit, this one filed by a zoo in Michigan.

   Both lawsuits claim to be responding to PETA harassment, and it’s certainly great to see people sticking up for themselves against animal-rights bullies. Both facilities claim that PETA has been threatening to sue them under the Endangered Species Act to try to take away their animals. The frivolous theory goes roughly like this: The ESA prohibits “taking” endangered species, meaning to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect.” It seems clear this is meant to apply to creatures in the wild, but PETA believes that zoos are a form of slavery and imprisonment, and so it’s hoping to use the courts to do what it would never get through elected representatives.

   Sound familiar? This was the same legal theory floated by the Humane Society of the United States in a lawsuit one of its entities pursued against the Ringling Bros. circus. That lawsuit fell apart spectacularly when the court found that HSUS and other groups had secretly paid their key witness almost $200,000 (see here for one check from HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle) and that this witness has lied under oath. Ringling Bros.’ owner countersued HSUS and others and got $25 million in settlement.

   We can only hope similar fortunes await for the facilities suing PETA.

   Meanwhile, PETA is off wasting about $22,000 running a guilt-trip campaign at a metro station in London attempting to guilt-trip people into going vegan. As we told the Southwest Londoner, “If PETA truly cared about individual animals, then what of the 35,000 animals it has killed at its US headquarters?”

   Perhaps PETA should save the money for its defense counsel.

10. PETA: Still Wasteful An Ocean Away

    December 16, 2016 4:15 pm Leave a Comment

    As we approach the end of 2016, charities across America will be passing the hat. As usual, people should do their homework and make sure they give to a group that will use their money as intended. That means cross the Humane Society of the United States (doesn’t run a single pet shelter) and PETA (wastes money on juvenile street theater) off your list if you’re a discerning donor.

    It turns out things aren’t much better overseas. According to PETA Germany’s financials—viewable here if you sprechen some Deutsch—almost half the group’s donations are spent on staff salaries. Most of the remainder is spent on PR. And not a dime from these financials appears to go towards feeding a cat, dog, or any other animal, with other expenses being for legal work, rent, depreciation, and travel.

    Perhaps it’s for the better that PETA doesn’t appear to run any animal centers in Germany. PETA does run an animal shelter here in the US at its Virginia headquarters, but the food it gives to pets may consist of their last meal. According to a filing PETA made with the state, in 2015 it killed about 1,500 animals at its headquarters and had an adoption rate of just 3%.

    If you want to send some holiday cheer to needy four-legged friends, try your local shelter or rescue. They’ll thank you a lot more than the grim reapers at PETA.