For those not familiar with the sordid secret of the nation’s most hypocritical animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) runs an “animal shelter” in Norfolk, Virginia. At that so-called shelter, PETA kills over 85 percent — last year PETA nearly topped a 95 percent kill rate — of the dogs and cats it takes in, according to its state regulatory filings.

Apparently, PETA’s view that euthanizing homeless dogs and cats with slaughterhouse efficiency is “ethical treatment” isn’t shared by many of the group’s Virginia neighbors. (Not for the first time either: A Virginia state inspector tried to have PETA’s shelter status revoked only to be blocked by a legal technicality.) The city council of PETA’s hometown has been debating an ordinance that would make the city-run animal shelter no-kill. And fittingly for a group that would rather see a “no-birth” pet community than reject pet killing, PETA is outraged.

Part of the proposed Norfolk no-kill ordinance is a “trap-neuter-release” (TNR) program for feral cats. Stray cats are caught, sterilized, and released to live out their natural lives without producing more strays. To PETA, this TNR is an animal welfare problem. No, really: PETA would rather just kill feral cats than let them go after snipping them. In the words of a PETA “animal care and control specialist”:

We cannot in good conscience say that it’s safe for cats to live outside facing all of the dangers that they do. Euthanasia can be a mercy for a lot of those animals. It’s not popular, but it’s the truth. The alternative can be a fate worse than death more often than not for the cats that live on the street.

This so-called “truth” comes from a group that according to court evidence killed animals that its employees characterized as “adorable” and “perfect.” We joke that that “animal rights means no animals left,” but when PETA president Ingrid Newkirk has said that in her ideal world “companion animals [pets] would be phased out” the remark is too true to be very funny.

Sadly for the pets unfortunate enough to be admitted to PETA’s animal shelter, it doesn’t look like the proposed ordinance would stop the killing there as it would apply only to the city shelter. If you want to take action against PETA’s animal killing, you can sign our petition so that someday no homeless pet will be admitted to PETA’s shelter, where nearly all pets who enter must abandon all hope.