PETA Is Hiding Its Grisly Death Toll

PETA Still Has Something to Hide

The animal “rights” activists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are none too happy about PETAKillsAnimals.com. We’ve had over four million visitors since we launched in 2005, thanks in large part to our billboard in Times Square, word-of-mouse online, and gobs of coverage from the mainstream press. Millions have seen firsthand the irrefutable evidence that PETA, which publicly proclaims that bunnies and babies are morally equal, kills animals by the thousands.

Our damning documents come courtesy of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), which requires “humane societies” to annually report their euthanasia rates. PETA filed the required “Animal Record” reports from 1998 to 2005. These records show that during those years, PETA killed over 14,400 dogs, cats, and other shelter pets at its Norfolk headquarters.

PETA’s solution to what could generously be termed an ongoing “credibility problem” is brilliant in its simplicity: Just ignore the law.

PETA is no longer complying with VDACS’ legal reporting requirement. Online records show PETA has only filed 2006 information on collected wildlife, not shelter animals. But even the incomplete figures are true to form: PETA employees killed 248 out of 249. (If they’re willing to admit to that, imagine what they’ve decided to keep secret.)

Public records show that in January 2007 PETA’s Manager of Corporate Affairs e-mailed VDACS a request for an extension of the January 31 deadline. VDACS responded by asking PETA to provide a reason for an extension.

A January 23 e-mail from PETA’s General Counsel to VDACS requests the specific extension date of March 1. The official reason: The PETA personnel responsible for filing the report would be tied up in the trial of two employees charged with stealing, killing, and dumping shelter pets in North Carolina. (Just so we’re clear: PETA was too busy defending two of its animal-killing employees to calculate the body counts of its other animal-killing employees.) A response e-mail that same day from VDACS granted the extension.

March 1 came and went. And PETA still hasn’t filed the required report about the disposition of all the dogs and cats it took in during 2006.

A May 10 letter from VDACS to the head of PETA’s puppy-slaughtering “Community Animal Project” indicates that as PETA hemmed and hawed over its legal obligations, VDACS insisted that the reports should not include dogs and cats that PETA only took in for spaying and neutering. A VDACS veterinarian wrote that reports should include “only those animals that are taken into custody … for the purpose of adoption.”

A May 16 reply from PETA’s top lawyer restates PETA’s objection to the rule, but promises to “set apart animals handled for spay and neuter so that there can be no misunderstanding or misinterpretation …”

Why is PETA so adamant about including spay-and-neuter pets? Our theory: Obviously none of those animals get “put down.” So if they’re part of the overall figures, PETA’s kill rate looks smaller than it actually is.

Regardless, PETA is currently “out of compliance” with Virginia law. The public has the right to know how many “companion animals” met their demise on the business end of a PETA syringe last year. We won’t stop digging until we have answers. 

PETA is a liar. It’s another group has turned into a laundering machine for government.