I have long believed that PETA, the Norfolk, Virginia-based “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,” not only gave ethics a bad name, but also people, and you might as well throw in pita bread while you’re at it. This conviction was partially based on such stunts as PETA’s using Michelle Obama in ads without her permission and offering to pay Octomom money to put a billboard on her lawn comparing herself to an overly fecund pet.

Then there is PETA’s fondness for killing puppies and kittens.

In 2010, out of 2,345 dogs and cats PETA took in under Virginia law on the pretense that it was facilitating those animals’ adoption, PETA found new owners for just 44. 63 were transferred to another Virginia facility, and seven were reclaimed by the owner. The rest, 2200 of them, were euthanized. These statistics are from PETA itself, in the documentation it is required to supply Virginia at year’s end. 2010 was actually a good year: since 1998, PETA has kept alive only one out of every 300 dogs and cats that it has “rescued,” killing more than 25,000.

Does it seem to you that the organization’s concept of being ethical to animals is to have fewer of them around? The website Pet Connection has suggested that it’s all a big misunderstanding, and that the ‘E’ in PETA really stands for “extermination.”

That would explain a lot.