Today, this full page ad appeared in The Virginian Pilot, the newspaper of PETA’s hometown. I and other animal lovers paid for it. We will not stand by and allow PETA to get away with “murder.”
The Theft and Killing of Maya
On October 18, 2014, in Parksley, VA, PETA stole Maya, a happy and healthy dog, from her porch while her family was out. They killed her that very day.
According to a spokesman for Maya’s family, PETA came to the trailer park where the family lives, where most of the residents are Spanish speaking with few resources. The PETA representatives befriended the residents. They got to know who lived where and who had dogs. In fact, they sat with the family on the same porch off which they later took Maya. Waiting until the family was away from the home, PETA employees backed their van up to the porch and threw biscuits to Maya, in an attempt to coax her off her property and therefore give PETA the ability to claim she was a stray dog “at large.” But Maya refused to stay off the porch and ran back. Thinking that no one was around, one of the employees—who was later charged with larceny—went onto the property and took Maya.
When the family returned and found their beloved Maya missing, they searched around the neighborhood before checking the video on the surveillance camera. That is when they saw the PETA van on the film and recognized the woman who had come to their house on prior occasions to talk to them about Maya. They called PETA and asked for Maya’s return. According to a family spokesperson, PETA claimed it did not have the dog. When PETA was told that its employees had been filmed taking the dog, they hung up. Shortly afterward, a PETA attorney called and informed the family that Maya was dead. PETA had killed her. She may not be the only one. On the day they stole Maya, other animals went missing as well. Had a surveillance video not been available, the killing of Maya would have remained unknown, as are the fates of the other animals. In the last 11 years, PETA has killed 29,426 animals.
PETA’s Response
In a dishonest attempt at damage control, PETA put out a full page ad in the newspaper. The ad intentionally misleads people about their campaign of extermination against community cats. It says nothing of their theft and killing of Maya. It does not mention the arrests of PETA employees for larceny. It does not mention that this is not the first time PETA employees have been arrested for killing animals. In fact, PETA refuses to answer questions about why they stole and killed Maya. And though PETA takes in thousands of animals a year, only to put the vast majority to death, the ad offered two dogs for adoption, hoping to defray criticism for their killing of thousands of others. Given that they only adopt out 1% of the animals they take in, those two dogs, if indeed they are adopted out rather than killed, will be some of the few spared from the needle.
The No Kill Advocacy Center Response
The No Kill Advocacy Center, has responded by:
- Asking the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (VDACS) to revoke PETA’s ability to kill animals;
- A petition for rulemaking asking for regulations requiring more transparency in Virginia “shelters”; and,
- Drafting and asking the state to pass “Maya’s Law.”
My Response
Today, I, and other animal lovers, also responded. We placed this ad in the same newspaper to counter PETA’s misinformation. The people who live near PETA headquarters and whose animals may be at risk should be aware of the danger PETA poses to their beloved animal companions so that they may take precautionary measures, such as not letting their animals go outside unsupervised. They also have a right to know that an organization located within their vicinity is letting loose individuals who not only maniacally believe that killing is a good thing and that the living want to die, but who are legally armed with lethal drugs which they have already proven—29,426 times in the last decade—that they are not adverse to using.
The Response by Others
We are not alone:
- A Senator calls for an investigation of PETA.
- The Accomack County attorney calls for an investigation of PETA.
- The Virginia Federation of Humane Societies calls for an investigation of PETA.
- The Richmond SPCA calls for an investigation of PETA.
When you donate to PETA, you pay to kill animals like Maya and thousands of others every year.
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