PETA has a “new-old” editorial in the Virginian Pilot claiming No Kill shelters turn animals away and result in animal hoarding. It is “new” in the sense that it was just published. Yesterday’s editorial was written in response to the December 9 guest Op-Ed from Norfolk No Kill advocate, Debra Griggs, urging local shelters to adopt the No Kill philosophy. The PETA response is “old” because it is nothing more than a cut-and-paste rehash of their thoroughly debunked claims. In short, it is a lie—the same old lie they’ve peddled for years. It is also ironic for several reasons.
Most people have no idea that the organization that claims it stands for “the ethical treatment of animals” is in fact a shameless killer of them. Worse, it chooses to kill them even in the face of readily available lifesaving alternatives. PETA does not even pretend to try to find homes for the animals it takes in and seeks out, even though it has millions of animal-loving members and revenues exceeding $30 million annually. You will find no adoption hours, few if any adoption pleas, no offsite adoption venues, no room where you can meet and greet available animals looking for homes. For over 90% of them who enter PETA, it is a one way ticket to the morgue. In fact, although PETA is registered as a shelter in Virginia, you will not even find a shelter in the true sense of the word. PETA runs little more than an assembly line of killing, putting to death 27,751 animals in the last decade, even though many were, in their own words, “healthy,” “adoptable,” “adorable,” and “perfect.”
Second, the editorial is ironic because PETA has chosen to continue misleading people that No Kill means closing the doors of the shelter and turning animals away. In fact, there are communities across the country which have ended the killing of healthy and treatable animals, upwards of 98% of all the animals they take in at their open-admission, municipal shelters.
Third, PETA ignores the fact that Virginia is second only to Michigan in terms of the number of No Kill communities in the nation. Something cannot be impossible when it has already been achieved.
Fourth, when shelters are saving over 90% of the animals, and PETA is killing that many, PETA should stop talking about how to run a shelter and start listening. Since when is the worst of the worst the expert? They’ve got it backward.
Fifth, PETA claims to kill animals because of overpopulation. But it isn’t true. Not only are there seven times more people looking to bring a new animal in their home than are being killed in shelters, but for PETA, killing is the goal. They are an organization which is out of touch with how most people feel about their animal companions calling them slaves and arguing that sharing one’s life and home with an animal subjects that animal to bondage and oppression: “Let us allow the dog to disappear from our brick and concrete jungles—from our firesides, from the leather nooses and metal chains by which we enslave it.” In short, they would have rather have them dead than fed and cared for, to the point that they celebrate when shelters announce they are going to kill animals.
And finally, they are an organization whose infamous antics ranging from the absurd to the obscene alienate rather than educate the American public. And yet this organization—with views about killing dogs and cats that are so extreme as to defy credulity—refers to those laboring to bring an end to their unnecessary killing in shelters through simple, common sense alternatives to killing such as foster care, adoption, and working with rescue groups as “fanatical.” This is the very definition of ironic.
Today, over 80 communities representing about 200 cities and towns across America, including those in Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Utah, California, New York, Texas and elsewhere, are saving upwards of 95% of all animals, ending the killing of all healthy and treatable animals. We now have a solution to shelter killing and it is not difficult, expensive nor beyond practical means to achieve. No Kill is a humane, sustainable, cost-effective model that works hand in hand with public health and safety, while fulfilling a fiscal responsibility to taxpayers. But that requires a champion that adheres to the highest standards of professionalism and innovation, rather than one with a documented history of killing in the face of alternatives. In short, not PETA.
We are a nation of animal lovers, and our citizens, as well as the animals we love, deserve better. We deserve shelters that reflect our compassionate values, not thwarts them. If other communities can do it, why can’t Norfolk? The short answer is it can: when it stops listening to the political death cult that is PETA.
Learn more:
My Disturbing Encounter With the Mind of PETA
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My Facebook page is facebook.com/nathanwinograd. The Facebook page of my organization is facebook.com/nokilladvocacycenter. Many people mistakenly believe that the Facebook pages at No Kill Nation and No Kill Revolution are my pages. They are not.