How many paid lobbyists does it take to kill thousands of animals a year?
PETA has hired two lobbyists and its acolytes have hired five more. If history is any guide, they will be used to thwart lifesaving reforms. In terms of PETA, they will also be used to subvert regulations that would put it out of the killing business.
Last year, the Virginia Legislature overwhelmingly passed SB 1381, requiring shelters in Virginia to be “operated for the purpose of finding permanent adoptive homes.” In other words, it mandated shelters do did what the public already thinks shelters do and what the dictionary says they do. But PETA doesn’t. PETA—which is licensed in Virginia as a shelter—kills 90% of the animals, adopts out only 1%.
Despite PETA’s intense effort to derail the vote, the House of Representatives voted 95 to 2 in favor of the bill. The bill passed the Senate by an equally lopsided vote: 35 to 1. And the Governor signed it. Opposition to PETA’s killing may just be the only true bipartisan issue in Virginia.
Now, PETA appears intent on trying to subvert it with hired guns, hoping their odds are better both with the 2016 legislature and in the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services which has been tasked with writing the regulations to implement the law. Unfortunately for the animals, the leadership and staff at VDACS–namely Commissioner Sandra Adams, State Veterinarian Richard Wilkes, and Program Manager Carolyn Bissett–have so far proven themselves to be typically bureaucratic, tragically indifferent, fundamentally uncaring, and as is so typical of oversight agencies, willing to overlook PETA’s conduct by bending over backward for the entity they are supposed to be regulating.
While VDACS sits on its hands, an additional 4,500 animals will be needlessly killed.
What You Can Do:
Don’t let VDACS continue to get away with turning a blind eye and foot dragging. Please send a polite, but emphatic, email to Adams, Wilkes, and Bissett that you expect them to do their jobs and honor the intent of the legislature and the will of the people:
- Comm. Sandra Adams: sandy.adams@vdacs.virginia.gov
- Dr. Richard Wilkes: richard.wilkes@vdacs.virginia.gov
- Dr. Carolynn Bissett: carolynn.bissett@vdacs.virginia.gov
Tell them that PETA kills 90% of the animals it takes in, that it takes people’s animals and puts them to death in violation of state laws and regulations, that it has always maintained it is “not in the home finding business” and has made virtually no effort to do so, and that it has a history of lying to people in order to acquire and kill animals. As such, it cannot legally be licensed as a private shelter under SB 1381. And while you are at it, tell them that we should not have to wait years for VDACS to act while PETA kills thousands more.
Photo: Just a small number of the tens of thousands of puppies, kittens, rabbits, and other animal companions put to death by PETA over the years, some of whom were stolen from their families or their families were promised they would find homes.
Learn more by clicking here.
Learn why by clicking here.
————-
Have a comment? Join the discussion by clicking here.