The KInd Life Community Forum

Jennifer Bach -- PETA does not do intake like a shelter. When PETA steps in, it is usually in cases of horrible, hoarder-type abuse like faux shelters and rescues. Large-scale, nightmarish stuff. It's not Billy Bob and Hazel lost their house and dropped off the dog at PETA HQ.

PETA also does not operate shelters; if they get animals, they send them to other places. I would like to know where you get the 95% number; I am a former newspaper reporter and did a lot of research about this although it was a few years ago. If you say "Humane Watch" or the "PETA Kills" sites, please remember those are front groups funded by the agriculture industry that wants to continue animal torture and slaughter through the industrial farming system; you can check their 501c3 information at Guidestar and do a little thread pulling to find out where their $$ comes from.

Anyway, my research found that from the early 1990s through the late 2000s (it was about 15 years' worth of information), PETA euthanized about 18,000 animals.

And to put that into perspective: The city of Houston, Texas shelters euth about 15,000 animals -- PER MONTH.

This of course would not include the very large hoarder operations that PETA, generally in connection with HSUS, have busted in the past few years.

On the other hand, there are some PETA officials who think that a life of suffering or being caged or being subjected to significant medical intervention is worse than a painless death. Not everyone feels that way, and I would hope we could all be adult enough to accept that as a philosophical difference and one worth discussing and working on every time it becomes relevant.

For example, with the Michael Vick case, when most of the major animal rights groups, not just PETA, thought the dogs could not be saved and it would be more humane to put them down. Fortunately, other groups did not agree, and they made their claims PROFESSIONALLY AND POLITELY in a court of law and the judge agreed and groups like Best Friends were able to tap into Vick's ill-gotten gains to rescue them.

Finally, I don't consider myself a "PETA apologist," but if you feel you must demean me that way, fine. I also do not need to agree with a group 100% to support their mission, or their positioning in the marketplace of ideas. I don't agree 100% with other vegans on every issue, either.

If you don't want to support PETA, fine. I am not going to try to convince anyone to do anything. I absolutely HATE proselytizing, whether it's religion or food or animal rights. But I also hate that PETA and HSUS have been slandered by rich 1% scumbags who repeat Big Lies so much that they divide and conquer everywhere their money lands.

PETA is an odd one as I totally agree with what it stands for but I don't think it goes about things the best way. I personally don't think showing shocking images aids getting a message across as people will turn away (one of the reasons people maintain being able to eat meat is because they do not think about what they are actually doing - very few meat eaters could stand in an abatoir without feeling sick I don't think). Also PETA will comply with sexualisation of society to get people to look - I don't think that is a helpful way to behave but hey that could be my inner feminist getting annoyed.

Then there is all the lives that are lost when they take on animals they do not have the time or resources to try to rehome which is heartbreaking.

Are PETA good or bad? They are a bit of both so I give my volunteering time and money to the places where I think the good outweighs the bad and I can't say that about PETA.