Why PeTA Euthanizes

In a matter of days, the VDACS (Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) will publish 2012 Virginia Animal Record Reporting Information on its website, marking the beginning of the Center for Consumer Freedom‘s renewed attack on animals.

Of the somewhere between 80,000 and 85,000 animals who were euthanized in Virginia’s animal reporting agencies last year, the “petakillsanimals.com” leg of the Center for Consumer Freedom will focus its attention on the 2,000 or so animals who died in PeTA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Norfolk facility. For no other reason than to mitigate PeTA’s impact on the food and beverage industry.

And it’s not just the CCF who will be disseminating misinformation about PeTA’s euthanasia practices. Like so many money-laundering operations turning ill-gotten gains into respectable money, well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning folks will chime in, if they aren’t already, using their voices to legitimize the allegations that PeTA kills animals, and the shady origins of the message will be all but obscured.

The Center for Consumer Freedom will announce to America that PeTA makes no attempts to find homes for the animals they euthanize in their facility. They’ll make no mention of the fact that PeTA isn’t an animal shelter, or that the animals entering their Norfolk facility largely aren’t in need of homes. Nearly all of the animals PeTA receives  have homes, and their guardians are turning to PeTA when their suffering animal companions need PeTA the most.

The Center for Consumer Freedom will neglect to mention that PeTA is licensed with the state of Virginia as a Humane Society and not a “shelter,” and that every person who relinquishes their animal to PeTA has signed a legal release stating that they have been made aware their animal may be immediately euthanized.

The Center for Consumer Freedom will neglect to mention that PeTA does find homes for adoptable animals they admit into their facility, but largely refers or transports the few adoptable animals brought to their doors to the Virginia Beach SPCA because they are a high-traffic animal shelter, and animals have a very good change at finding their forever homes while there.

The Center for Consumer Freedom will use strong language, calling PeTA’s Norfolk facility a “slaughterhouse operation,” neglecting to mention that many of the CCF’s major contributors run some of the biggest slaughterhouses in the world. Any person who has had to make the difficult and sad decision to have their animal companion humanely euthanized should be appalled by the comparison, and by the CCF’s exploitation of suffering companion animals on behalf of its food and beverage industry customers who together violently disassemble billions of animals for their marketable parts every year.

PeTA is the only facility in the greater Norfolk Virginia area that offers the service of no-cost humane euthanasia to any animal in the community who requires it. They are the only facility in the state that offers this service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, days, nights, weekends, and holidays. PeTA’s emergency response staff are always on-call for animals. Every animal should have access to humane euthanasia when they require it, regardless of their owner’s ability to pay. In Norfolk, they do.