People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

From SourceWatch

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was founded in 1980 by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. (The same year as Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PsyETA).) They are an international organization with headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia and affiliates in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, India and the Asia-Pacific region. ^[1] They are the largest animal rights organization in the world with 2 million members.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Campaigns & programs 2.1 Vegetarian 101: Farm animals, health & the environment 2.2 Animal testing 2.3 Animals used for clothing 2.3.1 Wool 2.3.2 Leather 2.3.3 Fur 2.4 Wild Life 2.5 Animal used in entertainment 2.6 Companion animals 2.6.1 Puppy mills & pet stores 2.6.2 Over population & shelters 2.6.3 Strays & Class B dealers 2.6.4 Dog chaining 3 Other campaigns 4 Local programs in Virginia & North Carolina 4.1 North Carolina shelters & gas chambers 4.2 Gas chambers & euthanisia statistics for NC 4.3 After media frenzy, PETA resumes work in NC 4.4 Emergency calls & rescues 5 Board & staff 6 Financial statement & salaries 7 Contact 8 Articles & sources 8.1 SourceWatch articles 8.2 References 8.3 External articles 8.4 External resources

Overview

PETA focuses on the four areas where the largest numbers of animals suffer the most and for the longest; factory farms, animal testing, clothing and entertainment. Other issues include wild life protection and the abuse and neglect of "back yard dogs". ^[2] PETA educates the public and policy makers on animal issues through investigations, consumer boycotts, media coverage and appeals to legislators. Accomplishments include closing the largest horse slaughter operation in the U.S.; closing a Department of Defense (DoD) laboratory where animals were being shot and abolishing the use of dogs and cats in "wound laboratories". ^[3] Their investigations have exposed animal abuse in numerous laboratories leading to canceled funding, closure and hundreds of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) charges. They have cleaned up substandard shelters, assisted schools in dissection alternatives and provided materials on vegetarianism, companion animal care and other issues to millions. PETA's operating principle is that "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment". ^[4] At the local level, PETA provides free services to animal shelters, constructs shelters and provides free spay/neuter services. ^[5] Departments include News & campaigns, Media Center, Literature and Peta Kids. Websites include CowsAreCool.com, FurIsDead.com and GoVeg.com. PETA sites were visited by over than 63 million people in 2007. ^[6]

Campaigns & programs

Vegetarian 101: Farm animals, health & the environment

Factory farmed chickens, turkeys and pigs spend their lives in dark, crowded warehouses. Often, they do not even have sufficient space to turn around and sit in their own wastes with the stench of ammonia filling the air. They are also bred and drugged to grow faster and larger than normal and become crippled under their own weight. Some factory farmed animals can barely move and die inches from their water supply. They never see the sun or get a breath of fresh air until the day they are prodded and crammed onto trucks bound for the slaughterhouse. In transport, animals endure weather extremes in unheated, unventilated trucks, without food or water. Many die before they even reach the slaughterhouse, where they are hung upside-down while their throats are slit. Due to the fast paced slaughter process, many animals are improperly stunned and are conscious while their throats are slit. Also, many survive the slaughter process and are still alive when they are skinned, dismembered or scalded in tanks. It is estimated that a vegetarian diet saves 100 animals a year. See also animals raised & hunted for food.

The leading causes of death in the U.S. are linked to meat based diets; heart disease, cancer, obesity and strokes. The only two doctors in history who reversed heart disease included vegetarian diets in their programs. Vegans are one ninth as likely to be obese and thier cancer rate is 40% that of meat consumers. Meat consumption also contributes to osteoporosis, arthritis, Alzheimer's, allergies, diabetes and food poisoning. Over half the water in the U.S. is used for animal agriculture. Farmed animals produce 130 times more excrement than the human population which pollutes inland water and emits gasses which contribute to global warming. Forests are destroyed for farmed animals and crops to feed them; contributing to soil erosion, species extinction and global warming. 70% of grains and one third of all fossil fuels are used to farm animals. ^[7] See also meat & dairy industry, sections 4, 5 & 6.

Animal testing

PETA has convinced numerous corporations to cease cruel product testing on animals including PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. It also pressured Proctor & Gamble, the parent company of Iams into ceasing cruel and invasive experiments on dogs and cats. It has conducted investigations on some of the worst offenders for animal welfare violations, including Huntingdon Life Sciences, Covance Laboratories, Sinclair Research Center, Carolina Biological Supply Company, Oregon National Primate Research Center and University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill. ^[8] See also ten worst laboratories. They also campaign against March of Dimes, American Cancer Society and Muscular Dystrophy Association, which fund animal testing. ^[9]

Over 90% of the animals used in experimentation are excluded from the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), the only federal law which over sees animal testing. Rats, mice, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish are expressly eliminated from all safeguards. Species not covered under the AWA do not even have to be reported. ^[10], ^[11] Thousands of rats, mice, rabbits, dogs, and primates are killed in "pre-clinical" tests for new drugs (including all ingredients and even minor differences in formulas). Following an extensive battery of animal testing, drugs generally undergo three phases of clinical trials. The fact that months or years of human studies are also required suggests health authorities do not trust the results. ^[12] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently reported that 92 out of every 100 drugs that successfully pass animal trials subsequently fail human trials. ^[13], ^[14] See also animal testing, sections 1 through 3.

Animals used for clothing

Wool

Australia's 100 million sheep produce 30% of the world's wool. Holdings consist of thousands of sheep so that individual attention (even to medical emergencies) is impossible. Merinos are bred to have wrinkly skin to produce more wool This unnatural condition may cause sheep to collapse or die of heat exhaustion. Wrinkles also collect urine and moisture. Flies lay eggs in the folds of the sheep's skin and hatched maggots can eat the sheep alive. To prevent "flystrike", ranchers perform "mulesing", a barbaric procedure which forces a sheep on its back, restrains legs between metal bars and slices hunks of flesh from the tail area. Museling is performed with out painkillers, the purpose ostensibly being to produce a scar which cannot harbor eggs. However, exposed wounds often get flystrike also.

Lamb's ears are hole-punched and their tails are chopped off at a few weeks of age. Between 2 and 8 weeks old, males are castrated without painkillers. A rubber ring is used to cut off the blood supply to their testicles (one of the most painful methods) or they are cut out. Hundreds of lambs die every year from exposure or starvation, before the age of 8 weeks. Sheep die of disease, exposure and neglect. ^[15] Over half of the world's merino wool comes from Austrialia. Merino wool is used in clothing, carpets and other products. Millions of these sheep are also shipped to middle eastern countries on journeys which may last for months. They are then dragged off the ships and loaded onto trucks. At unregulated slaughterhouses, they are dragged by ears and legs where their throats slit while conscious. ^[16]

Leather

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, animal skins represent "the most economically important byproduct" of the multi-billion dollar meatpacking industry. Leather products also come from slaughtered horses, sheep, lambs, goats, and pigs. Species of animals who are hunted specifically for their skins include: zebras, bison, water buffaloes, boars, kangaroos, elephants, eels, sharks, dolphins, seals, walruses, frogs, turtles, crocodiles, lizards, and snakes. ^[17]

Fur

Animals on fur ranches spend their entire lives in tiny cages. They are killed by anal or genital electrocution, which causes them to have a heart attack. Some are animals are even skinned alive. Trapped animals may languish for days in traps before they die or are killed. ^[18] Millions of fur-bearing animals including foxes, raccoons, minks, coyotes, bobcats, lynxes, opossums, nutria, beavers, muskrats, otters, and others are killed each year on fur farms by anal and vaginal electrocution and in the wild by drowning, trapping, or beating. ^[19] See also War on Animals, section 5.

Wild Life

Millions of animals are killed every year because they are considered "pests". These animals include beavers, bats, geese, deer, pigeons, mice, raccoons, snakes, and squirrels who suffer barbaric and cruel deaths. Other "nuisance" animals include bears, coyotes, ducks, foxes, mountain lions, prairie dogs, rabbits and even wolves. ^[20] See also War on Animals, section 6.

Animal used in entertainment

Elephants, bears, tigers and other animals used for entertainment in circuses, rodeos and zoos are often abused by their trainers. They also suffer from loneliness, boredom and frustration from being locked in tiny cages or chained and abused by trainers, they suffer from extreme loneliness, boredom, and frustration from being locked in tiny cages month after month while traveling from city to city in Circuses, etc. Animals are loaded on and off trucks and into "storage areas", like furniture. ^[21]

Former Las Vegas entertainer and animal trainer Bobby Berosini, sued two animal rights groups and three individuals after a Las Vegas dancer at the Stardust Hotel secretly videotaped him shaking, punching and hitting his orangutans with a rod in 1989. Nevada's Supreme Court decided that the tape was an accurate portrayal, and not defamatory because Berosini justified his behavior. ^[22], ^[23]

Companion animals

Puppy mills & pet stores

Puppy mill "kennels" can be anything from small wood and wire mesh cages to tractor-trailer cabs or simply dogs tethered to trees. An Arkansas puppy mill had dogs imprisoned in cages hanging from the ceiling in an unheated, cinder block building. Female dogs are bred twice a year and destroyed when they can no longer produce litters for sale. Dogs and their puppies often suffer from malnutrition, exposure and lack of veterinary care. Puppies who survive unsanitary and abusive puppy mills must then endure grueling transport conditions. Brokers pack puppies for sale into crates to transport to pet stores. They are shipped in pick-up trucks, tractor trailers or air planes, often lacking adequate food and water, ventilation and shelter. Conditions don't improve much when they arrive at the pet store. Dogs are kept in small cages without exercise or socialization. ^[24] See also puppy mills.

Over population & shelters

The pet industry and people who do not spay and neuter their pets, have created a huge problem of pet overpopulation. Breeders and pet stores profit off of companion animals, even though millions of animals sit in over crowded shelters and millions more are euthanized every year. ^[25]Dogs, cats and other companion animals spend days, weeks or months in shelters. If they are not claimed or adopted after a certain period of time, they are euthanized by injection. In some rural animal shelters, animals are shot, gassed in metal boxes or injected with a paralytic agent that slowly suffocates them. In some "no-kill" shelters, cats are kept in cages for their entire lives. When these shelters fill up, needy animals are turned away. ^[26], ^[27] See also War on Animals, section 7.

Strays & Class B dealers

Strays and feral animals may starve, freeze or be hit by cars. ^[28] Some are also picked up by Class B dealers or "bunchers" who sell them to laboratories as part of a complex network supplying animals for vivisection. An estimated 2 million animals a year are stolen in the United States, often out of their own yards in broad daylight. ^[29] A 1990 A PETA investigation revealed that the largest suppliers of animals for dissection depend on Class B dealers to keep their inventory well stocked. See also Carolina Biological Supply Company.

Dog chaining

Particularly in rural areas, many dogs spend their entire lives chained to a tree or a stake or trapped in a small pen in "solitary confinement". Many communities in the U.S. and the world have established laws to passed legislation to limit chaining and penning or outlaw it altogether. Dog chaining is also dangerous, especially for children. ^[30] See also War on Animals, section 7.

Other campaigns

March of Crimes. The March of Dimes has funneled millions into experiments on primates, rats, mice, cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, sheep, guinea pigs and opossums. They include nicotine, alcohol and cocaine addiction experiments; sensory deprivation and transplanting organs from one species to another.^[31]

McCruelty to Go. PETA has long campaigned against McDonalds' lack of animal welfare standards, which violate even minimal government standards. After two years of frustrating discussions, PETA launched its international McCruelty to go campaign. ^[32] See also McDonalds, section 9.

Kentucky Fried Cruelty. PETA has pressured Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to drop Tyson Foods as its supplier due to Tyson's abusive animal practices and resistance to reforms. ^[33] See also Tyson Foods, section 2.

See also Humane Movement.

Local programs in Virginia & North Carolina

PETA provides free services to animal shelters, constructs shelters and provides free spay/neuter services for local communities. They also advocate for chained and "backyard dogs". ^[34] They have delivered straw and hundreds of free, sturdy dog houses, rescued dogs and cats and paid for their veterinary care. PETA built a cat shelter in an area where cats had been abandoned to breed and are building a new shelter for a local municipality. ^[35]

North Carolina shelters & gas chambers

In 2000, PETA was contacted by a police officer who was appalled by the terrible suffering of animals in local North Carolina shelters. Some "shelters" were nothing more than exposed, unheated or cooled shacks that left animals to either drown or freeze, depending on the weather. PETA became involved in assisting shelters with cleaning, adoptions, training, staff, providing supplies, conducting cruelty investigations and providing adequate shelter to animals as well as humane euthanasia. PETA has spent over $300,000 on services to NC shelters in the last few years. Many pounds in the area had no adoption programs or even operating hours. Unwanted animals were either shot, gassed in windowless metal boxes or injected with a paralytic agent that caused them to slowly die of suffocation. PETA was only able to secure veterinary services for lethal injection for one of the four pounds. The rest made arrangements to have animals picked up by staff or volunteers. ^[36]

Gas chambers & euthanisia statistics for NC

Over 250,000 homeless animals are killed in North Carolina shelters annually. In NC, over 30 county and city shelters still use gas chambers and other inhumane methods. (Less than 1% of all U.S. shelters still use gas chambers, which are banned in many states.) Animals gasp for breath while they slowly suffocate and succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning. ^[37] Witnesses have seen animals struggling and wailing for up to ten minutes before death. In their panic, some bite themselves and each other and beat their heads the walls while they choke and vomit. Inhalation of gasses is not approved for baby, very old, sick or pregnant animals since they may not be able to inhale enough to die. Yet, in N. Carolina they are often gassed together. ^[38] One of the biggest proponents for gas chamber use in NC is Dr. Ralph Houser, DVM, whom many credit as solely responsible for the reluctance of the state’s Board of Agriculture to ban gas chambers. ^[39] Dr. Ralph Houser, DVM sits on the board of the NC Animal Rabies Control Association. Dr. Houser not only advocates for gas chambers, he manufactures and sells them. ^[40] When a Tennessee shelter worker died as a result of CO poisoning, the state moved to abolish gas chambers; Tenn. Code § 44-17-303. According to the NC Commission for Humane Euthanasia, recent inspections show some gas chambers have leaked high levels of carbon monoxide. Three county employees operating gas chambers in North Carolina have died in recent years. ^[41]

After media frenzy, PETA resumes work in NC

After a trial that lasted as long as some capitol murder cases and caused a media frenzy in rural N. Carolina, a jury acquitted two PETA employees of animal cruelty charges. The employees had dumped the bodies during the long drive from Bertie County, NC to Norfolk, VA after they had started to smell. PETA had been involved with the shelter since being contacted by a local police officer in 2000. At the time, the shelter had no roof and dogs' cages flooded during rains. One dog was caught eating a cat. PETA performed humane euthanasia by injection for the shelter, which used a gas chamber. After the verdict, PETA announced that they would resume their work in North Carolina. ^[42] Prior to PETA taking over euthanasia services, animals in Animals in Bertie County were either shot or gassed in a rusty, windowless box. In Windsor, animals were shot. In Northhampton they were gassed in a cinder block cell. Bertie County has since discontinued the use of gas chambers. ^[43]

Emergency calls & rescues

National organizations conduct research, public education, outreach and assist local shelters. PETA does not operate an animal shelter, other than two small, cageless rooms set aside for animals surrendered to their organization. They do answer emergency calls for strays, abused, neglected and homeless animals and animals turned away from shelters. For example, the local branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Norfolk, Virginia has a "selective admission" policy. In 2004, it took in only 1.7 percent of all homeless animals, or 765 out of 45,450. ^[44] According to an employee:

"The day before the holiday, I took in a young dog who had lived his entire life in a crate. ...he was so afraid that even if I crouched down and talked softly to him, he urinated all over himself. ...On Saturday, a man drove into the PETA parking lot and handed over a cat. ...The cat he turned in was diabetic and dying. It cost hundreds of dollars to stabilize his little body, and in the end no one wanted him. On Sunday, I managed to find a climber who spent more than four hours rescuing a cat from 40 feet up a tree. ...this cat had been up there for three days in the heat and rain. The fire department and animal control would not help. I'm hoping that someone will claim him, but usually no one does. Last week, although PETA is not an animal shelter, my colleagues and I answered 57 calls to pick up 101 unwanted, sick, aged, and dying animals, including a sweet 13-year-old cocker spaniel who had gone deaf and blind and had multiple tumors. There were no prospects for her either." ^[45]

Board & staff

• Ingrid Newkirk, President, Secretary, Director & co-founder - In 1970, Ingrid Newkirk became involved in a local shelter, cleaning kennels and investigating cruelty cases. She also served as a Maryland law enforcement officer and achieved its highest success rate in abuse convictions. She was the director of cruelty investigations for the second oldest humane society in the country and chief of animal disease control for the Commission on Public Health. Ms. Newkirk created the first free spay/neuter clinic in Washington, D.C. After co-founding People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 1980, she coordinated the first arrest of a laboratory researcher on cruelty charges in U.S. history. She spear headed the closure of Department of Defense's underground wound laboratory and ended General Motors' car crash tests on animals. She helped to pass the first animal welfare law in Taiwan. She is the author of several books on animals, activism and vegetarian cooking. ^[46]

• Bruce Friedrich, Vice President of International Grassroots Campaigns - Bruce Friedrich graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Iowa's Grinnell College with majors in English and economics and a minor in religious studies. He spent six years working in a Washington, DC homeless shelter and soup kitchen before joining PETA in 1996. He lives in Norfolk, Virginia with his wife, Dr. Alka Chandna. ^[47] Mr. Friedrich is a founding member of the Society for Ethical and Religious Vegetarians. He is also on the board of the Catholic Vegetarian Society and the Christian Vegetarian Association. ^[48]

• Alex Pacheco - Chair and cofounder ^[49]

• Jannette Patterson, Executive Director
• MaryBeth Sweetland, Vice President
• Michael Rodman, Treasurer and Director
• Jeanne Roush, Director
• Sara Taylor, Veterinarian
• Dan Matthews, Vice President of Campaigns
• Michael McGraw, Director of Media Relations
• Debra Durham, Primate Specialist
• Dawn Carr, Media Coordinator

^[50]

Financial statement & salaries

According to their (independently audited and available upon request) statement for the fiscal year ending July 31 2008: PETA reported contributions of $31,014,163; gross merchandise sales of $1,229,083 and interest, dividends, royalties and other income of $2,112,280; for a total revenue of $34,355,526. 83.66% of funding went directly into programs. 12.16% was spent on fund raising and 4.18% on administration and operations. 29% of PETA's staff earn $19,000 to to $29,999; 45% earn $30,000 to $39,999 and 26% earn over $39,999. President Ingrid Newkirk earned 35,462 dollars in 2008. ^[51]

Contact

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510

Phone: 757-622-PETA (7382)

web address: http://www.peta.org/

Articles & sources

SourceWatch articles

• Animal testing
• A visit to the ActivistCash.com web site
• Conservatives target the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Humane Movement
• Meat & Dairy industry
• National Primate Research Center System
• NAIA
• Persia White
• Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
• Puppy Mills
• Richard Berman cares about animals: clients exposed
• Ten Worst Laboratories
• U.S. animal rights legislation
• U.S. Government's War on Animals
• War on Animals

References

External articles

• Justin Goodman PETA States Opinions on Primate Research in Oregon, Salem News, November 2007
• Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of PETA, on animal rights and the film about her life, WikiNews.org, November 2007
• Daniel Lewis, "Clip go shears as science hits flock bottom", Sydney Morning Herald, March 22, 2007.
• Seth Lubove, "Food Fight," (Refer's to Rick Berman's campaign harassing PETA)., Forbes, September 23, 2005
• Lindsay Pollard Post One Cat Rescued, Millions More to Go, Elites TV, 2004

External resources

• Ingrid Newkirk Ingrid Newkirk's Blog, Ingridnewkirk.com, accessed August 2009