Hollywood, CA — The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom gave People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) some unwanted media attention Saturday night, using the same protest tactics that made PETA famous. As Pamela Anderson and Fred Willard were being announced as emcees of PETA’s 25th Anniversary Gala at Paramount Studios, Center for Consumer Freedom representatives took to the stage to give PETA and its misguided celebrity fans a birthday present in full view of the assembled media: two large banners reading “www.PetaKillsAnimals.com.” Outside Paramount, a dozen Center for Consumer Freedom supporters held signs and shouted “PETA Kills Animals” in a protest aimed at arriving celebrities.
This week the Center for Consumer Freedom unveiled a “www.PetaKillsAnimals.com” billboard a few blocks from Paramount Studios, in a location visible to celebrities being chauffeured to PETA’s black-tie event. PetaKillsAnimals.com, the controversial Center for Consumer Freedom website, has attracted over 1 million visitors since its summer launch.
Official documents obtained by the Center for Consumer Freedom from the State of Virginia (and available at www.PetaKillsAnimals.com) show that PETA has a long-standing practice of killing thousands of dogs, cats, and other animals. Between 1998 and 2004, PETA put more than 12,400 to death, killing over 80 percent of the animals it took in for adoption.
A month after PETA’s self-righteous anniversary bash, two of its employees will face 62 felony animal-cruelty charges in a North Carolina courtroom. The pair were arrested at a shopping center on June 15, where police found 18 dead dogs (including seven dead puppies) in a grocery store dumpster, and 13 more dead animals in a PETA-owned van. In the van, police also recovered a tackle box containing syringes and vials of the Schedule III narcotics Ketamine (“Special K”) and Pentobarbital. The PETA defendants are not licensed to possess or dispense the controlled substances, commonly used for killing domestic animals.
“PETA didn’t appreciate having its celebrity gala disrupted with a momentary dose of the truth,” said Center for Consumer Freedom research director David Martosko, “but hard-working Americans in restaurants, clothing stores, and research labs have been harassed by PETA for 25 years.”
Martosko continued: “PETA should spend the $29 million it raised last year helping flesh-and-blood creatures instead of killing them. Every dollar PETA spends on a hypocritical protest is a dollar it could spend keeping cats and dogs alive instead of slaughtering them and dumping their bodies. The celebrity A-List should shun PETA until it starts behaving ‘ethically’.”
