Washington — Today the North Carolina Court of Appeals vacated the convictions of two PETA employees originally convicted of littering in a case involving nearly three dozen dogs and cats they killed while performing their duties at PETA. In response, David Martosko, the Director of Research at the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, made the following statement:
“Regardless of the outcome, this criminal trial brought PETA’s disturbing animal-killing program into the light of day. Most PETA supporters had no idea that the group was killing thousands of adoptable animals every year, but PETA can’t keep its actions secret any longer. The facts in this case were undisputed: These employees took possession of nearly three dozen adoptable animals, including puppies and kittens, with the explicit promise that they would try to find them adoptive homes. They killed the animals just a few short hours later, and tossed the bodies in a dumpster that one of them had used on several other occasions for the same purpose.
“PETA killed 97 percent of the dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens it took in during 2006. If any other so-called animal protection group had such an abysmal record, PETA would be hitting the streets to protest it. This is a group that claims chickens and lab rats have a “right” to life, but its leaders think nothing of condemning thousands of pets to death out of sheer convenience. PETA raises over $30 million every year, which is more than enough to care for every animal it kills. If there’s a more hypocritical organization in America, I have yet to find it.
“PETA’s employees got off on a technicality, but the damage has been done. The public is giving PETA less and less money, and the group has had to turn to its millionaire celebrity donors to make up the shortfall. This will probably continue unless PETA cleans up its act and stops running a hypocritical angel-of-death program out of its Norfolk offices.”
Public records filed by PETA with the Virginia state government show that the group has killed 17,400 pets since 1998. Copies of these records can be viewed at www.PetaKillsAnimals.com.
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