People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world. Founded in 1980 as a non-profit organization, it has its headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, and a claimed 800,000 members and over 100 employees worldwide. Outside the U.S., there are branch offices in the UK, http://www.peta.org.uk India, http://www.petaindia.com Germany, http://www.peta.de Asia, and the Netherlands. http://www.peta.nl Ingrid Newkirk is PETA's international president.

Criticism of PETA

Opinions about PETA vary greatly. Its supporters say that the organization has brought greater attention to animal-rights issues, and has encouraged many people to become vegan. It is credited with closing the largest horse slaughterhouse in the United States, and stopping the use of cats and dogs in vivisection laboratories. Supporters believe the group's actions to be justified to combat what they see as avoidable cruelty. They also claim that critics fail to address their fundamental belief that animals deserve moral consideration.

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PETA has critics who frequently point out that PETA has financially contributed to groups such as the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=Culturerchive€203CUL20020308a.html Critics also point to a statement from Alex Pacheco, one of PETA's founders, that "arson, property destruction, burglary, and theft are acceptable crimes when used for the animal cause" http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/animalexperiments/protests.shtml as a reason for PETA to lose its special status as a non-profit organization. http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=052802&ID=s1155092 Part of the cause for concern is the degree of financial support given by PETA to these eco-terrorist organizations, http://activistcash.com/organization_blackeye.cfm/oid/21http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm both associated with firebombings and other destruction of property, and described by the United States Department of Homeland Security as terrorist threats. http://www.cq.com/public/20050325_homeland.html

Related Topics:
Animal Liberation Front - Earth Liberation Front - Eco-terrorist

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In the United States, opponents have sardonically formed a group also known as "PETA," except that the letters stand for "People Eating Tasty Animals."

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Targeting of vulnerable groups

PETA has also been accused of targeting vulnerable or emotionally sensitive groups, particularly teenage girls, and was widely criticized in the United Kingdom for its anti-milk campaign, in which it targeted school children with ‘game cards’ saying that dairy products cause obesity, acne, belching and flatulence, and excessive nasal mucus build up.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Milk - Obesity - Acne - Flatulence - Nasal

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PETA has also been accused of promoting vegetarian and vegan lifestyles without providing sufficient information on the health risks involved in excluding meat and dairy from a typical Western diet without providing an alternative source of nutrition. It has also linked both lifestyles to weight loss, prompting concerns over PETA's targeting the gender and age groups and that are vulnerable to eating disorders.

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Support of extremists

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• "We're here to hold the radical line." (Ingrid Newkirk, founder and director of PETA, 1991)
• "Arson, property destruction, burglary, and theft are acceptable crimes when used for the animal cause." (Alex Pacheco, director of PETA at the time, and its co-founder, in 1989)
• "We cannot condemn the Animal Liberation Front ... they act courageously ... comprise an important part of today's animal protection movement." (PETA statement concerning ALF's activities, 1991)
• Paid $45,200 in support of convicted ALF arsonist Rodney Coronado (1995). http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm?headline=2563
• Donations to ELF. The United States FBI considers ELF to be a "terrorist threat". http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm
• Paid $2,000 to the ALF spokesman after the ALF claimed responsibility for fire bombing the Utah Fur Breeders Agricultural Co-op in 1997. http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm?headline=2563
• Paid $2,000 to David Wilson, a member of ALF in 1999. http://espn.go.com/outdoors/conservation/columns/guest_columnist/1349596.html
• Paid $5,000 to the "Josh Harper Support Committee" in 2000. http://espn.go.com/outdoors/conservation/columns/guest_columnist/1349596.html http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2080
• Paid $1,500 to ELF in 2001. http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm?headline=2563
• Paid $7,500 to Fran Stephanie Trutt, who attempted to kill a medical research executive. http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2080
• "Of course we're going to be, as a movement, blowing stuff up and smashing windows...is a great way to bring about animal liberation". (Bruce Friedrich, the Vegan Campaign Coordinator for PETA, during a 2001 animal rights convention.

Response to a suicide bombing

In response to a news report in January of 2003 that a donkey was laden with explosives and intentionally blown up in a failed attack on a busload of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk sent then Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat a request that he "appeal to all those who listen to to leave the animals out of this conflict." However, Newkirk deliberately did not ask Arafat to try to stop suicide bombings that killed people but did not harm animals. She later explained what many saw as a morally untenable stance, to the Washington Post: "It is not my business to inject myself into human wars."

Related Topics:
Israel - Soldier - Jerusalem - Palestinian Authority - Yasser Arafat - Suicide bombing - Washington Post

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Use of nudity

Feminists for Animal Rights have published articles criticizing PETA for its use of female nudity (though no one has ever fully stripped in public) in campaigns such as "I'd rather go naked than wear fur," and for using Playboy models in some campaigns. Animal-rights lawyer Gary L. Francione has also been outspoken in his condemnation of what he sees as PETA's sexism. Many also feel that PETA's use of gimmicks such as nudity trivializes the seriousness of animal-rights issues. PETA's defenders respond that they are not sexist, as both men and women appear in the campaigns, and that they use arresting images to gain publicity for their campaigns against animal abuse.

Related Topics:
Nudity - Playboy - Gary L. Francione - Sexism

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Animal cruelty and euthanasia

In June 2005, police investigators staked out a garbage dumpster in Ahoskie, North Carolina after discovering that over one hundred dead animals had been dumped there every Wednesday for a month. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/17/peta.arrests.ap/index.htmlhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8255324/

Related Topics:
Dumpster - North Carolina

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Police observed PETA employees Andrew Benjamin Cook and Adria Joy Hinkle approach the dumpster in a van registered to PETA and dump 18 dead animals in a garbage dumpster behind a grocery store. Thirteen more were found inside the van. The animals were from shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties. Police charged Cook and Hinkle each with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty and eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals.

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Newkirk responded to the media attention with the statement: "PETA has never made a secret of the fact that most of the animals picked up in North Carolina are euthanized." http://www.fox43tv.com/global/Story.asp?s=3482974 According to PETA's own filings with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 86.3% of the animals in its care in 2004. http://www.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi?link_select=facility&form=fac_select&fac_num=157&year=2004. Similar filings for the Norfolk SPCA shelter, located 3.5 miles from the PETA headquarters, show that the Norfolk SPCA killed fewer than 5% of animals in its care. However, the Norfolk SPCA is reported to turn away many stray animals every week so they don't have to euthanize them, leaving this task to other local groups. http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=3697414 PETA has defended its actions by saying there is inadequate care for the animals they receive, and that killing them humanely is a better fate then allowing them to live in inappropriate conditions.

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