A
Desperate Slaughterhouse, PETA Flexes Its Legal Muscle
Since our wildly popular PETA Kills Animals website
debuted in 2005, more than six million people have seen its startling
message. And public knowledge that People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals killed more
than 97 percent of the dogs and cats in its care during 2006 has
surely made the group uncomfortable. PETAs response strategy so far
has generally been to ignore its self-inflicted credibility problem in
the hope that it will go away. But lately were seeing signs that
PETAs legal pit bulls are trying to intimidate journalists who are
inclined to amplify the truth.
Case in point: Universal
Press Syndicate pet columnist and New York Times
best-selling author Gina Spadafori,
who writes a pet-issues blog at PetConnection.com. On
Tuesday, Gina noted that while PETA complained bitterly that an average
of one dog per year dies in the annual Iditarod race, the group was mum
about its own doggie death-toll. After which PETAs top lawyer
immediately threatened legal action. Heres
the letter.
Like a good journalist, Spadafori has followed up
a few times since Tuesday, first giving
PETA a chance to vent its spleen and then examining
the whole fracas more carefully. Heres the basic issue: PETAs
lawyer claims that absolutely none of the 2,981
pets his co-workers killed in 2006 were in search of new homes.
As you might suspect, were not buying it.
Spadafori
asked some probing questions this morning, all of which we suspect
PETA will perpetually duck:
Were there medical examinations by a
veterinarian, and written records of the same for each animal killed? A
behavioral analysis by a qualified behaviorist, and written records of
the same for each animal killed? May we see them? Or were these
determinations made by the animals previous owners, and if so are
there the signed forms standard at every veterinary office and shelter
making sure the previous owner understands that they are turning the
animal over to be killed? May we see those forms? Alternately, may we
get the names of all the previous owners so we can ask each and every
one of them if it was their understanding that they animal was
unadoptable and would be killed when they surrendered the animal? So we
can ask, exactly, what they were told by PETA?
If PETA staff made these determinations that the
animals were unadoptable, may we have the names of these people and see
their qualification to perform such tasks? Are they veterinarians or
certified behaviorists? May we see the records of their medical and
behavioral determinations that these animals were not adoptable? May we
see PETAs guidelines for determining adoptability?
Honestly, its impossible for me to determine if
I was wrong without such documentation. PETAs kill rate seems awfully
high, so its natural we animal-lovers should wonder how it got that
way.
Millions of Americans are asking the same
questions, albeit perhaps not so articulately. PETA may have picked the
wrong lady to threaten. This one has a newspaper column. Stay tuned.
Breaking News
Here's a sampling of other stories that have caught our
interest today. To see a one-week archive of these items, click here.
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