EDITORIAL: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals accused of killing too many animals

The folks at the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — better known as PETA — are masters at using contrived stunts to gain media attention. The high euthanasia rate at the group’s Virginia shelter, however, is giving the organization some media coverage it would prefer to do without.

PETA once protested the eating of meat by staging a public mock human barbecue complete with a half-naked woman on a fake grill covered with fake blood and surrounded by paper flames. They’ve donned KKK outfits outside the Westminster Dog Show to protest the American Kennel Club’s focus on purebred dogs.

They even sent a letter to Ben &Jerry’s, pleading with them to use human breast milk instead of cow’s milk in their ice cream.

While those stunts gained the group welcome publicity, PETA officials are currently defending themselves against unwanted accusations that their headquarters in Norfolk, Va., is a “slaughterhouse.”

According to recent report by Fox News, the Center for Consumer Freedom is taking the group to task, calling PETA hypocritical and claiming that the group “has once again massacred scores of potentially adoptable pets.”

Will Coggin, director of research for the center, told Fox that “PETA’s disregard for the lives of animals is disgraceful.”

The group points out that PETA euthanized nearly 72 percent of the cats and dogs in their care — or 1,411 in total — compared to the 16.9 percent of animals that were killed on average in other Virginia shelters.

PETA retorts that animals often suffer far worse fates than euthanasia, such as illness, pain and not being adoptable. In an email to Fox News, PETA accuses the group of failing “to include or explain our organization’s lifesaving work in our community or the condition of the sick and dying animals PETA takes in.” It argues that its shelter’s high kill rate is due to the fact that it accepts otherwise unadoptable animals that other shelters regularly turn away.

Perhaps. But that hardly explains the difference between killing 72 percent of the animals that come to your shelter or killing just 16.9 percent.

“It would be better if PETA never even touched the animals, that way they might actually have a chance at life,” Mr. Coggin says. “PETA holds itself out as a savior, but it is really just a Grim Reaper.”

He has a point. And that might be worth remembering the next time you read or hear about PETA’s latest publicity stunt.