PETA 'killed more than 95 per cent of adoptable dogs and cats in its care last year' shocking new report says

In 2011, government report obtained by nonprofit organization claims 1,911 animals killed

Only 34 adopted in same time span

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals killed more than 95 per cent of animals in its care last year at a Virginia shelter, a shocking new report states.
The report, released by non-profit consumer group, claims that PETA - which is known for its outspoken stance on animal rights - were responsible for the deaths of nearly 2,000 adoptable animals last year alone.
The records also show that the animal-rights organization has killed

Slumdogs: More than 1,900 cats, dogs, and other

animals were put down at the Norfolk, Virginia

PETA shelter last year alone, a report says

Only 3,159 animals, mostly dogs and cats, were adopted in that time.
Records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture obtained through public records by the Centre for Consumer Freedom show figures that are quite contrary to PETA’s mission.
Records from 2011 alone state that of the 1,992 cats and dogs received, 34 were transferred, and 24 were adopted.
The remaining 1,911 were put down, the report states.

News-Press.com
 

Jury agrees former Lee deputy outed by PETA

Yerk awarded $155,000 in back pay for violation by group of anonymity promise over allegations of police dog abuse.

A former Lee County sheriff’s deputy who filed suit against People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals when the group allegedly broke a confidentiality agreement and cost him his job was awarded $155,000 in back pay last week.
A federal eight-member jury decided that an employee with the organization had, in fact, promised former deputy Jason Yerk anonymity if he agreed to corroborate a tip that Cpl. Travis Jelly had abused his police dog. An investigator with the group then released Yerk’s name to deputies looking into the claims.
“This case, for my client, was really never about the money,” said Yerk’s attorney, Jose Font. “This case was about him being vindicated for what had happened to him.”
Font said PETA had assured Yerk multiple times that he would remain anonymous. “They destroyed his career. They destroyed his livelihood.”
In his lawsuit, Yerk alleged he told the PETA worker that “the culture of his employer was to eliminate any employee that took a public adverse action towards a co-employee.” The sheriff’s office declined comment on the allegation.
Yerk, who worked as a police dog deputy with the office for five years and earned a base salary of $42,315, resigned in 2008 after internal affairs investigators determined he lied, telling them he had not spoken with PETA.
He has since declared bankruptcy and been unable to find work in law enforcement.
Phil Hirschkop, one of PETA’s attorneys in the case, said Yerk lost his job not because of PETA’s actions but because he lied to investigators.
“You just don’t lie to internal affairs when you’re under oath,” Hirschkop said. “This guy made his own problems.”
It wasn’t clear, Hirschkop said, whether the group promised him confidentiality and that Yerk had agreed to testify about the alleged abuse, at which point his identity would have been revealed anyway.
He said Yerk called to confirm a tip from the girlfriend of another deputy fired shortly beforehand for lying on an arrest report, telling a PETA employee he witnessed Jelly kick and punch his dog three to six times and suspend the dog by the neck with its leash.

Mail Online

Judge tosses case seeking rights for orcas

The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — An effort to free whales from SeaWorld by claiming they were enslaved made a splash in the news but flopped in court Wednesday.

A federal judge in San Diego dismissed an unprecedented lawsuit seeking to grant constitutional protection against slavery to a group of orcas that perform at SeaWorld parks, saying the 13th amendment applies only to humans.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller stopped the case from proceeding two days after he became the first judge in U.S. history to listen to arguments in court over the possibility of granting constitutional rights for members of an animal species.

"As `slavery' and `involuntary servitude' are uniquely human activities, as those terms have been historically and contemporaneously applied, there is simply no basis to construe the Thirteenth Amendment as applying to non-humans," Miller wrote in his ruling.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed the lawsuit in October and named five whales as plaintiffs. PETA says the wild-captured orcas are enslaved by SeaWorld because they are held in concrete tanks against their will and forced to perform in shows at its parks in San Diego and Orlando, Fla.

SeaWorld called the lawsuit baseless and a waste of the court's time and money.

"We cannot hope that this is PETA's last publicity stunt but we can now refocus our energy in more positive and constructive ways: delivering high quality education experiences to our guests and providing the highest possible standard of care to our animals," spokesman Dave Koontz wrote in a statement.

Legal experts say it opened an interesting debate about the expansion of animal rights.

PETA attorney Jeffrey Kerr says his organization does not plan to give up the fight to protect the orcas, but he did not specify the next action.

PETA is known for its provocative anti-fur and pro-vegan campaigns to engage the court of public opinion.

"Today's decision does not change the fact that the orcas who once lived naturally wild and free, are today kept as slaves by SeaWorld," Kerr said in a statement. "PETA will regroup and determine how to continue to work for the legal protection they deserve."

SeaWorld denies any mistreatment of the animals and says its parks have raised awareness that has helped conservation efforts. It also says it has rescued orcas injured in the wild.


CTV News Sci-Tech

PETA to prison officials: Meat-free diet would benefit alleged Connecticut cannibal

By Randall Beach, Register Staff

An animal rights group has a suggestion for how prison officials might calm down a defendant accused of killing a man and eating part of his brain: a meatless diet.

An official with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Thursday wrote to Warden Jose Feliciano Jr. of the New Haven Correctional Center, recommending “you ensure alleged killer and cannibal Tyree Smith swears off flesh forever by providing him with exclusively vegan meals.”

But when the New Haven Register contacted Feliciano for his response, he said, “He’s not here. He’s at Bridgeport (Correctional Center).” The alleged crime occurred in that city, in an abandoned home.

The Register relayed this information to a PETA spokesman, who said the letter would be sent to the Bridgeport facility.

Smith, 35, is charged with hacking a homeless man to death with an ax, taking out his eyeball and a piece of his brain, then eating the brain particle, according to a story moved by the Associated Press.

Smith’s cousin told police Smith had confessed to killing Angel “Tun Tun” Gonzalez, removing his eyeball and brain fragment and eating it. He reportedly added he washed it down with a milkshake.

Smith also allegedly told his cousin that he had developed a lust for blood after eating a rare steak.

Smith is on a suicide watch and psychiatric care at the Bridgeport Correctional Center.

“Studies show that vegetarian meals can reduce violence among offenders -- and if anyone needs a reduction in violence, it’s someone who (allegedly) killed and ate another human being,” said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “PETA can help New Haven Correctional Center introduce a menu of bean burritos instead of burgers and so save many lives.”

Lindsay Rajt, PETA’s associate director of campaigns, said in the letter: “If Smith did, in fact, kill Angel Gonzalez and eat parts of his body, that would demonstrate a disturbing taste for flesh.” Continued...

“Opting to feed him only vegan foods and denying him meat (flesh) could diminish such a tendency and thus potentially help protect staff and neighboring inmates,” Rajt reasoned.

“In fact, a meat-free meal plan could benefit all your other inmates too,” Rajt added.

According to Rajt, officials at a maximum security prison in Alabama have switched inmates to vegetarian meals and found it helps reduce violence.

Rajt also said every vegan meal served at a prison “would spare helpless animals from their own death penalties” and avoid cruel treatment “not unlike that which Smith allegedly inflicted on Angel Gonzalez.”


The Middletown Press