Documents show PETA killed nearly 2,000 shelter animals in 2013



Animal rights group says its doing what's best for the animals in its Virginia shelter but critics point to unseemly 82 percent kill rate

According to the Center for Consumer Freedom, PETA has killed over 31,000 animals since 1998

Animal rights group PETA may go to extreme lengths to save animals from the slaughterhouse but the Virginia-based organization's animal shelter killed nearly 2,000 cats and dogs at its shelter in 2013.



The Center for Consumer Freedom released its annual review of PETA's Norfolk shelter and it shows a surprising 82 percent euthanization rate.



Despite outcries from some fellow animal activists, PETA has declined to change its policies since 1998. Since that year, the shelter has put down over 31,000 animals, most of which it insists are injured or unadoptable.



Better off? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a surprising track record at its Norfolk animal shelter. Publicly availanle Virginia records show that PETA kills 82 percent of its animals. PETA says about half those creatures are unadoptable

The Center for Consumer Freedom points out that PETA killed 1,792 cats and dogs in 2013 (FILE PHOTO: This shelter is not a PETA shelter)

Countless celebrities have posed for PETA ads like this one featuring Khloe Kardashian. But would they have changed their mind had they known of the group's shelter activities?

These numbers come from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), which requires such annual disclosures.



In 2013, PETA killed 1,792 cats and dogs, an average of 5 per day. The 1,792 figure represents 82 percent of all animals PETA took into its shelter throughout the year.



'This delusional animal rights group is talking out of both sides of its mouth – on one side preaching animal rights, while on the other signing the death warrant of 82 percent of cats and dogs in its care. Labeling PETA as hypocritical would be the understatement of the year,' s aid Will Coggin from the Center for Consu mer Freedom.

In 2005, two PETA employees were arrested in North Carolina after allegedly killing adoptable pets and tossing the bodies into a supermarket trash dumpster.

Trial evidence showed they killed animals they described as 'perfect' and 'adorable.'



Defendants Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook were tried and cleared of all charges in 2007.



PETA disagrees and even released its own numbers in a statement this week:



'PETA's shelter took in and euthanized 1,805 elderly, feral, sick, dying, aggressive, and otherwise unadoptable animals—more than 400 of whom were brought to PETA by loving but destitute guardians desperate to alleviate their beloved animals' suffering and many others who had been turned away by local so-called "no-kill" facilities that reject unadoptable animals in order to keep their euthanasia statistics appealing.'

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk previously indicated to The Virginian-Pilot that the animal rights group could stop killing pets any time they want.

'We could become a no-kill shelter immediately. It means we wouldn't do as much work,' she said.



According to VDAS, in 2010 discovered that 84 percent of the animals PETA took in were killed within 24 hours.



'PETA’s so-called ‘shelter’ might as well be called a slaughterhouse,' said CCF. 'For an organization that once disgustingly compared the treatment of farm animals to the Holocaust, you’d think PETA would avoid the appearance of systematic killing.'

Meanwhile, PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch emphasized the pets that could be saved.



'The nearly 400 adoptable animals PETA received were placed in carefully screened, permanent homes or transferred to the Virginia Beach SPCA and other high-traffic open-admission shelters for a chance to be adopted,' she said.

