As our long time readers know, we’ve been covering the outrageous practices of the inappropriately named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for years now. Back in 2012 they took umbrage with an article I published which documented the high number of animals in their care who were euthanized before they’d even had a chance to be adopted and find a good home, with as many as 95% meeting that fate in 2011. But I’m hardly alone in that club. The group gets very prickly when anyone dares to ask about their practices and very unethical treatment of their helpless charges.

The Daily Caller dove into the same question this week and found that very little has changed. In fact, if you ask them about the killing of puppies at their shelters, they respond with a rather callous joke about “beating your wife.”

In a recent email exchange, a representative for PETA told The Daily Caller News Foundation that asking about the organization’s alleged practice of euthanizing puppies is just like asking “How often do you beat your wife?” TheDCNF queried PETA in response to a conversation with a former PETA employee, who told TheDCNF the organization kills “healthy, adoptable animals,” and recounted putting down a litter of puppies. The former employee, who parted ways with PETA after a legal spat, asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. TheDCNF independently verified her previous employment status with PETA.

The conversations with the former PETA worker are shocking, not for the subject matter, but the rather callous nature of the responses received when the issue turned to euthanizing healthy puppies.

Employee: “The puppies are the hardest for me.” Supervisor: “Why? I think they’re the easiest.” Employee: “How? After they’ve never had a chance to have a good life?” Supervisor: “Well, they’ve never had a chance to suffer either, that’s how I look at it.”

This is always a tough subject for me. I spent many years volunteering at a Humane Society shelter (in fact, that’s where I met my wife) and some of the harsh realities of caring for homeless animals are heartbreaking. There are some actual no-kill shelters around the country, but they are sadly the exception. That’s because the volume of animals in need is so great and the space, along with all of the other required resources, is all too often very limited. Older animals, along with those with temperament problems or costly health issues are just very hard to adopt out and some wind up being put down. I had to witness this myself, though it was obviously done by a doctor and I had no such qualifications.

But puppies are another matter entirely. While we always tried to steer people toward considering an older animal who needed a home, puppies and kittens generally flew out the door as fast as you could fill out the paperwork. True, you might need a couple of weeks time for the right family to come along, but they generally all found homes. If PETA shelters only give animals – including puppies – a 24 hour window to find a home it definitely casts a pall over the idea of claiming the word “ethical” in your organization’s name.

PETA is a radical, left wing political organization which raises vast amounts of money for extreme causes under the guise of helping animals. They channel vast sums of money into lobbying efforts to end hunting, damage the fur industry and promote veganism while doing very little to help homeless and abused pets. I’d wager that the amount they spend on lawyers dwarfs any resources going to save the lives of helpless animals. If you are interested in finding a list of actual no kill shelters in your area and helping them out rather than wasting any money on PETA, you may do so here.