People for the Exploitative Treatment of Animals

Why does this come as no surprise?

From the TelegraphUK.com: Animal Charity PETA Accused Of Slaughtering Thousands Of Pets Placed In Their Care by Paul Thompson

*WARNING* - the article displays one of PETA's infamous ads showing a nude model.

An Animal welfare charity has been accused of slaughtering thousands of pets placed in its care.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which boasts Paul McCartney and Pamela Anderson among its supporters, are accused of only finding homes for seven pets last year.

Since 1998 more than 20,000 pets handed to PETA have been put down.
In 2008 official figures show that the charity put down 2,124 animals that had been given to them.

Figures obtained from the Virginia Department of Agriculture reveal that last year PETA killed five pets a day.

The charity, which collects over £25m in donations, does not run an adoption shelter.

But as the most high profile animal welfare agency in the U.S. many people take unwanted cats and dogs to their main offices in Norfolk, Virginia.

CCF (Centre for Consumer Freedom) Research director David Martosko said: "PETA hasn’t slowed down its hypocritical killing machine one bit, but it keeps browbeating the rest of society with a phony ‘animal rights’ message."

In a way, this article demonstrates Chesterton's definition of a heresy - a promotion of a truth at the exclusion of all the other truths. PETA promotes an idea that is fundamentally good - treating animals ethically. As Catholics, we believe that since God created us to be stewards of His creation, we have a responsibility to treat all life with respect and conscientiousness. In no way does it mean to take the extreme on that truth - that's why there's no conflict with a hunter training his dogs to retrieve the ducks he had just shot out of the sky. As long as balance is maintained between the extremes - for instance, one extreme being caged dog fights and the other being a person leaving their fortunes to a beloved pet - then all is well in the world.

PETA's excuse at the end of the article is that the animals were 'unsocialized', so putting them down was the only ethical thing to do. Humph - I doubt it. I believe that these extremists, and other groups similar to them, hold most humans in contempt, and use the animals as a prop to push their beliefs on the rest of society.