# PETA: People Executing Taken Animals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 18, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316 "2015-03-18T18:01:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/1 "2015-03-18T18:01:15Z")
[Apparently PETA has been stealing animals and killing them](http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=15021). > [@](#): > > As many of you now know, on October 18, PETA was captured on film stealing Maya, a family’s young, healthy dog, a dog they later admitting to killing that very day. They killed her not only after stealing her from her home—a violation of Virginia’s larceny law—but in defiance of state regulations governing animal shelters (which PETA is registered as) and laws requiring that shelters hold all animals they impound for five days. > > \ > > “They were waiting until they [the residents] weren’t home. One of [the] neighbors actually saw them taking another resident’s pet. They waited until that resident left… They had actually learned everyone’s schedule. They pulled in, they take the guy’s dog, a next door neighbor saw the whole thing.” In fact, in Maya’s case, PETA paid neighborhood kids to leave the area so there would be no witnesses, never knowing their sordid actions were being caught on video surveillance. > > \ > > PETA tells its employees that people can’t, don’t, and won’t take care of animals, that the lives of animals with people is one of neglect and abuse and that living with dogs and cats violates their rights. PETA also claims that animals cannot live without human care, which is why they do not support letting free-living cats continue to be free-living. The animals are, in short, damned either way and thus killing them is a “gift.” Being a confirmed omnivore, I have no use for PETA and their holier-than-thou attitude. I object to militant vegans and vegetarians as much as vegans and vegetarians object to people who berate them for not eating meat. Now I hear that PETA is actively going out and stealing people’s pets and murdering them. (The pets, not the people.) ‘Ethical’, me arse! As far as I’m concerned, PETA now stands for People Executing Taken Animals. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/2 "2015-03-18T18:37:05Z")
While PETA is (are?) dickheads, there is another side to the story. [Snopes says that animals in that trailer park had been injuring and killing livestock at the farm next door](http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/petakillspets.asp), and that the puppy in question (Maya) was not wearing any collar and was running loose. I think they kill lots of healthy animals and don’t obey the waiting period, but I guess there’s not yet a smoking gun. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/3 "2015-03-18T18:53:24Z")
I read a similar story about PITA I mean PETA several years ago. I think this sort of thing has been going on for a long time (ETA taking matters into their own hands I mean. If someone’s pets are being abused, call animal control, don’t kidnap them.\_)) On the other hand I was at a fair yesterday and there was a booth selling sugar gliders and letting people put them in a little cage and carry them around the hot, dusty fairgrounds. Where is PITA/PETA when they could actually do some good? Out throwing lab animals out in the world to starve, I guess, or kidnapping people’s pets. Good deal.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/4 "2015-03-18T18:57:32Z")
> [@bup](#): > > the puppy in question (Maya) was not wearing any collar and was running loose. Not all that loose, [check out footage from the security camera](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-3swJ4L1cs&t=0m44s). ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/5 "2015-03-18T19:05:00Z")
But even if the puppy was running loose, it’s not on them to solve the problem. Calling animal control or even just talking to the owner to ensure that they do a better job of securing the dog sound like better options. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/6 "2015-03-18T19:12:07Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > But even if the puppy was running loose, it’s not on them to solve the problem. Calling animal control or even just talking to the owner to ensure that they do a better job of securing the dog sound like better options. According to the Snopes link, they had been talking to the owners and decided the best thing to do was wait until nobody was home and snatch the dog off the porch. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/7 "2015-03-18T19:16:12Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > But even if the puppy was running loose, it’s not on them to solve the problem. Calling animal control or even just talking to the owner to ensure that they do a better job of securing the dog sound like better options. Did you read the Snopes article? > [@Accomack County's commonwealth's attorney Gary Agar](#): > > PETA was asked to help when an adjacent landowner reported that they should see how his cow with her udders ripped up from abandoned and stray dogs in the trailer park area amounted to a menace not to be tolerated. > … > PETA responded and the trailer park management encouraged their efforts in an attempt to gather stray/abandoned cats and dogs. > … > Approximately three weeks before Mr. Cerate’s dog [Maya] was taken by the women associated with PETA, Mr. Cerate asked if they would put traps under his trailer to catch some of the wild cats that were in the trailer park, and traps were provided to him as requested. > … > On or about October 18 a van that was operated by the ladies associated with PETA arrived the at the trailer park. The van was clearly marked PETA and in broad daylight arrived gathering up what abandoned stray dogs and cats could be gathered. Among the animals gathered was the Chihuahua of Mr. Cerate. Unfortunately the Chihuahua wore no collar, no license, no rabies tag, nothing whatsoever to indicate the dog was other than a stray or abandoned dog. It was not tethered nor was it contained. Other animals were also gathered. Individuals living in the trailer park were present and the entire episode was without confrontation. Mr. Cerate was not at home and the dog was loose, sometimes entering the shed/porch or other times outside in the trailer park before he was put in the van and carried from the park. The dogs owned by Mr. Cerate that were tethered were not taken. So dogs weren’t allowed in the trailer park; the park manager asked PETA for help; an adjacent land owner asked PETA for help; **the owner of the dog asked PETA for help**. I don’t think it’s fair to say that PETA had no business trying to solve the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/8 "2015-03-18T19:28:04Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > According to the Snopes link, they had been talking to the owners and decided the best thing to do was wait until nobody was home and snatch the dog off the porch. The Snopes link doesn’t say they talked to the family about ‘ensuring that they do a better job of securing the dog’. It says they ‘befriended’ them. And if they ‘befriended’ them, they must have known that the chihuahua belonged to them – which makes their claim that it was a stray rather suspect. According to a former [PETA employee](https://mom2nomads.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/rescued-by-black-boy-how-a-neglected-dog-set-me-back-on-my-path-away-from-peta/): > [@](#): > > I wanted to adopt out the majority of animals I brought in, and sometimes I neglected to report when I picked up an animal, in doing so, I could bring them to a local shelter because the alternative was euthanasia at PETA… I had to fight hard for each adoption… I told [Ingrid Newkirk] she was an adoptable dog–small, social, sweet, could be placed with very little trouble. After sarcastically berating me, with a smile on her face… She sighed and said something along the lines of “fine, do what you want.” > > [T]hey are responsible for the deaths of far more animals than they are disclosing, and they have no problem lying about numbers. > > \ > > I know that euthanasia, at this point, is a necessary evil but the solution that PETA has decided upon, the killing of the vast majority of the animals it takes in, not to mention the killing of animals whose existence is never recorded, is not the answer. It sounds to me as if there is a culture of death at PETA, flowing down from the very top. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/9 "2015-03-18T19:28:27Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > So dogs weren’t allowed in the trailer park nitpick, or maybe I’m reading it wrong, but I thought dogs were allowed in the trailer park, just not loose. > [@skywatcher](#): > > Not all that loose, check out footage from the security camera What does ‘not all that loose’ mean? That she was on the porch? According to the county’s commonwealth attorney: > [@attorney](#): > > Mr. Cerate was not at home and the dog was loose, sometimes entering the shed/porch or other times outside in the trailer park before he was put in the van and carried from the park. Admittedly, I don’t know how that finding of fact was made. Maybe he just took a statement from the PETA workers, which isn’t all that compelling. The important thing is, I think we all agree, don’t give a damned dime to PETA. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/10 "2015-03-18T19:44:43Z")
> [@bup](#): > > What does ‘not all that loose’ mean? That she was on the porch? The dog behaves like she was trained to stay on the porch. > [@](#): > > The important thing is, I think we all agree, don’t give a damned dime to PETA. True dat. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/11 "2015-03-18T19:51:02Z")
By the way, the dog was a present for the guy’s daughter when she immigrated. It’s plausible that the immigration was so recent that they had as yet been unable to obtain a collar, tags, and rabies certification. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/12 "2015-03-19T00:08:54Z")
I grew up on a dairy farm. You know what would happen if a dog attacked a cow? The dog would get kicked. Also, I kind of doubt a chihuahua is really a dog breed that can attack a cow. Secondly, under agricultural law in most states, the farmer has the right to shoot dogs who are bothering agricultural animals on a farm. This story has so much wrong with it, I don’t know what to say. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/13 "2015-03-19T00:14:12Z")
Surely we are not supposed to believe that a chihuahua tore up the udder of a cow. I agree, the story has a lot wrong with it. I wonder if the “reporter” has ever seen a chihuahua. Or a cow. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/14 "2015-03-19T00:17:05Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > Also, I kind of doubt a chihuahua is really a dog breed that can attack a cow. There should be a spit take box like the spoiler box. That mental image… :D:D:D ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/15 "2015-03-19T00:57:31Z")
> [@bup](#): > > nitpick, or maybe I’m reading it wrong, but I thought dogs were allowed in the trailer park, just not loose. Oops, you’re right. > [@](#): > > The important thing is, I think we all agree, don’t give a damned dime to PETA. Yup. I do think that in some areas they do decent work (they’ve gotten some really terrible shelters shut down), but overall there’s so much crazy there that they’ll never see my money. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/16 "2015-03-19T15:19:27Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > I grew up on a dairy farm. > You know what would happen if a dog attacked a cow? The dog would get kicked. > > Also, I kind of doubt a chihuahua is really a dog breed that can attack a cow. Don’t forget about the 4 month old kittens and the 6 month old puppy. They could have ganged up on the cow. > [@](#): > > This story has so much wrong with it, I don’t know what to say. How about ‘This is some fucked up shit and people need to be arrested and charged for it.’ ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/17 "2015-03-19T15:27:13Z")
And just this morning I saw a PETA magazine urging people to “Go Vegan!” I’ve seen other things that tell me that PETA isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be as an organization. Very disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/18 "2015-03-19T15:37:10Z")
> [@racepug](#): > > And just this morning I saw a PETA magazine urging people to “Go Vegan!” If it’s OK for PETA to kill animals and throw them away, it’s OK for me to eat animals. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/19 "2015-03-19T15:46:46Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#): > > How about ‘This is some fucked up shit and people need to be arrested and charged for it.’ The first part is certainly true. The second part? What specific laws do you think they should be charged with, and why do you think the local prosecutor missed these laws? Over and over Winograd and others have exagerrated PETA’s criminal culpability. The fact is, they do get invovled in animal control issues, and they do euthanize animals. The vast majority of the time, their involvement is appropriate. Once in awhile, something like this happens. What I’d be very interested in seeing is how their rate of inappropriate euthanasia compares to the rate of inappropriate euthanasia by animal control offices in the southern United States. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316/20 "2015-03-19T16:47:39Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > What I’d be very interested in seeing is how their rate of inappropriate euthanasia compares to the rate of inappropriate euthanasia by animal control offices in the southern United States. Maybe PETA ‘just happens’ to get all of the sick/injured/unadoptable animals, because they kill four out of five animals they take in. [As for the comparison of euthanasia between PETA and real shelters](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/05/pets-shelter-euthanization-rate_n_6612490.html) (data from Virginia): [ul][li]PETA killed 83.8% of cats and 68.4% of dogs.[/li][li]All VDCAS-registered shelters & rescue groups killed 38.5% of cats and 17.5% of dogs.[/li][li]Lynchburg Humane Society killed 7.1% of cats and 2.9% of dogs.[/ul][/li]I linked to a blog earlier. Here is an article on Huffington Post: [WHISTLEBLOWER: PETA Ex-Employee Alleges She Was Encouraged to Steal and Kill Pets, and to Falsify Records](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-anthony-cooper/whistleblower-peta-employee-allegations_b_6648696.html) [This article](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-j-winograd/peta-kills-puppies-kittens_b_2979220.html) has an image of a postcard written by Ingrid Newkirk that reads ‘We do not advocate “right to life” for animals.’ (WARNING: There are also pictures of dead kittens.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-people-executing-taken-animals/715316.md?page=2)