A lot of people in the world care about animals. Revolutionary thought I know but it’s very true. From pets, endangered animals, to even livestock, many people care about protecting each of these types, and as such donate to organizations with the same ideals. There are many organizations out there that exist to help animal life both local and national. But one stands out due its ubiquity, problematic nature, and shocking popularity, this organization of course is PETA. PETA is known for many things, both good and bad, but I’m here today to inform you that the good its known for is flat out wrong. But to get the full picture we must go over how it all began, we must start with the origins of PETA.
The Start of PETA
In 1980 Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco founded PETA in hopes of bringing equality to animals. The year after, Ingrid sent Alex to a local lab called IBR that they thought was hiding something. Alex (undercover as a volunteer) discovered that the people there were experimenting on macaques, 17 to be exact. They were subject to horrific tests like being tased, having their spinal nerves removed, and being strapped down with duct tape and pliers, even their testicles. This all was done to potentially help stroke victims, but the conditions the animals were in were inhumane. After much work with authorities, the macaques were freed, but due to all of the testing they were barley clinging on to life. A representative for PETA who checked in on the animals after the escape were horrified by the state of the apes and suggested to put them out of their misery but PETA declined the idea. whether you agree with the decision or not, the disregard of the animals feeling here would be a small hint at what the company would eventually devolve into.
Nowadays they say that they’re an organization for supporting animals and stopping harm on said animals but in reality they are exceedingly hypocritical and do almost nothing to help them, and instead focus primarily on killing animals themselves. It has been shown that 90% of the animals sent to PETA are killed by them rather than being relocated or taken care of. Even perfectly fine animals aren’t given any special protection. This is because to PETA keeping pets is a form of slavery and animals treated as such are better off dead. This however is just not true; many animals benefit from human partnership. A good example of this are service & working dogs. These types of dogs perform tasks for humans either supporting disabled people or working various jobs like sledding, sheep herding, and even safety work. In all of these examples, the said dogs are perfectly fine with what they do and still receive the love, affection, and care that any other pet would. But to PETA none of this matters, they don’t see the blatant facts presented to them and will go to extreme measures to do what they think is right.
The Zarate Case
In 2014 in Virginia with a family known as the Zarates. They had recently bought a dog in 2011 named Maya and it was a well-loved part of their lives. However, one day when they had left it at home the dog had vanished. Using camera footage, they had discovered that it was taken from them by PETA employees in a van, however once they went to a nearby center to get it back they had found out it was killed soon after they took them, a horrifying example of their stance on pets. They apologized for what they called a mistake and gave the grieving family a fruit basket in return, understandably they went to those in power for reparation and got PETA fined for $500 which was barley an issue for them. However, the Zarates were able to file a Civil complaint against PETA for $9,000,000. PETA Viciously argued against the Family in court, even asking to look into if the Spanish family even had residence in the USA. In Aug 18, 2017 a settlement was made that had PETA give the family $14,000, considering what the family put up with and how scummy and profitable PETA is, this outcome was far from the ultimate hit against PETA that it should have been.
PETA Satirical Browser Games
Anti-Shearing Campaign
The year after the start of the Zarate incident in April of 2015, PETA started an anti-sheering campaign with an infamous photo starring an Australian vegan celebrity named Jona Weinhofen holding a fake bloody sheep with the caption of “HERE’S THE REST OF YOUR WOOL COAT”. Jona would go further into the topic in a video published by PETA explaining that shears are paid by volume rather than by the hour, causing those in the industry to work faster with the animals and neglecting their safety, causing animal abuse like their skin to be sheared off as well. PETA and Jona received much backlash for this and even caught the attention of the agriculture minister of Australia who opposed their claims and called Jona a “spiv”. Even a decades old sheep farmer provides real evidence that bloody abused sheep wool is highly undesirable in the industry and the simple fact that animals that cooperate and are happy are much easier to work with than ones who don’t. “A healthy happy animal produces more wool. An animal which lost as much skin as Jona’s tiny jumbuck would take a month to nurse back to health. If it survived at all” Even still, in April of 2021, PETA released a new article promoting sheep being unsheared claiming that (…they’re victimized by a gruesome and deadly profit-driven industry”. This point is to show you that even though PETA consistently gets lambasted for stuff like this, they never back down on their claims. Well… except for one.
But before that, ive got some misc PETA info to the left to share with you!
(including this! did you know that PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals?)
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Here is another example of PETA advertising for the benefit of animals (in this case cattle) when their actions firmly plant them with the opposite ideals.
I wish I was able to talk about PETA’s Infamous “Got Autism?” ad in the main article but I didn’t have the time, nor resources, but rest assured, it was hated by everyone and PETA couldn’t care less.
PETA & Vegan Cats
There is one example I know of that shows PETA backing down on a decision. In august of 2011 they made a statement that cat owners should transition their cats to a vegan diet, this decision like almost all others they have made, was met with much discourse. From average people, veterinarians, and even one from The Humane Society of the United States who says “To impose some vegetarian or vegan ideology on one's cat is to go against the nature of cats and their right to be fed a biologically-appropriate diet”. Most surprising of all PETA dialed back on this one and kept more quiet about it over the years, however I must say that they didn’t change their opinion on it mind you, they just stopped promoting it as much, so even this case of them backtracking barley counts.
What can do Instead?
If you do want to help save animals I would avoid donating straight for national organizations, as seen with PETA, throwing your money at an organization you don’t truly get the gist of can end up harming much more than you could imagine. As such I’d recommend really doing your research before you commit. In my opinion if you want to support any animal help organizations, your local shelters are a good starting point. I have good experience with a couple of them and they tend to actually care about the animals they take in. And due to them being smaller in scale, they would really benefit from the money given to them so that they can continue their work. Even local zoos and aquariums can be good places to donate to help the types on animals they take care of. I know a lot of people are against places like these and I understand why, but for every bad zoo or aquarium there are just as many that actually help their animals. They are important locations to both help rehabilitate animals back into the wild or treat those who can’t return with a life without violence or danger. As long as you find out facts from fakes, you can make sure your help goes to the right place, and I’m sure those who get your help both the animals and those how work to aid them will appreciate it all the same. There are even local shelters listed below if you are interested in this.
Foothills Animal Rescue
Maricopa County Animal Care and Control - West Valley Shelter
