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okay so i wrote this for my night school class.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA as we all know it, is an animal rights group. They’re the biggest one in the world. They preach against things like animal cruelty, eating meat and wearing fur or leather. PETA is always quick to criticize the methods used in the meat industry, research labs, animal shelters, circuses, and whaling. Seems like a pretty upstanding organization right? What with the word ethical right there in the name. Well, as we begin to dig deeper, a different picture begins to emerge.
PETA is a tax exempt organization which means that their income tax returns are on public record. So, let’s start there. On PETA’s 2002 tax return, they claimed a $9,370 write-off for an industrials sized walk-in freezer1. The kind of freezer that a butcher would use to store his meat or a creamery would use to store ice cream. But, the good people at PETA don’t consume animal products. So why would they need something like this? The answer is simple; PETA kills animals. The very same ones they claim to protect. In one decade, from 1998-2008, PETA euthanized more than 21,000, dogs, cats and other pets. You see, PETA adopts thousands of animals every year to put them up for adoption. The ones that aren’t adopted are executed, stored in the freezer I spoke of earlier and then finally, cremated by a Virginia based company with whom PETA has a contract. Skeptics proposed this years ago. But it wasn’t until a 2007 criminal trial that the information was confirmed.1
But that’s not the only skeleton in their closet. In early 1995, PETA donated $45,200 to the Rodney Coronado support committee. Then later that year, they loaned $25,000 to Ray Coronado (Rodney’s father)2 . In case you don’t know who this man is, allow me to explain. Rodney Coronado is a former member of the Animal Liberation Front or ALF. This is an organization of anonymous animal rights activists who commit crimes such as arson, sabotage and vandalism in the name of animal liberation. They have been referred to by the FBI as the most dangerous domestic terror threats in this country. In 1992, Rodney Coronado fire-bombed a Michigan State University research lab. Destroying the building and years worth of research. Coronado has admitted to at least 5 other arsons. PETA’s founder and President, Ingrid Newkirk has said that Rod Coronado is a “fine young man”5 and that she “will be the last person to condemn ALF”3
PETA is against all kinds of animal testing and research for the benefit of man. PETA has stated numerous times that even if animal testing resulted in the discovery of a cure for AIDS or cancer, they would still be against it4. It is interesting to know that PETA’s senior vice president, a woman by the name of Mary Beth Sweetland is a type-A diabetic. She injects herself daily with insulin, a technology developed through testing on dogs2.
PETA is also against assistance animals for the handicapped. According to Michael Specter of The New Yorker, PETA has taken away at least one blind person’s seeing eye dog2.
The handicapped aren’t the only people group harasses though. It is not uncommon for members and supporters of PETA to wait outside of schools and distribute pamphlets containing graphic violence to children as young as 6 years old. But your children aren’t the only people PETA can’t stand to leave alone. PETA often criticizes conservationist personalities like Steve Irwin. The group has also repeatedly attacked organizations such as The American Cancer Society, March for Dimes, and the Pediatric AIDS Foundations; simply because they support animal based research3.
PETA’s directors, spokes people and presidents have been known to say some pretty disturbing, insensitive and stupid things. For instance, when Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber) decided not to eat meat in his last meal, PETA’s Bruce Friedrich stated that “Mr. McVeigh’s decision to go vegetarian groups him with some of the world’s greatest visionaries.”3 In a 2002 press release Toni Vernelli, a European Campaign Director claimed that “Serving a burger to your family today, knowing what we know, constitutes child abuse.”4 Or at a national animal rights convention, Ingrid Newkirk said “I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out or burn them down.”4 On a separate occasion, “If I had more guts, I’d light a match.”3

In conclusion, PETA is a threat to consumer freedom, the basis of our economy. They try to dictate what people eat, wear, and do for sport. They also try to control ways in which scientific research is conducted. This holds back the advances of man. I strongly recommend supporters of PETA reconsider, especially pet owners. Because PETA is for “total animal liberation”4, they are against the idea of pets. So all of you pet lovers who so eagerly donate to this cancerous organization may want to stop.

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