The Headline: According to the Daily Caller, the Center for Consumer Freedom published a Virginia report tallying the number of dogs and cats killed by the “animal lovers” at PETA last year. According to the report, when PETA folks weren’t getting naked in public places and throwing red paint on fur coat owners, they killed a bumper crop of animals.
The Body Count: PETA killed a reported 1,911 dogs and cats during 2011 which brings their tally to 27,000 since 1998. I have to wonder whether the number of pets killed was somehow a tribute to the 100-year anniversary of the Colt 1911 pistol, but I don’t want to get sidetracked.
The Hypocrisy: PETA launched a campaign to stop the New Jersey bear hunt, calling it a “slaughter." It encouraged animal lovers to contact Governor Christie with promises to boycott the state if he “sanctioned the bear slaughter."
The Hard Numbers: According to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, hunters killed 469 black bears during the 2011 season, less than half the number of animals that got the Kevorkian treatment at PETA HQ in Norfolk, VA.
The Confusing Position: According to PETA’s website, “Animal rights means that animals deserve certain kinds of consideration—consideration of what is in their best interests, regardless of whether they are "cute," useful to humans, or an endangered species…” I take that to mean that no animal is more or less deserving of life than any other, so why is killing 1,911 dogs and cats a merciful act while the sustainable fair chase hunting of 469 bears a “slaughter?"
The Elitist Ethic: The key phrase in PETA’s policy statement is “best interest." The dog-killers at PETA know that they’re acting in the animals’ “best interest” when they kill them, but we bumpkins who are slaughtering those poor bears don’t know what’s in their best interest. Apparently the biologists at the NJ DEP don’t either.
