“We do not advocate ‘right to life’ for animals” (Ingrid Newkirk PETA founder)

The words of the title are written on a postcard to Nathan Winograd, the champion of true no-kill animal shelters. PETA claim to be the largest animal rights organization in the world but they don’t support the most fundamental right.

That single document total turns me away from PETA. Having seen it I am disillusioned. I no longer have sympathy for their objectives or struggle to be sympathetic towards the organisation.

A right to life is the most fundamental of all rights. All animal rights flow from it. Without it there can no animal welfare. I signifies to me a completely incorrect attitude of PETA. It must undermine what they say and what they profess to stand for as an animal rights organisation.

The statement comes from the very top of the organisation. The attitude of an organisation starts at the top and filters down.

I believe the “no right to life” attitude comes from the belief at PETA that it is better to humanely kill an animal than for the animal to live a miserable life (what they say applies to feral cats). But PETA, when it comes to pets handed to them, don’t assess whether an animal lives a miserable life or not; they just kill them in large numbers and in doing so it devalues life making it easier for others to kill inhumanely.

Nathan Winograd describes PETA as “the functional equivalent of a slaughterhouse” and Nathan Winograd is a smart person with the best interests of animals at heart.

No only do PETA indulge in companion animal slaughter they “undermine the lifesaving efforts of animal lovers” throughout America and “derail urgently needed reforms”.

I am told in Winograd’s article that in 2012 they took in, at their headquarters, 1,110 cats of which 1,045 euthanized and 7 were adopted. Over the past 11 years, PETA has killed 29,426 domestic animals.

Apparently, the police discovered these bags of dead animals allegedly killed by PETA in a dumpster and we are told by Nathan Winograd that a vet had handed some of the animals to PETA for adoption. They were in good health and the vet examined some other bodies and confirmed they were adoptable.

I don’t think I need to go on. We know PETA have this harsh policy of killing cats. I don’t believe they have a genuine rescue facility at their head office. It just seems to be an office and a processing plant for the euthanasia of pets.

I have to say I am shocked at Newkirk’s card in which admits that PETA does not believe in this most fundamental of rights. PETA seems to a purely political organisation disinterested in animal rescue and rights but focusing on laboratory testing, farm animals, animals used for the clothing industry and factory farms. However, surely the right to life is very relevant to these four areas?