Confessions of a Former PETA Member
When I was younger, and less informed, I used to take pride in identifying with the bizarre tactics of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I cringed at every issue of their magazine that I received, though, so filled with photos of tormented animals; I used to wonder why they sent those photos to those of us who already cared about animals–it was distressing. Obviously, it helped keep their coffers filled, because they continue doing so today. The fist and paw of Animal Liberation Front seemed to exemplify the radical changes that needed to take place. Free the Animals! Then, I did not question their tactics; I thought they were radicals and felt the torment of animals required extreme measures to get the attention of people. They did make the news and did make people think; unfortunately, what most people thought was that animal rights people were not to be taken seriously.
Now you can count me as a Vegan against PETA. They have made so many missteps that I cannot consider them a positive force in the fight for the liberation of animals. A few months back, I was more concerned with in-fighting, disagreements and lawsuits between animal protection groups; that was before I landed squarely in the middle of one of their squabbles. I felt then that if anyone was doing anything positive for animals, then good for them; why would I take a stand against a group that was trying to help? But what I learned changed my perspective and increased my understanding of the problems with the largest groups, such as PETA, who take in millions of dollars yet do not seem to make any progress towards freeing animals from their horrible position on this planet. While they may stop a bad practice here or there, undoubtedly several more, often worse practices crop up to replace them. At the root, there is no respect for animals.
Here are the reasons I am disappointed in you, PETA:
- You use tacky tactics. Sexism, sizism, celebrity, appearance: all are superficial and do not represent the horror of what you know is happening to animals. Who cares who the sexiest vegetarian over 50 is? Why is it important to disparage a full-bodied female on your billboards? And nudity? Is that really necessary, when the reality is so very serious? How does that elevate the dialogue to save other species? What is happening to animals is no joke and it is offensive that you make cartoons while the reality is a nightmare in full living color.
- You are dishonest. People trust you to do the right thing for animals. They entrust their companion animals to you, thinking you will find them homes. Then you destroy them before you have even tried to place them and spend thousands of dollars on a freezer to contain all the dead bodies. Ms. Newkirk, you have your photo taken with dogs and cats, yet you are not working to find homes for animals. That is inherently dishonest, using the media to present a false sense of who you are and what you represent.
- You support some of the most egregious companies by owning stock in them, companies that torment and slaughter millions of animals. How could you?
- You partner with companies who show no conscience, who cause some of the worst suffering imaginable; yet you partner with them if they make some useless gesture towards animal “welfare.” If you end up getting slaughtered, there is no welfare involved.
- You have a scary attitude towards rescue that ends in death. You have charged other animal organizations of not providing adequately for the animals in their care, but you kill the animals entrusted to your care. How is that better?
- Your kill ratios are getting higher each year. What are you doing with all your millions of dollars, if you do not respect the individual lives of animals? Ms. Newkirk, you have said that the kindest thing you can do for a homeless animal is to kill them. That is not kindness, it is psychopathology. The kindest thing would be to provide them a home.
- You refuse challenges. Adam Kochanowicz recently challenged you, Ms. Newkirk, in an open letter to debate with Gary L. Francione. Mr. Francione, a Rutgers University professor, agreed to the debate. There is now a petition circulating on Twitter to request the same of you. Why have you refused to respond?
- You have become a destructive force. You support the failed welfarist policies that do nothing to increase respect for animals. Indeed, you show very little respect for them yourself. Not just the dogs and cats found half frozen and dead in dumpsters, but the fact that you do NOTHING to try to place the animals entrusted to you before you murder them. They are innocent, loving, feeling beings and you never give them a fighting chance. While you may not be able to save them all, you could at least try. For $32 million a year, you could certainly try. Your lack of will is fatal.
Your kill statistics from last year, 2008, show only 7 animals placed and nearly 2,000 killed. That is lower than any neighboring shelter and a higher kill ratio than in any year in your past. You have an income of over $30 million per year, yet most of us could do better than those odds working with a zero dollar budget and a home computer. The news that two PETA workers killed dozens of animals within minutes of being surrendered was defended by you, Ms. Newkirk. You supported the workers (possibly because they were following PETA policy?) stating that they did not cause suffering. You seem to have a pathological concern that living animals are vulnerable and the safest way to protect them is to kill them. Your group kills healthy, very young animals – a veterinarian performed an autopsy on one of the dogs found in a dumpster who had been killed and he was only a six month old puppy, a beautiful and perfectly healthy young dog that would have been easier than most to place. Nor did PETA keep these animals in shelter for six months, thirty days, a week, or a day – but only for minutes, before they were killed.
That is why I am a Vegan against PETA. I am glad you do some good with your money; you should. But you also cause harm. You give Animal Rights a certain bizarre reputation that is ill-deserved. Gary Francione, Roger Yates, Randy Sandberg, Elizabeth Collins, Adam Kochanowicz, Dan Cudahy and numerous others are Animal Rights people that do not behave in an adolescent fashion. They do not use the media and celebrities for questionable purposes. The work ahead of us is far too important to have it reduced to a cartoon, to have insulting billboards spread out across our highways that offend a good portion of our citizens, to have nudity used to lower the bar of our cause and make us look vulgar and insignificant, while billions of animals are killed every year, and while PeTA is busy killing thousands themselves.
I know there are earnest hearts who work for PeTA and truly care about animals. And there are many millions of people who believe in PeTA. But I am no longer one of them.
Related Articles:
The Classical Circular Farce of Welfarism
Sexism and Misogyny in the Movement
You Tube video regarding PeTA’s killing of animals
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So great to see more and more vegans stepping up against PETA. They are a train wreck and causing so much damage to our cause. Great points.
Clearly there is some good that PETA does. However, in the grand scheme of things they themselves are the greatest obstacle to ever achieving their goal of ending animal cruelty. And to that, I ask, why should compassion for animals and compassion for people be mutually exclusive? A friend who works for PETA told me that because of the treatment by management, his colleagues go running from the organization as though their hair was on fire. One has to wonder why such a good organization would have such an incredibly high turnover rate. I, too, am a Vegan Against PETA.
Thanks Suzanne. I am often asked, as most AR people are, about why I care more for animals than people. But I have worked most of my professional life helping disenfranchised humans. They are NOT mutually exclusive. I keep hoping PETA will succumb to pressure to improve their ways. They have lots of financial support that could certainly help the cause more.
Nice! I’m a former PETA supporter (and former intern), and even knowing all of this, I tried for a very long time to make excuses for them, but I’m tired of it, and the animals are the last people to need my, or PETA’s, excuses.
Hi Ashleigh, I know. I did, too. They are so good at getting media attention and letting the world know animals are suffering; just not so good about doing the right things for the animals (my opinion). Let’s hope they get back on track!
I have serious concerns re PETA also. I also have some serious concerns about some links in your post. Specifically items number 2 and number 6 link indirectly or directly to information put out by an organization called Center for Consumer Freedom.
This organization is one of the worst panderers of corporate propaganda that exists. I think you would be well served to make your case using resources other than a front organization (or someone who uses information from a front organization). Berman & Co, a PR firm is creator of the CCF and among other groups they have attacked is Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Frankly, I suspect if a group is a target of CCF they are doing something right.
I don’t dispute your stance on PETA, but please check into the sources you use (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom) and see if you aren’t made uneasy by their bona fides.
Thanks
I agree about CCF. Like PETA, I have learned more about them over time. I did not find any links to CCF but did find one that referred to them, and removed it. Most of the remaining links (bottom of article) refer to Abolitionist Approach and Unpopular Vegan Essays, two very solid resources. Your letter came at a good time; I am reviewing old posts and updating things like old links. Thanks for the reminder!
I’m not going to pretend to reply with some post that makes me sound immensely educated about the practices of all of the various animal liberation groups, etc. that are out there because I’m not. I do, however, want to say that I saw veganacious’ post on Twitter which I just HAD to click on because I have had the same feelings for years towards PETA and I am happy to see some vegans saying the same thing! I am not 100% vegan but working towards it again but was completely vegan in my younger years for quite a few of them. I did it more for the health reasons however did have much admitted concern over farming practices and other animal liberation issues. I’ve always been turned off by the way that PETA approaches these issues and questioned whether they were actually making any sort of progress–it sure doesn’t seem so! They do manage to fill my snail mailbox with a lot of free address labels and paper asking for donations when I would rather them use the address label money to donate towards a better cause. I just find their practices belligerent and the way that they go about trying to accomplish things to be no better than the corporations that they claim to be so offended by. If you really want to implement changes in others then live by example! I just don’t find that such radical measures are going to impact change in animal liberation–the people they are trying to affect could really care less! Anyhoo…I could go on but that is just part of my “two cents.” Overall…I think what PETA is working at is a good thing–I don’t want to dismiss that–but the way they are going about it is just not conducive to real change and if anything they are taking the same routes as those that they oppose which defeats the entire purpose of what they are trying to do!
Hi Christina
I started out with positive feelings about PETA but have become more disillusioned over time. Ingrid Newkirk recently was quoted as saying, “Screw the principle.” That seems to say it all.
Thank you for this heartbreaking critique of what, unfortunately, is still very accurate today (1+ years later from when you first wrote this post) concerning how lost PETA and Ms. Newkirk are. I read the following on Wikipedia the other day and felt only great empathy and sadness for her and all the beings she believes she is saving from a life of pain and suffering by killing.
“I went to the front office all the time, and I would say, “John is kicking the dogs and putting them into freezers.” Or I would say, “They are stepping on the animals, crushing them like grapes, and they don’t care.” In the end, I would go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself. Because I couldn’t stand to let them go through that. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day. Some of those people would take pleasure in making them suffer. Driving home every night, I would cry just thinking about it. And I just felt, to my bones, this cannot be right.”
Very sad to realize that this tragic experience has obviously created the psychopathic state you speak of, and has continuing terminal consequences for so many nonhuman sentient beings. Thank you again for this tragic reality check of what PETA and Ingrid Newkirk truly are behind the welfarist spin!