Nathan Winograd
This Week in Animal Protection
Inside the PETA Kill Room
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Inside the PETA Kill Room

A former PETA field worker provides a first hand look into PETA's campaign of extermination

In this podcast, we interview Heather Harper-Troje, a former PETA fieldworker. At the behest of PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk, it was her job “to get as many animals as possible” by promising people that they would find homes knowing that “the vast majority of those animals were [to be] killed.” Harper-Troje says killing is not an ancillary part of the job; it goes to the core of the mission. She also describes how a dog named “Black Boy” set her back on the path to animal rights and away from PETA.

The PETA kill room.

The fact that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has a kill room where it routinely injects thousands of animals a year with fatal doses of barbiturates, including healthy puppies and kittens without ever making them available for adoption, may still come as a surprise to some. Though this killing has been going on now for well over two decades, there are still many people who are unaware and therefore continue to support it through their financial contributions to that organization.

Indeed, killing is not an ancillary part of PETA’s Community Animal Project; it goes to the core of the mission. “The objective of the program,” says Heather Harper-Troje, a former PETA fieldworker, “was to get as many animals as possible and the vast majority of those animals were killed.”

Nothing came between that objective and the staff, including lying to people by telling them that the animals would be adopted: “I was told to pretty much say anything I needed to say to gain custody of an animal… I was told to lie by my direct supervisors directly and then by [PETA founder] Ingrid [Newkirk]…”

The evidence is overwhelming. It not only includes the testimony of Harper-Troje, but another field worker who has since come forward, describing the culture of killing as “terrifying.”

Puppies killed by PETA in the back of a van — a donor funded slaughterhouse on wheels.

It also includes:

A healthy mother cat and her two equally healthy kittens were given to PETA by a veterinarian who was trying to find them homes and was told by PETA employees that they would have no problem adopting them out. Instead, the PETA employees killed them within minutes in the back of a van.

And not only does PETA kill cats themselves, they demonize community cats in order to get counties to round up and kill them, too. Per PETA, ‘cats smell, they are a nuisance, make too much noise, are a public health and rabies threat, transmit disease and parasites, including “roundworms, hookworms, and even plague,” and “terrorize and kill” 15 billion other animals a year.’ These are hardly the words of an animal-loving rights group.

There’s more. A dog, for example, died following three days of suffering in his kennel, with no medical or supportive care at Sumter County Animal Services in Florida. In response to criticism, county officials maintained that their job was not to save lives, but to provide “euthanasia services” and “culling” of animals. Despite this neglect, PETA sided with the pound, thanking pound staff even though they did not adopt any animals, had no veterinarian onsite to provide medical care, did not allow volunteers to care for animals, and did not allow the public to photograph animals in violation of the First Amendment and Federal law. PETA also thanked pound staff for “standing firmly” against citizens who are working to ensure that neglect is eliminated, lives are saved, adoptioned occur, volunteers are allowed, and constitutional rights are protected.

To learn more and to learn why, read or listen to an audio version of Why PETA Kills

To learn more about my overwhelming victory against PETA in court, read PETA v. Winograd.

To learn about the neglected dog who set Heather back on the path to animal rights and away from PETA, read Rescued by Black Boy.

Heather’s interview is from August, 2017. It is still very relevant today.

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Nathan Winograd
This Week in Animal Protection
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The 90% nationwide decline in shelter killing has been called “the single greatest success of the modern animal protection movement.” Join attorney, journalist, No Kill pioneer, and award-winning writer Nathan Winograd, who was at the center of that success — including creating the first No Kill community in the United States — on “This Week in Animal Protection.”
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