Virginia Records: PETA Killed Thousands of Animals

With upwards of 99% killed or sent to kill "shelters" and an adoption rate of 1%, PETA runs the functional equivalent of a slaughterhouse

In 2023, PETA staff killed, on average, more than 7 animals a day, every day for the entire year. That is not only thousands of animals (2,559) but it is a significant increase from prior year.

They killed 153 more cats than the year before and 226 more dogs. All told, PETA put to death 1,527 out of 1,888 cats. Another 341 went to pounds that also kill animals. Historically, many of the kittens and cats PETA has taken to those pounds have been killed, often within minutes, despite being young (as young as six weeks old) and healthy. They only adopted out 20 cats, an adoption rate of 1% despite millions of “animal loving” supporters, a staff of hundreds, and revenues of over $82 million.

Dogs did not fare much better as 944 out of 1,243 were killed. Only 18 were adopted out — a little over 1%.

PETA staff also killed 94% of other animal companions, such as rabbits: 31 out of 33. Only two found homes.

They also killed most of the chickens, “farmed” animals, and wildlife.

To date, PETA has killed 48,835 dogs and cats and sent thousands more to be killed at local pounds, that we know of. The number may be many times higher. According to an employee whose job it was to acquire animals to kill:

I was told regularly to not enter animals into the log, or to euthanize off-site in order to prevent animals from even entering the building. I was told regularly to greatly overestimate the weight of animals whose euthanasia we recorded, in order to account for what would have otherwise been missing ‘blue juice’ (the chemical used to euthanize); because that allowed us to euthanize animals off the books.

A second PETA field worker also admitted that healthy animals were routinely rounded up and killed, including lying to people to acquire their animals. For example, she writes that she,

[R]esponded to a call from a concerned woman who’d found an abandoned days-old kitten under her porch. When I came to pick up the kitten, I had her sign a generic give-up form that spelled out that euthanasia was a possibility. But I was instructed to repeatedly convey that we would do our absolute best, and so that’s what I said, even as the woman described her careful search for an organization she knew would work around the clock to help this tiny being pull through. It was my job to make sure I did not leave without that cat — that I said whatever necessary for the woman not to change her mind.

The entire way back to PETA’s Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters, I sobbed, petting the infant cat in my lap, telling her things would all be OK, even though in my gut I knew it wouldn’t, that she never really had a chance. I even began plotting out how I might take a detour and deliver her to a rehabber instead. But how could I explain a missing kitten to the woman waiting with the needle? I couldn’t, so I complied without a word.

PETA is letting loose upon the world individuals who not only believe that killing is a good thing and that the living want to die but who are legally armed with lethal drugs, which they have already proven — 48,835 times in the last 24 years — that they are not averse to using.

---

Why?

Why PETA Kills, my book, answers that question. Why PETA Kills is based on interviews with PETA employees, documents from civil and criminal court cases against PETA, photos of animals killed by PETA, state inspection reports, as well as admissions of killing and support for killing by Ingrid Newkirk herself.

To learn more or get a copy, click here.

---