http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=88133&ran=19014&tref=po

Another N.C. county cuts ties to PETA after charges

Sgt. Jeremy S. Roberts of the Ahoskie, N.C., Police Department
describes on Friday how he saw people casting animal carcasses into
this garbage bin behind a grocery store two days before. Two employees
of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were arrested in the
case. DREW WILSON / THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Days after two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
were arrested on animal cruelty charges, Bertie County, N.C., officials
said they were stunned to learn that the group had euthanized most of
the animals it had taken from shelters in the northeastern part of the
state.

Despite a written apology from PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, the
Bertie County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Monday to cut
all ties to the group.

The two PETA employees were arrested last week after police saw bags of
dead animals being dumped in a trash bin in a supermarket parking lot.

Bertie County Manager Zee Lamb said Tuesday that he thought the animals
were being taken for evaluation and "the ones that were adoptable
would be adopted."

Euthanasia, Lamb said, was understood to be used only "as a last
resort."

Bertie joined Northampton County officials, who decided last week to
stop working with PETA until the case against the two employees is
resolved.

Documents filed by PETA with the state of Virginia showed that in 2001,
2002 and 2003, about 6,100 domestic animals were euthanized - about
83 percent of the animals that owners surrendered to the organization.
Many animals are brought in by owners to be spayed or neutered and
returned.

Many of the animals in Virginia had been euthanized at the request of
their owners, said Daphna Nachminovitch, director of PETA's domestic
animal and wildlife department.

Nachminovitch said she did not know how many animals had been taken in
North Carolina or how many had been adopted or euthanized.

Newkirk's letter to Bertie County commissioners, though, stated:
"We were able to place a small number of animals ... but the
condition of most rural strays and given-up animals makes that
impossible."

PETA's adoption rate - about 19 percent from 2001- 03 - is lower
than that at some other animal control services, such as Isle of Wight
County Animal Control, where the adoption rate spiked to 70 percent
last year.

The difference between PETA and other services, Nachminovitch said, is
that PETA never turns away an animal.

"We take in the animals nobody else will take," Nachminovitch said.

All animals, however, should be examined by a veterinarian to see if
they can be adopted or should be killed, she said.

Even animals that are deemed healthy enough to live are eventually
euthanized when PETA cannot find a good home for them, Nachminovitch
said.

People tend to want young, house-trained, healthy animals. Many of the
animals taken in North Carolina were strays, and some had contagious
and severe diseases, she said.

"Did we euthanize some animals who could have been adopted? Maybe,"
Nachminovitch said. "The point is that good homes are few and far
between ... Our aim here was to stop them from dying an agonizing
death."

Police began investigating because carcasses wrapped in plastic bags
were found in trash bins at a Piggly Wiggly supermarket every Wednesday
for four straight weeks. At least 80 animals were found dumped.

Officers say that on June 15 they followed a van registered to PETA
after it left Bertie County's animal shelter, staked out the garbage
bins and arrested two PETA employees after watching animal carcasses
being thrown away.

They found 18 dead dogs in a bin and 13 other animal carcasses in the
van.

Andrew B. Cook, 24, of Virginia Beach, and Adria J. Hinkle, 27, of
Norfolk, were both charged with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty,
eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals and one
count of trespassing.

A probable cause hearing was set for July 19. PETA will pay for
Cook's and Hinkle's legal representation, Newkirk said on Friday.

Hinkle has been suspended for 90 days, but Cook, who was hired only
weeks ago as her assistant, has not been suspended.

Nachminovitch said euthanizing animals and dumping the carcasses into
trash bins violates PETA policy.

PETA typically takes animals from North Carolina to Norfolk, where
those deemed unfit for adoption are killed with a fast-acting lethal
injection. Newkirk said in a news conference Friday.

Only veterinarians hired by PETA are supposed to kill animals in North
Carolina, she said.

"There is no reason for what happened, and there is no excuse for
what happened," Nachminovitch said.

Virginia law states that domestic animals, such as those PETA was
transporting, must be accompanied by a note from a veterinarian saying
the animals are healthy and fit to travel before entering the
commonwealth, said Elaine Lidholm, a spokeswoman for the Virginia
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Lidholm said she did not know whether PETA had obtained the proper
documents for moving animals into Virginia.

"We were not aware PETA was transporting sick animals across the
state line for euthanasia," she said.

Asked if Hinkle had been getting notes from veterinarians,
Nachminovitch said, "That is something that has to do with the legal
case, and I can't comment on that."

According to Newkirk's letter to commissioners, PETA started working
with Bertie County in 2001 when a caller informed the group of poor
conditions in the county's shelter.

As PETA explored other shelters, they found more troubling conditions.

For example, the Bertie County shelter had used a small gas chamber to
kill animals until 2000, and some animals in Windsor, N.C., were killed
with a .22-caliber bullet to the head, Nachminovitch said.

"These are all very outdated facilities," Nachminovitch said.
"These are county pounds that have been here for decades."

Since 2001, PETA had expanded to serve shelters in Bertie, Hertford and
Northampton counties and the Windsor town shelter.

PETA spent $250,000 in improvements to Bertie County's shelter and
$65,000 on improvements in Northampton County and provided more than
$9,000 to an Ahoskie veterinarian who euthanized animals, Nachminovitch
said.

The Ahoskie veterinarian, Patrick Proctor, said on Tuesday he would
continue to euthanize animals with PETA's support, although three
cats found in the trash bins were from his clinic. He said it is
important for animals to be put to death in a humane way.

Northampton County has decided to stop working with PETA for an unknown
period of time, although officials do not think animals from the
Northampton shelter were among those found in the trash bins , said Sue
Gay, health director for Northampton County.

PETA had sent people other than Hinkle to pick up animals from
Northampton on a different day of the week, Gay said.

Gay said she assumed all animals taken from her county were intended to
be examined, and that healthy ones would be put up for adoption.

Nachminovitch and others from PETA have stayed in touch with Bertie and
Northampton officials despite the recent decisions made by county
commissioners.

"One of our people made a very bad mistake, and I don't want the
animals to suffer for it," Nachminovitch said.

---
Liars and murderers.

TC

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=88131&ran=99846

PETA has not shied away from euthanasia of dogs, cats

Ingrid Newkirk

By INGRID NEWKIRK, PETA PRESIDENT,

The ugly issue of animal population and euthanasia - and People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals' struggle with it - has been in
the spotlight because of the arrests of two of our workers. Like it or
not, exposure to the issue is a good thing.

PETA was first invited to help animals in North Carolina by a police
officer appalled by conditions at the Bertie County Pound. We found
that some of these "shelters" are just shacks without heating in
which animals have been left to drown during floods or freeze to death
in winter.

We found that animals in underfunded, impoverished pounds were being
killed in hideous, violent ways. Animals were being shot with a .22
behind a shed and forced into windowless metal boxes to be gassed. We
also discovered some dogs and cats were being slowly suffocated after
being injected with a drug that only paralyzes the body.

Life had dealt these animals a rotten hand. At the very least, they
deserved a peaceful death. So, although PETA's main work is not in
sheltering, we stepped in to provide quick and painless euthanasia by
injection, free of charge, thus ending the outdated, barbaric killings.

Over the past few years, PETA has worked to provide training,
personnel, money and supplies to help good people in struggling
agencies in North Carolina clean up these pounds. The counties are
impoverished, so there is a long way to go. We have spent more than
$250,000 on veterinary and other services in Bertie County alone, and
far more in Hampton Roads.

Each dollar spent means a needy animal is given warmth from the cold,
shelter from rain or hot sun, fresh water, nutritious food, veterinary
care and, quite often, the first gentle touch it has ever known.

PETA submitted several proposals to North Carolina officials and
attended several meetings where we offered - begged, really - to be
allowed to implement, among other things, an on-site adoption program.
We have pushed for such a program since 2003. Officials were not
interested in our offer.

We have also delivered hundreds of free sturdy dog houses and fresh
straw in winter to dogs in homes who have been left chained by their
owners to metal barrels or trees. We have paid to spay and neuter
thousands of dogs and cats.

The tragedy is that there are not enough good homes for all the animals
in shelters and pounds. It is only this harsh reality that has
convinced us that euthanasia is a kindness for dogs and cats born into
a world that doesn't want them, has not cared for them, and
ultimately has abandoned them .

And, while people patronize pet shops where dogs and cats can be bought
on a credit card, seek purebreds from breeders who add to the
population overload, and fail to spay and neuter their animals or keep
animals for a lifetime, euthanasia will continue. As long as it does
continue, it should be done with kindness, so that each animal will
know comfort in the last minutes of life .

Although we have placed dogs and cats from North Carolina in homes,
most dogs we have been given were in terrible condition, many with
contagious conditions like Parvo virus or severe mange. They have
untreated injuries and oozing infections from being hit by cars, have
been stabbed or burned, are aggressive, or are simply not attractive to
people, most of whom are looking for small, cute, housebroken puppies
without medical problems.

You can see some of the suffering animals we have put out of their
misery, and the joyful ones we have found homes for, on
www.HelpingAnimals.com.

Recently, two PETA staff members were found disposing of animal bodies
in a completely improper way after euthanasia. We won't tolerate that
and we took immediate action.

Now we - and this means all of us - are left with the larger issue.
We can stop euthanasia, but to do it we need caring people to join us
to curb the animal overpopulation crisis.

Please, spay and neuter your dogs and cats and help those with low
incomes to do the same. Never buy from breeders or pet shops, but
instead patronize your local shelters. Distribute our literature to
educate others. Press for legislation to grant incentives to sterilize
animals.

Only when there is a good home for every dog and cat can the
all-admission shelters (those that open their doors to every needy
animal) and PETA stop doing society's dirty work.

Ingrid Newkirk is president of People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (www.PETA.org) in Norfolk.

-------

1) What have PETA done with the millions it raises every year that they
can't find any money to give these animals some place to live?

2) Can they not build a facility?

3) Where are the thousands of PETA members who claim to love animals?
Why are they not adopting these poor creatures?

4) What about the dignity of the deceased animals? Is it appropriate to
just throw them in a dumpster?

It sounds as if PETA has failed in following their simple, basic,
fundamental beliefs. ie. animals deserve respect and love. Instead they
are willing to take millions of dollars from donors every year, get
their names in the papers, and then not waste any of the money to
actually take care of the few animals they get possession of. Too
inconvenient to actually have to pay for and handle and care for the
animals. Easier to kill them off. Out of sight, out of mind.

Greedy, glory-seeking hypocrites. The whole bunch of them.

TC

COMMENT:

My lab has fostered several hundred kittens and cats for adoption at
the local Petsmart, doing free neutering, spaying, virus testing, and
administering vaccines and treating all kinds of parasites first. We
get them from owners who know what happens when they take them to the
pound.

The only two cats we euthanized in the last two years have been a pet
with a horrid squamous cell mouth tumor (it was time), and a feral
tomcat with FIV AND FeLV who became a vicious biter after we got
through curing the mite diseases that had turned his heat and front
quarters into an infected mass of cardboard-like skin and crust.

We are in the process of working with the local city council to turn
the local animal shelter into a no-kill shelter, where no healthy
animal is euthanized. We think it's possible to save 80% of the animals
this way. Pilot programs in both rural New York State and city (San
Francisco) areas suggest it's possible.

Neither the Humane Society nor PETA is any help in this process at all.
PETA makes our research with dogs harder by making it impossible even
to get already-euthanized dogs from the pound (we could use them for
histology and thermal modeling). PETA figures these dogs have been
"through enough" and deserve a quiet cremation without any chance to
serve a better purpose. As for the Humane Society, they don't impede
research, but they don't help that much with the pet problem, either.
On the contrary, they seem to be fairly happy with the euthanasia
status quo. About as happy as PETA is, apparently. PETA figures the big
difference they make over the humane society is a *caress* before that
Euthasol is given. Our animals get a caress, but also ketamine,
acepromazine, and gas anesthesia. But we save many cats for every dog
we kill, and we breed the research dogs ourselves. They're not pets.

I would personally like to kick Ingred Newkirk's behind up around her
ears for the damage she's done to biomedical research.  Failing that,
I'd like to force her to learn how to spay kittens, then make her do
few dozen, so she begins to have some innate understanding of the
animal control problem she thinks she's an expert in.

DAMN I hate people who can only shoot their mouths off, and are ever
good for any real work. People who criticise doctors without much
contact with the practice of medicine. People who criticise biomedical
research who have little understanding of science. People who have all
kinds of answers to animal control who've never been in the trenches
(or when they have, like PETA show their incompetence with solutions
everybody else either figured out long ago, or are in the process of
trying to change for the better.)

If I had PETA's 30 million a year I could convert a large part of
Southern California to no-kill shelters.

By the way, one wonders what PETA is using chemically for their
euthanasia. These things are all controlled substances. I have a DEA
number, the licensed vet on my staff has a DEA number, and my LAB has a
separate DEA licence. We have a monster drug safe, lots of oversite,
and all our i's are dotted and t's crossed. What about Ms. Newkirk?
Hey, FEDS!  Pay attention.

SBH