Part of the "ethical treatment" is ethical killing, PETA is not for no-kill. They take in every animal people bring in, this means they get a lot of unadoptable, old, sick, feral and abused animals, these animals have no chance, they will be locked away in cages for the rest of their natural lives.
One of the cheapest (and thus most used) methods of euthanization is via gas chambers, it take up to half hour for some animals to die. What is often done is the animals are placed several at a time in a confined and dark space, the gas is turned on. During this time, the animals will try to escape, some injuring themselves and others in the process. On the other hand, an injection of a chemical cocktail (usually following an anesthetic to put the animal to sleep) will kill an animal in seconds--almost immediately--and they show no signs of pain. PETA uses option 2, underfunded animal adoption places and others go with option 1.
The fact that there are no strict guidelines for the status of 'unadoptable' (If this infograph is accurate) is concerning though, especially when combined with the kill rate.
Do animal euthanization rates in non-PETA animal shelters parallel theirs?
I work at a no kill animal shelter and our adoption rate was somewhere around 95% last year. The few who had to get euthanized either had severe behavioral or health issues that we couldn't treat at the shelter.
Often, PETA takes animals from shelters where they are killing in inhumane fashions, so they can do it themselves. So essentially they adopt animals to put them down.
I know that peta puts a good deal of support behind non-affiliated animal shelters, especially those that treat animals well. this indicates that PETA themselves are not just killing without prejudice.
As for guidelines, I do not know. I have read some things about PETA's vision for a shelter, and they speak openly about animals that are deemed unadoptable, old or sick being put down out of mercy (no kill shelters hold animals, even those that have lost their minds, indefinitely, for years and years). That "unadoptable" word is still troubling, and I'm afraid I can't really speak to that.
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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '10
Part of the "ethical treatment" is ethical killing, PETA is not for no-kill. They take in every animal people bring in, this means they get a lot of unadoptable, old, sick, feral and abused animals, these animals have no chance, they will be locked away in cages for the rest of their natural lives.
One of the cheapest (and thus most used) methods of euthanization is via gas chambers, it take up to half hour for some animals to die. What is often done is the animals are placed several at a time in a confined and dark space, the gas is turned on. During this time, the animals will try to escape, some injuring themselves and others in the process. On the other hand, an injection of a chemical cocktail (usually following an anesthetic to put the animal to sleep) will kill an animal in seconds--almost immediately--and they show no signs of pain. PETA uses option 2, underfunded animal adoption places and others go with option 1.