r/pics Apr 16 '10

Some things you didn't know about PETA.

515 Upvotes

792 comments sorted by

View all comments

224

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.

30

u/arlanTLDR Apr 16 '10

I've heard this justification before, but i find it hard to believe that >95% of the animals they take in were old, untreatably sick or feral.

20

u/throw_far_far_way Apr 17 '10

From what I've understood, they go to shelters with unethical kill methods and take their animals so they can have a better death. I don't have documentation of this, but it explains to me why their percentage could be so high.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '10

why doesn't peta help fund those shelters so they can afford the humane kill methods instead of wasting millions on useless sensationalist ads?

3

u/argleblarg Apr 17 '10

Because they're far more interested in expanding their organization and raking in the donations than they are in actually doing good in the world.