14 DAY TRIAL // Only yesterday, the news broke that a total of 1,647 cats and dogs had lost their lives at PETA's headquarters in Virginia in the year 2012 alone.
Needless to say, this particular piece of information led to several individuals' beginning to question the organization's anti-animal cruelty policies.
Following their being accused of being utterly hypocritical, PETA decided to take matters into their own hands and thoroughly explain why it was that they had to kill over 1,600 animals within said timeframe.
“It's easy to point the finger at those who are forced to do the 'dirty work' caused by a throwaway society's casual acquisition and breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted, but at PETA, we will never turn our backs on neglected, unloved, and homeless animals—even if the best we can offer them is a painless release from a world that doesn't have enough heart or homes with room for them,” reads PETA's official website.
It is PETA's belief that there is a world of a difference between killing animals in order to provide for either the food or the fashion industry, and humanely putting them to sleep.
As they put it, it all comes down to whether or not the business of killing animals benefits the latter or simply constitutes abuse and cruelty.
The organization went as far as to argue that the ones who must be held accountable for their putting thousands of animals to sleep are the people who refuse to spay or neuter their pets.
Thus, PETA are quite convinced that, should more owners keep their pets from breeding in an uncontrolled manner, there would be no need to resort to euthanasia simply because there would be fewer stray dogs and cats walking around.
“If anyone has a good home, love, and respect to offer, we beg them: Go to a shelter and take one or two animals home. The problem is that few people do that, choosing instead to go to a breeder or a pet shop and not 'fixing' their dogs and cats, which contributes to the high euthanasia rate that animal shelters face,” PETA says.