 | |
| Founded | March 22, 1980 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco |
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Focus | Animal rights and animal welfare |
| Location | |
Members
| 6.5 million (including supporters) |
| Ingrid Newkirk | |
Revenue
| $48.5 million in 2017 |
Employees
| 389 |
| Website | www |
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA /ˈpiːtə/; stylized PeTA) is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk,
its international president. A nonprofit corporation with nearly 400
employees, it claims that it has 6.5 million members and supporters, in
addition to claiming that it is the "largest animal rights group in the
world." Its slogan is "Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on,
use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way."
Founded in March 1980 by Ingrid Newkirk and fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco, the organization first caught the public's attention in the summer of 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, a widely publicized dispute about experiments conducted on 17 macaque monkeys inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case lasted 10 years, involved the only police raid
on an animal laboratory in the United States, triggered an amendment in
1985 to that country's Animal Welfare Act, and established PETA as an
internationally known organization. Today, it focuses on four core issues—opposition to factory farming, fur farming, animal testing,
and the use of animals in entertainment. It also campaigns for a vegan
lifestyle and against eating meat, fishing, the killing of animals
regarded as pests, the keeping of chained backyard dogs, cock fighting, dog fighting, and bullfighting.
The group is the focus of controversy,
both inside and outside the animal rights movement and around the
world. Newkirk, and formerly Pacheco, are seen as the leading exporters
of animal rights to the more traditional animal-protection groups in the
United States, but sections of the movement nonetheless say that PETA
is not radical enough—law professor Gary Francione
lists the group among what he calls "the new welfarists," arguing that
its work with industries to achieve reform, which continues in the
tradition of Henry Spira, makes it an animal welfare group, not an animal rights group. Newkirk told Salon in 2001 that PETA works toward the ideal but tries in the meantime to provide carrot-and-stick incentives. There has also been criticism from feminists within the movement about the use of scantily clad women in PETA's anti-fur
campaigns and others, but as Norm Phelps notes, "Newkirk has been
consistent in her response. No one, she says, is being exploited.
Everyone ... is an uncoerced volunteer. Sexual attraction is a fact of
life, and if it can advance the animals' cause, she makes no apologies
for using it." Also, Phelps notes that some activists believe that the
group's media stunts trivialize animal rights, but he qualifies this by
saying, "[I]t's hard to argue with success and PETA is far and away the
most successful cutting-edge animal rights organization in the world."
Newkirk's view is that PETA has a duty to be "press sluts." She argues,
"It is our obligation. We would be worthless if we were just polite and
didn't make any waves."
History
Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk
Newkirk was born in England in 1949, and raised in Hertfordshire and later New Delhi, India,
where her father—a navigational engineer—was stationed. Newkirk, now an
atheist, was educated in a convent, the only British girl there. She
moved to the United States
as a teenager, first studying to become a stockbroker, but after taking
some abandoned kittens to an animal shelter in 1969 and being appalled
by the conditions that she found there, she chose a career in animal
protection instead. She became an animal-protection officer for Montgomery County, Maryland, and then the District of Columbia's
first woman poundmaster. By 1976, she was head of the animal disease
control division of D.C.'s Commission on Public Health and in 1980, was
among those named as "Washingtonians of the Year." She told Michael Specter of The New Yorker that working for the shelters left her shocked at the way the animals were treated:
I went to the front office all the time, and I would say, "John is kicking the dogs and putting them into freezers." Or I would say, "They are stepping on the animals, crushing them like grapes, and they don't care." In the end, I would go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself. Because I couldn't stand to let them go through that. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day. Some of those people would take pleasure in making them suffer. Driving home every night, I would cry just thinking about it. And I just felt, to my bones, this cannot be right.
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In 1980, she divorced Steve Newkirk, whom she had married when she
was 19, and the same year met Alex Pacheco, a political science major at
George Washington University. Pacheco had studied for the priesthood, then worked as a crew member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's first ship.
He volunteered at the shelter where she worked, and they fell in love
and began living together, although as Kathy Snow Guillermo writes, they
were very different—Newkirk was older and more practical, whereas
Pacheco could barely look after himself. Newkirk read Peter Singer's influential book, Animal Liberation
(1975), and in March 1980, she persuaded Pacheco to join her in forming
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, at that point just "five
people in a basement," as Newkirk described it. They were mostly
students and members of the local vegetarian society, but the group
included a friend of Pacheco's from the U.K., Kim Stallwood, a British
activist who went on to become the national organizer of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. Pacheco was reluctant at first. "It just didn't sound great to me," he told The Los Angeles Times
in 1992. "I had been active in Europe ... and I thought there were just
too many formalities. I thought we should just do things ourselves. But
she made a convincing case that Washington needed a vehicle for animals
because the current organizations were too conservative."
Silver Spring monkeys
PETA distributed images of the monkeys with the caption, "This is vivisection. Don't let anyone tell you different."
The group first came to public attention in 1981 during the Silver
Spring monkeys case, a dispute about experiments conducted by researcher
Edward Taub on 17 macaque monkeys
inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The case led to the first police raid in the United States on an animal
laboratory, triggered an amendment in 1985 to the United States Animal
Welfare Act, and became the first animal-testing case to be appealed to
the United States Supreme Court, which upheld a Louisiana State Court ruling that denied PETA's request for custody of the monkeys.
Pacheco had taken a job in May 1981 inside a primate research
laboratory at the Institute, intending to gain firsthand experience of
working inside an animal laboratory. Taub had been cutting sensory ganglia
that supplied nerves to the monkeys' fingers, hands, arms, and legs—a
process called "deafferentation"—so that the monkeys could not feel
them; some of the monkeys had had their entire spinal columns
deafferented. He then used restraint, electric shock, and withholding of
food and water to force the monkeys to use the deafferented parts of
their bodies. The research led in part to the discovery of neuroplasticity and a new therapy for stroke victims called constraint-induced movement therapy.
Pacheco went to the laboratory at night, taking photographs that
showed the monkeys living in what the Institute for Laboratory Animal
Research's ILAR Journal called "filthy conditions."
He passed his photographs to the police, who raided the lab and
arrested Taub. Taub was convicted of six counts of cruelty to animals,
the first such conviction in the United States of an animal researcher;
the conviction, though, was overturned on appeal. Norm Phelps writes that the case followed the highly publicized campaign of Henry Spira in 1976 against experiments on cats being performed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and Spira's subsequent campaign in April 1980 against the Draize test. These and the Silver Spring monkey case jointly put animal rights on the agenda in the United States.
The 10-year battle for custody of the monkeys—described by The Washington Post
as a vicious mud fight, during which both sides accused the other of
lies and distortion— transformed PETA into a national, then
international, movement. By February 1991, it claimed over 350,000
members, a paid staff of over 100, and an annual budget of over $7
million.
Locations
PETA was based in Rockville, Maryland, until 1996, when it moved to Norfolk, Virginia. It opened a Los Angeles division in 2006 and also has offices in Washington, D.C., and Oakland, California. In addition, PETA has international affiliates in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, India and the Asia-Pacific region.
Philosophy and activism
Profile
Along with Newkirk, Dan Mathews (above) is one of PETA's key players.
PETA is an animal rights organization and, as such, it rejects speciesism and also opposes the use and abuse of animals in any way, as food, clothing, entertainment, or research subjects.
One oft-cited quote of Newkirk's is: "When it comes to feelings like
hunger, pain, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy."
PETA lobbies government agencies to impose fines and/or confiscate
animals when animal-welfare legislation has been violated, promotes a
vegan lifestyle, tries to reform practices on factory farms and in
slaughterhouses, sends undercover investigators into animal-research
laboratories, farms, and circuses, initiates media campaigns against
particular companies or practices, helps to find sanctuaries for animals
formerly used by circuses and zoos, and initiates lawsuits against
companies that refuse to change their practices.
The group has been criticized by some animal rights advocates for its
willingness to work with industries that use animals for the purpose of
affecting gradual change. Newkirk rejects this criticism and has said
the group exists to hold the radical line.
Recently, PETA have been accused of mass euthanasia
of animals within PETA owned shelters in violations with the euthanasia
laws of the state of Virginia. These actions have prompted the creation
of the no kill movement.
The group claims to have 6.5 million members and supporters, and
to have received donations of over $65 million for the year ending July
31, 2016, and its website was receiving 4 million hits a month as of
November 2008. Over 83 percent of its operating budget was spent on its
programs in 2015–2016, 15 percent on membership development, and 1
percent on management and general operations. Seven percent of its staff
earned under $30,000 and 56 percent over $45,000, and Newkirk made just
over $30,000.
Pacheco left the group in 1999. Its current leadership, in
addition to Newkirk, includes Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman,
Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo,
Senior Vice President of Communications Lisa Lange, Senior Vice
President of Media Campaigns Dan Mathews, and Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. Its honorary directors include Pamela Anderson, James Cromwell, Chrissie Hynde, Bill Maher, and, until his death in 2015, Sam Simon.
Campaigns and consumer boycotts
PETA's trademark "Lettuce ladies" in Columbus, Ohio
The organization is known for its aggressive media campaigns,
combined with a solid base of celebrity support—in addition to its
honorary directors, Paul McCartney, Alicia Silverstone, Eva Mendes, Charlize Theron, Ellen DeGeneres, and many other notable celebrities have appeared in PETA ads. Every week, Newkirk holds what The New Yorker
calls a "war council," with two dozen of her top strategists gathered
at a square table in the PETA conference room, with no suggestion
considered too outrageous.
PETA also gives an annual prize, called the Proggy Award (for
"progress"), to individuals or organizations dedicated to animal welfare
or who distinguish themselves through their efforts within the area of
animal welfare.
Many of the campaigns have focused on large corporations. Fast
food companies such as KFC, Wendy's, and Burger King have been targeted.
In the animal-testing industry, PETA's consumer boycotts have focused
on Avon, Benetton, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Chesebrough-Pond's, Dow
Chemical, General Motors, and others. The group's modus operandi includes buying shares in target companies such as McDonald's and Kraft Foods in order to exert influence.
The campaigns have delivered results for PETA. McDonald's and Wendy's
introduced vegetarian options after PETA targeted them; Petco stopped
selling some exotic pets; and Polo Ralph Lauren said it would no longer
use fur.
Avon, Estée Lauder, Benetton, and Tonka Toy Co. all stopped testing
products on animals, the Pentagon stopped shooting pigs and goats in
wounds tests, and a slaughterhouse in Texas was closed down.
As part of its anti-fur action, PETA members have infiltrated
hundreds of fashion shows in the U.S. and Europe and one in China,
throwing red paint on the catwalks and unfurling banners. Celebrities
and supermodels have posed naked for the group's "I'd Rather Go Naked
Than Wear Fur" campaign—some men, but mostly women—triggering criticism
from some feminist animal rights advocates. The New Yorker
writes that PETA activists have crawled through the streets of Paris
wearing leg-hold traps and thrown around money soaked in fake blood at
the International Fur Fair. They sometimes engage in pie-throwing—in January 2010, Canadian MP Gerry Byrne compared them to terrorists for throwing a tofu cream pie at Canada's fishery minister Gail Shea in protest of the seal slaughter, a comment Newkirk called a silly chest-beating exercise. "The thing is, we make them gawk," she told Satya magazine, "maybe like a traffic accident that you have to look at."
PETA has also objected to the practice of mulesing (removing strips of wool-bearing skin from around the buttocks of a sheep).
In October 2004, PETA launched a boycott against the Australian wool
industry, leading some clothing retailers to ban products using
Australian wool from their stores. In response, the Australian wool industry sued PETA, arguing among other things that mulesing prevents flystrike,
a very painful disease that can affect sheep. A settlement was reached,
and PETA agreed to stop the boycott, while the wool industry agreed to
seek alternatives to mulesing.
In 2011, PETA named five orcas as plaintiffs and sued SeaWorld over the animals' captivity, seeking their protection under the Thirteenth Amendment. A federal judge heard the case and dismissed it in early 2012.
In August 2014, SeaWorld announced it was building new orca tanks that
would almost double the size of the existing ones to provide more space
for its whales. PETA responded that a "larger prison is still a prison." In 2016, SeaWorld admitted that it had been sending its employees to pose as activists to spy on PETA. Following an investigation by an outside law firm, SeaWorld's Board of Directors directed management to end the practice.
Patricia de Leon worked with PETA in 2011 to reduce support for bullfighting among Hispanic people.
Some campaigns have been particularly controversial. Newkirk was criticized in 2003 for sending a letter to PLO leader Yasser Arafat asking him to keep animals out of the conflict, after a donkey was blown up during an attack in Jerusalem. The group's 2003 "Holocaust on your Plate" exhibition—eight 60-square-foot (5.6 m2) panels juxtaposing images of Holocaust victims with animal carcasses and animals being transported to slaughter—was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League,
which said, "the effort by Peta to compare the deliberate systematic
murder of millions of Jews to the issue of animal rights is abhorrent"
and "[r]ather than deepen our revulsion against what the Nazis did to
the Jews, the project will undermine the struggle to understand the
Holocaust and to find a way to make sure such catastrophes never happen
again." In July 2010, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that
PETA's campaign was not protected by free speech laws and banned it
within Germany as an offense against human dignity. The exhibit, however, had been funded by an anonymous Jewish philanthropist
and created by Matt Prescott, who lost several relatives in the
Holocaust. Prescott said: "The very same mindset that made the Holocaust
possible—that we can do anything we want to those we decide are
'different or inferior'—is what allows us to commit atrocities against
animals every single day. ... The fact is, all animals feel pain, fear
and loneliness. We're asking people to recognize that what Jews and
others went through in the Holocaust is what animals go through every
day in factory farms." And analogies between animal rights and the Holocaust had been initiated by the prominent Jewish author Isaac Bashevis Singer. In 2005, the NAACP
criticized the "Are Animals the New Slaves?" exhibit, which showed
images of African-American slaves, Native Americans, child laborers, and
women, alongside chained elephants and slaughtered cows.
PETA's "It's still going on" campaign features newspaper ads
comparing widely publicized murder-cannibalization cases to the deaths
of animals in slaughterhouses. The campaign has attracted significant
media attention, controversy and generated angry responses from the
victims' family members. Ads were released in 1991 describing the deaths
of the victims of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, in 2002 describing the deaths of the victims of serial killer Robert William Pickton, and in 2008 describing the murder of Tim McLean. In several cases, newspapers have refused to run the ads.
The group has also been criticized for aiming its message at
young people. "Your Mommy Kills Animals" features a cartoon of a woman
attacking a rabbit with a knife. To reduce milk consumption, it created the "Got Beer?" campaign, a parody of the dairy industry's series of Got Milk? ads, which featured celebrities with milk "mustaches" on their upper lips. When the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani,
was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000, PETA ran a photograph of
him with a white mustache and the words "Got prostate cancer?" to
illustrate their claim that dairy products contribute to cancer, an ad
that caused an outcry in the United States. After PETA placed ads in school newspapers linking milk to acne, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and strokes, Mothers Against Drunk Driving
and college officials complained it encouraged underage drinking; the
British Advertising Standards Authority asked that the ads be
discontinued after complaints from interest groups such as The National
Farmers' Unions.
In August 2011, it was announced that PETA will be launching a soft pornography website in the .xxx domain. PETA spokesperson Lindsay Rajt told the Huffington Post,
"We try to use absolutely every outlet to stick up for animals," adding
that "We are careful about what we do and wouldn't use nudity or some
of our flashier tactics if we didn't know they worked." PETA also used
nudity in its "Veggie Love" ad which it prepared for the Super Bowl
only to have it banned by the network. PETA's work has drawn the ire of
some feminists who argue that the organization sacrifices women's
rights to press its agenda. Lindsay Beyerstein criticized PETA saying
"They're the ones drawing disturbing analogies between pornography,
misogyny and animal cruelty."
Other campaigns are less confrontational and more humorous.
In 2008, it launched the "Save the Sea Kittens" campaign to change the
name of fish to "sea kittens" to give them a positive image, and it
regularly asks towns to adopt a new name. It campaigned in 1996 for a
new name for Fishkill, New York, and in April 2003 offered free veggie burgers to Hamburg, New York, if it would call itself Veggieburg.
PETA sometimes issues isolated statements or press releases, commenting on current events. After Lady Gaga wore a dress made of meat in 2010, PETA issued a statement objecting to the dress.
After a fisherman in Florida was bitten by a shark in 2011, PETA
proposed an advertisement showing a shark biting a human, with the
caption "Payback Is Hell, Go Vegan". The proposed ad drew criticism from
relatives of the injured fisherman. After Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer admitted that he had killed Cecil the lion
in Zimbabwe in 2015, PETA's president, Newkirk, issued a statement on
behalf of PETA in which she said: "Hunting is a coward's pastime. If, as
has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the
park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting
him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited,
charged, and, preferably, hanged."
Undercover work
PETA sends its staff undercover into research laboratories, factory
farms, and circuses to document the treatment of animals. Investigators
may spend many months as employees of a facility, making copies of
documents and wearing hidden cameras. By 2007, it had conducted 75 such investigations.
It has also produced videos based on material collected during ALF
raids. Some undercover efforts have led to lawsuits or government action
against companies and universities. PETA itself faced legal action in
April 2007 after the owners of a chinchilla ranch in Michigan complained
about an undercover inquiry there, but the judge ruled in PETA's favor
that undercover investigations can be legitimate.
One notable case led to a 26-minute film that PETA produced in 1984, Unnecessary Fuss.
The film was based on 60 hours of researchers' footage obtained by the
ALF during a raid on the University of Pennsylvania's head injury
clinic. The footage showed researchers laughing at baboons as they
inflicted brain damage on them with a hydraulic device intended to
simulate whiplash. Laboratory animal veterinarian Larry Carbone writes
that the researchers openly discussed how one baboon was awake before
the head injury, despite protocols being in place for anesthesia.
The ensuing publicity led to the suspension of funds from the
university, the firing of its chief veterinarian, the closure of the
lab, and a period of probation for the university.
In 1990, two PETA activists posed as employees of Carolina Biological, where they took pictures and video footage inside the company, alleging that cats were being mistreated. Following the release of PETA's tapes, the USDA conducted its own inspection and subsequently charged the company with seven violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Four years later, an administrative judge ruled that Carolina Biological had not committed any violations.
In 1990, Bobby Berosini,
a Las Vegas entertainer, lost his wildlife license as well as (on
appeal) a later lawsuit against PETA, after the group broadcast an
undercover film of him slapping and punching orangutans in 1989.
In 1997, a PETA investigation inside Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a
contract animal-testing company, produced film of staff in the UK
beating dogs, and what appeared to be abuse of monkeys in the company's
New Jersey facility. After the video footage aired on British television
in 1999, a group of activists set up Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty to close HLS down, a campaign that continues.
In 1999, a North Carolina grand jury handed down indictments
against pig-farm workers on Belcross Farm in Camden County, the first
indictments for animal cruelty on a factory farm in the United States,
after a three-month PETA investigation produced film of the workers
beating the animals.
In 2004, PETA published the results of an eight-month undercover
investigation in a West Virginia Pilgrim's Pride slaughterhouse that
supplies chickens to KFC. The New York Times reported the
investigation as showing workers stomping on live chickens, throwing
dozens against a wall, tearing the head off a chicken to write graffiti,
strangling one with a latex glove, and squeezing birds until they
exploded. Yum Brands, owner of KFC, called the video appalling and
threatened to stop purchasing from Pilgrim's Pride if no changes were
made. Pilgrim's Pride subsequently fired 11 employees and introduced an
anti-cruelty pledge for workers to sign.
In 2004 and 2005, PETA shot footage inside Covance,
an animal-testing company in the U.S. and Europe, that appeared to show
monkeys being mistreated in the company's facility in Vienna, Virginia.
According to The Washington Post, PETA said an employee of the group filmed primates there being choked, hit, and denied medical attention when badly injured.
After PETA sent the video and a 253-page complaint to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Covance was fined $8,720 for 16 citations,
three of which involved lab monkeys; the other citations involved
administrative issues and equipment. The company said none of the issues
were pervasive or endemic and that it had taken corrective action.
In 2005, Covance initiated a lawsuit charging PETA with fraud,
violation of employee contract, and conspiracy to harm the company's
business but did not proceed with it.
PETA also goes undercover into circuses. In 2006, it filmed
trainers at Carson & Barnes Circus—including Tim Frisco, the
animal-care director—striking elephants while shouting at them. The Washington Post
writes that the video shows Frisco shouting, "Make 'em scream!". A
company spokesperson dismissed PETA's concerns as "Utopian philosophical
ideology" but said the circus would no longer use electric prods.
PETA investigated angora rabbit farms in China in 2013. As CBS News
reported of the resulting video footage, "In the video, the rabbits'
high-pitched screams can be heard as farmers rip out their wool until
the animal is bald. The rabbits are then thrown back into their cage and
appear to be stunned and in shock." PETA claimed that 90 percent of the
world's angora comes from China, and retailers that carry angora did
not initially comment to CBS. Over the next two years, though, because of the investigation, more than 70 retailers, including H&M, Topshop, and Inditex (the world's largest retailer), discontinued their use of angora. Inditex donated its angora products, valued at $878,000, to Syrian refugees.
Between 2012 and 2014, PETA investigated sheep shearing sheds
used by the wool industry in Australia and the U.S., uncovering
"evidence of widespread animal abuse." In Australia, the group "sent
three undercover investigators to 19 different sheep shearing sheds run
by nine different contractors in three states." As NBC News
reported, "PETA charges that in Australia, workers for seven
contractors kicked, stomped or stood on animals' heads necks and hind
limbs, while workers for eight contractors punched or struck sheep with
clippers. One worker allegedly beat a lamb over the head with a hammer.
Workers for five contractors allegedly threw sheep and or slammed their
heads and bodies against floors." PETA also sent an investigator to "25
ranches in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Nebraska" and subsequently "asked
local authorities in two Colorado counties to file criminal charges
against a specific shearer because of alleged acts of abuse witnessed at
two ranches." Moffat County Sheriff Tim Jantz called the video evidence
"highly concerning" and launched an investigation.
In 2014, PETA conducted an undercover investigation of the horse-racing industry, filming seven hours of footage that, as The New York Times reported, "showed mistreatment of the horses to be widespread and cavalier." Noted trainer Steve Asmussen
and his top assistant trainer, Scott Blasi, were accused "of subjecting
their horses to cruel and injurious treatments, administering drugs to
them for nontherapeutic purposes, and having one of their jockeys use an
electrical device to shock horses into running faster." The newspaper
noted that this investigation "was PETA's first significant step into
advocacy in the horse racing world." In November 2015, as a result of PETA's investigation, Asmussen was fined $10,000 by the New York State Gaming Commission.
Robert Williams, executive director of the commission, said, "We
recognize PETA for playing a role in bringing about changes necessary to
make thoroughbred racing safer and fairer for all." By contrast, the
Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, which also received PETA's
allegations, found that Asmussen did not violate any of its rules.
Asmussen remains under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
After a thorough investigation, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission
did not bring any charges against Asmussen, stating the allegations "had
neither a factual or scientific basis." While the fine from the New
York State Gaming Commission was for a minor transgression, the most
serious charges were deemed unfounded.
Also in 2014, PETA investigated China's dog leather trade in the province of Jiangsu. As the Daily Mirror
reported, "PETA has obtained footage showing workers grabbing terrified
dogs with a metal noose, clubbing them then slitting their throats. ...
The video footage is too graphic to be shown here and is very
distressing to watch." The newspaper also noted that "this is the first
time that the production of Chinese dog leather has been captured on
camera." PETA claimed that "[p]roducts made from dog leather are exported throughout the world to be sold to unsuspecting customers."
In 2015, as The Washington Post reported, PETA investigated Sweet Stem Farm, a pig farm that supplies meat to Whole Foods.
The resulting video footage "featured images of pigs, some allegedly
sick and not given appropriate care, crowded into hot pens and roughly
handled by employees," contradicting both the farm's own video
self-portrait and Whole Foods' claims about "humane meat" (a term that
PETA maintains is an oxymoron). The Post notes that "[i]n the wake of the PETA investigation, Whole Foods has removed the Sweet Stem video from its Web site."
PETA subsequently filed a class-action lawsuit against Whole Foods,
"alleging that the chain's claims about animal welfare amount to a
'sham.'"
The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal magistrate, who ruled that the
store's signage "amounted to permissible 'puffery'" and that "the
statement that 'no cages' were used to raise broiler chickens was not
misleading merely because Whole Foods failed to also disclose that
poultry suppliers normally do not use cages in the first place."
Other PETA investigations from around this time focused on crocodile and alligator farms in Texas and Zimbabwe, a monkey breeding facility in Florida, pigeon racing in Taiwan, ostrich slaughterhouses and tanneries in South Africa, and a dairy farm in North Carolina, where cows were "wading knee deep through thousands of gallons of their own manure."
CBS News reported in November 2016 that PETA had captured footage
from restaurants that serve live octopus, shrimp, and other marine
animals. The group's video showed "an octopus writhing as its limbs are
severed by a chef at T Equals Fish, a Koreatown sushi restaurant in Los
Angeles." PETA noted that octopuses "are considered among the most
intelligent invertebrates" and "are capable of feeling pain just as a
pig or rabbit would."
In December 2016, PETA released video footage from an investigation at Texas A&M University's dog laboratory, which deliberately breeds dogs to contract muscular dystrophy.
PETA claims that for "35 years, dogs have suffered in cruel muscular
dystrophy experiments ... which haven't resulted in a cure or treatment
for reversing the course of muscular dystrophy in humans." The Houston Press
noted that "Texas A&M has been less than transparent about the
research, and in some cases has denied that the dogs experience pain or
discomfort." Among other efforts, PETA placed a billboard to oppose the
ineffectual research on animals.
Bio Corporation, a company that supplies dead animals for study
and dissection, was the subject of a November 2017 PETA undercover
investigation. It was claimed that video footage showed workers at the
company's facility in Alexandria, Minnesota
"drowning fully-conscious pigeons, injecting live crayfish with latex
and claiming that they sometimes would freeze turtles to death." PETA
brought 25 charges of cruelty to animals against the company. Drowning
is not considered an acceptable form of euthanasia, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, and its standards of humane euthanasia must be followed by companies certified by the United States Department of Agriculture such as Bio Corporation.
On 18 April 2018, the case was dismissed and all charges dropped based
on the Alexandria City Attorney's Office's assessment that the
allegations of cruelty against either pigeons or crayfish were not
sufficiently supported. Daniel Paden, PETA's director of evidence
analysis, said that PETA is "reviewing its options to protect animals
killed at Bio Corporaton."
On 1 May 2018, PETA released an investigation of the mohair
industry that led more than 80 retailers, including UNIQLO and Zappos,
to drop products made with mohair. The video evidence "depicts goats
being thrown around wood floors, dunked in poisonous cleaning solution
or having their ears mutilated with pliers. ... [E]mployees are shown
cutting goats' throats, breaking their necks, electrically shocking them
and beheading them."
Ag-gag laws
Various states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Utah, have passed so-called "ag-gag"
laws in order to prevent PETA and other groups from conducting
undercover investigations of operations that use animals. In response,
PETA and a coalition of animal-welfare groups brought a lawsuit, "citing
First Amendment protections for free speech," against Idaho that
overturned the state's "ag-gag" law in August 2015, setting a precedent that may help overturn these laws in other states. PETA, ALDF, and other groups are also currently suing the states of Utah, North Carolina, and Iowa. "Ag-gag" laws have been heavily promoted by the conservative think tank the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
In July 2017, a federal judge ruled Utah's ag-gag law an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment, in the case brought against the state by PETA and ALDF. Idaho appealed the case that it lost, in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,
but lost again in January 2018, after a two-year legal battle, as the
judges ruled that portions of the law were "staggeringly overbroad" and
"a classic example of a content-based restriction that could not survive
strict scrutiny." The Boise Weekly noted that the panel of
judges "upheld sections of the law about obtaining employment under
false pretenses, but came down hard against provisions criminalizing
videotaping or photographing inside agricultural facilities in Idaho."
On January 9, 2019, a federal judge struck down Iowa's "ag-gag"
law in a case that had been brought forward in 2017 by PETA and a
coalition of other groups, including ALDF, the ACLU of Iowa, and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. The Courier
noted, "The plaintiffs argued the law violated First Amendment
protections and equal protection clauses under the Fourteenth Amendment,
claiming the industry was working 'to suppress any unflattering
coverage of inhumane slaughterhouse practices, unsanitary factory
conditions and worker abuses' through legislation, and legislators were
attempting to suppress information from reaching the press by
prosecuting newsgathering activities." Senior Judge James Gritzner
rejected the defendant's arguments that the law "protects the state's
interests of private property and bio-security." The law had been passed
in 2012 "on the heels of exposes by animal welfare groups that found
pigs being abused at Iowa Select in Iowa Falls and mistreatment of
chicks and hens at Sparboe Farms."
Vegan outreach
PETA actively promotes a vegan lifestyle. The group argues, "From the
meat industry's rampant abuse of animals and environmental devastation
to the tremendous health benefits of a vegan diet to helping end world
hunger and deplorable working conditions in slaughterhouses, there are
countless reasons why more and more people are leaving meat off their
plates for good and embracing a healthy and humane vegan diet." PETA also argues that "every vegan saves nearly 200 animals per year"
and cites the United Nations as saying that "raising animals for food
is 'one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the
most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to
global'"
PETA offers free vegan starter kits, vegan mentoring, a large searchable database of companies that sell vegan products, and a wide range of vegan recipes. As Forbes
noted, the group also actively encourages stores and restaurants to
offer vegan options through its corporate outreach efforts; for
instance, in February of 2019, it persuaded Panda Express to add vegan entrées to its menu.
A follow-up piece in the same publication noted that "Panda Express is
hardly the first chain to alter its menu at PETA's urging. Across
America, restaurants from Panera to White Castle have altered their
menus, thanks, in part, to pressure by the animal rights group." The
article also cites Pieology, Olive Garden, Einstein Bros., Starbucks, and others as having "expanded animal-free offerings" because of PETA's outreach efforts. The group also asked politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to promote climate-friendly vegan food as part of the Green New Deal.
Euthanizing shelter animals
PETA opposes the no-kill movement,
attempts to address the animal-overpopulation crisis at its source
through spaying and neutering companion animals as well as by opposing
breeders and puppy mills, transfers adoptable animals to open-admission
shelters, and euthanizes most of the animals who end up at its "shelter
of last resort."
According to its 2014 recent filing with the Virginia Department of
Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), PETA euthanized 81 percent of
the animals who ended up at its shelter.
According to VDACS, PETA took 3,017 animals into its shelters in 2014,
of which 2,455 were euthanized, 162 were adopted, 353 were released to
other shelters, and 6 were reclaimed by their original owners.
The group justifies its euthanasia policies toward animals who are not
adopted by saying that it takes in feral cat colonies with diseases such
as feline AIDS and leukemia, stray dogs, litters of parvo-infected puppies, and backyard dogs and says that it would be unrealistic to follow a "no-kill" policy in such instances.
PETA offers free euthanasia services to counties that kill unwanted
animals via gassing or shooting—the group recommends the use of an
intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital
if administered by a trained professional and for severely ill or dying
animals when euthanasia at a veterinarian is unaffordable. The group recommends not breeding pit bulls
and supports euthanasia in certain situations for animals in shelters:
for example, for those living for long periods in cramped cages.
PETA's operation of an animal shelter has drawn intense scrutiny
from lawmakers and criticism from animal rights activists. In 2015, the Virginia General Assembly
passed a measure aimed at curtailing the operation of its shelter.
Virginia's Senate Bill 1381, enacted in March 2015, defines an animal
shelter as "a facility operated for the purpose of finding permanent
adoptive homes for animals." PETA opposed the legislation and risked losing access to euthanizing drugs if it did not comply with its requirements. The shelter, however, continues to operate legally.
In 2008, industry lobby group the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) formally petitioned VDACS, requesting official reclassification of PETA as a "slaughterhouse."
The CCF said in a news release that "[a]n official report filed by PETA
itself shows that the animal rights group put to death nearly every
dog, cat, and other pet it took in for adoption in 2006."
A spokesperson for the VDACS said that it had considered changing
PETA's status from "shelter" to "euthanasia clinic," citing PETA's
willingness to handle animals other shelters would not.
PETA has promoted legal initiatives to enforce existing
euthanasia laws. In 1990, Georgia's Humane Euthanasia Act became one of
the first laws in the nation to mandate intravenous injection of sodium
pentobarbital as the prescribed method for euthanizing cats and dogs in Georgia animal shelters. Prior to that time, gas chambers and other means were commonly employed. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin
was tasked with licensing the shelters and enforcing the new law,
through the department's Animal Protection Division. However,
Commissioner Irvin failed to abide by the terms of the law,
and instead continued to license gas chambers. PETA contacted the
author of the original legislation, and in March 2007, the Georgia
Department of Agriculture and Commissioner Irvin were sued by former
State Representative Chesley V. Morton. The Fulton County Superior Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs,
validating the terms of the Humane Euthanasia Act, with an injunction
prohibiting the department from issuing licenses to shelters using gas
chambers in violation of the act. When the department continued to
license a gas chamber in Cobb County, a second court action was brought, which resulted in the department being held in contempt.
Legal proceedings
Two PETA employees were acquitted in 2007 of cruelty to animals after
at least 80 euthanized animals were left in dumpsters in a shopping
center in Ahoskie, North Carolina,
over the course of a month in 2005; the two employees were seen leaving
behind 18 dead animals, and 13 more were found inside their van. The
animals had been euthanized after being removed from shelters in Northampton and Bertie
counties. A Bertie County Deputy Sheriff stated that the two employees
assured the Bertie Animal Shelter that "they were picking up the dogs to
take them back to Norfolk where they would find them good homes."
During the trial, Daphna Nachminovitch, the supervisor of PETA's
Community Animal Project, said PETA began euthanizing animals in some
rural North Carolina shelters after it found the shelters killing
animals in ways PETA considers inhumane, including by shooting them. She
also stated that the dumping of animals did not follow PETA policy.
In November 2014, a resident of Accomack County, Virginia,
produced video evidence that two workers in a van marked with a PETA
logo had entered his property in a trailer park and taken his dog, who
was then euthanized. He reported the incident to the police, who
identified and charged two PETA workers, but the charges were later
dropped by the commonwealth attorney on the grounds that it was not
possible to prove criminal intent.
The trailer park's manager had contacted PETA after a group of
residents moved out, leaving their dogs behind, which is why the workers
were on the property. The state later determined that PETA had violated
state law by failing to ensure that the Chihuahua, who was not wearing a
collar or tag, was properly identified and for failing to keep the dog
alive for five days before euthanizing the animal. Citing a "severity of
this lapse in judgment," the Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services issued PETA a first-ever violation and imposed a $500 fine. The
contract worker who had taken the dog was dismissed by PETA.
In 2015, PETA filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Celebes crested macaque monkey named Naruto, arguing that the animal was entitled to the copyright of a selfie photo he had taken while using the camera of a photographer named David Slater. The monkey selfie copyright dispute was originally dismissed by a federal judge who said a monkey could not own the copyright to a selfie. The photographer involved in the case was reported to be broke and unable to pay his attorney.
While he had originally made a few thousand pounds from the images,
enough to recoup his travel costs to Indonesia, this income was reduced
to about "£100 every few months" when the Wikimedia Foundation refused
to stop making the images available without his permission.
PETA and Slater reached an agreement by which the latter "will donate
25% of any future revenue derived from using or selling the monkey
selfie to charities that protect the crested macaques' habitat in
Indonesia."
Video games
PETA created Super Chick Sisters to discourage the sales of KFC, due to what they claim as Kentucky Fried Cruelty
PETA has also produced various Flash games showcasing its campaigns, including parodies of Cooking Mama, Super Mario Bros., Super Meat Boy, and Pokémon, in order to spread its message on animal welfare, vegetarianism and veganism.
One of the group's first notable satirical games, called Super Chick Sisters, parodying Super Mario Bros, was released in December 2007, in order to spread its idea of Kentucky Fried Cruelty. Within the game, KFC and especially Colonel Sanders is portrayed as evil and self-serving. The sequel, New Super Chick Sisters, featuring McDonald's and Ronald McDonald as the villain, was released in December 2009, in criticism of how McDonald's McNuggets were made.
PETA claims that McDonald's chickens have been treated poorly and said,
"There is a less cruel method of slaughter available today that would
eliminate these abuses, yet McDonald's refuses to require its U.S. and
Canadian suppliers to switch to it."
In November 2011, another satirical game was released featuring a skinned tanuki chasing Mario
to reclaim its fur from him. This was widely criticized as "absurd and
unresearched" by the gaming community, prompting PETA to explain that it
was a tongue-in-cheek effort to draw attention to the real-life issue
of tanuki being skinned alive.
Not all critical response to the games has been unfavorable. Mike Fahey of Kotaku opined that New Super Chick Sisters "manages to be a rather capable little platformer despite its heavy-handed message." Nikole Zivalich of G4TV called Super Tofu Boy "actually a pretty good time waster" and, as she is a vegetarian, claimed to be "on Team Tofu."
Overall, Mike Splechta from GameZone stated that "some are a little
less flattering than others, but they do tend to get their point
across." He also called Cage Fight "kickass", praising its gameplay and chiptune soundtrack, and encouraged readers to play it.
In some cases, the creators of the original games have responded to PETA's parodies. Such responses included Super Meat Boy developer Team Meat adding Tofu Boy as a playable character in a Super Meat Boy update, Majesco responding to Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals about the false information about the game characters' behaviour, and Nintendo criticizing abuse of its intellectual property with PETA's Pokémon Black & Blue game.
Ingrid Newkirk sent a letter of complaint to Nintendo about their minigame in the video game 1-2-Switch,
where you get to milk a cow. The letter says how Nintendo is "sugar
coating" the subject of cows being milked and is "unrealistic".
Person of the year
Each year, PETA selects a "Person of the Year" who has helped advance the cause of animal rights. In 2015, as Time magazine reported, the group selected Pope Francis, who took his name from the patron saint of animals, St. Francis of Assisi.
Ingrid Newkirk noted, "With more than a billion Catholics worldwide,
Pope Francis' animal-friendly teachings have a massive audience."
Previous PETA persons of the year include Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Russell Simmons, and Ricky Gervais. More recent picks include Mary Matalin in 2016 and the first nonhuman pick, the macaque Naruto, the subject of the monkey selfie copyright dispute, in 2017.
Positions
Direct action and the ALF
Newkirk is outspoken in her support of direct action,
writing that no movement for social change has ever succeeded without
what she calls the militarism component: "Thinkers may prepare
revolutions," she wrote of the ALF in 2004, "but bandits must carry them
out."
Not until black demonstrators resorted to violence did the national government work seriously for civil rights legislation ... In 1850 white abolitionists, having given up on peaceful means, began to encourage and engage in actions that disrupted plantation operations and liberated slaves. Was that all wrong? — Ingrid Newkirk, 2004
Newkirk is a strong supporter of direct action that removes animals from laboratories and other facilities—she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992 that when she hears of anyone walking into a lab and walking out with animals, her heart sings.
Newkirk commented to the Chronicle of Higher Education in 1999, "When
you see the resistance to basic humane treatment and to the
acknowledgment of animals' social needs, I find it small wonder that the
laboratories aren't all burning to the ground. If I had more guts, I'd
light a match."
In an interview for Wikinews (a sister project of Wikipedia
which is a news website) in 2007, she said she had been asked by other
animal protection groups to condemn illegal acts. "And I won't do it,
because if it were my animal I'd be happy." But she added that she does
not support arson. "I would rather that these buildings weren't
standing, and so I think at some level I understand. I just don't like
the idea of that, but maybe that's wishy-washy of me, because I don't
want those buildings standing if they hurt anyone ... Why would you
preserve [a building] just so someone can make a profit by continuing to
hurt and kill individuals who feel every bit as much as we do?"
Neutering, euthanasia, backyard dogs, working animals, and pets
PETA runs several programs though its Community Animal Project for
cats and dogs in poorer areas of Virginia, near its headquarters.
In 2014, the group sterilized 10,950 cats and dogs, including 851 pit
bulls and 584 feral cats, at a discounted rate or free of charge.
PETA also shelters neglected dogs and cats who are ill and injured,
pursues cruelty cases, and sets up doghouses with straw bedding for dogs
chained outside all winter. It supplied 340 doghouses, 1,000 bales of
straw, and 2,500 dog toys in 2013.
The group urges population control through neutering and adoption from
shelters and campaigns against organizations such as the American Kennel Club that promote the selection of purebred breeds.
PETA takes the following position on dogs and cats:
In a perfect world, animals would be free to live their lives to the fullest, raising their young and following their natural instincts in their native environments. Domesticated dogs and cats, however, cannot live "free" in our concrete jungles, so we are responsible for their care. People with the time, money, love, and patience to make a lifetime commitment to an animal can make an enormous difference by adopting an animal from a shelter or rescuing an animal from a perilous life on the streets.
Newkirk has stated that she doesn't use the word "pet," preferring the term "companion animal," and described PETA's vision:
For one thing, we would no longer allow breeding. People could not create different breeds. There would be no pet shops. If people had companion animals in their homes, those animals would have to be refugees from the animal shelters and the streets. You would have a protective relationship with them just as you would with an orphaned child. But as the surplus of cats and dogs (artificially engineered by centuries of forced breeding) declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship—enjoyment at a distance.
PETA claims that millions of dogs spend their lives chained outside
in all weather conditions or locked up in chain-link pens and wire cages
in puppy mills, and that even in good homes animals are often not well
cared for.
They would like to see the population of dogs and cats reduced through
spaying and neutering and for people never to purchase animals from pet
shops or breeders but to adopt them from shelters instead. PETA supports hearing dog programs in which animals are taken from shelters and placed in appropriate homes but does not endorse seeing-eye-dog
programs because, according to one of the group's vice presidents,
"[T]he dogs are bred as if there are no equally intelligent dogs
literally dying for homes in shelters." PETA also opposes the keeping of fish in aquarium tanks, suggesting that people view computer videos of fish instead.
Animal testing
PETA opposes animal testing—whether toxicity testing, basic or
applied research, or for education and training—on both moral and
practical grounds. Newkirk told the Vogue magazine in 1989 that even if animal testing resulted in a cure for AIDS, PETA would oppose it.
The group also believes that it is wasteful, unreliable, and irrelevant
to human health, because artificially induced diseases in animals are
not identical to human diseases. They say that animal experiments are
frequently redundant and lack accountability, oversight, and regulation.
They promote alternatives, including embryonic stem cell research and in vitro cell research.
PETA employees have themselves volunteered for human testing of
vaccines; Scott Van Valkenburg, the group's Director of Major Gifts,
said in 1999 that he had volunteered for human testing of HIV vaccines.
Clothing
PETA opposes the use of animals for producing clothing made with fur, leather, wool, or silk. It also opposes the use of down from birds and the use of silk from silkworms or spiders.
The group notes on its website: "Every year, millions of animals are
killed for the clothing industry—all in the name of fashion. Whether the
clothes come from Chinese fur farms, Indian slaughterhouses, or the
Australian outback, an immeasurable amount of suffering goes into every
fur-trimmed jacket, leather belt, and wool sweater."
The group's ongoing campaigns against the use of animals for clothing
include "Ink, Not Mink," which highlights images of celebrities with
tattoos, including Brandon Flowers of the San Diego Chargers and many others.
Autism and dairy products controversy
According to ScienceBasedMedicine.org, PETA has "a history of (as the
old saying goes) using science as a drunk uses a lamppost—for support
rather than illumination. In that way they are typical of ideological
groups. They have an agenda, they are very open about their beliefs, and
they marshal whatever arguments they can in order to promote their
point of view."
PETA claims on its website that "scientific studies have shown that many autistic kids improve dramatically when put on a diet free of dairy foods."
Studies such as these have been around for decades and are mainly
centered around the concept that behavioral differences between people
with autism and neurotypicals may be observed through a gluten-free diet. According to ScienceBasedMedicine.org:
Behavior in children, especially those with the challenge of autism, can be unpredictable. Unpredictable and variable symptoms lend themselves to confirmation bias, with a strong tendency to lead to the anecdotal experience that whatever is being looked for is real. For example, many parents believe that sugar makes their children hyperactive, when this is simply not true. ... The evidence for any effect on behavior is weak and likely not real. There is also no credible evidence to suggest that casein plays a causal role in autism. The evidence is overwhelming that autism is a genetic disorder. ... This is clearly, in my opinion, a campaign of fear mongering based upon a gross distortion of the scientific evidence. The purpose is to advocate for a vegan diet, which fits their ideological agenda. They are likely aware that it is easier to spread fears than to reassure with a careful analysis of the scientific evidence.
Even though the website cites studies, these studies are outdated, vague, relied on a very small sample size of children, were single-blind tests (which can be heavily influenced by an experimenter's bias), and conflated correlation with causation. The billboards put up by PETA promoting this research have also been considered offensive by many autistic individuals.
Wildlife conservation personalities
PETA argues that conservation personalities, such as Steve Irwin (pictured above), place animals under stress.
PETA is critical of television personalities they call self-professed
wildlife warriors, arguing that while a conservationist message is
getting across, some of the actions are harmful to animals, such as
invading animals' homes, netting them, subjecting them to stressful
environments, and wrestling with them—often involving young animals the
group says should be with their mothers. In 2006, when Steve Irwin died, PETA Vice President Dan Mathews said Irwin had made a career out of antagonizing frightened wild animals. Australian Member of Parliament Bruce Scott said PETA should apologize to Irwin's family and the rest of Australia. On February 23, 2019, PETA faced major backlash for criticizing Google for creating a Google Doodle of Steve Irwin to honor his 57th birthday. PETA stated on Twitter:
"#SteveIrwin was killed while harassing a ray; he dangled his baby
while feeding a crocodile & wrestled wild animals who were minding
their own business. Today’s #GoogleDoodle sends a dangerous, fawning
message. Wild animals are entitled to be left alone in their natural
habitats."
PETA Asia-Pacific
PETA Asia-Pacific was founded by Ingrid Newkirk in Hong Kong
in 2005 to support animal rights programs and campaigns in Asia. Jason
Baker, a former staff member of PETA who was involved in setting up PETA
India and PETA Australia, is PETA Asia-Pacific's first director. Its
offices are in Hong Kong and Manila.
It works through public education, animal cruelty investigations,
research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity
involvement, and protest campaigns. Its campaigns cover countries
including China, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea.
Vegetarian/vegan/factory farming
PETA Asia-Pacific promotes vegetarian and vegan diets through three
specific campaigns: education about the benefits of a vegetarian diet, demonstrations and celebrity involvement against fast food outlets,
and undercover investigations of animals used for live transport and
traditional religious slaughter. The organization has also used the PETA
Lettuce Ladies in local demonstrations. PETA Asia-Pacific regularly demonstrates against KFC outlets to promote better treatment of chickens used by the company.
Anti-fur
PETA AsiaPacific "naked" demo during Hong Kong fashion week
PETA Asia-Pacific supports the PETA campaign "I'd Rather Go Naked
Than Wear Fur," in which celebrities appear nude to express their
opposition to wearing fur. The group also stages anti-fur events to publicize its opposition to fur. PETA Asia-Pacific has been involved in several undercover investigations of fur farms in China.
Animals used for entertainment
PETA AsiaPacific anti-zoo demonstration
The group regularly protests the use of animals in entertainment,
including circuses. These demonstrations are specific to the area,
including anti-bull riding, not keeping wild animals in chains, stopping human–animal wrestling matches., and elephant polo. Allegations of animal cruelty surfaced in Thailand during the 2018 King's Cup Elephant Polo tourney.
Four days after an anti-polo PETA editorial ran in Bangkok's English-language newspaper, The Nation,
the Thailand Elephant Polo Association announced that it will end polo
matches in Thailand. The King's Cup Elephant Polo tourney had been held
annually at Anantara Hotel Bangkok owned by Minor Hotels.
Other campaigns
PETA Asia-Pacific also coordinates protests against other uses of
animals it believes are abusive, including rats, which it seeks to
improve the treatment of, and also advocates for improvements for companion animals.
In 2016, PETA Asia-Pacific shocked customers with a fake pop-up shop in
Bangkok called The Leather Work, which seemed to specialize in "luxury"
leather bags, shoes, and other clothing and accessories. Inside the
items, though, were what appeared to be the gory flesh, sinews, beating
hearts, and blood of animals slaughtered for such items. According to
the Asian Correspondent, the stunt caused shoppers to jump back
and gasp in horror. PETA claims "to have found workers in crocodile
farms 'sawing open reptile's necks while the animals are still alive'"
and that "snakes and lizards are cruelly 'nailed to trees' or
'decapitated' before being 'skinned alive.'"
PETA India
PETA India, based in Mumbai,
was founded in January 2000. According to the group's website, it
focuses principally on "investigative work, public education efforts,
research, animal rescues, legislative work, special events, celebrity
involvement and national media coverage."
The group has launched investigations of jallikattu events, circuses that use animals in performances, and filthy horse stables in Mumbai,
among others. The investigation of 16 circuses in India over a
nine-month period "revealed that animals used in circuses were subjected
to chronic confinement, physical abuse, and psychological torment" and
also led the Animal Welfare Board of India to "ban registration of elephants for performance in view of the cruelties and abuse suffered by them."
In 2015, with support from celebrities such as Paul McCartney and Pamela Anderson,
PETA India rescued a 14-year-old male elephant named Sunder, who had
been kept captive in chains "at a temple in the Kolhapur district of
Maharashtra for seven years." Sunder was transferred to Bannerghatta Biological Park, a forested sanctuary, where he can roam freely in the company of other elephants.
Indian celebrities who have collaborated with PETA India include Shahid Kapoor, Hema Malini, and Raveena Tandon, among many others.
Animal Rahat
PETA India is affiliated with Animal Rahat ("Rahat" means "relief"), a
nonprofit organization that "was created to make a difference in the
lives of working bullocks, donkeys, ponies, horses, and other animals."
It's located in the sugar-mill district of Sangli,
India, and is dedicated to providing "free aid to bullocks who work in
sugar mills, donkeys who are used in the brick kilns, horses who pull
carts, and other working animals" as well as helping "animals' owners,
who are often too poor to afford the sustenance necessary to maintain
animals' health and strength, pay for veterinary care in times of
illness and injury, or give their animals time for rest and
recuperation."
The group, which began its work in 2011, "has worked to ensure that
over 7,000 bullocks primarily employed in Maharashtra's sugar factories
were replaced by mini-tractors."
Domain name disputes
In February 1995, a parody website calling itself "People Eating Tasty Animals" registered the domain name "peta.org". PETA sued, claiming trademark violation, and won the suit in 2001; the domain is currently owned by PETA.
While still engaged in legal proceedings over "peta.org", PETA
themselves registered the domains "ringlingbrothers.com" and
"voguemagazine.com", using the sites to accuse Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Vogue of animal cruelty. PETA later surrendered the domains under threat of similar legal action over trademark infringement.
Position within the animal rights movement
Robert Garner
of the University of Leicester writes that Newkirk and Pacheco are the
leading exporters of animal rights to the more moderate groups in the
United States—both members of an animal rights elite that he argues has
shaken up the animal rights movement, setting up new groups and
radicalizing old ones.
Philanthropedia
says of the group: "A very controversial organization, PETA is known
for bringing into public view the plight of animals of many different
kinds. They have brought many issues to the front of people's
consciousness about inhumane treatment of animals even though many
experts find their marketing and communication tactics a bit extreme at
times." The site's summary of expert opinion on the organization's
strengths is as follows: "PETA is highly visible, consistent, and well
organized. According to experts, they are very tightly focused on their
mission and they are able to generate media attention to the cause."
Specific experts consulted by Philanthropedia, including
academics and senior staff members of other nonprofits, made the
following observations about the group's position within the animal
rights movement:
- "PETA is not afraid to tackle any kind of animal abuse issue. They often start working on something well in advance of other organizations, take the 'heat' for others for years while educating people about the thing they're exposing. Then eventually, once a critical mass understands about the issue, it becomes 'mainstream'. I've seen this happen on a number of issues over the years, including fur, vegetarianism, animal research, wool, leather, etc."
- "Students name PETA more than any other organization concerning which group influenced them to make positive personal changes and also be activists."
- "PETA regularly convinces companies to replace their animal testing with non-animal alternatives as well as helping animals who are found living in cruel conditions in the pet and other industries. Their high profile campaigns result in many people becoming vegetarian and vegan."
- "They have brought many issues to the front of people's consciousness about inhumane treatment of animals even though sometimes the way it is done is a little overboard. They have moved the bar from what was considered unthinkable 25 years ago (e.g., humane treatment of laboratory animals) to being considered normal and expected."
- "I don't think one can talk about the animal movement without mentioning PETA. They put the issue ON the map. Whether agreeing or disagreeing with their tactics, [there] is no denying that they are probably one of, if not the, most-well known animal group. And if taken outside the animal movement, that they are a well-known 'brand' in general. That is an amazing impact for a so-called 'fringe' issue."
- "Without PETA, the number of people who have even HEARD of animal rights/welfare/protection would be reduced by at least half, in my best guestimate."
Despite the group's successes, there has been criticism of PETA from
both the conservative and radical ends of the animal rights movement.
Michael Specter writes that it provides for groups such as the Humane Society of the United States the same dynamic that Malcolm X provided for Martin Luther King, or Andrea Dworkin for Gloria Steinem—someone radical to alienate the mainstream and make moderate voices more appealing. The failure to condemn the Animal Liberation Front
triggers complaints from the conservatives, while the more radical
activists say the group has lost touch with its grassroots, is soft on
the idea of animal rights, and that it should stop the media stunts, the
pie-throwing, and the use of nudity. "It's hard enough trying to get
people to take animal rights seriously without PETA out there acting
like a bunch of jerks," one activist told writer Norm Phelps. However,
Phelps continued: "But it's hard to argue with success, and PETA is far
and away the most successful cutting-edge animal rights organization in
the world, in terms of both membership and spreading the animal rights
message to the public at large."
The ads featuring barely clad or naked women have been criticized by some feminist animal rights advocates. When Ronald Reagan's daughter Patti Davis posed naked for Playboy,
donating half her $100,000 fee to PETA, the group issued a press
release saying Davis "turns the other cheek in an eye-opening spread,"
then announced she had been photographed naked with Hugh Hefner's dog for an anti-fur ad. In 1995, PETA formed a partnership with Playboy to promote human organ donation, with the caption "Some People Need You Inside Them" on a photograph of Hefner's wife.
The long-standing campaign, "I'd rather go naked than wear fur," in
which celebrities and supermodels strip for the camera, generated
particular concern.
Newkirk has replied to the criticism that no one is being
exploited, the women taking part are volunteers, and if sexual
attraction advances the cause of animals, she is unapologetic.
Asked in 2007 how she feels when criticized from within the movement,
she said: "Somebody has to push the envelope. If you say something that
someone already agrees with, then what's the point, and so we make some
more conservative animal protection organizations uncomfortable; they
don't want to be associated with us because it will be embarrassing for
them, and I understand that. Our own members write to us sometimes and
say, 'Oh why did you do this? I don't want anyone to know I'm a PETA
member.'"
If anybody wonders 'what's this with all these reforms?', you can hear us clearly. Our goal is total animal liberation, and the day when everyone believes that animals are not ours to eat, not ours to wear, not ours to experiment [on], and not ours for entertainment or any other exploitive purpose. — Ingrid Newkirk, 2002
Gary Francione,
professor of law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, argues that PETA is
not an animal rights group—and further that there is no animal rights
movement in the United States—because of their willingness to work with
industries that use animals to achieve incremental change. This makes
them an animal welfare group, in Francione's view: what he calls the new
welfarists. A proponent of abolitionism,
Francione argues that PETA is trivializing the movement with what he
calls the "Three Stooges" theory of animal rights, making the public
think progress is underway when the changes are only cosmetic.
However, like Francione, PETA describes itself as abolitionist.
Newkirk told an animal rights conference in 2002 that PETA's goal
remains animal liberation: "Reforms move a society very importantly from
A to B, from B to C, from C to D. It's very hard to take a nation or a
world that is built on seeing animals as nothing more than hamburgers,
handbags, cheap burglar alarms, tools for research, and move them from A
to Z ..."
Francione has also criticized PETA for having caused grassroots
animal rights groups to close, groups that he argues were essential for
the survival of the animal rights movement, which rejects the centrality
of corporate animal charities. Francione writes that PETA initially set
up independent chapters around the United States, but closed them in
favor of a top-down, centralized organization, which not only
consolidated decision-making power, but centralized donations too. Now,
local animal rights donations go to PETA, rather than to a local group.
Some members of the animal-rights movement have responded that
Francione's position with respect to groups engaged in actual fieldwork
is unnecessarily divisive and hurts animal advocacy.
