The Facts About PETA US’ Animal Shelter
Veterinary services in the US are extremely costly. There is no People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals – and many people are unemployed and unable to get benefits even for themselves. PETA US’ single shelter in Virginia steps in to help by offering guardians end-of-life euthanasia services for their companion animals at no charge. Animals who are sick, hurt, elderly, or otherwise at death’s door, as well as those who are too aggressive, unsocialised, or impossible to place, are given a peaceful release from the world when called upon to do so. Front groups for the meat and fur industries, circuses, laboratories, and other animal-exploiting outfits distort this compassionate aspect of PETA US’ shelter in an attempt to further their anti-animal agenda, protect their own profits, and distract and divide the animal rights movement.
One of these groups is the cunningly named Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), which is run by lobbyist Richard Berman and funded by KFC, Outback Steakhouse, Philip Morris, cattle ranchers, and other groups that cruelly kill millions of animals every year – and actually bring animals into the world just to kill them. The CCF devotes considerable time, energy, and money to trying to make people believe false and misleading information about those who are trying to protect animals as well as those who are working to combat other forms of social injustice.
An Animal Shelter of Last Resort
At its headquarters in Virginia, PETA US operates a “shelter of last resort” for the most damaged animals in the impoverished local community. When families with no to low income can’t afford euthanasia services at a veterinary clinic, PETA US will help. When aggressive, unsocialised dogs have been chained and left to starve with collars embedded in their necks and their bodies racked with mange, PETA US will spare them the misery of a slow and agonising death at the back of someone’s yard. As Virginia officials speaking of PETA US’ open-door policy acknowledged to USA Today:
PETA [US] will basically take anything that comes through the door, and other shelters won’t do that.
Stopping Animal Homelessness at Its Source
PETA US’ shelter never turns its back on animals who need help, even if the best we can provide them with is a peaceful release from their terminal conditions. But what you don’t hear from the animal-abuser lobby is that PETA US also works vigorously every single day to prevent healthy animals from ending up abused, homeless, or euthanised, which also saves lives.
What the CCF reports don’t include are the stories of the adoptable animals PETA US has transferred to high-traffic open-admission shelters, where they’ll have the best chance at being seen and finding a new home. It doesn’t suit CCF to share the stories of the tens of thousands of animals whose lives PETA US has improved and saved – by providing free desexing surgeries, sturdy doghouses stuffed with straw, nutritious food for “outdoor” animals, counselling and support for families so that they can keep the animals they thought they had to give up, and much more.
PETA US also spends millions to stop the animal-homelessness crisis at its roots, because it believes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Its fleet of mobile clinics has sterilised more than 133,500 animals free of charge or for a token fee over the last 15 years – preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from being born into a world that’s already bursting at the seams with unwanted and homeless animals. That’s the real story.
It also provides hands-on help to people in indigent communities who don’t have transportation and/or access to veterinary care (and most could not afford it, even if it were available). Every year, PETA US helps keep countless animals out of overburdened shelters by providing free sterilisations and shots as well as counselling to help people work through perceived obstacles to keeping their animals. And when a natural disaster strikes, like a tornado, hurricane, or flash flood, you’ll find PETA US staff out there (sometimes in boats!) going door to door, delivering food, and getting animals to safety.
Learn more about PETA US’ work for animals:
