PETA’s campaigns work because they’re impossible to ignore. They get people thinking and talking about the fact that our choices — such as what we order for lunch or whether we adopt our animal companions from shelters or support the greedy breeding industry — have a direct, life-or-death impact on animals. When the media reports on our activities, people flock to PETA.org to order free vegan starter kits and learn more about these issues.
Experience has shown that an attention-grabbing or controversial campaign can mean the difference between the animals’ plight being ignored and it making front-page news. Our head-turning demonstration outside the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show helped people make the connection that Westminster has the blood of homeless dogs on its hands. That’s because every year, breeders (including puppy mills) crank out litter after litter to cash in on the demand for whichever breed is named “best in show.” Every one of these dogs steals a desperately needed home from a pup waiting in a shelter.
Of course, much of PETA’s lifesaving work doesn’t make headlines. We work with policymakers at major corporations to improve slaughterhouse conditions, to end the use of fur and to replace deadly tests on animals with sophisticated, humane methods. We help secure prosecutions against people who abuse their animal companions or who beat pigs with metal gateposts, we’ve sterilized more than 161,000 animals at low to no cost to their guardians, we give free vegan food to the needy, and much more.
PETA has something for all tastes, and I invite caring students to visit PETA.org to learn more and get involved.
Kenneth Montville
PETA Manager
WILLIAM A JANZER
Kenneth Montville is one step close to a domestic terrorist ask him about the death threats they sent to a student researcher and her child at Yale.
Kodi Cumbo
PETA's concern for shelter animals is touching considering the high kill rate of the shelters it operates itself. The ethics of breeding standards and associated health problems aside, the problem with PETA's "controversial" campaigns isn't really their shock value. It's the sheer insensitivity they like to cash in on. "Dead dogs" are distasteful, but the "KKKrazy Protest" from '09 is offensive and tone deaf, to say nothing of classics such as the "Holocaust in your plate" campaign. PETA's antics may start discussions, but I've never personally seen them start productive discussions. Usually just a baffled "wtf?" or an offended and counterproductive reflexive dismissal. PETA is as much empty pageantry as the dog show they were protesting, and even more harmful on balance to the animals themselves.
Beth Lanier
PETA has made it their mission to destroy "Pit Bulls". There is no such thing as a "Pit Bull" and it is the OWNER - not the BREED - but they continue to support BSL, euthanasia and the ELIMINATION OF ANY DOG THAT CAN BE CALLED A PIT BULL. I cannot support that.