Here we go!!!!!

[flvegan]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1555864&mesg_id=1555864

[livinginphotographs]

1. Unbelievable....

A sick individual does something disgusting, but because he used to be linked to PETA, it becomes "they were dumping bodies."

Do these people think before they post, or are they just so blinded by anti-PETA hysterics?

It's like the rednecks who drive giant monster trucks with Bush stickers all over them; meat-eaters who are so vehemently anti-PETA obviously feel inadequate about something.

[shockra]

3. Blinded by anti-PETA hysterics.

I'm having trouble getting into it. I'm afraid this is going to go on for weeks and weeks. Once CCF and animalrights.net and People for the Eating of Tasty Animals and whatever the hell else gets their hands on this, it will be spread as far and wide as the common cold.

Ugh.

[4_Legs_Good]

9. I think most anti-peta/anti-veg stuff comes from inner guilt

They won't admit it and probably don't even realize it, but I *KNOW* it was true for me. I used to use all the stupid anti-vegetarian arguments you can think of (from God made animals for us to eat to peaches are alive too!) for years before I became a vegetarian, and I can honestly say the reason I did it is because I DID feel that inner guilt and had since I was like 6 years old. I could never stand to see anything die, and yet I kept eating meat. I think I always understood (even at that early age) that it was wrong (for me), and I think the guilt festers from there.

Anyway, maybe they just hate animals.

david

[AFSCME girl]

2. Yep, I saw this too....

:eyes:

[smbolisnch]

4. I can't even read the responses in that thread.

They, and they general attitudes of most of the people on it, are the reason I hardly post here anymore. This is certainly not a place for open minded people. :mad:

[Piperay]

10. Same here

I used to spend most of my Internet time at DU but lately I only check in every once and awhile. I have become very disenchanted, I really lost my enthusiasm for DU when someone MISREAD one of my posts and then had the gall to call me a 'bitch'. Yeah I got their post deleted but the whole thing left a very bad taste in my mouth and apprehension about posting, who needs that kind of aggravation. :-(

[smbolisnch]

13. Understand completely. I think we are in the same boat.

I read this sub-group frequently and post in the occasional pet photo-op in the lounge, that's about it. It sucks that some people on DU can ruin it for everyone. :(

[Catchawave]

5. Reporting in from PETA, Smithfield and Purdue- Land ...oy.

With all these "headquarters" here, you better believe it's headline news in Southeast Virginia. The Hog and Chicken CEO's don't sleep at night, so am sure those corporations are feeding the media frenzy.

Ingrid is in damage control, it really is a digusting situation, I'm just hoping this wasn't done to bring attention to those NC shelters still using gas chambers. I hope her investigation is resolved quickly, and it wouldn't surprise me if these employees turn out to be corporate plants.

I'm very bothered by the "bag full of dead puppies" recovered from a dumpster. Whoa, A DUMPSTER! That is so NOT PETA.

I posted earlier this week a thread about the heat/suffocation related death of 513 hogs at a Smithfield farm. It was originally moved from LBN to the Virginia DU Forum, and I reposted it here.

Funny thing is, those 513 hog deaths were considered LBN
:shrug:

[Catchawave]

6. Update - WAVY news (NBC affliate)

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=3482974

[shockra]

8. I noticed how fast they transferred that story!

Smithfield and PETA have a history, as Smithfield doesn't exactly have a humane record of treating animals. That's a OP that could have used some discussion.

http://www.wavy.com/global/story.asp?s=3421627&ClientType=Printable

[shockra]

7. I posted this PETA administrator response.

It helps clarify a few things:

http://streetteam.peta2.com/public/folder_view.cfm?pageid=341&option=view_thread&postid=1243205&folderid=728

It is against PETA’s policy to put the bodies of animals in dumpsters, and we are appalled that a member of our staff apparently did that. There is no excuse for that and, despite the fact that she is a caring soul, we have suspended her from work.

PETA has always supported and spoken openly about euthanasia. It is easy to throw stones at those doing the dirty work for society, but euthanasia is a necessary evil until the massive animal overpopulation problem can be solved. We invite anyone who can offer a home to any animal, pay for one or a hundred spay/neuter surgeries, or persuade others not to go to a pet shop or breeder, to please join us in doing these things. In the last year, we have spayed/neutered more than 7,600 dogs and cats, including feral animals, many free of charge and all others at well below our own costs. Support for this program is much needed.

To clarify, we do not run an adoption facility, although we do place animals, approximately 360 in the last year, despite having run out of friends and family members to approach. We are a “shelter of last resort,” taking in and giving a painless death in loving arms to animals who would otherwise have been shot with a .22 or gassed in a windowless metal box, which is what happened in North Carolina before PETA offered free euthanasia services to agencies there. North Carolina has the second highest rate per capita of euthanasia in the country—35 animals killed annually for every 1,000 residents—and most do not die a humane death. Sadly, the shelters we work with have no adoption programs or hours set aside for adoption. At the Bertie County dog shelter, residents were throwing unwanted dogs over an 8-foot-high fence, where they became infected or injured by other sick or aggressive dogs from whom they could not escape. Bertie County also had no facility for cats and used to let them go to breed in the woods and fend for themselves until PETA built a shelter for them this year. PETA has begged for years, through formal proposals and numerous meetings to have the county allow PETA to implement an adoption program as part of a larger picture of sheltering that would also include a spay neuter program, a humane education program, 24/7 emergency services, and rabies clinics.

We try never to take in adoptable animals unless we know we have a home for them—only those who are mange-covered, have parvovirus, are injured, old, unsocialized from life on a chain, or unwanted and for whom there are no good homes available. We also work at the roots, spending more than $240,000 in one North Carolina county alone, to provide shelter in winter for animals left out in the cold, to spay/neuter, to get vet care for animals in dire straits, to send Bertie County’s one animal control officer to professional training, to pay a cleaner to maintain two shelters, and much more.

We have always outspokenly advocated fixing the problems of overpopulation through practical methods. Sadly, those stories don’t get coverage in the media.

We urge you to look closer and do your part to help us help these animals. For information and resources on how to do that, visit www.HelpingAnimals.com .

There's also a recent feature about their work in NC.

http://www.helpinganimals.com/f-nc.asp

[Merope215]

11. Yeah

That was quite a thread. And by "quite a thread," I mean, "kind of made me want to tear my hair out." They really got a load off their chests in there. :eyes:

[shockra]

12. The reality of NC shelters is really gruesome.

Yet the people expressing outrage at the PETA employees are spared the brutal details of how much worse the other reality is. I found some other PETA links about NC, and a story done by the Charlotte Observer linked on a PETA page which led to proposed legislation. The link is cached since I couldn't get through without a subscription.

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:nPGUiQ9TCxgJ:www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/special_packages/pets/6195320.htm+death+at+the+pound+charlotte+observer&hl=en&start=1&ie=UTF-8

No home, no hope

Animals in the Charlotte region are killed at more than twice the national average

MICHELLE CROUCH & SCOTT DODD

Staff Writers

<snip>

Charlotte's shelter, the region's largest and best-funded, kills about 70 percent of the animals that enter its doors, all by lethal injection. And the numbers are going up, even as they drop around the country.

The percentage of animals killed in surrounding counties, usually by carbon monoxide, is even higher.

Caldwell killed 91 percent of dogs and cats at its shelter in 2002. Gaston killed 90 percent and Iredell 89 percent.

Rural Anson County, east of Union, kills almost every animal at its shelter. It has one animal control worker who has to shut down the facility every time he goes on a call.

In county after county, the explanation is the same: Officials say they don't have the money and can't make animals a priority at a time when growth is increasing the need for human services such as police and schools.

PETA page on Yadkin County, NC.

http://www.peta.org/feat/yadkin/

Moreover, Yadkin County has a mandatory kill policy, prohibiting adoptions, supposedly because of a fear of rabies. However, the county dedicates no resources to enforcing North Carolina law requiring that animals be vaccinated against rabies. The excuse? Money, which, of course, would be collected if violators of the state rabies law were fined as warranted!

Conditions for animals before they are destroyed are equally cruel. The rundown structure that animals are housed in offers little to no protection from harsh wind, freezing or scorching temperatures, rain, and snow and more often than not is covered in urine and feces. Small, weak animals are housed in cages with aggressive large animals, who bully the smaller animals and prevent them from eating or drinking. Food bowls are not used at the facility, so food is simply thrown on the ground, contaminated by feces, urine, dirt, and water, creating a disgusting health hazard for the animals. The water buckets provided for the animals appear to be too tall for small dogs to reach, and the water is often foul and black with mold and filth. Cats are forced to sit on wire in small cages.

Bertie County, North Carolina

http://www.all-creatures.org/aip/nl-20feb2001-peta.html

In July 2000, PETA received some shocking photographs of an animal shelter in Bertie County, North Carolina. Photos showed a starving dog eating a dead kitten and a dying dog lying in a pool of water, barely able to lift her head. PETA immediately contacted county officials and a PETA shelter specialist met with officials to discuss ways to improve the situation quickly.

*******

These links are a couple years (or more) old, so some things have changed. Many of them due to PETA. But PETA is being blamed, through these two employees, for NC not spending enough on animal welfare! Talk about no good deed going unpunished. The employees who "promised to find homes" for the animals they picked up were probably trying to make the shelter and vet clinic people feel better, knowing full well that the reality was different.

And those turning animals over probably knew full well PETA's reason for being there, since it's primarily to provide humane euthanization. But the PETA employees apparently tried to spare their feelings, as people would usually want to do for those who wish the best for the animals, and those turning them over wanted to believe them. It's not PETA's fault they can't be all things to all people. PETA can't wave a magic wand and give every animal a happy home. Even if they had a billion dollars.

[Catchawave]

14. Yes, the anti-Peta people aren't looking at the big ....

picture on that thread. We just need to keep repeating the inhumane atrocities many homeless animals are destined for in many small towns across the country.

Peta's in the news, and it's always what's behind the headlines that's more disturbing. It should be an interesting investigation for what it will expose other than two "dumb" employees. Hmmmmm?

[shockra]

15. The ugly truths intentionally don't get much attention.

The worse things are, of course, the more the MSM will strain to put a big, big happy face on the situation. And Americans want to feel good about themselves so they prefer that version.

I watched a Dateline NBC last week called Pet Nation, and it was obscene. All about the ways Americans pamper their pets. Americans *love* their pets! was repeated over and over. And to prove it, they showed all the pet boutiques that are now in existence. Cameron Diaz dropping a few grand on cashmere sweaters for her dogs. People buying diamond studded earrings for their dogs, doggie mink coats (?!), $3,000 bottles of doggie perfume. Even testicular implants for dogs that had been neutered, generally sized bigger than their original pair. :eyes:

People who had taken their dog to a taxidermist to have it freeze-dried. Someone who had paid $43,000 on a stem cell treatment for her dog who had cancer. A $20,000 dress-up party for animals. The one of maybe two bright spots in the whole show was that it was also a fundraiser for a local shelter.

The best thing about it was probably the poll that said 73% of pet owners would go into debt to save their pet if it had a medical problem. I couldn't help but think of that Lounge thread not too long ago, asking people if they'd blow $5,000 on vet bills.

I never would have caught that show if someone in GD hadn't mentioned watching a Dateline that day with Bush being portrayed as a dog lover. Yup, he was. He admitted he talked baby talk to his dog and sometimes kissed him.

The show was especially mind boggling when you consider that it could have been done about how *bad* so many pets have it in this country, which would have actually been useful. The abuse, neglect, illegal fighting, millions of pets abandoned at shelters and euthanized -- or just abandoned, puppy mills, etc. But...no.

[Catchawave]

16. That thread won't die !

I can't respond to the OP anymore, just not worth risking a tombstone!

[shockra]

17. Yeah.

I was starting to get punchy last night.

And with ALL the information provided in that thread, you still have people posting totally ignorant things and hyperbole about how PETA is the most evil place in the world, bar none.

When my blood pressure is in danger of getting too high, I usually scan right and read the posts by allies first, then back up and read the nonsense. That immunizes me to an extent for what I'm about to read.

Or...I ignore the posts by people who piss me off until I feel like dealing with them. Sometimes I never read them at all because I've reached my limit. And let's face it, oftentimes they're better off being ignored because there's absolutely nothing you can say to them that will make a difference.

[flvegan]

18. Notice the post count.

I smell breeder, with a hatred for anti-breeder PETA.

[Catchawave]

19. Finally....the mod locked the thread

...whew, I needed the break :)

[shockra]

20. Well, don't look now but...

Your PETA contributions at work (graphic photo)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3902621

[Beaverhausen]

21. That one just got locked too

geez...what is it with that guy?

wait till he finds this group!

[livinginphotographs]

22. I have my own suspicions about him.

There's no point arguing with people like that. They're too busy screaming for PETA's head to calm down enough to actually discuss the issue at hand.

[Catchawave]

23. Yes, I agree.....

Peta's definitely against No Kill Shelters too, so s/he may be bitter about that.

The trouble is, imo, I don't think a dog or cat spending their life in a cage is humane either. From what I understand, No Kills don't accept every homeless animal either, so more die in municipal pounds.

I wish we could control "animal pimps" (breeding for money) first, but we get defeated everytime, because "I don't cause the pet overpopulation problem, I'm a responsible breeder." :banghead:

[flvegan]

24. If I may, please read this:

It's an article about the kill v. no-kill shelter issue. It's written by a friend of mine, and this page has been quoted by numerous shelters across the country:

http://www.forthevoiceless.org/sheltertruth.html

Their website is under reconstruction, so ignore the dust and dead links.

[livinginphotographs]

25. Great article, and that's a very good point.

Certain posters accuse PETA of being moral elitists while praising these no-kill shelters who do just as much finger-pointing as anyone else.