2007_01_28_archive

PETA could do better

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is under scrutiny

after two employees were caught dumping animal carcasses in a

supermarket dumpster in South Carolina. This caught many people by

surprise, including many donors.

To be fair, PETA's explanation was that these animals were being

treated inhumanly at a local animal shelter, and that there had been

reports that this animal shelter was using cruel methods to euthanize

unadoptable and unadopted animals, and that PETA had stepped in to

administer humane euthanization to the unwanted pets. They explained

that they do not have enough resources to prevent having to euthanize

many animals, and that there are far too many abandoned animals

nationwide for PETA to take care of or protect.

One could conceivably argue that this situation is the result of the

virtual abandonment of the organization's animal rescue mission, and

the allocation of funds to support radical activities and the

anti-carnivore movement. PETA has, in recent years, become a

social/political activist organization rather than an animal rescue

operation. However, many long-time and large scale donors to PETA

support the organization with the understanding that it is an animal

rescue operation.

The real problem is that the scale on which PETA is trying to operate

its animal rescue operations is much too large. PETA is a global

organization, with few supported local community operations. One need

only to look at the federal government's social welfare programs to

see how inefficient this type of organization can be. Many non-profit

organizations, such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army, realized long

ago that it is far more efficient to operate local community

organizations, rather than trying to take care of everything on a

national level.

In Colorado Springs, for instance, we have an excellent animal rescue

organization called Dream Power, which avoids by every possible means

the need to euthanize animals. Usually, the only time an animal is

euthanized by Dream Power is when it has become too ill to treat.

Dream Power gets most of its funding from local donors, and is

supported by several local vetenary clinics that donate time and

services for spaying and neutering, medications, and vaccinations.

PETA would do better to allocate some of their funding to local

organizations such as Dream Power, rather than trying to keep up with

the cost of the attorneys they need to hire as a result of some of

their radical activities.