PETA Praises, Proselytizes, Persistent, Pontificating Pussycat

Well, now, this is interesting.

On January 13th I wrote a letter to PETA that I sent thru their automated contact system on their website since there didn't appear to be any other way, short of Snail Mail, to send it.

It was a letter related to my essay on behalf of a word. ;-D

I added 2 updates to the post.

By the 17th I'd only received a form letter response, in addition to an email from a reader that led me to add an update, as well as links to a couple of sites exposing some disturbing information about PETA, in my sidebar.

On the 25th I received a follow-up form letter, the gist of which was to invite me to make contact.

See Dear PETA, May I Have a Word?

So I did.

After sending a Tweet, armed with 2 new e-mail addys, I wrote a letter that was sent to the writer of their Blog, and to an "Info" contact, address to PETA President Ingrid Newkirk who, afterall, supposedly had written me twice.

I began as follows:

Dear Ingrid, 

It's me, Nikita!

It was so nice of you to write me 2 times since receiving my letter of a couple of weeks ago. 

Your genuine concern that  I'm enjoying my involvement with PETA, and your eager invite to "share your experiences with PETA on Facebook", and  encouragement of "don't hesitate to let us know if you have any questions", which kindly included an e-mail, were greatly appreciated ;-D

Your affirmation that you looked forward to "working alongside you in this important fight for animals" has encouraged me to remind you of the letter I sent, in case you might have forgot about it during your busy day....

 And I again included the Dear PETA letter. ;-D

Imagine my surprise when I got a response within hours. ;-D

As I've written:

One of the reasons I blog is to spread information about my fellow Felines that will help educate not just Daddy, and I, but any Cat, or Human, that comes across this blog....

 

Felines, and their Humans, owe it to themselves to become as informed as best they can so that we can understand just what those organizations that claim to help us are doing.

 

For those reasons I am sharing the letter I got from PETA, links, and all. ;-D

 

As you will see...the letter begins in such a way as to prove that, this time, a real person read it, and responded. ;-D

 

 

Received from PETA, at 1115am, on 1/26/10:

 

 

 

Hello,

Thank you for contacting PETA.

We appreciate the time you took to share your clever blog entry with us, and it has been passed along to the appropriate staffers here.

We would like to share some information with you about the “PETA Kills Animals” campaign, which you mentioned on your blog.

This campaign is the work of the deceitfully named Center For Consumer Freedom (CCF), a front group for Philip Morris, Outback Steakhouse, KFC, cattle ranchers, and other animal exploiters who kill millions of animals every year—not out of compassion but out of greed. These companies are worried about the strides that PETA is making that are changing their industries and compelling them to take animal welfare concerns seriously, so they hope to scare people away from caring about animals by spending millions on ads like this. To learn more about CCF—whose Web site USA Today said should be renamed “FatforProfit.com”—please see the following Web sites:

What is the Center for Consumer Freedom, and Why is it Attacking PETA?

CREW Files IRS Complaint Against The Center for Consumer Freedom Alleging Violations of Tax Exempt Status

Richard Berman claims to help the average consumer. In fact, he works for corporate America.

Despite its deceptive intent, we’re grateful for the opportunity that this campaign provides to discuss the animal overpopulation crisis. We are on the front lines in the battle to help unwanted dogs and cats, and we need your help.

Our caseworkers work tirelessly to rescue homeless animals from environmental dangers and situations of cruelty and neglect. Our staff members crawl through sewers, poke around junkyards, climb trees, and dodge traffic in order to reach animals in danger. During floods and storms, we are out saving animals’ lives at all hours.

Some of the animals who are rescued by PETA are lost companions; we are always happy to return such animals to their homes. PETA does not operate an animal shelter, but we do foster many healthy homeless animals (often in our own homes) or take them to animal shelters to await adoption. The reality is that thousands of adoptable animals are euthanized every day in animal shelters and veterinary offices across America because of a lack of good homes. To learn more, visit "PETA'S work helping animals in North Carolina".

Most of the animals we receive are broken beings for whom euthanasia is, without a doubt, the most humane option; to learn more, please see our factsheet.

To cite a local instance, our caseworkers were able to gain custody of a dog—locked to a 15 pound chain—who was starved until she was severely emaciated. We had to carry her into the emergency clinic because she could barely walk. On the doctor’s advice, we gave her food and water in a comfortable room and monitored her progress overnight but, by the next morning, she couldn’t keep the food down, so we rushed her again to see a veterinarian.  He recommended euthanasia due to the severity of her condition, she was in a lot of pain and faced an agonizing, lingering death otherwise. The most humane option for her was a peaceful and dignified release from her suffering. We pursued criminal charges against those responsible for her condition, leading to their convictions for cruelty to animals. To learn more, please see "Asia's Story".

On another occasion, when a power-line transformer explosion burned a flock of starlings, PETA was the only agency to come to the birds’ aid; if our trained technicians had not been ready to end these starlings’ misery, the injured birds would have suffered in agony for days before finally succumbing to a painful death. We also provide free euthanasia services for local residents who have very sick, critically injured, or geriatric companions but can’t afford to take them to a veterinarian. One family, lacking money for vet care and transportation, turned to us for help for their cat, who had barely crawled back home after being mauled by a pack of dogs. We were able to help by giving the cat a peaceful end to her intense pain.

The best way to save the lives of homeless animals is to reduce their numbers through spay/neuter programs, such as PETA’s mobile spay-and-neuter clinics, which bring low-cost and free alterations and other procedures to low-income neighborhoods. Since every animal purchased from a pet store or breeder means that another homeless animal must die, adopting an animal from a shelter or rescue group is the only responsible way to bring a furry friend into your life.

The letter ends with an encouragement to learn more about PETA, and "how you can help",  by checking out pages tell of ways to save homeless animals, more ways to help Cats, and Dogs,  and become an advocate for animals thru PETA.

The letter is signed-off this way:

Thanks again for writing and for your compassion for animals. We look forward to working with you to save animals’ lives!

Sincerely,

The PETA Staff

Now, there will be some folks out there who will point out, especially if they have received similar letters, or read articles about such letters (As I have), that this is typical of how PETA operates.

I do not know as this is the 1st time I've corresponded with them so only have 3 letters to judge by. ;-D

Because someone took the time to read my letter, and blog post, and claimed to pass it all along to "appropriate staffers", I have chosen to believe this, and to return the courtesy, and share their response so that you, the readers of this blog, can do as I, and Daddy, will continue to do...gather information that will help, us, and you make informed decisions about who we, and you, choose to believe, and support, when it comes to activism on behalf of animals.

There is a lot of information out there, about a lot of organizations, and the links collection I've been building in my sidebar does not even begin to scratch the surface.

Now, I can only hope that someone will actually, finally, respond in depth to my essay, and letter, on a word. ;-D

 

Comments

[Melvin and Zoey at Mouchois]

Congratulations!

This is GREAT news!

I'm still on the fence about them.

I think more in a way that several, more "antagonistic" activists, blackened their repertoire.

Hopefully they do the right thing by you, and your wonderful letter!

[Everycat]

At least an ape replied!

I think it rather rude of them to use their reply to bang on about their own PR issues.

Some aspects of PETA work for me, they are radical on occasion and welfare is an issue that needs a bit of radicalism now and again to get people to take notice.

I don't see them doing anything to support activism against everyday issues such as the campaign to ban elective declawing of domestic felines (38 countries of the world have already banned it) or tackling unethical veterinary practices that are rife globally.

Maybe that's too much to ask of them when they can't even acknowledge that a change of language might change the world for the better - huh, pussies*

Congratulations on the great reviews your blog got and thank you for the kind words and purrs to us on the loss of our darling Angel

Whicky Wuudler

*used in the modern and wrong idiom there, sorry, couldn't resist ;)

[Alexi]

Your Daddy is RIGHT!

PETA is an awful organization that does not want to rehome animals.

Instead they want to end all companion animals.

NO animal should be loved by a bean according to PETA.

They do indeed run animal "shelters" and they have the highest rate of euthanasia in the USA.

WE have the same button on our sidebar.

PETA Kills animals- NO DOUBT about it!