I’m a very small-time hobby breeder of purebred Border Collies–about as small as you can get and still be “a breeder”–yet in 2008 I found more homes for dogs than the entire PeTA organization. I bred one litter of 6 puppies in-house and my dog Dublin studded a litter of 2 puppies for another breeder. All 8 puppies found permanent homes and all of them are happy and healthy in those same homes today, four years later. That’s an 8-for-8, 100% success record for producing dogs people wanted and matching those puppies with great homes.
In that same year, PeTA took in 2,216 dogs and found homes for only 7 of them. They have an operating budget of over $35 million dollars, 300 employees, and over 2 million members and yet they failed to find homes for 99.68% of those dogs. In fact, they killed 84% of those dogs within 24 hours of receiving them leading to a final kill rate of 95.8% of all dogs they got their hands on, a staggering 2,124 dead dogs. That’s basically killing more than 9 dogs every working day and only finding a home for one dog every other month.
I’ve never killed a healthy dog nor caused one to be killed. I’ve never contributed to the shelter or rescue population. No dog that I’ve ever owned or bred has ever placed a burden on taxpayers, charities, or volunteers. None of the dogs I’ve bred are dead and none of them took a home from a hopeful PeTA dog. How could they have when PeTA slaughtered almost every dog they acquired before they went home from the office on the day those dogs came in?
PeTA pulls stunts like this to make you blame breeders like me for the dogs they kill. If Westminster were a PeTA shelter, then the dogs in Best In Show would survive and every other dog in the arena would be slaughtered.
Since 2008 the two-thousand-one-hundred-and-twenty-four dogs PeTA “embraced” that year have done nothing but rot in a landfill. The 8 dogs I helped enter the world in 2008 have since won trophies in dog sports, comforted the sick and elderly, greeted customers daily at a popular business, appeared in a motivational poster, worked thousands of cattle, advanced science by participating in multiple studies, starred in commercials for a popular dog toy, won a photography contest, been featured in a high end art gallery in watercolor, helped train dozens of other dogs with their professional dog trainer owners, and brought immeasurable joy to me and their new families.
Yet PeTA has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get you to blame me for the dogs they kill. To put one year’s worth of their killing in perspective, here’s their abysmal record for 2008. Killing almost every single dog you get your hands on is not ethical treatment, it’s mass slaughter. Don’t support PeTA and their evil agenda.
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Anton
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OMG…..that is definitely not “ethical” in my book….being that they are People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals….I find this piece disgusting. Shame on them! I think people are now starting to see through their hypocrisy now….but that budget is staggering.
These are the people who equate eating chicken with the Holocaust… because they seem animal life as ‘just the same’ as human life.
And they murder nearly every animal they get their hands on, just for being homeless. What kind of monsters does that make PETA, by their very own ‘moral’ standards?
Yeah, you know, I kind of get that animals feel pain just as people do, and feel fear, etc. The only thing is people’s fears are based on a better knowledge of the details of their lives. Eg: If they are told they have cancer they can visualize and feel out what that means, and anticipate what the future holds. Dogs are happily clueless on those fronts.
But to compare chickens to the holocaust truly is revolting. I stopped eating meat for almost two decades because the large scale treatment of living things as factory commodoties, sickened me. Seeing live animals hung up on mass assembly lines is cold and frightening. Still, the HOLOCAUST? Ugh. That comparison is not not buying them my membership.
Your own personal story shows the difference between personal choice and deceptive activism. There are many legitimate reasons that individuals can use to tailor their lives, but that’s not what PeTA does, they don’t appeal to knowledge and choice, they use every sleazy advertising technique to dupe people. Even worse they distort their own position and cover up their own extremism.
George Carlin used to say “You may not believe this, but I LIKE people…individually. In groups, they are fearful and chaotic.”
Of course he became one bitter bastard as he got older, but he was brilliant at clearing up the insane behaviors of humans.
PETA is one of those groups I think of when I think of Carlin’s words. George, I miss ya!
Chris wonder how many pure bred breeders can make the same claim? I know that when put in such context: I too are more successful placing what I have bred. Like you small hobby breeder. I know personally very closely who likewise can make the same claim.
It might be off topic slightly, but it is my understanding the bodies of the dogs are sold to some dog food cpmpanies. Would really like to get correct information on this.
By PeTas Standards I too,have found more homes for dog than they have. But I have not bred a litter since 1987 and all the dogs I bred have since died. I never got a return, but I did get some others’ castoffs and rehomed them too.
My latest was what I would have called a pit bull who wandered into our yard and stayed. After advertising him at the pound and on craig’s list and putting him through every test I could think of, I was ready to keep him, but my next door neighbor had a cousin who was living alone and wanted a dog. I took the dog over, they hit it off. Good yard.
I detest PeTA. I love posts hating on them in a constructive way.
Kate Williams recently posted..Breeding dogs, past and future.
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-industry-exposed/dogs-meat-meal/
This was exposed some years ago?
Heck, I’ve saved more dogs than that in a WEEK and I don’t have hardly any time or budget.
I had read that before, it is just sickening. PETA has an objective of ending pet ownership, whether pure breed or mixed breed; they just don’t care. They believe all those dogs are better off dead than living as someone’s well-loved companion animal.
This is one reason why I believe really understanding how dogs and humans co-evolved to have our relationship is very important. We didn’t enslave dogs, both humans and dog ancestors found mutual benefit in working together and that bond has grown over thousands of years. PETA would like to rewrite history and see dogs simply gone from the Earth because they are not wild animals. They are a very negative force in the animal rights world on a lot of levels. They try to hide their true motives from people and the end result in this case was the needless death of a lot of good potential pets who could have found homes.
From what I’ve seen no other animal works with us so WILLINGLY and happily as the dog.
Horses, yeah, they are enslaved.
Any more recent figures than for 2008?
Yes, here are the full statistics for recent years:
2007: http://www.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi?link_select=facility&form=fac_select&fac_num=157&year=2007
2008: http://www.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi?link_select=facility&form=fac_select&fac_num=157&year=2008
2009: http://www.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi?link_select=facility&form=fac_select&fac_num=157&year=2009
2010: http://www.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi?link_select=facility&form=fac_select&fac_num=157&year=2010
2011: http://www.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi?link_select=facility&form=fac_select&fac_num=157&year=2011
You can manipulate the year number in the web address to go back even further.
Pets Killed by PETAYear Received Transferred Adopted (Adopted %) Killed (Killed %)
2011 1,992 34 24 1.21% 1,911 95.9%
2010 2,345 63 44 1.86% 2,200 93.8%
2009 2,366 31 8 0.34% 2,301 97.3%
2008 2,216 34 7 0.32% 2,124 95.8%
2007 1,997 35 17 0.85% 1,815 90.9%
2006 3,061 46 12 0.39% 2,981 97.4%
As you can see, they have failed to adopt out more than 2% of their intakes since 2006 and have killed more than 90% each of those years. The only thing keeping their kill rate from being 98%+ is the animals they transfer to other facilities.
I came to this blog only recently, so I apologize for being late to the party . . . I checked out the web pages linked above and the statistics are different than what you’ve described in your post. Have the statistics been revised since you originally wrote this entry? Curious if they were.
No, the numbers haven’t changed, just add the dog and cat numbers. PeTA adopted only 3 cats and 4 dogs the entire year, while killing 2,124 dogs+cats. I mistakenly referred to both dogs and cats as if they were dogs.
Great reference finds! Now, what exactly IS their excuse for this? The only thing I have ever heard, and this sounds crazy enough for me to believe when it comes to PETA, is that the PETA folks figured the dogs were better off dead than being risked in the hands of other humans, who they figure will just let the dogs down again anyway, returning them to some shelter.
Is that it? Or is there something else to it entirely?
PeTA has run multiple “Better Dead than ___” campaigns, insert “Bred” or “Fed” and you’ll see just how radical they are.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/saunders/article/Better-dead-than-fed-PETA-says-2626614.php
Oh wow. “We don’t have the money!” HAAAA HA HA HA HA! Such a joke. These people are rich!
If they aren’t, they need to fire those who handle their funds because they sure have a big enough membership and donation pool. But they won’t get one red cent from me!
Also, since they’re basically anti-human they see 90% of people as unfit to care for animals (since their standards for animal care are basically to treat them like a human being). In that regard, they totally do feel the animal is better off dead than living in a ‘subhuman’ state as a pet.
Fantastic article. I love the graphic poster as well as all of the links to primary resources.
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Shifting blame does not make you any less guilty of overpopulation than other breeders who do not home their dogs. Whether you like it or not, breeding takes potential homes away from shelter animals. It has nothing to do with PETA’s kill rate (which is obviously wrong anyway).
You are trying to draw attention away from your own faults by using an extreme example of gross ethical misconduct by a charity that has a lot of problems, but still does some good in some places.
You could’ve as easily FOSTERED those 8+ dogs you claim you found homes for, and then found homes for then. Then you’d be commendable. But no, for those 8+ BRED pups, you have distinguished the possibility of 8+ homes right there, for shelter animals.
So, you’re not fooling me. Shame others are too blind to see the obvious blame shift.
Also, my dog won in a dog photo competition too…and he’s a rescue. Using such things as an example of what the dog you re-homed have done just adds more to your desperation tbh.
“Whether you like it or not, breeding takes potential homes away from shelter animals”
How does breeding take a home away from a shelter animal? Please explain that to me.
Scenario – I want a dog. I won’t go to a shelter. YOU in your self righteous attitude cannot convince me to. I get a dog from a breeder. How has that breeders pup taken away a shelter dog’s home?
I have volunteered with rescue 30 years. If you deny that there are a good portion of people who WON’T get a rescue dog you’re being idiotic.
I thought calling PeTA a charity was the funniest thing about this post.
What is the blame shift here when a totally out of touch person states: responsible breeders take homes away from Charity Shelter animals. If the lack of comprehension of the true situation were not so sad it might be funny. Just because they have a 501C does not make them a charity. Remember every time you adopt an animal from a shelter a healthy well bred animal that is not butchered with too early spay/neuter lost a home as well. In my opinion, those that adopt from shelters support irresponsible breedings.
Nationwide statistics show that nearly half of shelter dogs are ‘pit bulls’ or large mixes and 3/4ths are mixed breeds (probably more than that, seeing as how shelters are notorious for giving purebred labels to dogs that don’t even resemble that breed). People pointing outraged fingers at those who breed pretty much any type of purebred as being the cause of those unwanted dogs are frankly so ignorant of the situation as to be unfit to make any sort of commentary about it.
Granted and correct those yelling and pointing fingers would not know one breed from another. I have witnessed this on a first hand breed rescue more than once with many reports over the years of similiar situations. People have bought into the PETA propaganda without any regard to the many responsible breeder programs. How can they call it Humane to spay/neuter a puppy three months and younger? It is a fact that these young dogs need those hormones for growth and developement especially bone. Humane …really?
Hmmm. But you are killing animals. By breeding more dogs into this world–even though MILLIONS die in shelters every year–you are killing a dog in a shelter. It’s simple mathematics. Those “homes” you place your border collies in could have adopted a shelter dog–but instead the shelter dog dies. PETA humanely euthanizes 2000 dogs according to your report here–but 4 million are euthanized each year in America. PETA is not the root of the problem. You are. Stop breeding. If you love finding homes for dogs–head to your local shelter and find homes for those dogs. Their lives literally depend on it.
Hrmmm, but I’m NOT killing animals. And it’s not simple mathematics. There is no cosmic population control that forces one dog to die the moment a new dog is born. It is not a zero-sum system.
And it’s not simple, especially for an idiot like you. It’s clear you don’t even HAVE the math capability to even begin to model the fluid dog population situation. Do you have differential calculus? Can you comprehend a complex stochastic process, let alone design a series of first order differential equations to model it? Who are the clients and who are the servers in this model? What’s the product? Is it more realistic to use a continuous or discrete time model.
You can’t even comprehend basic cause and effect, so no, I have zero faith that you could even begin to attempt to DESCRIBE the great complexity of what happens with the dog population in this country (and outside of it since there is a non-trivial amount of importation of dogs as well).
You’ve already failed the most basic of observations: there is a huge and complex series of events that separate where dogs are bred from where they die, and why, and which dogs, and when. You want to draw an ignorant and offensively stupid line directly from breeders to shelters. This ignores everything else. This is asinine.
I don’t pay homes to take my dogs. They PAY me. They make a free and rational choice to get a puppy from me versus buying a used dog from a shelter. I didn’t put those dogs in the shelter and I don’t prevent anyone from rushing to get one.
Nor do the people who choose my puppy condemn shelter dogs to death. There is only one party to blame for those dogs dying: the people who KILL them instead of finding them homes. That’s really where the buck stops. We can blame the people who surrender the dogs, but they are surrendering them to a group who claims that they can help, that they can rehome those surrenders. But they fail to. So they are liars and incompetent. THAT is where the blame belongs for the dogs being killed, at the hands of the people who kill them.
I do not “humanely euthanize” shelter dogs. I humanely GIVE dogs life and humanely FIND them families and humanely support the health and well being of those dogs for their entire lives. I humanely select their parents to give them the best odds of being physically and mentally healthy and superb animals. What I do is humane. What PeTA does is KILL animals because they want to. In fact, when you look at the actual detail behind the numbers I posted in this article, you’ll see that I was wrong to credit PeTA with 7 dog saves. They had 7 dog+cat saves. They didn’t even save 10 total animals in the entire YEAR.
It’s a free country and no one ASKED PeTA to kill animals. No one NEEDS them to slaughter animals and then throw them in the trash. Vegan wack jobs think that slaughtering animals and then eating them and using their flesh to improve human lives is unethical. Well what are the ethics of slaughtering adoptable pets just because you hate the concept of pet ownership and ditching those animals in a dumpster?
I didn’t claim PeTA was the root of the problem, rather they are institutional serial killers who kill animals only because they want to, and for no other reason. This is selective animal abuse on an institutional level. They are monsters.
No a responsible breeder is not killing other dogs as they will always take back there own & the dog someone buys from a breeder may not be findable in the shelter system either.
You are all nuts honest to god if noone breed at all soon there would be NO dogs at all.