OK, so this is funny. You all know about PETA by now, right?
There are literally hundreds of websites that point out how many animals they kill, how they don’t believe that any pit bulls coming into a shelter should be allowed to live, that all feral cats should be killed, and how they are anti no-kill – claiming that no kills shelters just hoard animals and the animals live in terrible conditions as a result. Sigh. Yawn.
If you’re new to all of this, you can look at some statistics. No lies. Not made up. They can be found on PETA’s own website, they don’t deny the truth. They claim all the animals they were called out to help couldn’t be saved. That there are no homes for them. Or that they were sick. or that they have behavior issues. Or a million other reasons that don’t make any sense to those of us doing it every single day.
Take a look at their published stats:
So why this blog? Well, recently they sent me an email – taking Pets Alive to task and explaining how WE could do things better. I actually fell off my chair I was laughing so hard. Really. Many of you might think it would make me mad, but I found it absolutely hysterical. The organization that is the KING OF KILLING is giving US an admonishment and an offer of help for how we could do things better. Giggle. C’mon. It’s hysterical. They then go on to tell us four principles to saving lives. Giggle again. Ok, not a giggle…a guffaw. I spewed coffee out of my nose.
I needed this. I really did. It has been a long few weeks and this is hysterical. I attached a screenshot of their email to us, below. (You can click for it to open to a larger size for easier legibility). I then cut and paste my response below the letter. Enjoy.
Dear Teresa,
Let me first correct some of your incorrect statements and clarify some items.
Items 2 through 4 of your letter, we already do and do so well that we are asked to teach others how to do them. As to item #1, let me teach you a little more about who we are.
First of all, Pets Alive is not affiliated with Pets Alive Austin, San Antonio, or any other Pets Alive organizations other than our three locations: Pets Alive Middletown, Pets Alive Westchester and Pets Alive Puerto Rico. We have been around for over 30 years.
Second of all, we are not a No Kill animal shelter. We are a No Kill animal SANCTUARY. Please take some time to understand the difference between a shelter and a sanctuary. At Pets Alive, we have an extensive behavior modification and rehabilitation program. We do not provide local animal control, nor do we do many public intakes. Rather, our goal is to be a resource for shelters that do not wish to murder the animals in their care. This is a “win-win.” Those shelters, when they run out of space or have a special needs animal, can contact us and we work with them to either place the animal or take the animal in here.
Last year for instance we saved the lives of 3,500 animals, including many animals that shelters would have killed without even trying to find them a home. Think about that: We saved 3,500 animals on a budget a fraction of PETA’s. Our revenues last year were about $850,000. At the same time, PETA took in about $35,000,000, took in less than 2,000, but killed almost nine out of 10 of them. By way of comparison, if we had your revenues, we could have saved 144,118 animals. How is it possible you could not even save 200? You claim they were all “unadoptable,” but many if not most of our animals are also classified as “unadoptable” and yet we saved them.
Over the years, this includes over 78 animals from a terrible situation in West Virginia. Some animals were dead; some were covered with mange; most needed critical emergency medical care. We saved every single one and every single one was adopted.
We also helped 120 beagles when the vivisectors that were cruelly and inhumanely testing on them went bankrupt. PETA would have likely killed every one of those poor souls, but Pets Alive didn’t. We took them in, worked with them, gave them love adopted out all 120 animals – not a single life lost and all are still happy in their forever homes.
When storms in Baton Rouge, LA, decimated the area leaving hundreds of animals homeless and the local shelters inundated, we took in over 140 of those animals and not a single one died–they are all living in loving homes and with families today.
Another time we took in 135 animals from a situation down in Arkansas. Many of those animals had no social skills at all and two were deemed aggressive. At least half of them had serious medical issues. We took them all in, vetted them and taught them the needed skills to be adopted. All are in homes today. Not a single life lost.
When the Animal Care & Control in NYC started mass killing kittens during kitten season we started our ITTY BITTY KITTY campaign and in two weeks we took in HUNDREDS of kittens and, you guessed it, we saved EVERY SINGLE ONE! All were scheduled to be killed by the pounds you celebrate, but all are now in homes today thanks to a No Kill sanctuary you vilify. When an elderly woman here in town died and left 50 cats behind, local animal control called us and together, with other organizations, we saved every single one of them.
When a puppy mill shut down leaving over 220 dogs behind, we moved in and once again saved every single one of them.
I would like to make you an offer. Allow my team to visit PETA and evaluate your protocols. Allow my team unfettered access to your “shelter” to evaluate the animals you kill. And allow my team to teach your team how to save, rather than end, the lives of animals. Together, we can make PETA what its members erroneously think it is: an organization filled with people who love animals. Because as it stands, you cannot torture the definition of the word “love” to encompass their mass slaughter. In the end, killing an animal is not an act of love. It is an act of violence. And it is time for PETA to end the violence it inflicts on animals.
Kerry Clair
Executive Director/President
Pets Alive Animal SANCTUARY
PetsAlive.org
P.S. To learn about our other programs and services, visit http://petsalive.com/programs.html.
You’ll see many programs we have in place, all dedicated to helping SAVE lives. Not end them.
Yeah.
I think they lost that battle.
::blowing on nails and rubbing chest::
Of course my initial response was just going to be “BITE ME”….and those of you that know me, or read my blogs, know that’s true, but as a friend says “This was a LEARNING experience”…and they needed a little education about what and who we are. They will of course have no response, nor will they take us up on our offer. Keep in mind that they sent cameras down here and video…and they came back with nothing.
In all their attacks on no-kill you also never see PETA mention that there are 100 no kill open admission shelters out there. Why don’t they ever bring them up? ENTIRE communities that take in every animal that come to their door and NEVER kill them. OVER a hundred and doubling every year. Isn’t it odd they never mention those at ALL?
OK, well I’ve had my laugh of the day. Come on at us PETA. We’ll spank you and send you on your way every time.
Awesome response Kerry, I was blown away! I can only imagine PETA’s response. You guys have an amazing model. Keep up the good work.
go Kerry-what an awesome response!!!
Thanks for what Pet’s Alive does!!
Makes ALL the difference in the world.
PETA, ASPCA & HSUS need to take all the pages out of your book!!
What great work you are doing…
STILL doing….
Can you clear something up?
There is a lot of conflicting information floating around.
You said ‘there are 100 no kill open admission shelters out there”.
There are at least five no-kill shelters within a reasonable distance from me, they have been here quite a long while, but none are open admission.
What exactly is the definition of ‘open-admission?’and does it apply to every situation?
OMG…never mind.
I didn’t realize who you were.
Delete delete
Bravo, thanks for the work you do.
I probably would have taken the “bite me” route, but your response is awesome.
Great work! Put them in their place.
THANK YOU..THANK YOU..THANK YOU.. I AM SO GLAD YOU HAVE SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT.. PETA, ASPCA & HSUS, SHOULD INDEED TAKE A PAGE OUT OF YOUR BOOK.. THEY HAVE THE PUBLIC FOOLED WITH ALL THEIR SELF DEMAGOGUERY AND NEED TO BE EXPOSED FOR WHAT THEY TRULY ARE AND HOW THEY SPEND THE DONATIONS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FOR THE ANIMALS..
So proud of you Kerry and of what you do. We could so use your help down here -there are many lessons to be learned from your experience, wisdom and all out love for the animals. Add to your list the 85 dogs and puppies that you have saved from the Cayman Islands for which there are no words to express how grateful I am to you and your fab team. We love you and the fight in you!
You are correct, to educate everyone is to save every life cherished by those giving souls who work with unwanted animals. Also important to honour the committed citizens who donate time and money because they believe in a better world for animals and humans. I love how you perfectly articulated the facts regarding the end results
of killing innocent animals. There is so much everyone who keeps or handles animals must know. In particular respect & how to communicate without the advantage of words. I love everything you stand for! Lead on!!!!!!!
Hi Kerry,
Your response to PETAs letter was amazing. It upsets me a lot that they have so much profit for doing so much harm to animals. Probably the only good thing they do is saying stop wearing fur. It offends me that PETA came after Pets Alive which I find to be an amazing sanctuary. I wouldn’t donate as much as I could spare each month if I didn’t feel that way (i have exclusively only donated to Pets Alive the past few years because i know my money is truly going towards the cause). I can only hope that more people realize that PETA is not helping animals and pets alive is. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you and the rest of pets alive does for these animals.
Sarah
Fabulous response, Kerry!! As satisfying as “bite me” might have been, your response should have hit a nerve that bite me probably wouldn’t have. It would be poetic if PETA allowed you in though the chance of that happening is zero. Keep up the wonderful work!
Brilliant. Hope it goes viral where it will do the most good.
Excellent response, with many excellent points. Of course, they won’t respond because they have no logical explanation for the mass slaughter taking place at their hands. Thankfully more people are realizing what they really are, and what they could be if PETA were run by people like you.
Dear Ms. Chagrin,
By way of introduction I am a volunteer at Pets Alive in Middletown NY. Admittedly I am not a very good volunteer as my schedule only permits a few hours a month, but I digress.
Having read your email this morning regarding the inclusion of Pets Alive in an upcoming expose’ on no-kill shelters, I am driven to respond in their defense.
It would seem to the casual observer that the need to come the defense of an organization that dedicates itself to not killing animals may be rather unorthodox, especially when directed to an entity that chose the moniker “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.” I for one am having difficulty reconciling the words in your email against the premise of your mission.
My family lives on a Cul-de-sac along with ten other homes that line the rural street. As I drove into work this morning, I saw six rescue dogs happily playing in their two acre yards, two of which came from the “no-kill extremist” Pets Alive sanctuary that you attacked in your email. While I understand that six animals may seem insignificant to an organization of your magnitude, be assured that they mean the world to the families on our street.
One of those animals was recently rescued by Pets Alive Puerto Rico and expatriated to the mainland to find a loving forever home. A few weeks ago my daughter and I traveled to Puerto Rico and had the privilege of spending a few hours at that Pets Alive sanctuary. We can assure you that it is not an “irresponsible shell game” when homeless animals find loving families to care for them and provide safe refuge from the streets of Puerto Rico.
The staff at Pets Alive are without question the most dedicated and talented humanitarians one will ever encounter. Although they don’t have fancy offices, they do have fancy office dogs, cats and yes sometimes even pigs. Unlike PETA, they don’t live in the world of cocktail parties and high society fund raisers, they live day to day making ends meet while treating each animal like a member of the family. When a member of that family has to be let go, they shed real tears.
Attached is a photo of one of the thousands of family pets that would have been destroyed had Pets Alive followed the PETA model. Robert was severely injured and scheduled for destruction by the NY Animal Control system. Pets Alive stepped in and saved Robert despite all of the odds against him.
I challenge you to take a hard look at this photo. Look at this photo then look me in the eye and say this was not a life worth saving. If you can honestly look at Robert and say your way would have been better for him and his new family, I will make a donation to PETA. If you can’t do that, you should at least publically apologize to the staff of Pets Alive and make a generous donation in support of their organization.
Regards,
Rory D. Holmes
Montgomery NY
A million cheers, hope like hell this gets the attention it deserves! Sharing far and wide!
Really great response. Thank you for all that you do for companion animals!
Nice letter. I agree with everything, but your use of the word, Murder, which isn’t accurate. I would use Kill. Murder means, “The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.” It doesn’t apply to animals. By using that word you are saying that employees at open admission shelters doing their best to save the animals are murders, which they aren’t.
Thanks.
My husband and I adopted Toby (a 10 year old Jindo) 2 years ago from Pets Alive. For the first 5 years of his life he was basically tied to a tree in his owners back yard. He lived the next five years at Pets Alive. According to the manager there, he was not able to be adopted, let alone touched, walked, groomed, etc… When we found Toby he was still a little skittish, but we knew we could give him love. Two years later, we have a loving member of our family. He’s old, and needs some help up the stairs, but he would not be in our home and hearts if not for Pets Alive. Thanks for all you do.
Your answer to PETA was amazing 🙂 I admit, i was a member of them but once i realised how many animals they kill compared to those they save, i instantly distanced myself. Thankyou for all the work you do in saving our precious dogs and cats.
I would love to see what PETA has to say about your response. I applaud you for taking the time to stand up to a hypocritical organization like PETA. Further I applaud you more for doing the work that you do.
Terry,
Just wanted to say that you and your organization are awesome! I live maybe 15 minutes away from PETA’s HUGE building and talk to people all the time that have taken their animals there thinking they were going to be re-homed and were stunned when I told them they don’t shelter anything in that building but people and kill 98 percent of the animals they take in. We have a wonderful no kill shelter here, The Norfolk SPCA that is right down the street from PETA and they adopt out anywhere from 1500 to 2000 animals a year. Animals that PETA would have killed if they came through their door. We also have a city shelter maybe 10 minutes away from that that does everything in their power to try to get the animals that come in there adopted. It’s sickening to me to know that PETA could be doing the same with that HUGE building and all that money but choose to kill instead. What I can’t get anyone to answer for me and I am totally confused about is how they can call themselves an animals shelter but not shelter animals. They don’t have one kennel! How is that possible? Their inspection in 2010 states clearly that they don’t house animals and don’t have kennels to do so. How do they get away with it? Why do they want to be called a shelter? Thanks for all you do for the animals!
I applaud your response to PETA. I, was one who did not know what PETA actually did but found out it too long ago and stopped my contributions to them, I now have a few rescues that I donate to. Both of my dogs are rescues, the 2nd Angel came from the Brooklyn ACC where had Forgotten Friends of LI not stepped in he would have surely been put down. Needless to say, PETA, is definitely not all its cracked up to be and I think everyone should be made aware of what they do. A big dose of gratitude goes to you and your staff for all you do for the dogs and cats. Thank you
Nice job, Kerry! I am very proud of Pets Alive and commend you on your excellent response.
Thanks for all you do : )
Kerry,
Double Kudos to you for Words so eloquently written!!!!! Question please, what part of West Virginia did y’all rescue the large group of FurBabies from? I’m just curious, I’m from WV, the Southern Plateau-near the New River Gorge Bridge 🙂
Thank you for everything you and your team are doing.
Just a short note. I am not pleased with the figures I have seen about the amount of pets euthanized by Peta even though I have supported them in the past. But I am also familar with a few people I know who didn’t have the funds to Euthanize their pets at the end of their lives. They contacted Peta and were sent to local Veternairy Hospitals where their pets were put to sleep and Peta paid for the service. I believe that those types of pets being euthanized are included in their stats.
Still too many animals are being Eutanized by a group who responds to animals all over the country and yet not doing enough in Virginia.
Slam dunk, Kerry! I’m always amazed at the contradictory criticisms of No Kill shelters being horrible because (a) they aren’t open-admission, and then (b) they are hoarders. So which is it? Even so, there are many groups, mine included, that are not open-admission, but it is better that we exist than that we don’t. We have a mere $75,000 annual gross receipts, no employees, and yet we have saved hundreds of animals that our own local “open-admission” shelters would not take or would prefer to kill. Like you, if we had PETA’s resources, we could easily take every single animal that is in need. As it is, we triage cases and find humane alternatives to manage in the interim. That means (1) outreach to people to help them keep their pets rather than giving them up, (2) supporting individuals who independently rescue lost/stray animals through access to low-cost vetting and spay/neuter as well as providing courtesy listings to help them place the animal into a home, and (3) recognizing that a less than perfect home is better than being dead, that it is far more productive to work with people to make them better pet caregivers than to screen them out of existence and drive them into the arms of puppy millers and backyard breeders. Enough said.
Wonderful to see this clear stand against such inappropriate and inaccurate criticism. I know how hard it must have been to overcome the “bite me” urge and truly applaud you for that! Great job!!
I believe your response is completely appropriate for its primary intended audience (PETA) in the context of the provoking letter, clearly communicating the issues with impact. That leads me to a request and suggestion.
As I considered forwarding this to others who are not already very familiar with Pets Alive, I tried rereading the response from an outsider’s perspective and thought that there are a few slips that could lessen the validity of the message as a whole in such a context (which I fully recognize is not the one for which the letter was intended). Do you think you might be able to write/publish an equivalent “open response” that provides the same impact while modifying those few items? I’m referring to things such as the choice of wording regarding the West Virginia situation — “Some animals were dead; some were covered with mange; most needed critical emergency medical care. We saved every single one and every single one was adopted.” — which implies that even the dead animals were saved and adopted; and the few blanket assertions like “all are still happy in their forever homes” that at least border on hyperbole. I would love to be able to (re-)post and link to such a message!
J.J., I think the message is clear. I don’t think that anyone will believe we took in dead animals and adopted them out, no matter how poor that sentence structure is. I hope you will not stand on semantics in regards to the sentence structure stop you from spreading the message on. I’ll certainly be more careful int eh future in regards to that sort of thing though!
wow, love how this started with them contacting you. Great response and keep up the amazing work with saving not killing! and thanks for bringing my awareness to how many animals PETA kills, I had no idea.
WELL DONE! I hope their recent attacks on no-kill shelters will serve as nails in their coffin (or at least baseboards) and continue to unravel as an unfixable public relations nightmare for them.
Perfect response! Thank you for all you do.
Awesome response! The pet killers at PETA were taken to school!
They are disgraceful S.O.B’s who wont admit that they’re wrong, UNTIL THEY START TO NOTICEABLY LOSE DONATIONS AND SUPPORT.
Spread the word, people! This means life or death for pets!
Wow. They really need to stop interfering. The only thing I agree with in that letter is that essentially pet shops and chains like Petsmart and Petco do encourage puppy (and kitten) mills. I honestly believe the overpopulation myth theory and think the only way to get every pet a home is to steer people to shelters.
One note tho. I am also a vegetarian and I often wonder why people aren’t championing farm animal rights 🙁
Either way, good response!
Peta is a bunch of animal-hating hypocrites but even a stopped clock is right once a day. And by this, I am referring to point 4 of their suggestions:
“Offer no-cost to low-cost spay-and-neuter assistance to qualifying members of your community…”
This is an excellent idea, particularly for your facility in Puerto Rico, an area where spay and neuter rates are extremely low.
I’ve noticed a lot of shelters in the Northeast are shipping in puppies and smaller, more ‘marketable’ dogs from other countries or from the South. That’s treating the symptom and ignoring the root cause.
Healthy dogs are still being killed in shelters in this area, but most of them are pit bulls and pit bull mixes, and big black dogs who just seem to be less attractive to people for some inexplicable reason (I think black is beautiful, and I love my big black dog).
So if you want to address the homeless animal problem in Puerto Rico, start a free spay/neuter clinic there. One veterinarian and offering for spay/neuter would prevent a lot of tragedy.
For years, the Northeast dog rescues have been shipping up “cuter” animals than they can get from the kill shelters in their areas. It’s time to work on the root cause of the Southern/foreign homeless puppies. If they pooled all those transport fees and adoption fees they’ve been getting from the shipments, they could probably build several free spay/neuter facilities. It’s way past time that this was done.
Incidentally, peta’s point 2 is also true. Rescue groups SHOULD do careful screening when placing animals in homes or sending them to other rescue groups. It may be that you’re already doing careful screening and are offended by the inference that you aren’t, but the basic idea is sound.
I have nothing good to say about peta as a group but those two points in their letter are good ideas. They must have accidentally stumbled on them in their huge pile of bad ideas.
Thanks for sharing and good for you. Unfortunately, I’ve learned alot about PETA this past year and it seems they’re more about a specfic human philopsohy then they are about caring for aniamls, I have always been aggravated that when they protest against something, they never offer an alternative solution. Now I know whay, they don’t care. it’s about themselves, not the animals. Unfrotunately, they are good at marketing and branding…hence the cultural popularity.
You guys are awesome. You ROCK. Thank you so much for what you do.
thank you, I PROMISE YOU I WILL NEVER SUPPORT PETA.
Wow is all I can say. I am new to all this “debate” and honestly was a holding out until I felt really informed. This issue is so heated its like a political debate and you dont know who to believe. Well, thats changed. I now see clearly what side of this I stand. Pets Alive! thank you for posting this. Commenters, thank you for your personal stories. I’ve fallen off the fence and landed on your side.
I do have a question though. Whats up with the SPCA and the HSUS? Are these organizations having the same issues as PETA? That would just break my heart.
One last question.. Why do I keep reading everywhere that no-kill is unsustainable and ruining municipal budgets? Clearly Pets Alive! has proven this to not be the case.