"Animal Rights" Wrongs Animals (and People)

You can't talk food without eventually coming across "animal rights" activists that will tell you to go read PETA's website and you're an evil person if you don't fall into their militant belief system.

Even many everyday people, when it comes to the topic of animal abuse, will often say "I believe in animal rights, but..."

And that brings up a huge problem: many people fall into one of the next 3 categories

• Don't know what "animal rights" is really about
• Don't know the difference between "animal rights" and "animal welfare"
• Have been spoon-fed false or twisted information by groups such as PETA and HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) - from information on nutrition to farming/ranching to hunting

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So first, we need to differentiate between "animal rights" and "animal welfare":

Animal Rights  - Example groups: PETA, HSUS

• animals should not be 'used' for any reason: food, clothing, service, even companionship
• humans should not interact with non-human animals
• extinction of domestic animals

Animal Welfare - Example groups: ASPCA, local animal shelters and rescue groups 

• treat animals humanely
• do not abuse or neglect animals
• co-exist with animals
• if animals are to be used for food or clothing they should be raised in humane conditions and killed as quickly and painlessly as possible

The vast majority of people actually support "animal welfare" and would be appalled by "animal rights".



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PETA

• against pet ownership
• against training pets, against crating dogs (anyone familiar with dog training or psychology knows both of those are beneficial things for the pets)
• against no-kill shelters (they want all animal shelters to be "kill shelters")
• against the use of police dogs 
• against the use of drug & bomb sniffing dogs in airports
• against the use of service dogs
• against dog shows, horse shows, etc.
• against the use of animals for food, even if the animal is unharmed such as the harvesting of honey, eggs, and milk
• against the use of animals for clothing, even if the animal is unharmed such as wool
• against hunting, even if necessary for population control
• against zoos, no matter how well the animals are kept
• against March of Dimes
• against World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
• in favor of breed-specific legislation (BSL) - banning certain breeds of dogs, which many times there isn't even a grandfather-clause, so pet owners are faced with the choice to either move or abandon their pet
• in favor of people feeding their pet carnivores (dogs & cats) a vegetarian/vegan diet
• supports Animal Liberation Front (ALF) - the group that burns down labs, puts bombs on researchers' doorsteps, and is considered by the FBI to be a domestic terrorist organization - and has given them over $70,000

PETA kills an overwhelming majority of the animals they take-in:

Year	Received†	Transferred	Adopted		Killed
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%
2005	2,165	69	146	6.74%	1,946	89.9%
2004	2,655	1	361	13.60%	2,278	85.8%
2003	2,224	1	312	14.03%	1,911	85.9%
2002	2,680	2	382	14.25%	2,298	85.7%
2001	2,685	14	703	26.18%	1,944	72.4%
2000	2,681	28	624	23.27%	2,029	75.7%
1999	1,805	91	386	21.39%	1,328	73.6%
1998*	943	125	133	14.10%	685	72.6%
Total	29,823	540	3,135	10.56%	25,840	85.9%
* figures represent the second half of 1998 only † Other than spay/neuter animals

PETA targets children and adolescents. They even go so far as giving comics to kids saying that their mom or dad will kill the family pet!

HSUS

• is less open about their extremism, but it exists nonetheless
• does not run a single animal shelter
• is not affiliated with any local animal shelters

HSUS took donations for hurricane Katrina animals long after they had pulled out of the area. The groups that were really doing the work were underfunded and overworked, while HSUS stood back and took the credit.








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Quotes from animal rights groups:

"The cat, like the dog, must disappear... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist."
- John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of A Changing Ethic (Washington, DC: (PETA))

"Animal trainers, hunters, fishermen, cattlemen, grocers, and indeed all non-vegetarians are the moral equivalent of cannibals, slave-owners, and death-camp guards."
- Ingrid Newkirk, President, PETA

"...all other than human animals would be free of human interference, and dogs and cats would be part of the ecological scheme."
- PETA's Statement on Companion Animals

"He [Rodney Coronado of ALF] did something [firebombed a research facility at Michigan State University] that put him in prison for three-and-a-half years and I think that if we hadn’t provided him with a good legal defense he wouldn’t be back out doing productive things in the community again - like the good person that he is. "
- Ingrid Newkirk, PETA

"I don't want to see another dog or cat born"
- Wayne Pacelle, Senior VP HSUS

"One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding."
- Wayne Pacelle, Senior VP HSUS

"The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration."
- Michael W. Fox, Scientific Director and former Vice President HSUS

"My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture."
- John P. Goodwin, HSUS employee

"We are not especially 'interested in' animals. Neither of us had ever been inordinately fond of dogs, cats, or horses in the way that many people are. We didn't 'love' animals."
- Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethic for Our Treatment of Animals, 2nd ed.



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Please support animal welfare groups, not animal rights groups. And please research any group you are considering donating to.

Animal Rights is detrimental to both animals and humans!