The public has been conned into handing over animals for safekeeping – only to be exterminated in the back of vans, according to a former PETA staff member.
She says the animal rights charity PETA allegedly hired their “soldiers” to procure animals by whatever means possible, only to euthanize them a few hours later.
According to the woman’s statement, most dogs and cats were immediately exterminated in a van before even returning to PETA’s facility.
The statement was submitted as part of a legal action against PETA. Two of its staff are being sued for stealing and killing Maya, a family’s dog.
On October 18, 2014, PETA employees illegally entered a family’s yard, went on their porch, stole their dog, and then killed her with a lethal dose of barbiturates. Maya’s family was devastated.
In the latest twist in the heartbreaking saga, the former employee says most of the animals were killed by injecting them with a powerful sedative while en route to the pet shelters.
She claims that the public were duped into thinking they would be going to a safe sactuary.
The former PETA employee said: “Killing dogs and cats in the PETA van on the way back to PETA’s facility occurred on a fairly regular basis. PETA’s facility was not set up to keep animals overnight nor it did have the facilities to meaningfully try to have companion animals adopted.”
The affidavit filed against PETA details how PETA lies to acquire animals to kill, steals pets from homes, kills highly adoptable animals such as puppies and kittens without trying to find them homes.
PETA’s ex- fieldworker has claimed that her primary responsibility was to gain possession of as many cats and dogs as possible almost all of which were killed.
The organization reportedly made staff wear uniforms to make them look more official. It was believed that by doing so, it would increase PETA’s chances of stealing animals from pet owners.
The ex-PETA fieldworker also claims, “I was ordered to do whatever I had to do to get custody of the animals. I was instructed to do and say anything I could to induce people to give me possession of their cats and dogs.
“Once in a community we would try to interact with the neighbours in order to build trust, so that we could ultimately get them to hand over their pets to us.
“This included telling people that PETA would find a good home for their dog and cat, when we knew that PETA had no intention of trying to find the animals homes, but would instead euthanize them immediately.
“If someone had feral cats on their property, we were told to tell them that we would take them to a feral colony, but 100% of the feral cats were euthanized using a method that was very frowned upon by other shelters… because it could cause suffering, but it was the one Ingrid [Newkirk] insisted upon using.
“If we saw animals loose, even on someone’s property, we were to take them whenever we could. PETA would not hold them for five days [as the law required]. We would not obtain signed releases if an animal was stolen, but would euthanize the animals immediately.
“We would routinely euthanize healthy puppies and kittens and other highly adoptable animals.”
The former PETA staff member was employed from August 1999 until March 2000 in PETA’s program known as the Community Animal Project in Norfolk, Virginia.
Supervised by Ingrid Newkirk, the main purpose of the project was to persuade people to surrender their animals, so that PETA could euthanize them.
One of PETA’s core values is that animals should not be kept as pets or exploited in any other way.
After one year’s work at PETA, the employee was dismissed over “not being a team player”. That happened shortly after she became vocal against some of the organization’s barbaric practices.
In response, PETA is believed to insist, that the affidavit was done by a disgruntled former employee
But included with the filing is a performance review signed by Ingrid Newkirk, which describes the employee as “excellent.”
For background to this legal case:
