PETA the Puppy Slayer - Revisited

Remember this story from way back when?  If so, you're a loyal reader with a sharp memory.  Kudos on both.

For the rest of us, here's the gist, from a Virginian-Pilot article which is no longer available at the original link:

Two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were arrested on animal cruelty charges in Ahoskie, N.C., after investigators saw dead dogs being thrown into a grocery store garbage container Wednesday, according to the Ahoskie Police Department.
...
[Local vet Patrick Proctor] also identified what he called a “death kit” that police found in the van. It was filled with syringes and two drugs that only licensed veterinarians can have, he said.

“PETA will never pick up another animal from my practice,” Proctor said.

At the time, police said as many as 80 dead animals were dumped, including what Proctor called "very adoptable" would-be pets, healthy puppies, a whole family of cats, etc.

The problems were severalfold.  As PETA itself acknowledges, animals are not supposed to be put down in North Carolina, unless it's done by a veterinarian or if the animals can't travel.  Even then, they're supposed to be taken to crematoriums (crematoria?), not thrown in a dumpster.  Worst of all, these healthy, adoptable animals never should have been slated for destruction in the first place.

PETA's own FAQ makes the case (albeit through a rather bizarre analogy):

[A]nimals deserve consideration of their best interests regardless of whether they are cute, useful to humans, or endangered and regardless of whether any human cares about them at all (just as a mentally challenged human has rights even if he or she is not cute or useful and even if everyone dislikes him or her).

Clearly, these animals did not get their due consideration, despite the fact that many of them apparently were cute and useful to humans.

Now, 19 months later, the case is finally going to trial.

Adria J. Hinkle and Andrew B. Cook, both of whom work in PETA's Norfolk office, are charged with 21 counts each of animal cruelty, a felony that can carry prison time, along with littering and obtaining property by false pretenses.
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Those who oppose PETA are seizing on the trial. The spectacle also has drawn a gaggle of lawyers, PETA staffers, reporters and curious onlookers to this rural county seat, where the small brick courthouse resembles an aging elementary school.

They sat through two days of jury selection -- longer than for many murder trials -- during which lawyers struggled to find jurors who weren't close friends or business associates of any of the more than 60 witnesses.

PETA watchdog group Center for Consumer Freedom is all over this, publishing copies of the indictments against Hinkle and Cook,  "shocking" crime scene photos, and the genuinely shocking annual PETA kill count.

Yes, PETA's guardianship offers a mortality rate slightly higher than the Ebola virus.  You could wander a zoo with a pair of shotguns, firing wildly into the enclosures and score a lot better than these deadly activists.

Ongoing trial coverage is available at PetaKillsAnimals.com.

Previously:
PETA the Puppy Slayer

Other PETA Lunacy:
The Prattle of Bull Run
Lobstergate
Fishing for Dignity

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Update:  Oh my, it's a rare double dose of PETA poppycock today!  Canada's National Post details PETA's shameless attempt to co-opt gay rights activists through lies and distortions.

[A recent] Times article declared "Scientists are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of 'gay' sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans." The paper then pointed to research at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), and how it could lead to fetal forecasting in humans, and that in utero alteration of sexual orientation, possibly by means of a nicotine-style "patch," was feasible in the not too distant future. From this putative scenario, I speculated about a future ideological impasse between feminists and gay rights advocates.

I was on a fool's errand, along with other Sunday Times-reading commentators. According to OHSU chief researcher Dr. Charles Roselli, the ability to forecast sexual preference is "so remote that it is in the realm of science fiction."  A thoroughly documented debunking of almost every single statement in the Sunday Times article can be found [here].
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Dr. Roselli lays the blame squarely on People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who post the same falsehoods on their Web site:
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The real agenda of the "extremely irresponsible" animal rights organization, Roselli declared by e-mail, "is to stop all use of animals for research and [PETA] will do whatever it takes [including supplying false information to the media] to advance their cause."

Elsewhere:  Michelle Malkin