how peta really feels about bsl

[Susan Sadeghian]

There has been some controversy on this so I asked peta directly and the letter they wrote back is below.
To: [e-mail]


Thank you for your inquiry regarding PETA’s position on BSL and pit bulls, the most abused dogs in “dogdom.”

PETA certainly does not believe that every pit bull should be euthanized; we do, however, staunchly advocate a ban on the breeding of pit bulls (in fact, breeding any dogs should be illegal—millions must be put to death in animal shelters every year because of the tragic overpopulation crisis). We hope that our support of such laws will stop people from bringing more pits into the world to be fought, mistreated, and exploited.

We have come to this conclusion because of the work that we do—and will continue to do—to protect, defend, and improve the lives of pit bulls who are still being victimized, including dogs like “Rikus,” who was cowering in his doghouse with a hole exposing muscle and bone in one of his arms and whose face was swollen to the size of a melon, and 31-pound “Asia,” who was chained by a 14-pound rusty chain in a barren yard without food—a skeleton with skin stretched over it, in terrible pain and barely able to move (please see http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/f-asiasstory.asp for her story). And dogs like “Bear,” suffering from flystrike, arthritis, a kidney stone, and painful skin lesions that his owners tried to cure by pouring motor oil all over him.

Over and over again, we rescue pit bulls like these from people who beat, starve, and neglect them; chain them to metal drums as “guard” dogs; or train them to attack people and fight other animals to the death. We remove them from abusive homes and contact prosecutors in cruelty cases in their behalf (visit http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/f-asiasstory.asp and http://www.PETA.org/about/victoryItem.asp?VictoryID=238 for a few examples of the many cases that we have taken on). We also speak out against dog fighting and encourage our members and supporters to do so (http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/oi_dogFighting.asp), and we subsidize spay and neuter surgeries for pit bulls in our area (http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/about_snip.asp). Our doghouse program (http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/about_doghouseSponsor.asp) provides free houses for dogs like Rikus, Asia, and Bear, who languish outside without any protection from the elements.

Are some pit bulls loving companions? Absolutely, as you may know firsthand. But we must consider that nice families rarely come to a shelter to adopt pit bulls; almost without exception, those who want pit bulls are attracted to the “macho” image of the breed as a living weapon and seek to play up this image by putting the animals in heavy chains, taunting them into aggression, and leaving them outside in all weather extremes in order to “toughen” them. There is no denying that pit bulls are at a higher risk of suffering a horrible fate.



Thank you again for giving us the opportunity to respond to your concerns. To learn more about helping homeless companion animals, please visit http://www.HelpingAnimals.com.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Collins

Senior Correspondent

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Meet Your Meat: http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

Sign up for PETA's eNews: http://www.peta.org/lists.asp

[Windy and the Pittie Grrls]

Hi Susan,

Yes, PETA racially profiles not only pit bulls, but also the people who would adopt them, referring to these people as "thugs" bent on using the dogs as weapons. PETA regularly uses it's substantial tax-free money and it's celebrity "star power" to pass themselves off as animal "experts" in order to influence shelters to euthanize all pitties rather than to put the temperament-proven ones up for adoption. Oh wait, doen't PETA claim to be against "Specieism"? If they really believe animals have the inherent right to life, then why do they think all pit bulls should die? Don't pit bulls have a right to live and to have a chance, however small, to try to land in good homes with adoptive families? I mean, if you're going to call factory farming of poultry a "Holocaust", then how do you justify funding your own rolling death machines, replete with needles, syringes, and plastic bags to dispose of the bodies? Sorry, I don't care if you eat Tofurky at Thanksgiving and wear corn husks for shoes- if you can flip a happy, healthy, wiggling puppy over in your lap and jam a needle full of kill juice in it's chest and then toss it's lifeless form into a dumpster, then I believe your right to be regarded as a "compassionate animal lover" should be summarily revoked.

http://petakillsanimals.com/shockingphotos.cfm

Wow- I notice Ms. Collins doesn't include THAT tidbit in her list of PETA heroism.

Don't believe it? Here is PETA's take on the Vick pit bulls (link goes directly to their blog):

http://blog.peta.org/archives/2007/08/one_more_fight.php

To sum it up- they advised the courts to have the dogs destroyed for their own good. Whaaa?!? Whose good?

His?

http://badrap-blog.blogspot.com/2008/08/transformation-of-vick-dog.html

Or his?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25214356/

Or theirs?

http://vickdogsblog.blogspot.com/

Gee, with "friends" like PETA, who needs enemies?!


As far as Ms. Collins spewing some canned PR rhetoric about not believing every pit bull should be euthanized- I'm not buying it. So far, PETA has called for the extermination of pit bulls at every turn. Every chance they've had to step in and help, they've turned their backs on this particular type of dog. PETA avidly supports BSL and denounces the adoption of pit bull dogs.

Read a form letter attributed to Ingrid Newkirk in Jan. 2000 regarding pit bulls:

http://www.badrap.org/rescue/petaa.cfm

"Those who argue against the euthanasia policy for pit bulls are naive..."

"People who genuinely care about dogs won't be affected by a ban on pits. They can go to the shelter and save one of the countless other breeds..."

In 2007, PETA received 1,997 animals and adopted out 17. Yes, 17. In 2006, they adopted 12 animals out of 3,061- a staggering 97.4% of incoming animals, many of them pets of people duped into believing PETA would find them a good home, were euthanized by PETA members.


http://www.petakillsanimals.com/downloads/PetaKillsAnimals.pdf

Last year alone, PETA reported a tax-free revenue of $31, 224,376. They claim $7,761,430 was spent on "Research, Investigations and Rescue".

http://www.peta.org/about/numbers.asp

2007 - 17 animals adopted. $7.7 million in "rescue".

And not a one of them was a pit bull.

Want to know how PETA REALLY feels about pitties? I think their record, more than their word, speaks LOUDLY on their behalf .



Read real Pit Bull advocate Sonnet Dashevskaya's "Letter TO PETA":

http://www.nokillnow.com/PitbullsLetter2Peta.htm

[Susan Sadeghian]

Being a pitty advocate I decided not to believe rumors but to ask the horses mouth and one lady I know who works at a shelter and used to be terrified of pittys eventually adopted the pitty she was terrified of who died a few mos ago at the age of 16. She had him since age 2ish and when she was ready she did go looking at shelters for another pitty and I think she is very nice.
Another thing Peta leaves out is that they told the judge on Michael vics case that the right and only safe thing to do is to euthanize all of vics former fighting dogs. ALL other animal agencies including hsus who used to be their allies pleaded for the judge basically not to listen to peta and to give the dogs another chance. Recently the behaviour test etc was on tv with bad rap and bad rap said they were surprised that these dogs that they heard bad stuff about wanted to play with the dogs they had previously fought. Now Dejavu one of vics former fighting dog was adopted together with booboo,a former bait dog. They formed and inseperable bond while at the center and had to go home together. Than there is Teddles who is fostered by 2 yr old Sam and his parents and Teddles listens to Sams commands. They are all now in foster homes or adopted homes,many with small children,other pets and even other dogs incl other pits and some went home as pairs. If it was up to Peta,these families would not have these dogs and these wonderfull dogs would never have had the opportunities to meet these wonderfull families. Peta wanted to kill 2 yr old Sammys best friend because she was too dangerous. She is not to dangerous for Sammy and he is NOT a pet or animal expert.

[Susan Sadeghian]

sorry, I love pitties the misunderstood breed. I love all the underdogs. I even hired a first time swim coach for my daughters swim lesson instead of the experts. I was trying to be objective with this letter and just let ppl decide for themselfs what to make of it. I did have to throw in the last part but will try not to bad mouth any organization any more. I dont think I really did,just stated facts. Being a pitty lover its hard to be objective but I will try for others who want to put their two cents in.

[Susan Sadeghian]

this doesnt mean others have to be objective. Love to hear your side(s) in a nice way if there are ppl who disagree with eachother. Or if you have any great stories like my friend who I think is nice and always goes looking for pittys now. She wont work with hardly any other breed. She is part of the shelters special needs groups that works with special needs dogs and the scedule says stuff like " Suzi mondays, tom tue,Sarah wed,Gail pittys, frank th,trish friday,emily weekends, Sabrina sat,fred sundays. Gail is the pitty lady and there is no special day for her, she just works with pittys,her favorite breed because she used to believe the media hype until Singer convinced her otherwise. I still objectively would like to know if anyone from peta, esp anyone in a high position at peta has ever met a pitty and had the pleasure of petting one,the privallage of petting one? See,Singer convinced Gail to do her own research and Buddy boy convinced my kid and I. You have to meet and pet a pitty to truely understand one. My daughter was terrified as a jr volunteer of Buddy boy who the staff told her to hang out with in a fenced yard off leash. She was giving off tons of negative and weak energy.Any dog would have been able to sense and smell her fear and negative energy.Any other dog would have probably used that to take advantage of her. Buddy boy climbed on her lap and licked her while wagging his butt. She trusted herself to cautiously pet buddy boy but she did hesitate which is a big mistake,but buddy boy just kept wagging his butt more and licking her face more.

[Tree Thunderchild]

My own experience with animals is that each is a unique individual, just as unique as any human.
Even "if" character traits as a breed, indicate aggressiveness, and is not something desired to be bred out of them (again this is an "IF" statement), then that too would be a purpose, where they have a desired role that they would fit into (guard dog for example).
I don't fit "everywhere" nor do all animals (Hi, can I bring my horse in the office while I work?).
Yet they do have places where they do belong and are assets to human society.
Even sterilizing a breed, is asking nicely for them all to go away because of harms done likely by those who mismanage the individual animal or are irresponsible with them.
If one person, treats an animal wrongly (brutality etc), does this mean the entire human population should have laws against them from having animals in their homes?
I did not marry my wife just because she was a woman!
We each (other animals besides humans included) have a place were we are valued, and places we are not. I dont feel it fair to prevent those who value a breed of animal to be prevented from doing so, just because of the examples where they are in places they dont belong.
Its not black and white the world is in living color!!!!
I don't have a pit bull, I don't want a pit bull, this does not mean that they don't have places where they belong, are needed, are loved, and FIT IN as assets to human society.
Those should not be condemned (nor the breed) due to the wrongs humans do in the mistakes of learning, how to do things right.

[Juliane]

Can anybody delete this Spammer?

[Juliane]

That is spam, she is just making unwelcome advertising

[Susan Sadeghian]

This discussion is about pit bulls and Peta and questions about them and maybe about all dogs and some similarities in people and dogs like races and breeds. Thunderchild I like how you explain stuff and Leslie, please to make it easy stick to pit bulls and Peta. Also I dont speak or read spanish and I dont think most of the people here do or they may have written in spanish, but I dont want to generalize, so you may want to make your blog in english and again show us how it relates to the subject on hand. Just a suggestion.