The Daily Mail | March 31, 2009
By Paul Thompson

An Animal welfare charity has been accused of slaughtering thousands of pets placed in its care.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which boasts Paul McCartney and Pamela Anderson among its supporters, are accused of only finding homes for seven pets last year.

Since 1998 more than 20,000 pets handed to PETA have been put down.

In 2008 official figures show that the charity put down 2,124 animals that had been given to them.

Figures obtained from the Virginia Department of Agriculture reveal that last year PETA killed five pets a day.

The charity, which collects over £25m in donations, does not run an adoption shelter.
But as the most high profile animal welfare agency in the U.S. many people take unwanted cats and dogs to their main offices in Norfolk, Virginia.

The Centre for Consumer Freedom obtained figures about PETA's slaughter from public records kept at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer services.

CCF Research director David Martosko said: 'PETA hasn’t slowed down its hypocritical killing machine one bit, but it keeps browbeating the rest of society with a phony ‘animal rights’ message.

'What about the rights of the thousands of dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens that die in PETA’s headquarters building?'
 

The CCF has attempted to have PETA's main offices in Virginia reclassified as a slaughterhouse. 

Comic Ricky Gervais and singer Pink feature in the latest  advert for the PETA.

Gervais plays a rabbit that has been 'skinned' while Pink is an alligator that confronts a woman holding a handbag made from her skin.

Many celebrities have been persuaded to pose nude for PETA as  part of their advertising campaigns.

Supermodels Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell both posed  for the "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" campaign.

The group have also waged campaigns against several fast food  chains for their treatment of animals.

The charity's slogan is 'animals are not ours to eat, wear,  experiment on, or use for entertainment '.

A PETA spokesman said the charity took in more than 10,000 dogs and cats in 2008 and most of those that were put down could hardly be called pets. 'They were unsocialised, never having been inside a building of any kind or known a pat on the head'.