By Gene Mueller
June 22, 2005
What's going on in the offices of People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals? The same sanctimonious animal-rights group that pleads for donations so
it can stop us "blood-thirsty" hunters and fishermen once and for all
is in the middle of a smelly affair involving the euthanization of pets picked
up at animal shelters. Incidentally, they were pets PETA reportedly promised it
would find good homes for.
The Associated Press and the Virginian-Pilot newspaper
in Norfolk have reported that two Hampton Roads employees of the Norfolk-based
PETA were charged in Ahoskie, N.C., with animal cruelty after dumping dead dogs
and cats in a shopping center garbage bin.
Investigators staked out the bin after discovering dead
animals had been dumped there every Wednesday for the past four weeks, Ahoskie
police said.
Police found 18 dead animals in the trash bin and 13
more in a van registered to PETA. The animals were from shelters in North
Carolina's Northampton and Bertie counties, police said. The two were picking up
animals to be brought back to PETA headquarters for euthanization, according to
PETA president Ingrid Newkirk.
Police charged Andrew Benjamin Cook, 24, of Virginia
Beach, and Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, of Norfolk, each with 31 felony counts of
animal cruelty and eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals.
PETA euthanizes animals by lethal injection, which it
considers more humane than gassing groups of animals, as some cash-strapped
counties are forced to.
However, veterinarian Patrick Proctor said authorities
found a female cat and her two "very adoptable" kittens among the dead
animals. He said they were taken from the Ahoskie Animal Hospital.
Barry Anderson, Bertie County's animal control officer,
identified nearly all of the dumped dogs as ones Cook and Hinkle picked up, even
though PETA representatives "told him they were picking up the dogs to take
them back to Norfolk where they would find them good homes," according to
the Bertie County Sheriff's Office.
http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20050621-115255-8184r.htm