Essay 3 Draft 2

Who is better, PETA or local shelters?

            My use of rhetoric:

Pathos: PETA is the worst organization in the world. They kill animals they claim the care about. They dispatch vans who take animals from their own homes, euthanizes them (illegally), and dumps their bodies in washes or grocery stores. \

Logos: Their logic is flawed by having two separate articles saying how good no kill shelters are then later have an article on “deadly consequences” of no kill shelters. If they post a legit article they only source themselves and no other creditable source. They have an article on why they euthanize their animals and that it is necessary.  

My solution:

My solution to this problem is to disband PETA as a global organization, along with all the programs and groups they support, have the government use those funds to support and help out the shelters that are actual no kill shelters.

            No-kill shelters use of rhetoric:

Pathos- Usually for commercials or on their website they will show you pictures of animals they have helped over the years and they usually give a background story on how the animal to be in their care. Seeing the animals that got re-homed evokes a feeling of happiness in an audience because you know that animal now has a forever home.

Logos- Their logic is all animals are worth saving. They only euthanize on the rare case that the animal is too dangerous to rehabilitate in the community or there is an irremediable suffering going on in the animal

Ethos- No-kill shelters like “Best Friends” started the no-kill movement in 1984 and has inspired other shelters to care for all animals. Shelters who are no-kill end up saving and rehoming 90% of their animals every year.

Thesis:

            PETA is an organization who claims they are a no kill shelter, but statistics say they kill over 90% of the animals they take in, while local no kill shelters have saved 90% of the animals they receive (stats Animal Law Developments came out with).

Paragraph #1

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a worldwide organization that has been around since 1980. When they were first founded, they fought for the rights of animals by proving that labs and farms, around the time founded; were abusing and maltreating the animals they experimented on. In 1981, they were the first organization to give evidence of animal mistreatment that lead to a police raid on a Maryland research facility. PETA has forgotten what they stand for over the years. PETA, in recent years, has decided to employ shock value in their commercials and demonstrations. An example of the shock value being used; is when some of their supporters in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2015, dressed semi-nude in the meat department of a grocery store to try and convince consumers to go vegetarian for Christmas. Two young women laid nude under a plastic sheet with fake blood around them, this also included a parody price tag that had phrases on it like: “Flesh is Flesh” and “Millions of animals are abused and violently killed because you eat meat.” This type of demonstration tried to use shock value as a tactic to force a vegan way of living down a normal/non-vegan citizens’ throats. PETA Campaign Coordinator, Marie Claire Macintosh, stated in the demonstration video “It’s important to show compassion by turning vegetarian because by eating meat, whether you are aware of or not, it’s cruelty to animals.”

Paragraph #2

PETA is known for taking animals out of people’s yards, euthanizing them within the hour, and dumping their bodies in either washes or in one case a grocery store’s trash bin. June 2005 two PETA employees, Adria J. Hinkle and Andrew B. Cook, were caught and arrested for dumping animals they euthanized, in their van, in the trash behind a grocery store saying, “they stank.” Hinkle, one of the employees of PETA charged with animals cruelty, claimed in her testimony, “she had ever promised overwhelmed animal shelters in northeastern North Carolina that the animals taken by her group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, would not be euthanized.” Which is wrong to say because her company obtained these animals under false pretenses. Both Hinkle and Cook were charged with 21 counts of animal cruelty, while Hinkle was on administrative leave, Cook continued to work at PETA. One veterinarian came forth to say that PETA came to their shelter and told them they were taking the animals to a no kill shelter, but sadly that was not the case and these animals never got the chance to find their forever home.

Paragraph #3

In an official FBI Report, there was an operation called “Blackeye” where it is said that PETA provided aid and comfort to known Ecoterrorist Groups like Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s vegan campaign director and third-in-command, said at Animals Rights 2001 convention in Virginia, “blowing stuff up and smashing windows…a great way to bring about animal liberation.” How is blowing up buildings and potentially harming other humans a good way to bring about animal liberation? This support of these organizations is horrible, and PETA knows exactly who they are and what they do. Lisa Lange admitted on FOX News, “We did it, we did it. We gave $1,500 to the ELF for a specific program,” people had tried to ask PETA what Lisa meant by “specific program” but there was no explanation. Law enforcement came out to say that ELF is a criminal organization who “programs” are not legal.

PETA maybe one of the largest organizations in the world, but they would rather “humanly euthanize” the animals they take in than try to find these animals their forever homes.

Paragraph #4

No kill shelters are better than PETA because they only euthanize if the animal is severely sick or, on the rare case, too aggressive to be rehomed or rehabilitated. I know there are shelters in the world that lie about being “no kill”, but it’s the shelters that no one sees in the media that save 90% or more of the animals they take in. Heartland Animal Shelter, opened in 2002, has been saving more than 90% of their animals. They have stated on their website some of their statistics “Since 2007, we have saved at least 95% of the animals in our care each year. Now, we are saving 97.5-98.5% of animals annually, even with our increased focus on saving the most vulnerable populations of cats and dogs!”