A load of bulldog

Animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has demanded that the Georgia Bulldogs American Football team replace its recently-deceased mascot, Uga and Seventh, with a robot, saying that: “By choosing a humane alternative to the use of live animals as school mascots, UGA can show that compassion always wins”.

After Uga died of a congenital heart condition, like his predecessor before him, Peta argued that: “Bulldogs are prone to breathing difficulties, hip dysplasia, heart disorders, and other congenital ailments, and acquiring a dog from a breeder perpetuates the animal overpopulation crisis while causing another dog waiting in an animal shelter to be condemned to death.”

The largest animal-rights organisation in the world, Peta is renowned for its campaigns against the wearing of fur, eating meat, wearing leather, fishing and so on. What is less well known is its own record on looking after animals. Over the past decade PETA has put down 21,339 cats, dogs, puppies and kittens at its Norfolk, Virginia shelter. In 2008, according to the report it filed with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, it euthanised 95% of the dogs and cats it was sheltering, finding adoptive homes for just seven out of 2,216 taken in.

Over the decade, the proportion of animals PETA has managed to get adopted has dropped markedly. Reaching 26% in 2001, it is now just 0.32%. The “shelter” has a walk-in freezer to store all the dead bodies and has a contract with a local company to cremate them.

According to one report, the Virginia Beach SPCA, near PETA’s headquarters, manages to find homes for the majority of animals it shelters, despite have resources far more meagre than PETA’s $32m annual budget. PETA may demand compassion towards animals from others, but appears itself to be rather lacking it.

Click here to see a copy of the report dated January 09