I am going to play devil's advocate here. I recently received this reply from PETA regarding my letter to them. I had asked them to give me the reasons their two employees had euthanized the animals in North Carolina in 2005.

To put it in a nutshell, the following long reply agrees that they do euthenize animals who are too ill or injured or dangerous to ever be able to live a normal life...the way in which other resuces would have to do.

Given that PETA and its members have produced good results with their activism in many realms, including non animal testing on products, anti-fur campaigns, anti-vivisection, etc., are we being too quick to condemn the entire organization for euthenizing unrehabilitable animals? And are we completely sure that the critics we read about are not self-serving, as this letter states?

I am playing devil's advocate for the sole purpose of gathering more facts and credible information in order to reply once again to PETA's explanation.

Here is their letter:
Thank you for contacting PETA about the trial in rural North Carolina.

We regret that the two PETA staff members on trial were convicted of littering for disposing of animal bodies in a Dumpster. PETA’s policy requires that euthanized animals be cremated—not disposed of in this way. We regret any concern or confusion about our work that this may have caused you.

Please know that the two PETA staff members were cleared of all other charges, including cruelty to animals. Since these charges were first made in June 2005, PETA has maintained that they were politically motivated by anti-animal groups with connections to local dogfighting, dog-breeding, animal agriculture, and hunting interests. Among these is an organization described in The New York Times as a “front-group” for wealthy industries that are threatened by PETA’s success in bringing about animal welfare reform. Please learn more about this group at the following Web sites:

· http://www.ConsumerDeception.com

· http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=20200

You may be interested in the real story of PETA’s work in rural North Carolina. We began working to improve conditions for animals there in 2000, when we were asked by a police officer to stop local pounds from killing cats and dogs by gassing and shooting them. We immediately began properly—and painlessly—euthanizing sick and unwanted animals. We also started to rebuild pounds, provide training for animal control officers, deliver doghouses and warm bedding to hundreds of “backyard” dogs, and much more.

If you would like to learn more about our work in North Carolina, please visit http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/f-nc.asp. I also hope you will read a recent editorial that sheds more light on the issue of animals suffering in pounds near the North Carolina and Virginia border: http://tinyurl.com/2wkr8n.

Our hope is that this trial will shine light on the staggering dog and cat overpopulation crisis plaguing the United States. Every year, 3 to 4 million dogs and cats must be euthanized in animal shelters. Countless more suffer far worse fates, languishing for years in pounds or dying slow and painful deaths from exposure, starvation, diseases, or injuries on the street.

The practice of euthanasia will continue be a tragic consequence of the cat and dog overpopulation crisis until people stop buying animals from breeders and pet stores and until they spay and neuter their animal companions.

We at PETA do not regard euthanasia as a solution to overpopulation but rather as a tragic necessity given the present crisis. We know from our experience with helping homeless animals that there is such a thing as a fate worse than death. We have seen animals suffering from injury and disease with no veterinary care, corpses of animals who have been left to starve, and the remains of cats who have been used as bait in dog-fighting rings. Every winter, we see dogs shivering and trying to curl themselves into the tiniest balls to keep warm; every summer, we see them with their tongues dragging, panting in a desperate effort to lower their body temperatures, suffering from excessive heat and insufficient water supplies.

Our Community Animal Project (CAP) rescues homeless animals from environmental dangers, as well as from cruel humans. They crawl through sewers, poke through junkyards, climb trees, and dodge traffic in order to reach animals in danger. During floods and storms, they are out saving lives at all hours. They also rescue animal companions from abusive homes, often encountering resistance from obstructive landlords and angry “guardians” as they try to coax terrified, abandoned, and neglected animals to safety. Our agents travel to the worst neighborhoods to deliver food, doghouses, and bedding to pit bulls who have never known a kind word or touch, dogs who¯assuming that CAP members, like all the other humans they have known, have come to do them harm¯greet them with snapping jaws in defense of the tiny patches of muddy earth that they call home.

We push to have animal abusers prosecuted and their animal victims removed from their custody, but sometimes the best we can do is administer the only true solution to the overpopulation crisis: spaying and neutering as many animals as we can so as to prevent future litters of vulnerable, unwanted animals. Sterilization is the best way to lessen animal suffering¯and we know this because we have seen what happens to the offspring of intact animal companions.

PETA takes in the animals nobody wants¯feral cat colonies descended from abandoned, unaltered cat companions, now wild and often infected with deadly, ravaging diseases like feline AIDS and leukemia; stray dogs so disfigured by mange that they are almost no longer recognizable as canines; litters of parvo-infected puppies, plagued with diarrhea and vomiting, literally dehydrating to death; and backyard dogs who have known only chains, beatings, and neglect and have gone mad because of it.

Some of the animals we take in are lost companions with loving families who miss them; we are always happy to return such animals to their homes. We have also managed to catch and return some highly elusive animals other agencies had given up on. While some of the healthy, adoptable homeless animals we rescue are fostered in homes (often our own) or taken directly to local shelters to await adoption, the reality is that thousands of animals are euthanized every day across America for lack of good homes. To learn more, visit http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/f-nc.asp and http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/i-nobirth.html.

Even in shelters, healthy and adoptable animals don’t always fare well, since most lack the resources to accommodate all the animals they receive. The “middle-aged” shepherd mix who literally climbs the walls trying to escape the presence of humans doesn’t stand a chance of adoption and will simply mark time cowering in a cage until a peaceful death is finally¯and mercifully¯administered. As for very sick or feral animals, PETA believes that it is more humane to euthanize them immediately after evaluation than to subject them to the trauma of further transport and caging before their inevitable death in the shelter.

PETA staff members who are certified to euthanize provide relief to animals who have suffered extensive injuries or illness. To cite a local instance, when a power-line transformer explosion burned a flock of starlings, PETA was the only agency to come to the birds’ aid. It took hours for our staff members to capture the 58 birds whose feathers and eyelids had been burned away and whose bones had been curled by the flames. Despite obvious and excruciating pain, these animals were struggling to fly. If our euthanasia technicians had not been ready to end these starlings’ misery, the injured birds would have suffered horribly for days before finally succumbing to a painful death.

When all an animal has to look forward to is suffering followed by an agonizing death, we believe that euthanasia is the most humane option. We have certified euthanasia technicians on staff and are prepared to come to animals’ aid when nobody else is willing to end their pain.

We also provide free euthanasia services for locals who have sick, injured, or geriatric animals but can’t afford to take them to a veterinarian. One local family turned to us for help for its cat, who had crawled back home after being mauled by a pack of dogs. This family lacked both money for vet care and transportation. We were able to help by giving the cat a peaceful release from pain.

There is hope for abused, neglected, and homeless animals, and it lies in prevention. We must persuade people to spay and neuter their animal companions to stop the cycle of abuse. We must convince governments to accept responsibility instead of turning a blind eye to a problem that results in unimaginable animal suffering (not to mention taxpayer expense). PETA works very hard to inform the public about proper care for animal companions¯including the need to spay and neuter¯through pamphlets, billboards, letters to the editor, ads, articles, and humane education in schools. We spay and neuter animals of low-income families and the elderly poor for no charge whatsoever¯we pay for every shot, surgery, blood and fecal sample, and medication. Our SNIP-mobile (Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please) has performed more than 13,500 spay and neuter surgeries and continues to sterilize between 500 and 600 animals each month. I urge you to learn more about our SNIP clinic by visiting http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/i-nobirth-snip.html.