“PETA kills animals” is most likely the first phrase you’ll hear or see when you utter the name of the organization to anyone, but why? According to a website created by a tobacco company, they have high euthanasia statistics, but the statistics don’t list how many animals were actually healthy. Nor does the site discuss other organizations with high euthanasia rates such as the ASPCA or any other shelter. But the question we’re asking is why are shelters euthanizing so many animals healthy and sick? Simply because of the Pet Trade. There are billions of animals being cycled through pet stores and breeders as if they were trading cards or some sort of other product, because of this, there’s an estimated 362 million homeless dogs and cats worldwide, and that’s not counting the other animals people see as “pets”, like rabbits, ferrets, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, rodents, and farm animals that are lucky enough not to be killed. Many people believe in the pet trade rather than shelters and rescues because they don’t view domestic animals as living beings, but rather decor or entertainment, and they try to cover up the fact by thinking that a “new” animal won’t have physical and mental issues. However the pet trade actually creates more issues for animals. Such as pet stores like PetSmart or PetCo, they care more about how their animals are displayed rather than their well-being, so Bettas in cups, rodents packed together with less than an inch of bedding, and snakes in what look like one gallon fish tanks are a sad but common sight. Some people actually realize that pet stores are horrible with animal welfare, but then they falsely believe in “ethical breeders”, however it’s known that these breeders are actually worse than pet stores. Pet stores are surprisingly laid back with being operated by more than one person, some employees actually caring about the animals and even hounding the company urging them to stop selling animals. Breeders on the other hand are one person jobs, and many of these breeders consider their abuse to be their passion, resulting in more dangerous situations for the animals and the people working to defend them. Getting involved with a breeder, especially one with the “ethical” label is like getting involved with the mafia, if they find out you’re wearing a wire, they’ll do anything to silence you. Many breeders use gaslighting techniques to harass and even assault their human victims with, these techniques have been surprisingly effective in brainwashing people unaware of their abuse. Remember when we discussed the rumors of PETA being accused of killing animals? Breeders actually want that to happen, but they’ll twist words so that they can make PETA look like the bad guy for euthanizing shelter animals while making them look like the bad guy for not euthanizing shelter animals. All in all a breeder’s main goal is for all shelters to kill all of their animals and shut down so they can continue selling animals, because to a breeder, an animal rescue is competition to them, they get upset knowing that money is going towards shelters and rescues to save more animals rather than going in their pockets so they can afford to parade their animals at AKC and ARBA shows. Another breeder’s main tactic for getting business is attempting to put aesthetics over health, mainly by claiming their animals are better looking than rescue animals. As someone that’s rescued many species of animals, I can simply confirm that is not true. A proper rescue will never sugarcoat things, no matter how bad they are, breeders will say they do and say they’ve had experiences with aggressive dogs and other animals because rescues lied to them, a rescue did not lie to them, they just didn’t ask the right questions. Rescues and shelters will always notify you if there’s an animal that has certain preferences, and those preferences are not a liability for euthanasia, breeders will try to say “it’s ridiculous for a dog to only like tall men or women with blonde hair”. It’s not ridiculous, animals are living beings like us, it’s okay for them to have preferences for certain people like we do, we don’t kill someone for liking certain people. If breeders used their logic on humans and had their way, they’d kill every member of the LGTBQ community. I’ve never had a rescue lie to me, but I’ve had multiple pet stores and breeders lie to me, I was told that parakeets only need seeds to eat, ribbon snakes ate pinky mice, crested geckos get to only 4 inches long, a 10 gallon tank was suitable for 2 mice, and that cherry barb fish are community fish. All of those were disproven in front of me, I learned that parakeets need a balanced diet of veggies, fruits, and some seeds like any other parrot, ribbon snakes actually eat earthworms and amphibians, crested geckos can get up to 8-10 inches long, a 10 gallon is only suitable for 1 mouse, and cherry barbs will kill any fish that’s not another cherry barb (I lost a golden algae eater and a neon tetra to a cherry barb once). If you don’t like the fact that supposedly PETA and these other shelters are euthanizing healthy animals, then adopt don’t shop. It makes zero sense to say “PETA and other shelters are killing healthy adoptable animals” then turn around and say “I only buy from ethical breeders because shelter animals are unhealthy”.
