https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_59e78243e4b0e60c4aa36711/amp?__twitter_impression=true

From the article linked above: "On October 18, 2014, two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals drove their van to the small community of Parksley, Virginia. Parksley is an out of the way rural town of less than 1,000 people. The destination of the PETA van was a trailer park located there, made up largely of poor, Spanish speaking immigrants. The park is described by a local resident as “difficult to find unless you know where you are going.” The PETA employees knew exactly where they were going because they had been there before.

Over several weeks, PETA representatives had been visiting the trailer park and befriending the residents. They got to know who lived where and who had dogs and cats. They sat with the families on their porches, talking to them, offering biscuits to the dogs, promoting vaccinations, sterilization, and other PETA services. One of the families they spent time with had a three year old Chihuahua named Maya, a happy, healthy, and beloved dog. And on October 18, her home was one of the houses PETA set out to visit. This time, however, they were not there to talk to the family or any of the other residents or to offer any kind of assistance. In fact, they knew the family was not home.

The PETA employees backed their van up to the porch and threw biscuits to Maya, who was sitting on her porch, hoping to coax her off her property and give PETA the ability to claim she was a stray dog “at large” whom they could therefore legally impound. In Virginia, PETA is licensed as an “animal shelter.” But Maya refused to stay off the property and after grabbing the biscuit, ran back to the safety of her porch. One of the employees went onto the property and stole Maya. But larceny wasn’t the only law the PETA employees would break. Virginia law requires dogs to be held for five days before they can be killed by shelters. It also requires private shelters like PETA to notify the municipal animal control shelter of any “stray” dogs they take in. PETA would do neither. Within hours, Maya was dead. PETA had killed her with a lethal dose of poison.

Maya’s family ultimately sued PETA. Last month, after arguing and losing pre-trial motions that Maya was worthless and facing the specter of PETA administrators being forced to turn over records and testify under oath about their inner workings — particularly, their campaign of animal extermination — PETA settled the case by paying Maya’s family $49000

In 2014, PETA killed 2,324 of the 2,626 animals it acquired, including Maya. It had a 1% adoption rate. In 2015, it killed another 1,494. Last year, 1,442 were put to death. The majority of the remainder were taken to local pounds where they were killed. "

"In fact, DxE’s leader has publicly stated that Newkirk is “brilliant,” and “just the sort of the leader our movement needs,” despite being provided with evidence demonstrating that PETA is not only responsible for the deaths of more than 13,744 animals over the last 13 years, but that it encourages pounds across the country to kill even more."

" This evidence includes impound records acquired through Public Records Act requests, reports by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services after its inspectors visited PETA facilities, affidavits, witness testimony, and court rulings in criminal and civil cases, accounts of other PETA employees, as well as statements made by PETA founder, Ingrid Newkirk, herself.

And what this evidence reveals is that PETA employees both take in and seek out, often through deception, theft and outright lies, thousands of animals every year, the vast majority of whom they immediately put to death with a fatal dose of poison. While PETA claims the animals it takes in and kills are “unadoptable,” the facts do not support this claim.

Healthy mother cat and two kittens killed by PETA within minutes, despite promising to find them a home. Employees have described — and records reveal — 8 week old, 10 week old, and 12 week old healthy kittens and puppies routinely and immediately put to death with no effort to find them homes. PETA has been caught stealing healthy animals and putting them to death. Rescue groups, individuals, and veterinarians have come forward stating that the animals they gave PETA were healthy and PETA insiders have admitted as much, one former intern reporting that he quit in disgust after witnessing healthy puppies and kittens in the kill room.

Indeed, a former PETA fieldworker says that killing is not an ancillary part of PETA’s program; it goes to the core of the mission. “The objective of the program,” she says, “was to get as many animals as possible and the vast majority of those animals were killed.” Nothing came between that objective and the staff, including lying by telling people the animals would be adopted knowing full well they would be killed: “I was told to pretty much say anything I needed to say to gain custody of an animal… I was told to lie by my direct supervisors directly and then by Ingrid [Newkirk]…”