If you are unaware of PETA's injustices against animals, then you're probably wondering, "OP, don't you believe in animal rights and the proper treatment of earth's creatures?"
Of course I believe in animal rights, and I think we should pay closer attention to the horrible situations that many Factory Farms put their livestock in. I believe if you eat meat and animal products, it's good to purchase it from local farms if possible, and if you're going to adopt a dog, heavily consider adopting from a shelter to avoid the possibility of purchasing from a puppy mill (and also to make the life of a shelter pup 10x better.)
If you don't know about why many people are suddenly turning their backs on PETA, consider the fact that they kidnapped and murdered a man's dog and left a gift basket of vegan foods as an apology to the family for the "tragic misunderstanding," or that they murder, on average, 73% of the pets they pick up off the streets yearly. Animals that could have gone to loving homes.
Not to mention the fact that they try turning men vegan by sending scantily clad women into the streets (does this fact even need a citation?), or try scaring children into turning away from animal products by ripping off popular video games and turning them into morbid nightmares filled with animal abuse and disgusting assumptions about meat eaters.
Instead of promoting safer treatment of animals in factory farms, they kill adoptable puppies.
Instead of being totally behind the adoption of all animals, they support the ban-and indiscriminate killing- of pitbulls.
After spending a few hours in total crying over the horrifying pictures I have found of the healthy puppies PETA has killed, healthy puppies that could be in happy homes right now, I refuse to even remotely support this organization.
I am all for the spaying and neutering of your pets, the adoption of shelter animals, the support of no-kill shelters, and the closing of puppy mills world wide. But if someone ever took my dog off my front porch and killed him before I had a chance to get him home safely, I sure as hell know some fruit bars and vegan cookies won't cover the loss of my best friend.
Though I can understand the frustration of seemingly being lied to by a company that is all about animal rights, I can't completely agree with all of your claims (or cited claims of others).
We must remember that there are corrupt people that can work in a good organization: at the beginning of June, a nurse was caught for killing 3 elderly patients intentionally. But we wouldn't assume all hospitals are harboring blood-thirsty nurses. Though there hasn't been many statements from PeTA regarding the chihuahua that was euthanized, it was executed by two employees. The organization has close to 400 employees with countless volunteers. From a different perspective, my partner worked at the SPCA in Quebec, a self-proclaimed "no-kill" shelter. While he worked there, at least 5 dogs (that he knew of) were euthanized due to aggressive behaviour. None of them were sick or on deaths door. One dog that was euthanized was a Pitbull/Lab mix that only got along with certain people. The owner hated him and would repeatedly kick and abuse him. The only time he was actually happy was when my partner was there. There was a few days notice to his death and my partner did everything he could to get him adopted, put up a post on Facebook to get awareness about the dog and the owner made him take the post down. No one from the organization actually cared about trying to save the dog, it was to save face because they were a supposed "no-kill" shelter.
It's sad to see people with no compassion working in such a compassionate job. Which I feel has happened in the instances that we do hear of - no one wants to hear how great of a job PeTA is doing as that won't sell. Our society is so wrapped up in negativity that most mainstream news will only report on the negative issues that come up with a company/organization rather than what is good about the company.
Though I disagree and agree with certain aspects of their live ads. I can't say that they are the only company to use sex to sell their ideas. Look at Unilever: they own Dove (empowering women to be themselves and comfortable in their own skin) and Axe (showing men if they smell good, they'll get laid). Terribly smart in a business sense but is it really all that ethical?
I can't say they don't use provocative ways to fulfill their "animals aren't ours" agenda but I genuinely feel that teaching children what meat actually is should come first before forcing a child to eat another animal. The fact that most kids don't know where that hamburger or bacon came from is frightening. Society is conditioning our children to love certain animals and eat the ones that make the most profit.
It's easy to see a few bad things a company has done and immediately be against their cause. But if you follow the same mindset, most shelters should also be boycotted, any "no-kill" shelter should be investigated or just stop promoting a "no-kill" attitude. Most of them fill up too quickly and end up sending certain animals to kill shelters anyways because they don't have the room or resources. We, as a society, need to educate our children and ourselves to avoid overpopulation of domesticated animals. There was a law passed in New York, I believe, that sends lab-tested dogs to shelters after their time in a testing facility. On the surface, this may seem great but what about all the other stray animals or unwanted pets? There is going to be a surplus of euthanasia when there is an influx of animals coming to shelters that no one will adopt. If an animal shelter was getting 1000 adoptions per day then we would have no reason to euthanize an excessive amount of animals. But it's just not the case. We want to think we are unbelievably compassionate to these animals in shelters and we would adopt all of them but very few actually do adopt. Most of the time, there are more animals coming in than going out. That's our fault, not the shelters who are trying everything they can to help our idiocy.
I'm definitely not an advocate for PeTA but there are usually two sides to every story and when it comes to animals rights and abuse, most times it is the cause of our actions: buying meat and animal products directly funds daily animal abuse, rape and execution, wanting a pet but not the responsibility allows the continuation of unwanted pregnancy and/or eventually filling a spot in a shelter that shouldn't be there in the first place.
This has prompted me to make my own controversial comment regarding animals. Sort of total opposite of this. xD More about my apathy towards animal cruelty and how inconvenient it is when people tell me that it makes me shitty.
Like, of course someone taking your pet like this and murdering it is fucking terrible, and of course factory farms and puppy mills and dog fights and women with too many cats to take care of -- of course that's all fucking terrible. But I honestly don't care about it. I do care about factory farming in the sense that it largely contributes to climate change, but the animals themselves? I prefer people. I'll get squeamish if you kill a helpless animal in front of me, but I'll fucking kill you if you put a gun to someone's head, even if they might deserve it. Most people are strongly the other way around. I'm okay that they feel differently than I do. They're not.
I know these two things, the mistreat of animals and the mistreatment of people, aren't mutually exclusive. This is why I'm wanting to emphasize: I legitimately, personally, do not care about animal rights. I think a lot of people are inclined to *say* that they care about something like this, but they don't. The vast majority of people don't. The vast majority of people don't really care about much of anything remotely important outside of their own immediate circles. I don't want to censor myself with lies just to not offend people who feel differently.
I believe that you can acknowledge something is cruel and still be able to say that it isn't something that you're personally concerned about. And instead of trying to shame people (like PETA does), they should just be passionate about it and fix it instead of worrying about what everyone else is or isn't doing about it. Spread awareness, yes, reach out to people, yes. Shame them? Fuck you, PETA. And everyone like you.