Dear Ms. Schooley,
Thank you for writing to PETA
about our campaign to promote sterilizing dogs and cats. Please go to http://www.PETA.org/about/default.aspx
to learn more about our mission and our important work to help animals.
PETA’s job is to draw attention
to animal suffering, and we have found that
provocative tactics yield more attention than the facts alone, which aren’t
enough to attract interest in today’s tabloid media. We must push the envelope
to get animals’ stories out there. By harnessing controversial issues
like Pope Benedict’s comments about condom use, we have created a forum for discussion
in the media and online, and even within the church. We welcome discussion
about—and even criticism of—our ads and campaigns because we know that getting
people talking is the first step in raising awareness.
We understand that some may
consider our use of Pope Benedict’s image inflammatory, and we are sorry if
these images have offended you. The pope is a compassionate man who has spoken
out for animals in the past and is well known for his love of cats. We believe
that he would support our lifesaving message and our efforts to prevent
suffering and death. To read more about our campaign, please go to http://www.PETA.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2010/12/03/pope-condom-for-dogs.aspx.
Catholics—and all
Christians—should be appalled by the degree of suffering that we inflict on
animals. Jesus’ teachings say that we should show love and compassion for all
of God’s creation—qualities that are notoriously absent in puppy mills and
catteries. Bred to death, delivering litter after
litter in conditions rife with filth and disease, these animals are doomed to
their own hell. The solution is simple: Spay and neuter every animal and
always adopt from an animal shelter—never buy from breeders or pet stores. More
than 500 animals are euthanized every hour in the U.S. because there are too
many of them and not enough good homes—that adds up to as many as 4 million
animals every year. We won’t back down from our message that people who want to
share their lives with an animal must always adopt a sterilized animal, never
buy or breed.
We also put our words into
action: PETA helps dogs and cats in need by providing free food when their
owners are poor, clean water buckets, sturdy dog houses and straw for winter (http://www.PETA.org/doghouse), and
more, and we have transferred hundreds of adoptable dogs and cats to walk-in
animal shelters and adoption centers. PETA’s two mobile clinics spay or neuter
thousands of animals at low to no cost every year. We give them shots, fix
their wounds, treat their illnesses, and return them to the community. Since
2001, PETA’s two spay-and-neuter mobile clinics have sterilized more than
63,000 animals, preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from being
neglected, abandoned, abused, or euthanized when no one wanted them.
On a national level, PETA is focusing on the root of the problem by targeting
breeders, pet stores, and cat- and dog-breeding mills through protests, PSAs,
celebrity support, and investigations and puts the blame for the overpopulation
crisis squarely where it belongs—with those who breed animals or allow their
animals to breed. As long as animals are bred, homeless dogs and cats in animal
shelters will die because there simply aren’t enough good homes for them all.
Thank you again for contacting us and for the opportunity to explain the
important work that we do to help animals.
Sincerely,
The PETA Staff
http://www.PETA.org