PETA workers arrested for Animal Cruelty

It's not a joke!
From NABR (the National Association for Biomedical Research):

In a stunning development that is fast becoming national news, PETA employees Andrew Benjamin Cook and Adria Joy Hinkle have each been charged by Ahoskie, North Carolina police with 31 counts of animal cruelty and 8 misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals.

During a month long investigation, law enforcement officials observed the two individuals in a white van, allegedly registered to PETA, toss several trash bags into a commercial dumpster behind a shopping mall.

Police confirmed the bags contained 18 dead dogs, including one bag containing seven puppies. An additional 13 dead dogs were found in the van. Both the investigation and surveillance of the shopping center were prompted by four other similar incidents. According to police the animals were from two North Carolina animal shelters approximately 30 miles away, where Cook and Hinkle had identified themselves to shelter staff as PETA representatives from Norfolk, VA. According to the local Animal Control Officer, the two had made claims for the past two months "they were picking up dogs to take them back to Norfolk where they would find them good homes". Cook and Hinkle have been released on $35,000 bond each. Two of the 31 dogs have been kept for an autopsy.

According to accounts just coming to light, PETA may have been picking up dogs and cats from animal control facilities in North Carolina for months or even years and bringing them back to PETA headquarters in Norfolk with the stated purpose of "attempting to find them good homes" when, in fact, they may have been killing and dumping them before they ever crossed the North Carolina state line. The purpose for this particular exercise; how many animals have been exterminated and why they were just dumped in parking lot dumpsters is still unclear. NABR will provide more details as they become available.

The VA Pilot (local to the arrests) story is here.

The AP story is here.

This is frigging sick. Taking poor, helpless animals from shelters or rescue groups that have a good chance of finding homes for them and just killing and dumping them. The poor things never had a chance.

And these people are AGAINST cruelty to animals, huh? Makes you wonder what the really cruel people are like.

It's unbelievably difficult for me to contain my rage right now. These people have the balls to come into MY workplace, look at MY animals and trump up a story about MY colleagues being "cruel" because they didn't euthanize animals properly or some such, all the while their OWN people are killing dogs and dumping them in ditches and dumpsters.

DITCHES!!!

If you support PETA, I hope you look into these charges and seriously reconsider your contributions.

They talk a good game, anti-fur, meat is bad for you and all that, but at the core, they're a group of thugs who terrorize innocent animals. This is simply another example of PETA sponsored animal cruelty, to go along with their previous attempts to set free animals that have no ability to survive outside a controlled laboratory environment. I mean, how in the hell do you expect a BLIND ALBINO rabbit to survive in an open field????

I don't know about you, but I think an organization against animal cruelty ought to REALLY practice what they preach.

UPDATE: DogSnot and Acidman are all over this too