(Newser)
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PETA's controversial campaigns for animal rights dominate headlines—but behind the scenes, the picture is quite different, according to newly released documents. Last year, the organization killed more than 95% of the pets in its charge at its Norfolk, Va., headquarters, the Daily Caller reports. Documents released by the state's agriculture department show that the group placed 24 animals in 2011—and killed 1,911.
"It appears PETA is more concerned with funding its media and advertising antics than finding suitable homes for these dogs and cats,” says the head of the Center for Consumer Freedom, which posted the documents online. PETA lacks "sufficient animal enclosures" to house the number of animals it reportedly takes in, says an investigator, who adds that the group kills 84% of the animals it receives within 24 hours. A rep for the group didn't contest the figures, but told the Daily Caller that it only kills animals due to “injury, illness, age, aggression, or because no good homes exist for them. Most of the animals we take in are society’s rejects; aggressive, on death’s door, or somehow unadoptable," she added.
