According to public records

Of the 6,378 cats they took in in 2008, 3 were adopted out, 4,786 were reclaimed by their owners, 18 were transferred to other facilities or fell into a “miscellaneous” category, and 1,569 were euthanized.

Even considering that many of the animals they receive might not be adoptable and the fact the number of abandoned pets is growing, their nearly nonexistent adoption rate is stunning for an organization that has an annual budget of $32 million (most of it spent on high-profile shock-inducing media campaigns). It boggles the mind to think that PETA only bothered to find homes for three cats last year, and euthanized the rest. Hardly what one would consider to be “ethical treatment.”

Here is PETA’s Response:

It’s disingenuous, to say the least, for the deceitfully-named Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) to complain about the number of unwanted and suffering animals whom PETA has been forced to euthanize because their guardians requested it, or because no good homes exist for them.

CCF is a front group for Philip Morris, Outback Steakhouse, KFC, cattle ranchers, and other animal exploiters who kill millions of animals every year, not out of compassion, but out of greed. CCF promotes meat-eating and defends corporations that send billions of cows, chickens, pigs, and other animals to terrifying, gruesome, and painful deaths in slaughterhouses.

PETA handled far more animals than 2,124 in 2008. In fact, we took in more than 10,000 dogs and cats, spaying and neutering all of them at low to no cost. We gave them shots, fixed their wounds and treated their illnesses, and returned them to the community. Most of the animals we took in and euthanized could hardly be called “pets,” as they had spent their lives on heavy chains, for instance. They were unsocialized, never having been inside a building of any kind or known a pat on the head. Others were indeed someone’s, but they were aged, sick, injured, dying, too aggressive to place, and the like, and PETA offered them a release from suffering, with no charge to their owners or custodians.

Those figures also do not include the hundreds upon hundreds of dogs and cats whose suffering PETA works to alleviate by providing them with free food when their owners are poor, clean water buckets, sturdy dog houses, straw for winter, and more, or the hundreds of adoptable dogs and cats we will not take in but refer to walk-in animal shelters and adoption centers. Since 2001, PETA’s low- to no-cost spay-and-neuter mobile clinics, SNIP and ABC, have sterilized more than 50,000 animals, preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from being born, neglected, abandoned, abused, or euthanized when no one wanted them. We also actively decrease the number of animals who end up in animal shelters only to be euthanized for lack of good homes by using star power to promote spaying and neutering in ads across the country.

On a national level, PETA is focusing on the root of the problem through our Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign. The ABC campaign targets breeders, pet stores, and cat- and dog-breeding mills and in an active way 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.

As long as animals are still be purposely bred and people aren’t spaying and neutering their companions, open-admission animal shelters and organizations like PETA must do society’s dirty work. Euthanasia is not a solution to overpopulation but rather a tragic necessity given the present crisis. PETA is proud to be a “shelter of last resort,” where animals who have no place to go or who are unwanted or suffering are welcomed with love and open arms.

You can read more about this in Ingrid Newkirk’s last blog.

[PHOTO CREDIT: The Sydney Morning Herald]

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(L to R) Wayne and Ann Crews with Autumn’s savior, Wilbert Davis. Ann is holding Autumn, “the mattress cat.”

Two-year-old Autumn the Cat nearly didn’t make it to Autumn this year, after being trapped for nearly a week inside a box spring and mattress.

The saga began when a Viriginia couple, Ann and Wayne Crews, had a new mattress and box spring delivered by Haynes Mattress Company. As the old set was being loaded on the truck, one of their cats, Zoie, leaped out from inside the box spring (which was taped to the mattress). About an hour after the truck left, the Crews realized that Autumn was nowhere to be found, and Zoie and their third cat, Miss Patty, were acting very strangely.

The other cats were going crazy,” said Ann. “They could tell something was wrong.”

The Crews contacted Haynes, who performed a search, but didn’t turn up a cat. Days went by. It seemed that Autumn had been abducted by aliens: there was no sign of her. A happy outcome seemed unlikely… that is, until Wilbert Davis entered the picture.

Davis works transporting old mattresses from a Williamsburg warehouse to a landfill in Suffolk. As he handles the Crews’ box spring, he felt something shift.

“When I moved that particular box spring, my spirit told me something wasn’t right,” he said.

He took the time to investigate, and found Autumn trapped inside the box spring, lying prone, with her front and back legs outstretched.

“I saw a purple collar. That’s when I knew it was a pet,” said Davis. “I was so shocked. I called the other person with me on the truck.” Then he phoned his warehouse manager and said, “You won’t believe this. There’s a cat inside this mattress set. It must belong to a customer.”

The mattress company went to work trying to track down the cat’s owners, while Davis ministered to Autumn. He asked co-workers for leftover lunch, bought food from a nearby store, and watered the thirsty cat.

Davis said that his compassion was based on his Christian beliefs. “I do things from the heart. It was all through God. I can’t take credit. God used me to do this.”

Ann Crews was very thankful for the kindness that Davis showed toward Autumn. The cat arrived back home via delivery truck on Saturday and after a trip to vet, received a clean bill of health. According to the Crews, Zoie and Miss Patty are “ecstatic” to have Autumn back.

Thank you, Wilbert Davis, for going the extra mile to save Autumn!