People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, abbreviated PETA (also spelled PeTA), is the world's largest animal rights organization, with more than five million supporters. It was founded in 1980 by activist and current PETA head Ingrid Newkirk, among others, and is now based in Norfolk, Virginia in the United States. The organization is recognized as a non-profit and therefore exempt from taxes. It is financed almost exclusively by donations. As of April 2006, the organization had a total of 187 employees. Offices exist in cities around the world.

The organisation campaigns against factory farming, fur farming, animal testing, the meat industry, pet farming and animals in the entertainment industry, as well as angling, trophy hunting, killing animals considered pests, dog fighting and cock fighting. The controversial campaigns used to do this sometimes elicit fierce criticism. PETA has been criticized for its support of activists associated with controversial groups such as the radical Animal Liberation Front.

The organization takes in animals that are found or surrendered to it and tries to place them in new homes. It also actively practices sterilization and neutering and euthanization of animals.

PETA Deutschland e. V. had nine voting members in 2018. According to a ruling by the VGH Baden-Württemberg in March 2020 (AZ 1 S 720/18), PETA Deutschland e.V. only has seven voting members in 2020 and is therefore "not entitled to recognition as an animal protection organisation entitled to file a lawsuit".

Portrait

PETA rejects the practice of treating animals as property and opposes speciesism, animal testing, meat eating, factory farming and hunting. The organization complains that animals are used in the entertainment industry and their products are used as clothing, furniture or jewelry. Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's president, said in 1983:

History

After being founded in 1980, the organization gained public attention a year later in the wake of the Silver Spring monkey affair. Alex Pacheco, one of the co-founders along with Ingrid Newkirk, conducted undercover investigations at the Primate Research Laboratory at the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. Edward Taub, the lead researcher, studied the feedback of severed nerves in the limbs of 17 monkeys, then applied electric shocks to create physical restraints on the intact limbs. Pacheco visited the institute at night and took photos that showed the monkeys were living in "disgusting conditions," according to the ILAR Journal of the Institute for Animal Research. With his evidence, he approached the police, who then raided the lab and arrested Taub. Taub was later convicted on six counts of animal cruelty, marking the first conviction of a researcher in the United States. However, the conviction was later overturned.

This case, which took a total of ten years to resolve, led to the passage of an Animal Welfare Act in 1985 and became the first animal experimentation case to go before the United States Supreme Court, which denied PETA's request to assume liability for some of these monkeys. Instead, the monkeys remained with the National Institutes of Health, which had funded Taub's research. The case defined the organization as an activist group that uses undercover investigations, the judiciary and the media to promote its views.

Targets

The organization believes that the fundamental rights of animals must be taken into account, regardless of whether the animals are of any use to humans. Instead, the organization grants them a moral right to life and right to physical integrity.

The organization advocates the abolition of factory farming for the purpose of obtaining meat, milk, eggs, leather, hides and furs. Furthermore, the organization advocates a vegan or at least ovo-lacto-vegetarian lifestyle for all people. However, PETA does not pursue a strategy that categorically excludes the killing of animals.

Likewise, PETA is against pet ownership in principle. The following quote describes PETA's view: "In a perfect world, all animals could live freely and meet their needs." However, since there are already so many domesticated animals in our society, we have a responsibility to take care of them. For this reason, PETA argues that all people should never buy an animal from a pet shop or breeder, as this inevitably promotes the overpopulation of animals and the "production" often takes place in conditions that are cruel to animals. Furthermore, one should have his animal companions castrated. If you are ready to take in an animal, the first and only place to go should always be the animal shelter.

Principles

On the website jesusveg.com, which belongs to the organization, the organization argues that Christian charity should apply to all living creatures and is in contradiction to animal cruelty. Based on this argument, PETA ultimately promotes vegetarianism. In interviews that also aired on a show dedicated to PETA on the series Bullshit! by skeptics Penn and Teller, leading members of PETA advocate violence against things in exceptional circumstances. Edmund Haferbeck, together with Frank Wieding, writes in the 1998 book Operation Tierbefreiung - ein Plädoyer für radikale Tierrechtsaktionen (Operation Animal Liberation - A Plea for Radical Animal Rights Action): "A life will always be worth more to us than a broken door, a destroyed experimental laboratory or a meat truck set on fire".

Activities

The organization is known for its undercover investigations and media campaigns. Many campaigns focus on large companies such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, PETCO, Procter & Gamble, Covance, Agriprocessors and Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). In 1997, PETA initiated an international campaign against HLS, airing video footage on British television that was secretly filmed inside the company by PETA investigator Michele Rokke. In it, abuse of beagles could be seen. When HLS threatened to take legal action against it, PETA was forced to drop the action, fearing crushing costs. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, a loose affiliation of activists with ties to other organizations, continued the campaign.

Finance

According to PETA USA's reviewed statement regarding finances, the organization receives more than $25 million per year from the public as of July 31, 2005. Nearly 85% of the operating budget was spent directly on the respective campaigns: 10.83% on charity and 4.18% on management and the respective campaigns. 11% of employees earned between $16,000 and $29,999; 49% earned between $30,000 and $44,999; and 40% earned more than $45,000. Ingrid Newkirk earned a total of $39,247 in 2017 in her position as Chair of PETA.

Undercover investigations

One of the organization's main goals is to document the treatment of animals in experimental laboratories and other facilities where animals are used, and to bring publicity to this issue. To achieve this, the organization sends its employees to animal testing facilities, circuses and farms with intensive animal husbandry or other animal husbandry facilities where the organization suspects what it considers to be improper handling of animals. In some cases, this requires several months of undercover investigation, filming and the like.

Germany

In Germany, there was a "team of investigators" employed by PETA Germany for these purposes. In 2013, the research department was reorganized. If private individuals uncover abuses and contact the animal rights organization, it analyzes, processes and disseminates the research material it receives.

United States

PETA USA also does not participate in break-ins to free animals, but releases videotapes, some of which are taken by the Animal Liberation Front during their actions. PETA agreed to meet with the ALF to obtain footage and documentation, or to have them by their side as a sort of third party. This practice led to criticism as the actions are sometimes violent and can also involve the destruction of property. It was also alleged that PETA may have advance knowledge of planned attacks. During the 1995 trial of ALF activist Rod Coronado for an arson attack on Michigan State University, U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer claimed at sentencing that Ingrid Newkirk had ordered Coronado to send her documents from the lab and a videotape of the raid "days before the fire occurred."

In America, the organization conducted undercover investigations at drug developer Covance from April 2003 to March 2004 to obtain video footage that a British judge called "deeply disturbing," according to the organization. The evidence, which PETA submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, showed monkeys being beaten, tortured and humiliated. Covance was later fined for violating U.S. animal welfare laws.

Activity

Germany

PETA Deutschland e. V., the sister organization of PETA USA, is a non-profit organization that is recognized as worthy of support and, according to its own information, finances itself exclusively from donations without government support.

Youth organization peta2

peta2 was founded in 2002 as a youth organization of PETA in the USA, followed by peta2 Germany in 2003. The organization is primarily aimed at a young audience between the ages of 13 and 25 and pursues the goal of raising awareness of animal rights and encouraging people to adopt a vegan lifestyle.

How it works

In contrast to the parent organization PETA, which both investigates undercover and addresses politics, business and the judiciary with campaigns, petitions and lawsuits, peta2 concentrates on public relations. In doing so, peta2 does not carry out any actions or demonstrations itself, but coordinates a nationwide network of "street teams", which are usually located in larger cities and organized under the leadership of a coordinator. These street teams carry out actions and demonstrations and supervise information stands at concerts and festivals, where peta2 materials are distributed. peta2 also does not collect donations itself, but is financed by donations from PETA.

Campaigns

With its campaigns, peta2 takes up individual aspects from PETA's principles. For example, "Meat's Not Green" deals with the effects of meat consumption on the environment, "Justice For All" explains the principle of carnism for a young target group, and "Milk Kills" campaigns against milk consumption. Like PETA, peta2 also works with prominent supporters to create awareness for its own issues. These include national and international musicians from the punk and hardcore genres, as well as actors, bloggers and Youtubers. Jennifer Rostock and Rise Against, for example, regularly support peta2, and the Donots, Noah Cyrus, Samsas Traum and Jella Haase, among others, have also appeared in peta2 motifs and videos.

Actions

The working methods of the animal rights organisation are often radically media-effective. Provocative and highly visible campaigns such as "Eat more whales!" and "Holocaust on your plate" are designed to attract attention and draw attention to issues concerning the treatment of animals that are assumed to be unknown, covered up or concealed.

A number of actions are specifically directed against the consumption of meat and other animal products. The focus is on consumption, production and also individual companies in the affected sectors. In some cases, this is also linked to political goals, such as the levying of a separate tax on animal products.

In many actions, the focus is primarily on media attention. For example, PETA criticized the use of animal products in computer games (although not the violence against humans that is possible there) or demanded the renaming of cities, such as Fischen in the Allgäu. Further examples are

Naked run

As a parody of the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, where the animals are chased and injured, the organization has also been organizing the so-called Running of the Nudes since 2002, in which PETA activists run through the northern Spanish city partially unclothed. In 2006, more than 1,000 activists took part.

"Sexiest Vegetarian"

PETA chooses the Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrities every year. In 2013, these were Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard. In the first nomination, Natalie Portman and Benji Madden were nominated in 2006. By 2011, this was done under the initiative of the youth organization PETA2. The award winners were often lead singers from the rock music field, e.g. Alissa White-Gluz.

A number of campaigns triggered particular controversies or achieved particular prominence:

"Holocaust on Your Plate"

In 2003, the organization began the action and exhibition "Holocaust on Your Plate" in the USA, which consisted of eight strips, each 18 square meters in size. On them, images of the Holocaust were juxtaposed with images from factory farming. The funding for the campaign remained anonymous. Photos of inmates in wooden bunks in concentration camps were shown next to chickens in cages and piled up corpses of Holocaust victims next to a pile of dead pigs.

Captions explained that "just as Jews were murdered in concentration camps, animals are terrorized when they are housed in huge and filthy warehouses and rounded up for transport to slaughterhouses. The leather sofa and handbag are the moral equivalent of the lampshades made from the skin of those people killed in the death camps."

The project's website also quoted Jewish Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, who wrote of animals, "When it comes to animals, all humans are Nazis. For animals, forever is Treblinka."

In March 2004, PETA Germany took over the campaign. The comparison of factory farming with the Holocaust provoked indignation, as it relativized the mass murder of European Jews during the Nazi era. In a similar vein, a 2005 campaign in which PETA compared the treatment of animals to slavery was criticized.

Legal situation in Germany

The criminal proceedings initiated by the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office against the 2nd chairman of PETA Deutschland e.V. because of the accusation of incitement of the people were stopped against payment of a fine of 10,000 €.

In several decisions of the Berlin Regional Court and the Court of Appeal in 2004 and 2005, PETA was legally prohibited from distributing the posters. The equation of Holocaust victims with animals against the background of the human image of the Basic Law appears arbitrary; the humiliation of the people depicted is instrumentalized in the interest of the goals considered correct by PETA.

In its order of 20 February 2009, the Federal Constitutional Court did not accept PETA's constitutional complaint directed against these decisions for decision. In particular, PETA argued that the Chamber Court's assessment that there was "a categorical difference between human, dignified life and the concerns of animal protection" and that "the complainant's campaign constitutes a trivialisation and trivialisation of the fate of the Holocaust victims" could not be objected to. This was an infringement of the general right of personality, which was given "priority over freedom of opinion". On 9 November 2012, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the ban on the campaign was compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court dismissed PETA's application for referral to its Grand Chamber; the judgment thus became final.

Legal situation in Austria

After the "Holocaust on your plate" campaign in Austria had initially been prohibited by interim injunction in 2004, the Supreme Court (OGH) ruled in October 2006 that the campaign was lawful. It was covered by the right to freedom of expression. In its reasoning, the Supreme Court stated: "The disparagement of a race or a people relevant to the plaintiffs is not brought about by the advertising campaign: [...] The statement is only to the effect that Jews were treated like animals. The juxtaposition does not, in any event, lead the relevant reasonable average observer to the conclusion drawn by the plaintiffs." At the same time, the Supreme Court acknowledged "that the campaign fought against in favor of animal protection could well be judged impious, tasteless, exaggerated and even immoral."

Nude campaigns and campaigns against fur

The organization ran a total of two campaigns that ran for an extended period of time. On the posters for "This is the rest of your fur" various celebrities (for example Christina Applegate, Vanessa Petruo, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Alexandra Kamp) posed with the skinned carcass of a fox to demonstrate against the fur industry.
In the second campaign, "I'd rather go naked than wear fur," supermodels such as Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell appeared nude to express their opposition to wearing fur. In April 2011, PETA enlisted Daniela Katzenberger as an ambassador. In the pictures, Katzenberger was seen wearing only a scarf to demonstrate against Chinese fur farms. PETA broke off collaborations with some models when they continued to wear fur, as Naomi Campbell did in 1997 during a fashion show in Milan. Other models PETA stopped working with were Kate Moss and Cindy Crawford. The 1994 campaign featuring nude models was controversial within the animal rights movement, particularly in the English-speaking world. Victor Schonfeld criticized that with this campaign the fight for real change would be abandoned. Ingrid Newkirk countered that PETA was convinced that compromise and fun were necessary for real animal protection work.

Your Daddy Kills Animals Campaign

The organization earned criticism for distributing graphic flyers among children. According to PETA's website, these are intended to make parents aware of how their actions affect their children. One flyer opposing the wearing of fur was titled "Your Mommy Kills Animals" and featured a cartoon of a mother plunging a knife into the belly of a rabbit. Another leaflet called "Your Dad Kills Animals" showed a cartoon father gutting a fish; the leaflet has the following text:

Sexiest Vegetarian 2013: Kristen Bell .