Trial set to start for PETA workers caught euthanizing, dumping = cats and dogs

The dog carcasses always appeared late on Wednesday = nights, wrapped in black trash bags and stuffed in the Dumpster behind = the Piggly Wiggly supermarket.
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Over a period of three weeks in the = summer of 2005, police officers in the small town of Ahoskie, N.C., = pulled the bodies of 80 animals from the trash bin. Some were puppies, = some were full-grown. Most were mutts.

On the fourth week, = officers set up a stakeout, and when a white van pulled up to the = dumpster, they pounced.

If the van's cargo — 10 dead dogs = and three dead cats in black bags — was to be expected, its = occupants were not. The driver and the passenger were employees of = People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the vehicle was = registered to the organization.
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The workers, Adria Hinkle, 28, and = Andrew Cook, 25, were arrested and later indicted on 24 felony charges, = including 21 counts of animal cruelty, for injecting lethal doses of an = anesthetic into strays they had just collected from county shelters and = a veterinarian's office.

For PETA, the largest animal rights = organization in the world, it was a public relations nightmare. The = group, whose many celebrity supporters include Pamela Anderson and Alec = Baldwin, made its name by obtaining and publicizing disturbing images of = torturous lab experiments, blood-soaked fur farms and shocking abuse of = circus animals.
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Now it was confronted with photos of a graphic = scene of its own employees' making: a lifeless cream-colored puppy being = lifted out off a pile of trash. A dead Dalmatian sprawled on its back. A = jet-black cat and her two kittens cinched in a trash bag.

"It's = hideous," the president of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, acknowledged two days = after the arrests. "I think this is so shocking it's bound to hurt our = work."

Despite this assessment, Newkirk and PETA stood by Hinkle = and Cook in the coming months, consistently advocating for their = innocence and hiring the legal team that will represent them at the = trial that begins Jan. 22 in Hertford County Superior Court.
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"As = the trial is about to start, we remind all interested parties that there = was absolutely no cruelty involved in this case, that PETA has only ever = helped animals in dire straits in North Carolina, and that if justice is = served these facts will be made clear," a spokeswoman, Erin Edwards, = wrote in an e-mail Thursday.

Although only Hinkle and Cook, two = low-level staffers, are facing charges, the policies of the entire = organization are on trial.

Critics have charged that many of the = group's loyal supporters will be shocked when details of PETA's = euthanasia policy emerge. The Virginian-Pilot reported that the group = euthanized more than 6,000 animals between 2001 and 2003, about 83 = percent of those it collected.

Officials with the group maintain = that while Hinkle and Cook may have exercised poor discretion in dumping = the animals behind the supermarket, they and other employees who did = similar work were acting humanely when they euthanized animals removed = from shelters.
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Those who say otherwise, PETA claims, are not = realistic about the future of the estimated 6 to 8 million dogs and cats = left at U.S. shelters annually.

Statistics compiled by the = national Humane Society indicate that only about half of the strays will = be adopted. The rest will be put to death. PETA insists that in the case = of the "unadoptable" — the old, sick, antisocial or not = housebroken — it is more compassionate to euthanize them = immediately than to let them live in shelters, where they may be = mistreated.

"Critics may condemn PETA for supporting euthanasia, = but we are not ashamed of providing a merciful exit from an uncaring = world to broken beings," Daphna Nachminovitch, PETA's director of = domestic animal issues, wrote in an editorial in the San Francisco = Chronicle shortly after the arrests.
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That stance is controversial = in the animal rights community.

"The responsibility we have to = animals doesn't mean giving them a painless death. It means coping with = their challenges like we would a family member or a child," said Rich = Avanzino, the president of Maddie's Fund.

His organization, = endowed with $300 million by PeopleSoft founder David Duffield, = advocates making the United States a "no-kill nation," where animals are = only euthanized if they are dangerous or suffering from an incurable = condition.

The trial, which is scheduled to last a week, will = focus on PETA's involvement with three rural counties in the northeast = part of the state.

According to PETA, the group first became = involved with North Carolina strays several years ago when they received = a phone call from a police officer outraged at the conditions in county = shelters.
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"Some of the counties were euthanizing animals by = shooting them in the head with an old rifle. Others were using a leaky = and ineffective gas chamber," Cook's lawyer, Mark Edwards, = said.

PETA agreed to collect animals several times a week and take = them to their headquarters in Norfolk, Va., about 50 miles away. What = was supposed to occur there is disputed. County officials say they were = under the impression that the group would try to find loving homes for = the animals.

One veterinarian, Patrick Proctor, said that when he = handed the black cat and her kittens to Hinkle and Cook, they cooed over = the animals and said they would be easy to place.

"They were = saying, 'My, what beautiful animals. We will have absolutely no trouble = finding homes for these,'" the veterinarian told CNN.
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PETA = officials contend that everyone involved knew that the animals would be = euthanized, and its role was to provide a less painful death at their = lab in Norfolk than they would have experienced by a gun or gas chamber = death in the shelter.

"These animals were going to be euthanized, = either by PETA or the state of North Carolina," Edwards = said.

Newkirk has said that Hinkle and Cook deviated from PETA = policy by disposing of the bodies in the Dumpster rather than cremating = them.

Hinkle, who was more senior than Cook, normally assigned to = the group's Web site, was suspended for 90 days, but both defendants = continue to work for the group.
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