Animal rights group attacked; PETA integrity under question
By PAT MINDOS
New Jersey Herald Staff Writer
Two watchdog organizations make different complaints about People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but their unified message questions the integrity of the Norfolk-based animal rights group.
Ron Arnold, executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, said, "We believe the evidence shows that PETA's leaders and personnel have been involved in criminal activities of such a magnitude for such a length of time that they have no legal right to a tax exemption."
Jeff Kerr, general counsel for PETA, responded to Arnold's statement. "That is completely ludicrous and they ve known about it for a long time, said Kerr, Monday. Everything it (PETA) does is directly related to trying to help end the suffering and exploitation of animals. Everything we do is consistent with the charitable mission of PETA."
Meanwhile the Center for Consumer Freedom says PETA allocates a greater portion of its funds on legal defense instead of protecting the animals. The center is a nonprofit organization supported by restaurants, food companies, and individual consumers to promote personal responsibility and consumer choices.
Kerr explained PETA donates to legal defense funds to help protect constitutional rights to effective counsel. "PETA will help when we feel it is appropriate to defend the rights of people who are trying to speak out in behalf of animals. We stand very much behind the constitutional rights people have the right to Freedom of Speech."
Parker Space, vice president of Space Farms Zoo & Museum, of Sussex, commented Monday on the center's findings. "People are sort of blinded by the false front PETA puts forward, said Space in a written statement. Basically people do not realize what is behind their true agenda. They are putting a lot of their donations in their pocket and very little goes to the animals they claim to protect."
Last week, PETA sent letters to Space Farms and The New Jersey Herald stating that tigers or lions bred in captivity on the farm could end up guarding crackhouses or languishing in basements. An additional letter to the newspaper stated captive tigers are kept in small barren cages where they sometimes go insane from the lack of exercise. The letters did not show proof that the farm's animals actually end up guarding crackhouses or kill people.
Space denied the allegations Wednesday, and said the family-owned farm only sells the cubs to zoos or other breeding facilities. He also objected to the article, printed Thursday.
Space said his zoo is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the pens and feeding facilities are inspected bi-annually. The facility is also licensed by the NJ Fish and Wildlife. "Whenever there's a problem when the state finds an illegal tiger, we're one of the first ones they call. We have a good rapport with them," Space said.
PETA's criticism stemmed from the farm advertising its five tiger cubs in Animal Finders Guide, which sells animals such as camels, kangaroos and elk bull. "We monitor the publication, and when we find things that would be of interest to the public, we act on them," Amy Rhodes, Animals in Entertainment Research & Investigations for PETA, said Friday. "We want people to know that roadside zoos like Space Farms use these animals to bring people in. They keep the animals purely for profit. Once no longer profitable, they pawn them off to anyone who is willing to pay for them, rarely a legitimate zoo."
She provided examples, such as research labs, or people who keep them as pets. Rhodes also wrote the letters.
Space disagreed with Rhodes, commenting on how Space Farms saved a family of rhesus monkeys last summer from being sent to a research center. "When I heard what was slated to happen to these guys, I quickly found who they belonged to and made arrangements to pick them up in South Jersey," Space said. "Now they are here at the farm to interact with the people for many years to come."
But further research into PETA indicates other groups object to how PETA manages its finances. PETA does not publish how much it spends on litigation, but the Center for Consumer Freedom has tracked the animal rights group's tax returns for the past 20 years. A tiny fraction of the millions actually goes to animal help programs, like rescues, or less than 1/2 percent, said David Martosko who faxed a list, itemizing PETA's expenses for legal defense and animal protection. "It's another example of how PETA pretends to be warm and cuddly. It's pulling the wool over the eyes of the public, it's an extreme radical (group) It's not about being kind to animals, it's about being cruel to people."
Kerr responded to Arnold's objections to PETA's tax exempt status.
"Everything they have talked about has been disclosed in our tax returns, said Kerr. We are very open in what we do and we are trying to get people's attention about the suffering that's inflicted on animals."
He also said that because of PETA's financial assistance with legal defense, information about animal cruelty was brought out in the open and sweeping changes have been made to animal labs.
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