posted June 17, 2005 12:27 PM            

Investigators staked out the bin after discovering that dead animals had been dumped there every Wednesday for the past four weeks, Ahoskie police said in a prepared statement Thursday.

PETA has scheduled a news conference for Friday in Norfolk, Va., where the group is based.

Police found 18 dead animals in the bin and 13 more in a van registered to PETA. The animals were from animal shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties, police said.

The two were picking up animals to be brought back to PETA headquarters for euthanization, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said Thursday. Neither police nor PETA offered any theory on why the animals might have been dumped.

Police charged Andrew Benjamin Cook, 24, of Virginia Beach, Va., and Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, of Norfolk, Va., each with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty and eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals. They were released on bond and an initial court date was set for Friday.

Hinkle has been suspended, but Cook continues to work PETA, Newkirk said.

posted June 17, 2005 12:37 PM              

You're a genius, Jwhop. Thank the Heavens I have now seen the Light.

posted June 17, 2005 12:51 PM            

It may sound idealistic and caring, but in reality they end up endangering those animals- killing most of them as they do not have the skills to live on their own.

Personally, I would like to see people that are involved in these types of groups actually develop methods of research that are free of animal use. BUT... we all have to remember, while some members are in it because of deep beliefs, others are in it just for a cause and they NEED the adrenaline rush of protesting or breaking into to labs to set HIV infected non-human primates free.

posted June 17, 2005 03:14 PM            

Two PETA Employees Arrested on Animal Cruelty Charges in N.C.
Andrew Benjamin Cook

(AP) - Two Hampton Roads employees of Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have been charged in Ahoskie, N.C., with animal cruelty after dumping dead dogs and cats in a shopping center garbage bin, police said Thursday.

Investigators staked out the bin after discovering that dead animals had been dumped there every Wednesday for the past four weeks, Ahoskie police said in a prepared statement.

Police found 18 dead animals in the trash bin and 13 more in a van registered to PETA. The animals were from animal shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties in North Carolina, police said. The two were picking up animals to be brought back to PETA headquarters for euthanization, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said Thursday.

Neither police nor PETA offered any theory on why the animals might have been dumped.

Local officials and veterinarians said they were told that PETA would find homes for the animals, not euthanize them. PETA has scheduled a news conference for Friday afternoon to discuss the charges.

Police charged Andrew Benjamin Cook, 24, of Virginia Beach, and Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, of Norfolk,each with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty and eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals. They were released on bond and an initial court date was set for Friday in Winton.

Hinkle has been suspended, but Cook continues to work PETA, Newkirk said. Hinkle has worked for more than two years as one of its community animal project employees in North Carolina, PETA spokeswoman Colleen O'Brien said. Cook, who joined a couple of months ago, was being trained.

Newkirk said she doubted Hinkle had ever been cruel to an animal and said if the animals were placed in the bin, "We will be appalled."

PETA euthanizes animals by lethal injection, which it considers more humane than gassing groups of animals, as poor counties are forced to do, O'Brien said.

"PETA has provided euthanasia services to various counties in (North Carolina) to prevent animals from being shot behind a shed or gassed in windowless metal boxes, both practices that were carried out until PETA volunteered to provide a painless death, free of charge," Newkirk said.

But veterinarian Patrick Proctor said that authorities found a female cat and her two "very adoptable" kittens among the dead animals. He said they were taken from Ahoskie Animal Hospital.

"These were just kittens we were trying to find homes for," he said. "PETA said they would do that, but these cats never made it out of the county."

PETA had taken 50 animals from Proctor's practice over the past two years, he said.

PETA also has taken animals from veterinarian James Brown in Northampton County.

"When they started taking them, they said they would try to find homes for them," Brown said, adding that no one checked on the animals afterward.

Barry Anderson, Bertie County's animal control officer, identified nearly all of the dumped dogs as ones that Cook and Hinkle picked up just a few hours earlier Wednesday, said Detective Sgt. Ed Pittman of the Bertie County Sheriff's Office.

Anderson also said that the PETA representatives "told him they were picking up the dogs to take them back to Norfolk where they would find them good homes," Pittman said.

posted June 17, 2005 10:47 PM              

I think I can assume the motive behind this post, similiar to the motive behind the recent abortion doctor post.

posted June 18, 2005 01:32 PM            

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

This is the link to the story I did post.
http://www.reflector.com/news/content/gen/ap/NC_PETA_Arrests.html

posted June 18, 2005 04:57 PM            

quote:

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The animals received lethal injections, Newkirk said.

---

posted June 20, 2005 02:03 PM            

In this case, two lazy jerks decided to pick up animals on the good samaritan pretense that they would place them in homes. Instead they euthanized them (hopefully by lethal injection and not other means).

TINK...yeah, I have alot against PETA in that they use counter-productive means to get their message across. I also think some of their basic tenants are absurd. But, I firmly believe that people should have a right to be a part of any organization or promote their message. I also think that in order for people to do that they should also put their money where they mouths are and get involved in changing the way things work rather than just protesting about it.

posted June 24, 2005 06:31 PM            

The Norfolk-based animal-rights group said it tried to have some of the animals adopted, but the condition of some strays and the availability of homes made it impossible.

The Bertie County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Monday to cut all ties to PETA, despite a written apology from its president. County Manager Zee Lamb said he believed euthanasia would be only a last resort for cats and dogs that were not adoptable.
Northampton County health director Sue Gay said she assumed the same. The counties learned that most animals instead had been euthanized after two PETA workers were arrested and charged with dumping dead animals in a shopping center's garbage bins.

Northampton County decided last week to stop working with PETA until the criminal cases against the two are resolved.

Since 2001, PETA has taken animals from shelters in Bertie, Hertford and Northampton counties and the town of Windsor.

Documents filed with the state of Virginia showed that PETA euthanized about 6,100 domestic animals from 2001-03. Daphna Nachminovitch, director of PETA's domestic animal and wildlife department, said she didn't know how many were from North Carolina.

"Did we euthanize some animals who could have been adopted? Maybe," Nachminovitch said. "The point is that good homes are few and far between. Our aim here was to stop them from dying an agonizing death."

PETA said it offered to take stray animals and euthanize them by fast-acting injection because it considers that more humane than gassing or shooting them.

The organization has stayed in touch with Bertie and Northampton officials in hopes of mending the relationships, Nachminovitch said.