PETA employees' prosecution exposed a shocking (and deadly) practice

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently criticized activities on Groundhog Day as being “cruel.” They have also called for the replacement of Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic look-alike.

While PETA frequently accuses others of animal cruelty, the organization has its own checkered history in that regard.

On June 15, 2005 two PETA employees were arrested and charged with 31 counts of felony animal cruelty. The two (Adria J. Hinkle, 27 and Andrew B. Cook, 24 both of Norfolk, Va.) were alleged to have killed scores of dogs and cats, depositing their bodies into an Ahoskie, N.C. dumpster.

Hinkle and Cook were making trips from PETA headquarters in Virginia to Eastern North Carolina veterinarian offices, and obtaining animals under the guise of adoption assistance. Once the pair had their PETA van loaded with dogs and cats in need of good homes, they administered lethal injections to the abandoned pets. They would then pull up to a dumpster and toss the still warm bodies.

Over a two-year period, Ahoskie Animal Hospital released 50 animals to PETA. Upon learning of the charges, Dr. Patrick Proctor, DVM was particularly upset over the loss of a mom and her two kittens (he had recently turned the cats over to Hinkle and Cook). “These were just kittens we were trying to find homes for,” said Proctor. "PETA said they would do that, but these cats never made it out of the county." Dr. Proctor went on to vow that "PETA will never pick up another animal from my practice."

PETA was also picking up animals from the veterinary practice of Dr. James Brown in Northampton County, N.C. Dr. Brown was shocked by the actions of PETA. He told the Virginian-Pilot: “When they started taking them, they said they would try to find homes for them. Nobody ever checked on them.”

During their Feb. 2007 trial, testimony revealed that for nearly seven years, PETA collected and killed dozens of animals from North Carolina shelters and animal control bureaus. Ordinarily, they would take the remains back to PETA headquaters in Norfolk, where they are cremated. However, Hinkle admitted that on many of those trips, they simply tossed the bodies into the dumpster behind a Piggly Wiggly supermarket.

A Bertie County animal control officer testified that Hinkle said it would be “no problem” to find homes for two dalmatians named Annie and Toby. Both dogs were put down before the PETA van left the shelter’s parking lot.

District Attorney Valerie Asbell told the courtroom: “They go out and say, ‘Oh, we helped all these animals. They sure aren’t out telling folks they’re killing healthy ones … because that doesn’t go along with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.”

Though admitting to their actions, Hinkle and Cook were acquitted of the most serious charges against them, and only found guilty of “littering,” by throwing the bodies of dead animals into the dumpster.

In 2008, a North Carolina appeals court overturned the littering conviction, saying that prosecutors had not sufficiently proven that a dumpster was not a place to deposit trash.

After the somewhat odd ruling, Heather Carlson, PETA’s media liaison said: “The two workers were providing a humane release to animals who had no future prospects, and the trial never should have happened.”

At the time, PETA founder and president Ingrid Newkirk has denied that this is part of her organization's policy. After Hinkle and Cook were arrested, Newkirk told the press: "We are appalled if this actually happened. We would absolutely never condone this behavior.”

Newkirk though, failed to explain how two of her employees could on a weekly basis, drive to another state, picking up dozens of animals, and always returning with an empty van.

Furthermore, Newkirk never specifically denied that killing homeless animals turned into PETA was not common practice. In fact, many former PETA employees have been reporting this shocking news for some time.

While the two employees in question escaped convictions for the serious crimes, the case brought to light, a policy, which many believe has been a well-hidden secret by PETA for years.

 

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