People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is one of the leading animal rights groups in the world, so says the official PETA Web site. However, you will not find anything under the “PETA’s Milestones” section about their best kept secret – PETA kills animals.

While NFL quarterback Michael Vick has recently come under fire for maliciously killing eight of his dogs, the “animal rights” organization has slaughtered almost 14,500 small animals (cats, dogs and other small pets) since 1998. According to petakillsanimals.com, more than 90 percent of the animals PETA rescues ends up dead.

So far the score is Vick: 8, PETA: 14,418. The Web site has a scanned image of an income-tax return from 2002, on which the group lists as an expense a walk-in freezer costing almost $10,000. What would an organization that promotes a vegetarian diet need with what is essentially a giant meat locker?

The only other explanation would be for cadavers. The slaughter of thousands of animals a year is the least scary thing about the criminals in charge of PETA. The organization also hires members of the Animal Liberation Front – an animal rights organization that uses violence to free animals. In other words, it is nothing more than a terrorist group. The FBI considers ALF to be one of “today’s most serious domestic terrorism threats.”

People who donate to PETA may be interested in knowing where their money goes because a lot of it does not go to help cute, fuzzy animals. Instead a considerable amount of money goes to animals of a different breed.

PETA uses its coffers to contribute a vast amount of funds to provide defense for criminals such as Rodney Coronado. Sentenced to spend several years in prison when he was found guilty for the arson of a Michigan State University laboratory, PETA spent $42,000 in his defense. They also provided a “loan” of $25,000 to his father Ray Coronado. When asked about the loan, his father said it was not a loan and that he was not asked to give it back.

The tax exempt group is really not much more than an organization that not only kills animals, but also spends money defending people who destroy public and private property. PETA may not have the appetite for meat, but it sure has an appetite for destruction. After Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City Bomber, refused to eat meat for his last meal, PETAs Vegetarian Outreach Coordinator Bruce Friedrich said the decision “groups him with some of the world’s greatest visionaries.”

Who knew killing 168 people, 19 of them children, could place someone in the ranks of Einstein and Gandhi? If only people are killed and not animals, who cares?

The best example of PETA’s disdain toward human life is its opposition to using animal research. No one likes to think of the rats and monkeys used to test medical products, but in the end if you have to kill 1,000 rats to save one human, it is worth it. Dr. Tee Guidotti, professor of occupational and environmental medicine at George Washington University, said on “Penn & Teller: Bullshit!” that if all animal research was stopped, 85 to 90 percent of medical progress would cease. Insulin for diabetes, various vaccines, pain killers and pacemakers have all been developed through animal research. These devices have saved millions of lives.

Humanity has evolved past all other life on earth, so why should we not use other species to further our own? Would a wild lion not kill a human family to feed its cub?

That is where PETA’s stupidity hits a brick wall – the organization does not know what evolution is or what survival of the fittest means.

Ted Hamilton is a senior magazine journalism major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].