OPINION:
It is unfortunate that writer Didi Culp chose to condemn other animal-protection organizations in order to solicit donations for her own (“Help a puppy, not a lobby,” Commentary, Wednesday). All groups that work to reduce animal suffering are important and deserve our support.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) helps animals directly as well as indirectly by educating and influencing the public to make animal-friendly choices. Our mobile spay/neuter clinics have sterilized more than 75,000 cats and dogs at little to no cost to their guardians, preventing countless animals from being born into a world bursting at the seams with homeless and unwanted pets.
Our spay/neuter public-service announcements featuring Carrie Ann Inaba, Patricia Arquette, Mickey Rourke, Ron Artest and other celebrities have reached countless people with the urgent message that sterilization is the key to ending animal overpopulation and homelessness.
PETA’s Community Animal Project fieldworkers are on the road every day and on call 24/7 delivering doghouses stuffed with straw to chained “backyard dogs” that previously had only a plastic barrel - or nothing at all - to huddle in during snowstorms and driving rain. They spend their days transporting animals that are wracked with worms and other parasites to veterinarians for treatments and vaccinations and provide priceless moments of love and attention to animals that have known only abuse and suffering from human hands.
All animals feel pain and deserve to live, not just the cute, furry ones that share our homes. That’s why PETA also works to end the abuse of animals on factory farms, in laboratories, in the fur industry and more.
DAPHNA NACHMINOVITCH
Vice president, Cruelty Investigations Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Norfolk, Va.
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