PETA kills 2,000 dogs and cats each year: report

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals puts to sleep an estimated 2,000 dogs and cats each year, a new report finds.

The New York Times found that the animal rights group kills far more each year than it places for adoption. Last year, only 19 were adopted from its shelter; the year before, it was 24.

The statistic comes as no-kill shelters around the nation have made great gains in adoptions. In New York alone, for instance, the kill statistic for sheltered animals fell from 31,701 in 2003 to 8,252 in 2012 —  meaning that more and more animals are being placed in homes rather than euthanized, Newser reported.

But PETA’s shelters haven’t made such great strides in the no-kill trend.

In their defense, PETA representatives say the animals they see are usually too sick or injured to save.

“It’s nice for people who’ve never worked in a shelter to have this idealistic view that every animal can be saved,” one PETA spokesperson said in The New York Times article. “They don’t see what awful physical and emotional pain these poor dogs and cats suffer.”

But advocates of the no-kill policy disagree.

The director of shelter medicine at the University of California at Davis said in the article that “the pieces for no-kill are in place. We just need to spread the word and make sure shelters have the resources and know-how.”