In 2014, wool sales went down 32%, lamb sales went down 20%, and farmers went bankrupt. Imagine how you would feel if your business that has been in your family for generations was suddenly gone. (Weise). Or if your kids couldn't eat because there was no money to buy food. In 2014 the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (further known as PETA) released an advertisement of a naked woman holding a "sheared" lamb, causing a reduction in lamb sales for the following years and putting small family farms in jeopardy. Through the use of shock advertising and an uninformed American public, PETA is able to euthanize thousands of animals each year at their Virginia shelter with very few questioning their actions. Just because they are killing innocent cats and dogs, instead of people, doesn't make it any less important, these are family members that are being killed and abducted from their homes. For years the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have been killing animals and lying to the American people. It is time for millennials to change the story and hold PETA accountable for their actions. If we don't take a stand and hold them accountable, how long will they continue these euthanasia practices and inappropriate shock advertisements?

Despite the publics perception that PETA makes strides to protect animals, in reality PETA does more harm than good, killing thousands of animals each year. PETA killed 34,970 cats and dogs from mid 1998 to the end of 2015 in their Virginia based animal shelter (PETA's Pet Killing Claimed 1,456 Victims in 2015). That's approximately 2000 animals each year, with this high rate of euthanasia, PETA only has a three percent adoption rate. In 2014, 3,017 animals were brought to PETAs Virginia Shelter and 2,455 were euthanized, that is an 81.4% kill rate in 2014 (St. George). James McWilliams, an author at The Atlantic and associate professor at Texas State University, provides Virginia State documents for 2012 and their statistics for that year on euthanasia of animals in his article. In this 2012 state document PETA euthanized 713 out of 778 dogs. As McWilliams said in this article, "An Animal Rights group with a 30 million budget should be able to do a whole lot better." The problem is that PETA kills any animal in its shelter, whether they are dying or healthy and adoptable. "In November of 2014, PETA employees dognapped a perfectly healthy and happy Chihuahua (named Maya) from a family, and promptly killed it. They left a vegan food basket as an apology." How does a food basket make up for killing a family member? No Public apology? No statement that the responsible employees would be subject to disciplinary action? Their response to doing a terrible and tragic thing was sending a food basket, when all that was necessary was a heartfelt apology. Maya came from a loving home, never mistreated, loved by her family and PETA never gave a formal answer as to why Maya was kidnapped from her home.

A spokesperson for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Amanda Schinke said, "Euthanasia is a product of love for animals who have no one to love them. She calls it a Tragic Reality" (McWilliams). It is obvious she speaks for all of PETA when she says this, otherwise PETA wouldn't have had an 89% euthanasia rate in 2012 (Scheidegger). How is it that 89% of animals in PETAs Virginia Shelter are unadoptable? Of those 89%, 84% are killed within the first twenty-four hours of arriving at the shelter (O'Brien). Most county and SPCA shelters try for a high rehoming rate, not euthanasia. How is it that out of the thousands of animals brought into the shelter each year, only eight cats and twelve dogs were adopted in 2012? 

PETA believes "no kill" shelters attribute to a low quality of life and do not address the overpopulation problem. PETA representative, Schinke, then goes on to state the overpopulation problem is at the fault of responsible breeders (Scheidegger). This is where PETA loses all touch with reality. There is a massive difference between backyard breeders who do zero health testing with their 20-30 dogs, and responsible, reputable breeders who sell animals on a spay/neuter contract and will take any dog bred by them back, no questions asked. I am biased on this fact however, since I am one of these responsible breeders and none of the dogs I have bred, have ever ended up in a shelter. 

On the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals website, they state, "Mixed-breed dogs have demonstrated superior intelligence and longer life spans than their purebred cousins." They pull this so called "Fact" from a Mortality study performed in Denmark. Not only do they not cite any actual statistics or evidence from this study, it has no external validity with American bred animals, purebred or otherwise. The title of PETAs article is "The AKC and Dog Breeders: Partners in Crime." AKC stands for the American Kennel Club, just as people of different countries have different lifespans, dogs of different countries do as well. The country of Denmark has its own kennel club, just as America does, each country sets its own standards and rules. Unless a study like the one in Denmark is reproduced in America, nothing in the Denmark study can be reliable evidence to support PETAs article (PETA). 

The public's perception of PETA is that they are a moral and upstanding nonprofit that can only do good. However, through the use of shock advertising, PETA is able to hide their true agenda. PETA pushes shock advertising through scantily-clad women, inappropriate, sometimes even offensive advertisements with racial indications and the degrading of women. One of PETAs most recent "shock" ads is a naked woman holding a "sheared" lamb. This ad is shown to the right, "Wool: The Naked Truth." This prop was proven to be faked and PETA admitted to using a fake sheared lamb to further their agenda. The photo below it represents a real sheared lamb. Sheering a lamb is a fancy way of saying the lamb is shaved, never down to the skin and a lamb never has chunks taken out of it like the top picture. Shearing is actually good for lambs, lambs will overheat in the summer heat if they are not sheared. When PETA published this Photo curtesy of Stephanie Webber.Photo curtesy of Stephanie Webber.shocking ad, many Americans did not research their own opinions. Rather, they believed what they saw and the agriculture industry took a hit because of it. It wasn't until farmers and The FFA Organization started fighting back with their own ads that people began to see the light. Rather than using the traditional advertisement approach, The FFA Organization started the hashtag "#FFAProud", this spread across multiple platforms and news outlets. Many Americans either were FFA members or knew FFA members, there are currently over 620 thousand FFA members, and that does not include those aged out of the program. This hashtag spread fast, Chris Soules of the Bachelor even took the time on twitter to praise the FFA.

Photo curtesy of Stephanie Webber.

Photo curtesy of Stephanie Webber.

PETAs shock advertising methods are harsh, but they do get their point across. PETA hides behind fake props and lawsuits while few dig deeper to find the truth about the Virginia based animal shelter. PETA admits to these methods on their website, "It is sometimes necessary to shake people up in order to initiate discussion ... , and, of course, action." An example of this is shown on the next page, PETA is comparing a chicken farm to a World War II concentration camp. They believe torture and gas chambers are equal to a three-pound bird laying eggs in a cage. The photo then goes on to antagonize the passing people by calling all of them Nazis. How can PETA make this comparison when they systematically kill animals every year? The holocaust was a tragic, and dart page of history, and nothing done to animals will ever be comparable. This is like when people say Trump is the new Hitler, but unless Trump decides to murder millions of people he will never be comparable. The German people are ashamed of what happened in the early 1940s, and they are not those people. The German government understood how repulsive and misleading PETAs shocking advertisement was, so it was removed and a public apology was issued for allowing it to be displayed in the first place.

Is it too much to ask that advertisements around kids be kept PG? PETA thinks it is, they recently published an advertisement about spaying and neutering animals to help with overpopulation, which is a real problem. This wouldn't be a bad or inappropriate advertisement in theory, but PETA took it too far, when they released it was discovered to have the title, "Too Much Sex can be a bad thing."  This is completely inappropriate and even as an adult, I don't want to see that. Imagine how horrified a mother would be when she discovers her kid reading an article with this picture in it, whether it is online, in a magazine, or seen on CBS. PETA loves to use these shock advertising techniques, but in most cases they do more damage than good. 

PETA kills the message they are trying to deliver when they disregard and disrespect their audience continuously (Crisan). PETA has good intentions when it comes to their messages, but their execution needs work. Spaying and Neutering is important, but advertisements, such as the one above, are not necessary to entice people to spay or neuter their animals. When PETA mainly uses shock advertising, rather than truthful, straight forward advertising, many either still do not support PETA or do not believe what they are trying to sell. Crisan supports PETAs message, but not the messenger, she believes in what PETA can be, but not who they are. This is why the title of her article is "When the Messenger kills the Message," here she demonstrates through many links that PETA blows many of their advertisements out of proportion which causes many people to no longer support PETA, today PETA is down to only two million supporters. Although Hannah Crisan wrote this article while attending The Ohio State University, it was published by McGraw-Hill Companies. An example of their advertising being blown out of proportion is when PETA supporters paint themselves with fake blood and lay in life sized meat packages.  These supporters are displaying themselves as the equivalent of a pork chop, that cannibalism is the same as picking up dinner from the grocery store. As long as they continue to use shock advertising as their go to method to go viral, that number will continue to drop, and many more people will understand who PETA really is and dig deeper to find out the truth about them.

While PETA does kill thousands of cats and dogs each year at their "animal shelter," they never turn an animal away. No kill shelters can only hold a max number of stray and lost animals, but PETA accepts all animals brought to them. In their seventeen years, PETA has spayed and neutered over 10,500 cats and dogs and returned them to their owners. While most clinics charge a small fee to spay or neuter, PETA sterilizes for free because of their high donations. These donations also allow PETA to rescue pets from Natural Disasters. In Hurricane Katrina, PETA was first on the scene out of the animal shelters and societies. PETA also leads the fight against the fashion industry whenever a new designer tries to uses an endangered animals fur or skin. While most nonprofit organizations would steer clear of the fashion industry, PETA is not afraid of this multibillion dollar industry and proudly stands against them for their animal cruelty.  While PETA does have some unconventional methods when it comes to the care and treatment, they are always available to help and never turn any animal away.

It is time for high school and college educated people to stop believing everything the media tells them. When did we become sheep, mindlessly following anyone who has money and an opinion. PETA is not who they portray themselves to be, it is time the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals start taking responsibility for their actions. In 2015, PETA killed a total of 1,456 cats and dogs, yet the majority of the public is only aware that they are against the fashion industry using real fur (PETA's Pet Killing Claimed 1,456 Victims in 2015). Why does shock advertising and lying get more airtime and fame than hard working Americans spending their lifetimes feeding the world. It took these hard working Americans to change the story, prove that not everything PETA says is the truth. In high school I was a member of an organization devoted to leadership, animals, and the future of todays agriculture. I was an FFA member. Future Farmers of America isn't just for people who grew up on farms or all about killing animals. Recently PETA2 published an article calling FFA "lame AF" and used our own principles and values against us and twisted them into propaganda for them. FFA, yes it is about farming and our future in agriculture, but it is also so much more. "FFA is more than just agriculture education  --  although that is very important. FFA also focuses on science-based learning, teaches public speaking/advocacy skills, provides business training, and even encourages public service" (PETA's Blog Post on FFA is Lame AF).  PETA attacked the one program it knows is large enough to make a change. It is in our name, FUTURE, the FFA Organization is our generations first step in turning the page and hopefully turning PETA into the upstanding non-profit they portray themselves to be. But, it shouldn't be just this 10%, everyone should do research before spreading something. 

Our generation is more connected and aware of the world around us than ever before, yet we mindlessly share Buzzfeed or Huffington post articles on Facebook everyday, not caring if they are true or not. This is our time to say no more to the shock advertising of fake bloody animals on the internet or the thousands of lives killed each year at PETAs Virginia Animal Shelter. We have all of this technology right at our fingertips, we have the power to change the world, but for some reason we don't. Most believe we are too young or that no one will hear us. It is proven everyday in our society that millennials will be the generation that can change the status quo. Through the use of social media and small blogs, we can slowly empower the movement of change. It only takes one person to listen, one to understand, it will not take long for another to, and many more will follow. We can end PETAs shock advertising, ridiculous lawsuits, and killing of innocent animals who can be adopted. It only takes one post on PETAs true intentions with Virginia State documents as proof, to go viral in today's society, after that people will do what they do best, share articles. This post on PETA will be straight forward, truthful, and will not need to hide behind naked men or women to go viral. This election for president has proven that we can make a difference, more candidates than ever have been speaking at colleges and acknowledging us. We have proven that our voice is the voice of change, and the older generations have begun to listen. We have gotten their attention that we do care about our planet and the species that live and die on it, and we can show them that PETA is not who they promote themselves to be. We are the generation that says no more to the inhumane, racial, inappropriate, dishonest shocking advertisement's that have hidden PETAs truth for decades. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will be held accountable for their actions and we will be the generation that makes that happen. PETA has been an immoral organization from the beginning, but they shouldn't be given a pass. They have the ability to change, and become the non-profit everyone supports, we just need to prove to them that they need to change. 

