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Ingrid Newkirk, the president and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is one of the most high-profile animal rights activists of the past few decades. She is also a controversial figure, frequently attracting criticism over the group's famous publicity stunts and advertising campaigns, but also for allegations of cruelty and hypocrisy over PETA's policy on euthanizing animals in their care. Against that background, in November 2018 a meme containing four separate statements attributed to Newkirk on the subject of killing and caring for animals gained popularity on Facebook, as posted by the Florida Greyhound Association: The meme was no longer publicly available, as of 16 November. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day: MISSING CONTEXT This is an authentic quotation by Newkirk, taken from a 2003 interview she gave to the New Yorker magazine. However, the meme presents it without proper context, grossly misrepresenting the full sense of her remarks. In the relevant section of the article, Newkirk was outlining how she first became an animal rights activist, after dropping off some abandoned kittens at an animal shelter near her home in Maryland, only to find, to her profound shock, that they were immediately euthanized. She switched careers from studying to become a stockbroker to working in that very shelter, but she became even more dismayed by what she claimed was the treatment of animals there, setting her on a path to founding PETA: It's true that Newkirk did once recount having euthanized many animals every day during a certain period of her life, but the quotation included in the meme left out some important context: spurred into action by a desire to care for vulnerable animals, Newkirk was working at an animal shelter where her colleagues allegedly mistreated the animals very badly and put them down without proper reverence. It was in this context that she took it upon herself to euthanize the animals. The meme also selectively excerpted from Newkirk's remarks, leaving out the line Because I couldn't stand to let them go through that. Euthanasia is the kindest gift to a dog or cat unwanted and unloved: UNPROVEN We were not able to verify that this is an authentic, direct quotation from Newkirk, despite its having been widely shared online as such for around a decade. The earliest instance of it we could find was from a June 2005 editorial in the newsletter of the Best Friends Animal Society. There, the statement was not attributed to Newkirk as a direct quotation but rather as a summary of her alleged remarks. The context of the article was the high-profile arrest on charges of animal cruelty of two PETA employees in North Carolina, after they were caught disposing of the corpses of euthanized dogs and cats in garbage bins. (The two employees were later acquitted of animal cruelty but fined for improperly disposing of the corpses.) This is how the Best Friends Animal Society reported on the arrests in June 2005: The Best Friends editorial did not link to any video or transcript of the press conference, and we were unable to find any source material which would support this characterization of Newkirk's remarks. A spokesperson for PETA told us in a statement: We don't have a source for this quote. Furthermore, other newspapers and agencies did cover PETA's response to the arrests (including a 17 June 2005 press conference), but none of their reports included Newkirk's professing her belief that euthanasia was the kindest gift for an unwanted animal. For example, the Associated Press reported: While we could not find proof of Newkirk saying euthanasia was the kindest gift for an unwanted animal, it's clear that she, PETA, and some other animal rights activists and veterinarians do support a policy of putting down animals who would otherwise face severe neglect or cruelty, or for whom a stable home or space in a shelter cannot be found. On their web site, PETA explains their policy: This policy is vehemently opposed by other animal rights activists who strongly support what are known as no-kill shelters, where animals are only euthanized if they face irreversible pain or illness. This philosophical conflict has given rise to something of a schism between animal rights activists, and PETA's failure to adopt a universal no-kill approach at their animal shelters has attracted fierce criticism. We do not advocate right to life for animals: CORRECT ATTRIBUTION The source of this quotation is a postcard published online by Nathan Winograd, an animal rights activist and long-standing, outspoken critic and opponent of PETA and Ingrid Newkirk. The postcard, dated December 1994, was addressed to Winograd and has the insignia of PETA on it as well as that of Newkirk. The postcard contains the following message: A spokesperson for PETA acknowledged that the postcard was authentic and had been written and sent by Newkirk: We are not in the home finding business: MISATTRIBUTED This is an authentic quotation, but a spokesperson for PETA told us that it has been falsely attributed to Ingrid Newkirk. The remarks were taken from a letter that Daphna Nachminovitch, now a senior vice-president at PETA, sent to officials in Northampton County, North Carolina, in 2005 after the aforementioned arrest of two PETA employees on animal cruelty charges. At the time, PETA had contracts with Northampton and Bertie counties to assist with euthanizing unwanted animals, but officials severed links with the organization when the corpses of more than 30 animals were found dumped in garbage bins in the town of Ahoskie. The Virginian-Pilot newspaper attributed the remarks in question to Newkirk in a 20 July 2005 report: PETA told us that the letter to Northampton County was sent by Nachminovitch, not Newkirk, and provided a more extensive excerpt from it: So the fourth quotation included in the meme did not actually originate with Ingrid Newkirk, although it was written by one of her colleagues. Perhaps more important, it was not intended as a comprehensive summary of PETA's entire mission, but rather as a more nuanced description of the organization's specific function in contracting with Northampton County, North Carolina, during the mid-2000s.
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