PETA Responds To My Email

Yesterday I emailed PETA about how insensitive they were to have a contest on the same week and in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week whereby the winner of the contest receives a vasectomy free of charge.

This is the email that I sent to Ingrid Newkirk:
Dear Madam:

I am infertile.  I am outraged that your organization would think that offering up a contest to win a vasectomy would honor infertility awareness week. 

Do you even know what it is like to be infertile and want a child knowing that you might never conceive a child of your own?

Perhaps you should remove that contest or at least the part of honoring infertility awareness week link.

It would be best to offer up to those of us in support of infertility awareness week a chance to win a cycle of IVF treatments.  Or just donate to the infertility awareness website.

I really hope that you never suffer from infertility.  I hope you that if you have children when they decide to have children you never know what its like to not continue on your genetics.  Its hard on the parents of infertile couples too.

I won't say more as it might offend.

Sincerely,
Rebecca
an infertile female hoping for a cure


This is their apology of sorts and long response emailed back to me:

Dear Ms. P, ( I removed my last name)

 

Thank you for contacting PETA about our contest offering a free vasectomy. We apologize if our contest has offended you as it was not our intent. We meant no offense, especially to those who are struggling to conceive. Please know that there are many people who wish to be sterilized—it’s those people that we’re aiming to reach. To learn more about this contest, please go to http://www.PETA.org/features/win-a-vasectomy-from-peta.aspx.

Since the best way to prevent animal companions from having unwanted litters is to spay and neuter them, a kind PETA member offered to cover the cost of a vasectomy for one compassionate man who wants to get himself “snipped” just like his furry friend. While humans can manage their reproductive urges and make informed choices, dogs and cats can’t—we must take responsibility for them. In addition, men are often particularly reluctant to neuter male dogs—a ridiculous hesitation given that Fido won’t notice the change and will be healthier for it.

We know that this offer might raise a few eyebrows, but it will also raise awareness by generating the kind of media coverage of the cat and dog overpopulation crisis that money could never buy. Please know that in addition to our more outrageous actions, PETA also educates the public about the need to spay and neuter through pamphlets, billboards, letters to the editor, ads, articles, public demonstrations, and humane education in schools. We also put our words into action: PETA’s three mobile spay-and-neuter clinics have performed tens of thousands of low-cost and free sterilizations in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Since starting our first mobile clinic in 2001, we have sterilized more than 67,000 animals, including 10,500 in 2010 alone.

As you know, PETA works very hard to prevent the births of puppies and kittens that will end up abandoned in animal shelters or struggling to survive on the streets. Breeding, both purposeful and accidental, is responsible for the euthanasia of millions of these loving companions each year. Sterilization is both the easiest and the most effective means available of ensuring animals’ happiness and safety. Male animals who have been neutered are far less likely to roam far from home or fight. Neutering greatly diminishes and possibly eliminates reproductive urges (which are not the same in dogs as they are in humans). In addition, these animals will never get testicular cancer and run less risk of contracting prostate disease. Female animals who have been spayed avoid the trauma of giving birth and will no longer go into heat.

 

Consider the fate of the millions of unwanted animals whose parents were never spayed and neutered. Born into a hostile world, they are caged among strangers at animal shelters or, worse, abandoned on the sides of roads. They are run over by cars and attacked by other animals. They are infected with painful, contagious, and deadly diseases. Those unlucky enough to run into cruel humans are often drowned, beaten with baseball bats, suffocated in plastic bags, stabbed, shot, starved, set on fire, used as bait, and tortured in countless other ways. And the saddest tragedy of all is that before they meet some gruesome death, they reproduce, and the cycle of animal suffering continues.

 

If you live in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina and would like to have a dog, cat, or rabbit sterilized, please call PETA at 757-622-7382 to make an appointment with our mobile clinics.

A national organization, SPAY/USA, also helps guardians of animal companions who need assistance with the cost of spaying and neutering. You can contact SPAY/USA at the following website and toll-free number:

SPAY/USA

http://www.spayusa.org/

1-800-248-SPAY (7729)

Municipalities across the United States are addressing the animal overpopulation crisis aggressively by passing strong spay-and-neuter laws for all animals. Failure to comply with these laws entails hefty breeder’s fees, even in cases where animals are not being actively bred. Not surprisingly, areas with strong spay-and-neuter laws have seen significant reductions in the numbers of animals brought to their animal shelters and subsequently euthanized. But until all cities have adopted similar laws, animals will continue to breed at uncontrollable rates. 

If there is not already a spay-and-neuter ordinance in your state, city, or county, please write to or call your local- and state-level elected officials (for example, mayors, city councilmembers, state representatives, and state senators) urging them to introduce this important legislation. To send a pre-written letter to your state’s governor, please go to https://secure.PETA.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2875. To find contact information for your state-level elected officials, please go to http://www2.PETA.org/site/PageServer?pagename=legislator_lookup. For tips on writing to legislators, please go to http://www.PETA.org/action/activism-guide/passing-legislation.aspx. To see examples of existing spay-and-neuter legislation, please go to http://www.spayusa.org/main_directory/05-laws_and_legislation/index.asp.

To learn more about issues that affect animal companions, please visit http://www.PETA.org/issues/companion-animals/default.aspx. To make a donation in support of PETA’s campaigns to stop the animal overpopulation crisis, please go to http://www.PETA.org/donate.

Thank you again for contacting us and for the opportunity to share our thoughts. I apologize again if the contest has offended you as it was not the intent.

Sincerely,

HollyAnne Dame

Membership Correspondent

PETA Foundation

757.962.8246

HollyAnneD@petaf.org 

I do believe that animals should be sterilized to prevent over population.  Any animal that I've ever had the pleasure to own has been fixed.  I am a responsible pet owner.  


Holly clarified that the contest was meant for those that are fertile with her: "Please know that there are many people who wish to be sterilized—it’s those people that we’re aiming to reach."  Fine let them enter the contest but don't connect to it to those of us that are trying to conceive.

I guess it is an apology but, they aren't going to remove the contest or the honoring part of those of us that are infertile.  As a matter of fact they are happy we are infertile and will continue to use our plight to promote their cause.  I feel so used by PETA.


Take a look at Keiko's blog post today at Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed  to see how PETA responded to her email.  I'd hardly call them sorry in the least.


I have an idea, if PETA is so set upon preventing more babies being born to this planet let the sterilization begin with all that work for PETA.  Maybe if their reproductive rights were threatened they'd be a bit more understanding of those of us that are battling infertility.  Somehow I doubt  they'd care.