A. R. Updates

With any luck, Animal Rights groups may have overplayed their hands.

First,go to the infamous "83 animals in a dumpster" trial, better known perhaps as "PETA Kills Animals".

This link is to day three, when some of the most devastating evidence begins to appear, but go to days one and two also.

Some day three details:

"The most heart-wrenching detail in the prosecution's case so far involves a cat and two kittens Hinkle and Cook allegedly took from the Ahoskie Animal Hospital on the false promise that PETA would find them adoptive homes. Asbell describes the scene:

"On this day, on June 15, [an Ahoskie Animal Hospital employee] called and said that they had a momma cat and two kittens, and they were in good shape. They wanted to adopt them out. When Ms. Hinkle and Mr. Cook went to the shelter on that date, they walked inside, and Ms. Tonya Northcott, one of the employees at the Ahoskie Animal Hospital, came out from the back, and said "You're here for the kittens, the cat and the kittens." … And she said "yes." She went back to the back, got the carrier, got the momma cat, got the two baby kittens, brought them out, and handed them to Ms. Hinkle.

"Ms. Northcott said to her: "These animals -- you're not going to have any -- well, you'll be able to adopt these cats out. We've socialized them, we've played with them, they've had their shots, everything's fine with them." Ms. Hinkle looked at Ms. Northcott and said: "We'll have no problem finding homes for these cats. None at all."

"There was a little girl standing in the front as well. And the little girl had adopted the brother of one of the kittens. And she was looking at the kittens. And Ms. Hinkle looked at her and said: "We'll have no problem placing, we'll have no problem helping these cats" … At that point, Ms. Hinkle and Mr. Cook left, they took the cats, left, went out and got back in the van."

"Those cats ended up in a trash dumpster less than an hour later."

Then there is the "PETA Death Kit":

"Inside the tackle box were several needles, and several bottles of drugs. Some of the bottles still had needles stuck in the top of them. There were syringes in the tackle box that were already pre-loaded with the drugs, inside the syringes. Also in the van, we found manuals from the organization, PETA.

"Roberts later described those "manuals" as "S.O.P. manuals" -- short for PETA's Standard Operating Procedures."

As the reporter said on day two:

".....our nod (so far) for sound-bite-of-the-week goes to PETA lawyer Phil Hirschkop, who told Raleigh's News & Observer on Sunday that Hinkle and Cook "never should have done it, but this is not the crime of the century."

"Let's put Hirschkop's logic to the test:

"1. PETA believes animals and people have equal value.
2. The group regularly compares livestock slaughter to the Nazi Holocaust.
3. Two of its employees allegedly killed 31 animals and tossed their bodies into a dumpster.

"If animals are indeed equal to human beings, but killing and dumping 31 of them isn't the crime of the century, then what is?"

Maybe it is only a crime if you do something USEFUL with animals, like eat them...

More to come...