People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (or PETA, as we all know it) has been around since 1980, when animal lovers Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco founded it. The organization is 3 million members strong and earned $43 million in revenue last year alone. They encourage people to be vegans, or vegetarians at the very least; their followers are strong believers in not using animals for experimentation, clothing, entertainment, or abuse, as can be read in their slogan. PETA has social media accounts of every shape and platform, from Twitter to Facebook to Instagram; it uses these to blast extremely graphic videos of animals being tortured for clothing or food, portraying anything from their fragile necks being stepped on to their feathers and fur being stripped from their bodies.

UGGs are popular throughout the world, their soft sheepskin and sheep’s wool material is all too common on the feet of teenagers and adults alike. A few days ago, a video showing the production of said UGGs was shared on my Facebook feed. The footage displayed the violent shearing of sheep for their wool, with the farmers slamming their feet on the animal’s necks and very obviously murdering them. In the corner of the video, one could see a subscript: “*Typical Wool Farm Footage”. Imagine yourself being a farmer. You have 700 sheep, and you need to shear all of them once a month. Would it be logical to kill your sheep after you removed their wool? Wool grows back, doesn’t it? That is why most of PETA’s videos can be considered illogical. This same footage is used for multiple things on PETA’s social media, from the production of UGGs to the wool coats we see on the runways during Fashion Week. These videos do not accurately portray the real, healthy shearing of sheep, which is necessary to keep them healthy and comfortable throughout their lifetimes. If sheepskin is used, it is taken from dead or dying sheep. It could even be assumed that PETA pays farms to do such things for the sake of their propaganda.

PETA has also been a source of controversy due to their animal shelters. They claim to take every kind of animal, whether they are suffering or healthy. However, in 2011, PETA euthanized 713 of 760 dogs. Only 19 were actually adopted. They also euthanized an overwhelming majority of 1,198 cats, over 98 percent of the cats they received. It is a well-known fact that they kill 84 percent of “unadoptable” animals within 24 hours of their arrival at their shelters.

The organization also intercepts children as young as 6 years old at their schools, blasting them with anti-milk and anti-meat propaganda without their parent’s permission. The books and articles that they give children say things such as “Your Mommy Kills Animals!” The children are also reached through email, most of which are not supervised by parents.

PETA vehemently opposes the use of animals for any purpose, including educational zoos and pet ownership. They even want to stop using animals for medical purposes, even if the purpose is to find a cure for violent diseases such as cancer of HIV/AIDS. They once took away a seeing dog from a blind man.

The organization is controversial, and rightfully so. Their propaganda is violent and does not accurately portray the production of the products they oppose. All in all, PETA is irrelevant and one cannot believe everything that they say.