Family sues PETA for $9 Million for stealing, killing their dog
Maya was a family-owned, healthy Chihuaua. PETA members were filmed stealing Maya from private property, which they denied until they were told they were filmed. After the family called asking about where their pet was, PETA delivered them a gift basket and told them that Maya was dead.
The family is now suing PETA for trespassing and emotional distress. Wilber Zarate, Maya’s owner, writes in the lawsuit that after learning of Maya’s death, his daughter cried for weeks and lost sleep and weight.
It is illegal in the state of Virginia for a shelter to kill an animal that comes to them without waiting five days, and PETA was fined $500 for doing so. The day of the incident, PETA also took in other animals from the same park that may or may not have been stolen, including kittens, a lab mix, a puppy, and another chihuahua. These animals were also killed the same day, without effort to find homes for them. Multiple accounts of current and former PETA workers describe that the organization routinely kills healthy animals, including 97.5% of the animals they take in. Sometimes animals are killed in the back of PETA vans, before even making it to the shelter. “Euthanasia is the kindest gift to a dog or cat unwanted and unloved,” PETA CEO Ingrid Newkirk said at a press conference.
Four months after the incident with Maya, PETA responded. Even though the thieves knew the park well and had personally met with Maya and her owners, they claim that they didn’t realize the dog was owned.
UPDATE:
PETA went to court and a judge wrote a recommendation, but I believe we will still have to wait for a verdict (correct me if I’m wrong). You can read the judge’s recommendation but basically: PETA’s actions were deemed “outrageous and intolerable” but the plaintiff can only recover the monetary value of the dog. I don’t know how they’re going to decide the dollar value of a chihuahua but it’s certainly not going to be in the millions. The judge also recommended that PETA not have to pay the $5 million in punitive damages because the person who specifically took the dog was not high up enough in the organization.
