Peta pays out $49,000 for killing pet dog
AN ANIMAL rights group has apologised and paid a family almost $49,000 (£38,000) after taking and euthanising an American girl’s pet chihuahua.
Two people affiliated with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Ani- mals (Peta) travelled to the mobile home park because they said they had been asked to help pick up wild dogs and feral cats.
They removed an unattended chihuahua called Maya, which was a Christmas present to nine-year-old Cynthia Zarate. Her father, Wilber Zarate, from Virginia, sued the company after it picked up his daughter’s dog from the mobile home park and put it down before a five-day grace period was up.
Maya was put down the same day the dog was caught, which was a violation of a state law that requires the five-day grace period.
Peta was fined $500 for the violation, and had to pay more after Mr Zarate took further action. He claimed that the group operates under a policy of putting down healthy animals because it “considers pet ownership to be a form of involuntary bondage”.
The group denied this, claiming the 2014 incident was a “terrible accident”.
But the company settled the lawsuit, and so avoided a trial in which Mr Zarate’s lawyers intended to ask the company about its past and present euthanasia policy.