I'm not a vegetarian or a vegan or anything like that. I like meat. Animals are tasty.
But I don't want my meat-to-be to suffer un-necessarily. I'd prefer it was raised and slaughtered as humanely as possible. So I can understand some of PETA's desire to see animals treated better. I've been around poultry farms... There was a huge Tyson farm (plant?) not far from where I grew up... The conditions were downright disgusting.
But PETA really takes it too far. They are honestly of the opinion that any kind of domestication is cruelty to animals. Doesn't matter if you take better care of your animals than your children - it's still cruelty. They'd like every pet to be freed from captivity... Never mind the fact that they'd die within days because they can't fend for themselves.
I think it's somewhat hypocritical that they rescue all these animals from a fate worse than death... And then put them to death. But, to be completely honest, there really isn't much choice. Sure, they could leave the animals where they are. And that makes plenty of sense if they're in a safe/caring environment. In which case they really shouldn't be "saving" the animals... But far too many people neglect to spay/neuter their pets. And we've got metric craptons of stray/feral animals roaming the streets. And you can't very well just warehouse them somewhere.
What I find most amusingly condemning of PETA is my sister's opinion of them...
She's a full-on tree-hugging vegan hippie. She volunteers at local animal shelters. She rescues strays and rehabilitates them. She donates her time and money constantly. She doesn't eat anything with animal products in it... Boycotts all sorts of random groups because of what they're doing... One hell of an animal lover.
And she absolutely hates PETA. Thinks they're a bunch of useless publicity-whores. Thinks their actions and policies are downright harmful to any kind of pro-animal cause.
If somebody as rabidly pro-animal as my sister hates PETA, they're doing something wrong.