People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals euthanized approximately 67% of the animals that it took in during the year 2024.
According to data provided by the state of Virginia, where the U.S. branch of PETA is headquartered, the figure is correct. The specific figure, according to Snopes’ own calculation of the data provided, is 66.7%. A spokesperson for PETA said via email that the statistics reflect it being the last shelter in its area to provide “free end-of-life services” for suffering animals, resulting in a high number of referrals from other shelters and vet clinics.
In October 2026, a rumor circulated online that animal welfare nonprofit organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals put down 67% of the animals it took in during the year 2024.
Social media users claimed that PETA euthanized 2,213 out of the 3,317 animals it took in that year.
The assertion appears to have originated from a popular Facebook page called Rack Junkies that focuses on hunting and fishing.
In short, the claim is true, according to data provided by the state of Virginia, where the organization is headquartered.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ database of animal custody record reports for PETA in the year 2024 shows a total of 3,317 companion animals taken in, including 1,374 dogs and 1,885 cats. Of the total number, the data shows 2,709 of the animals were classified as “surrendered by owner.”
Of those 3,317 animals, 2,213 were euthanized, making the percentage of animals euthanized by PETA that year 66.7% (which rounds up to 67%).
Among the companion animals euthanized, 875 were dogs (63.7% of dogs taken in) and 1,299 were cats (68.9% of cats taken in). A separate figure for wildlife taken in throughout 2024 shows that 32 of 38 wild animals were euthanized (84.2%).
According to PETA’s explanatory notes, also available in the report, the organization’s shelter is “the last in the region to still provide free end-of-life services” and that “dozens of Virginians were referred to PETA for end-of-life help” for animals by most of the area’s shelters and veterinary clinics, which the nonprofit says had a “significant impact” on the statistics.
The notes also say the euthanized wildlife animals “were critically injured/dying.”
(Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)
A spokesperson for PETA said via email that the organization is appreciative for “the opportunity to respond even though it’s to a social media post that deliberately misrepresents PETA’s work and is written by a man who makes a hobby and career of killing animals, which is what PETA works against every day,” referencing Rack Junkies’ hunting content.
Snopes contacted Stephen Ziegler — whose name is in the biography of the Rack Junkies Facebook account — for a response to the PETA spokesperson’s comments. We will update this article if we receive a reply.
The spokesperson provided several examples of nearby pet owners and their companions who were referred to PETA for euthanasia, calling this “a small fraction” of cases. The spokesperson wrote:
PETA’s services also span 260 localities across Virginia and North Carolina. So naturally, our intake—and by extension our euthanasia figures—will be higher than shelters that serve only their specific locality, because we are assisting exponentially more animals, including those from communities far beyond Norfolk’s borders.
PETA’s spokesperson reiterated the same points seen in the explanatory notes and added, “While other shelters in and around PETA’s headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, have adopted restrictive ‘no-kill’ policies aimed at keeping animals out of their shelters and often turn away animals, PETA takes in all comers without discrimination, without admission fees, appointments, waiting lists, or other obstacles.”
PETA’s intake policy notes that its “shelter does not have a waiting list or charge a surrender fee, and our staff is available 24/7, including to respond to after-hours emergencies and pick up and transport surrendered animals. We often take in aggressive or feral animals rejected by other shelters as unadoptable.”
The policy further states that some of the “dangerous” canines who were euthanized had been previously adopted out by other shelters that later declined to take them back “when families attempted to return them due to aggression” and that “more than 100 behaviorally unsound, ailing, and even actively dying animals were referred to PETA by area shelters and veterinary clinics.”
In 2012, PETA was the subject of an expose from news magazine The Atlantic, titled, “PETA’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad History of Killing Animals.” That article says that in 2011, the nonprofit’s adoption rate was only “2.5 percent for dogs and 0.4 for cats.”
A spokesperson for PETA reportedly told the outlet that “euthanasia is a product of love for animals who have no one to love them” and that animals sometimes “need the comfort of being put out of their misery.”
Snopes has previously unpacked similar claims against PETA, including its founder’s previous comments on animal euthanasia and reports of PETA workers stealing family pets and euthanizing them.
