I am sure PETA will claim this is a vindication, but instead the entire saga demonstrates that even the animal rights activists don’t really think that animals are the same as people. Readers of SHS will recall that two PETA workers picked up cats and dogs—some that were adoptable—euthanized them and stuffed them into roadside garbage bins. They were eventually convicted of littering, but the defense stated—properly I think—that it is hardly littering to throw “trash” into a garbage bin. From the story:
If this were done to human beings, these activists would never have gotten off Scott-free—demonstrating the intellectual fallacy that lies at the heart of the entire animal rights movement.Essentially, the littering charges against Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook were overturned because the prosecution failed to prove that a Dumpster is not the proper place for trash.
Hinkle and Cook were employed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals when they were caught June 15, 2005, dumping euthanized animals into a trash bin at a shopping center in Ahoskie, N.C. They had faced 21 charges of felony animal cruelty, seven counts of littering and three counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. But on Feb. 1, 2007, Superior Court Judge Cy Grant reduced the charges to eight misdemeanor charges before the jury began to deliberate. He said the state failed to prove malice and any specific motive, necessary elements for the felony charges. He also dropped the three charges of obtaining property by false pretenses against Cook.
The judge then further reduced the charges to eight counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty and one count of littering to make jury deliberations more manageable.
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