June 17, 2005: Two on PETA (US) staff charged with cruelty to animals

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Two on PETA staff charged with cruelty to animals

 

By DARREN FREEMAN AND SETH SEYMOUR, The Virginian-Pilot

© June 17, 2005

 

Two employees of People for the Ethical Treatment

of Animals were arrested on animal cruelty

charges in Ahoskie, N.C., after investigators saw

dead dogs being thrown into a grocery store

garbage container Wednesday, according to the

Ahoskie Police Department.

 

Ahoskie police conducting surveillance as part of

a monthlong investigation reported finding 18

dead dogs in the container and 13 animal

carcasses in a van registered to PETA and seized

by authorities.

 

The cats and dogs were taken Wednesday from

animal shelters in Northampton and Bertie

counties, police said. Animals had been collected

every Wednesday for four weeks, and carcasses had

been found dumped in Ahoskie every Wednesday for

about a month, Ahoskie Police Chief Troy Fitzhugh

said.

 

Two veterinarians said they were told that PETA

would try to find homes for animals taken from

their practices.

 

Adria J. Hinkle, 27, of the 1600 block of

Claremont Ave. in Norfolk and Andrew B. Cook, 24,

of the 500 block of Tree Top Drive in Virginia

Beach were arrested on 31 felony counts of animal

cruelty and eight misdemeanor counts of illegal

disposal of dead animals.

 

Both posted $35,500 bail on Wednesday and have a

first court date set for today in Winton.

 

PETA is investigating the incident. The

organization has suspended Hinkle, who has worked

for more than two years as one of its community

animal project employees in North Carolina.

 

Cook, who was hired only weeks ago as her assistant, has not been suspended.

 

" We are appalled if this actually happened, " PETA

President Ingrid Newkirk said. " We would

absolutely never condone this behavior. "

 

Newkirk said of Hinkle: " She's the Mother Teresa

of animals. She's a very kind, decent person. "

 

PETA says it routinely picks up animals at pounds

to have them adopted or, if necessary, euthanized.

 

Shelter officials knew some of the animals, which

are not always " cute, cuddly, housebroken or

small, " would need to be put down, Newkirk said.

 

Among the dead animals, though, authorities found

a female cat and her two " very adoptable " kittens

taken from Ahoskie Animal Hospital, veterinarian

Patrick Proctor said.

 

" These were just kittens we were trying to find

homes for, " Proctor said. " PETA said they would

do that, but these cats never made it out of the

county. "

 

When Proctor evaluated one dead dog for police,

he discovered a healthy, 6-month-old mutt with a

needle mark on its front right leg, he said.

 

He also identified what he called a " death kit "

that police found in the van. It was filled with

syringes and two drugs that only licensed

veterinarians can have, he said.

 

" PETA will never pick up another animal from my practice, " Proctor said.

 

PETA had taken 50 animals to be adopted from

Proctor's practice over the past two years, he

said. PETA has also taken animals from

veterinarian James Brown in Northampton County

for about a year, Brown said.

 

" When they started taking them, they said they

would try to find homes for them, " Brown said.

" Nobody ever checked on them " after the animals

were taken.

 

When PETA employees took animals from Brown's

practice in the past, they would tranquilize them

and take them away in vans, said Karen Cole, the

animal cruelty investigator for the Northampton

Sheriff's Office.

 

Some animals were very sick or injured and

otherwise would have been euthanized in Brown's

clinic, she said.

 

" Some animals have to be euthanized, " she said.

" But the way this crowd did it is sick. "

 

13 News contributed to this report.

 

Reach Darren Freeman at (252) 338-0150 darren.freeman.

 

Reach Seth Seymour at (757) 446-2947 seth.seymour.

 

 

 

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