People for the “Ethical Treatment” of Animals (PETA), one of the country’s most notorious and obnoxious animal rights groups, kills thousands of adoptable cats and dogs every year. As it turns out, PETA also has the highest kill rate out of several shelters surveyed near its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. (The same building where PETA has a walk-in freezer to store the bodies of the animals it kills.)

Norfolk ABC affiliate WVEC reports that based on public records, PETA killed 93 percent of the animals in its care last year. That’s far above the rates of the 9 local humane societies and animal control departments surveyed by the station, of which more than half had kill rates significantly below 50 percent. As we told WVEC about PETA, “[T]hey're clearly not an animal welfare group. These are people who believe that these animals are better off being killed than they are being in a home."

The Norfolk SPCA, which has a 1 percent kill rate, brings in about $1.5 million a year but has provided care for more than 850 animals so far this year, according to its website. By contrast, PETA’s budget is usually over $30 million, and yet it killed 93 percent (2,200) of the adoptable pets in its care in 2010. PETA could surely shelter more of the animals in its care if it wanted to, though that might take away from the incredibly important activities in its budget such as lettuce bikinis and violent propaganda targeting children.

Watch the video below for the full report, which includes a cameo from our executive director: