Are you a fan of PETA? (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

I moved to Norfolk in late 2001. With me, I brought a cat that had been my pet for several years. I got him when my roommate at the time picked him up off the street then decided he couldn't keep him. After that, he was my cat.

He was always an inside-outside cat for as long as I had him, and he was an awesome cat. He would follow me down to 7-11, wait outside for me, and follow me home. He was my buddy and a huge piece of my heart.

I lived for about two years on Boissevain Ave. in the Ghent section of Norfolk, and everything was fine. He went outside, made friends with the neighbors, it was all good. Then I moved to a cheaper apartment in Ghent on Baldwin Ave. As usual, I let my cat go outside whenever he wanted to.

Within a month, he disappeared. I immediately posted dozens of signs for blocks and blocks around with his picture and my number. The next day I got a call while I was at work by a person saying that they had my cat. Immediately after work, I went to meet this person.

Refusing to let me meet them right at their house, I met this person on a corner near my house. He was a skinny kid in his early twenties with dark brown hair and a beard of the same color. I had seen him around the neighborhood walking with his satchel bearing the PETA logo. As we walked toward the apartment building where my cat was being kept, he explained that he picked my cat up off of my front porch and started lecturing me on the dangers of leaving my cat outside. Apparently, he was oblivious to the fact that he was probably a bigger danger to my cat than anything else.

We got to the apartment building, and he made me wait outside. A minute later, he brought down my cat, a cat leash, and a PETA pamphlet showing "what can happen to your cat if you let it outside." Resisting my impulse to start beating the guy with the leash, I thanked him and took my cat home.

I was not in a pet-safe neighborhood anymore; I was in a PETA neighborhood. I tried to keep my cat inside, but he went berserk and tried to escape repeatedly. I didn't have the heart to keep him locked up, so I started letting him outside again. He disappeared for good about two weeks later, and it isn't any mystery who took him.

A girl that I worked with had previously worked for PETA and had left after blowing the whistle on them for conducting mass euthanasias of animals. She told me that my cat was probably dead. A tame and loyal cat was now dead because of PETA's control freak disposition.

I will never forgive PETA for what they did. I would love to see this organization destroyed and actually contemplated many awful things to do to them to avenge my pet's death. Instead, I offer this testamonial about the true face of PETA so that others may not make the mistake of supporting these self-righteous murderers.