People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an animal rights organization based in the United States. With 1.8 million members and supporters, PETA claims to be the largest animal rights group in the world. blank">"About Peta", retrieved July 10, 2006.

Founded in 1980 and based in _Norfolk, Virginia, PETA is a nonprofit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) corporation with 187 employees, blank">"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals", Give.org, April 2006, retrieved April 12, 2006. and funded almost exclusively by the contributions of its members. Outside the U.S., there are affiliated offices in Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, _South Africa, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. There is also the peta2 Street Team for high school and college-age activists, and the Foundation to Support Animal Protection, which manages PETA's assets. blank">Wise Giving Report for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Better Business Bureau, April 2006 Wadman,Meredith . Profile:Neal Barnard, Nature Medicine, 12, 602, 2006 _Ingrid Newkirk is PETA's international president. PETA's slogan is "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment." blank">About PETA In support of that position, it focuses on four core issues: factory farming, "Meet your meat", Peta.org. fur farming, animal testing, and animals in entertainment. It also campaigns against fishing, the killing of animals regarded as _pests, abuse of chained, backyard dogs, cock fighting, bullfighting and the consumption of meat. It aims to inform the public of its position through advertisements, undercover investigations, animal rescue, and lobbying.

The organization has been criticized for some of its campaigns, for the actions of some of its employees regarding their treatment of animals, Freeman, Darren. blank">"PETA workers face 25 felony counts in North Carolina", The Virginian Pilot, October 15, 2005 and for the number of animals it _euthanizes. It was also criticized in 2005 by American Senator James M. Inhofe, who stated that PETA had acted as a "spokesgroup" for the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, after activists associated with those groups had committed what Inhofe called "acts of terrorism."