People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is known for its wild-eyed activists making weird and hysterical arguments in favor of animal rights. On social media, the organization is widely mocked for posting ridiculous content advocating for nonhumans.

This past Thanksgiving, the organization even received a Community Note correcting its claim that turkeys would never eat humans for dinner despite the fact that the birds eat mice, frogs, lizards, and other animals.

But what if I told you PETA was far more dangerous than it seems? At a time when American parents are increasingly worried about government-run schools indoctrinating their children into far-leftist ideas, the organization’s forays into the classroom have gone largely unnoticed as people are focused on gender identity, sexuality, and race.

PETA has been pushing its progressive dogma in the classroom for quite some time. One of the ways it has been presenting its ideology to children is through a program called TeachKind, which is a way to incorporate its ideas on animal rights into government-run school curricula. The organization has developed materials specifically for young children and has found ways to get its propaganda in front of their eyes.

So how is a group as radical as PETA allowed to distribute their materials in our public schools? They have found a loophole titled, “Character Education”. Character Education is mandated by many states. In those states where it is not mandated, it is often supported and encouraged. The Department of Education describes Character Education as:

“...a learning process that enables students and adults in a school community to understand, care about and act on core ethical values such as respect, justice, civic virtue and citizenship, and responsibility for self and others.”

Teaching children to be kind in school and to respect others is great, but what happens when an animal rights group catches wind of this and uses it to their own advantage? “TeachKind” is what happens.

Under the guise of building empathy in children, PETA is pushing its ideas on speciesism, veganism, and even pets in the classroom.

In one of its “Debate Kits,” which addresses “speciesism,” PETA provides teachers with resources “that can be shared with students to support the argument that speciesism is ethically unjustifiable and that equal considerations to animals is the only solution.” In fact, in one of its arguments, the organization suggests that the animal rights movement is on par with other important movements in American history:

 As is the case with other major social movements, such as the fights for civil rights, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights, the animal rights movement is fundamentally about ending the systemic exploitation, discrimination, and oppression of others based on their characteristics. In the case of animal rights, such treatment is based on species. At the core of this movement is an attempt to stop speciesism, which is a bias in favor of humans over other animals (just as one particular set of humans may be biased against another set).

That's right, dear reader, PETA thinks the animal rights movement is just like the fight for civil rights in America.

Another kit, titled “Is It Ethical to Eat Animals,” is intended to push children toward a vegan lifestyle. It characterizes the food industry as a major “exploiter” of animals, and also discusses humane meat production methods.

Every year, tens of billions of animals are killed for food, and most endure lives of constant fear and torment. Nearly all the animals raised for food in America today are separated from their families and crammed by the thousands into filthy warehouses, where they spend their entire lives in abysmally filthy conditions. They’re mutilated without the use of painkillers and deprived of everything that is natural and important to them. On the killing floor, many animals are conscious and struggling to escape while their throats are cut—and some are still conscious while their bodies are hacked apart or when they’re dunked into tanks of scalding-hot water.

The material also suggests that there is “no such thing as ‘humane meat’” and argues that “we must end the use of animals for food in favor of a humane, vegan way of eating.”

Lastly, PETA’s Debate Kit titled “Should All Companion Animals Be Spayed and Neutered?” suggests that there is an overpopulation crisis of pets. It advocates in favor of mandatory spaying and neutering of dogs and cats to address the problem. The kit provides resources to help students “make the argument that spaying and neutering companion animals should be mandatory.”

Essentially, PETA wants to convince your kids that the government should possess the authority to regulate your pets, and whether or not you can breed them. “Cities and counties all over the country are aggressively addressing the animal-overpopulation crisis by passing successful mandatory spay/neuter laws and requiring everyone who chooses not to spay or neuter to pay a large breeder’s fee,” the organization argues.

What I have laid out here is only the tip of the iceberg; there is plenty more that PETA is doing to indoctrinate children into far-leftist ideas about “animal rights” and veganism. The organization, along with others, is inculcating classrooms across the nation with this material as part of a wider effort to bring kids in line with their ideology. I’ll be writing even more pieces exposing PETA’s endeavors in America’s education system.