Ihave a soft spot for pets (just not your pets).

But I've about had it up to here with PETA.

Understand, I'm all for the ethical (and humane) treatment of animals. Our family has a dog. We treat him kindly. My hope is everyone who owns animals does the same. Animals depend on us for their well-being. If we let them down, they don't have many options. Beyond a meow or a moo, they can't stick up for themselves.

Which leads me to PETA.

PETA is one of the organizations that speaks for animals, and I don't doubt PETA has done much good. Raised issues. Heightened awareness. That sort of thing.

Except now, in the aftermath of horse racing's latest public tragedy, all PETA is doing is making noise and an idiot of itself.

And coming across like an organization of shrill kooks when thoughtful discussion is what's needed.

A horse died last week, and very publicly. This happened at the Kentucky Derby, when all sorts of people who don't give a hoot about post positions and pari-mutuel handles tune in because, well, because it's the Derby, and on the first Saturday in May, people are supposed to care about it and gather in front of TV sets - preferably well-mint-juleped - and shout themselves silly as 1,200-pound speed machines burst into the homestretch.

Only this time, something terrible happened - just as something terrible happened two Preakness Stakes ago to a Kentucky Derby winner named Barbaro. This time, the horse - a filly, Eight Belles - collapsed after crossing the finish line from two broken ankles and was put to death on the track, in front of 157,770 eyewitnesses.

It was a horrible thing to see and another setback for a sport that needs to be examined very closely.

Examined.

Not sledgehammered.

Subtle is not synonymous with PETA, though. This is an organization that's lobbied the Green Bay Packers to change its nickname because Packers - it dates to 1919 and refers to meat-packing - promotes "violence and bloodshed" by PETA's reckoning.

That's mostly a giggle.

PETA's response to Eight Belles' demise is sad.

With no tangible evidence having surfaced to support its claim, PETA charged that Eight Belles became damaged goods sometime during its fatal race and that it was whipped to the finish line anyhow. PETA therefore called for the suspension of jockey Gabriel Saez. It further demanded that the horse's trainer be suspended and its owner barred from entering horses again at Churchill Downs.

This is over the top. Not to mention the fact that it distracts and discourages attention from an issue PETA wants you to take seriously, and rightly so.

No one should doubt Thoroughbred racing needs oversight. It has no ruling body. It has no commissioner. It has problems.

Horses in this country that are saddled at the glitziest or shabbiest tracks are routinely medicated - steroids are permitted in a number of states - and inbred fiercely for speed, not endurance. They're large-bodied animals that gallop on a ballerina's ankles. No wonder they're raced so infrequently. No wonder the physical toll is sometimes too much to bear.

Eight Belles wasn't the only Thoroughbred to break down last Saturday. The New York Times, in fact, reported that 15 horses at scattered North American tracks failed to finish a race that day. Nine of them were said to be so unsound or injured, they had to be driven away in an ambulance. Whether some were put down wasn't known.

PETA is right to shine a light on racing's defects. Instead, it weakens its cause and case with screech-owl tactics.

Screech owls are endangered, by the way. So, in PETA's world, is reason.