Here in the UK PETA are primarily known as a campaign group - I don't think they do animal shelters or rehoming (please correct me if I'm wrong) so they are not controversial here for that reason.

My personal problem with them is that I find their publicity methods rather ridiculous. You may be familiar with the recent publicity stunt revolving around suggesting the village of Wool should change its name. In my view this silliness just feeds the oft-expressed view that vegans are frankly a bit weird, particularly as for many people 'PETA' and 'vegans' are interchangeable terms.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate PETA, I just wish that as an organisation, they behaved with a little more thought and rationality sometimes.