Seeing that this Friday is "Hug A Vegetarian Day", my disdain for PETA, the mastermind behind this fabulous celebration, immediately came to mind. (Wow! Last Friday was "Talk Like A Pirate Day." Gee, I wonder what frolicking good times await us next Friday!)I love .... loooooooove ... animals. I believe we are caretakers of the earth and its animals. I pray that the world could have a life at least as cushy as my dog's, who, though I do not dress her costume or pay for doggie playdates at the local kennel, is very spoiled and well cared for.
But, PETA is an organization that I first faulted for disseminating false information. In recent years, it has become a brutish entity that has been found to have some connections with a terrorist organization and activities.
Have you seen today's story about PETA's latest "oooh - here's - out - next - idiotic - attention - getter?" PETA has proposed to Ben & Jerry's ice cream that they start using human breast milk in its products, arguing that this would lessen the cows' suffering and provide human babies with better health. I love Ben & Jerry's response: "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child."
PETA -- why do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. Here are some lovely examples:
1) PETA has used the old "moral equivalency" approach to promoting its ideology by comparing heinous crimes against humans as being equivalent to animals slaughtered by the meat industry. For example:
• In April 2004 a community in Vancouver, British Columbia was outraged when PETA started an anti-meat advertising campaign likening the murder of two women to the fate of butchered pigs at a nearby hog farm. It was during the time when health officials warned that processed pork products that accused murderer Robert Pickton gave or sold to friends may have been contaminated by human remains. PETA had placed billboards showing a woman and apig with the slogan: "Neither of us is meat." The signs did not mention the Pickton case, but Peta acknowledged the link.2) PETA uses shock to grab your attention, placing animals and humans on the same plane of valued life. This past summer, PETA ran a controversial ad on TV called "Sex Talk." Parents were having a talk with their teenage daughter, only the conversation was a spoof of irresponsible pet owners. (I hate those folks, too.) Here's a part of how the conversation goes:
• In the same year, a German court ordered PETA to end its campaign of ads showing battery hens packed into cages next to emaciated Jewish inmates of Nazi concentration camps, using the slogan "Holocaust on a plate."
• Perhaps you remember hearing this summer about that horrible murder on a bus in Canada where a man went berserk and beheaded a fellow passenger, partially cannibalizing his victim. PETA tried unsuccessfully to run a newspaper ad comparing the crime to the treatment of animals by the meat industry. The ad was to have this as its message: "His struggles and cries are ignored ... the man with the knife shows no emotion ... the victim is slaughtered and his head cut off ... his flesh is eaten."
"We think you should be having it, Sweetie," begins her dad.
"A lot of it," adds her mom.
"Get up there and nail everything you can," her father says.
"If it's got a pulse, you should be wrapped around it," the mother finishes.
The shocked girl asks them what will happen if she gets pregnant. They both shrug it off.
"So what?" You should pop out all the kids you want," the father replies, waving away her concerns. "We'll just leave them in the shelter, dump them in the street."
[You can see the ad here.]
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been described as "by far the most successful radical organization in America." The key word is radical. PETA seeks "total animal liberation," according to its president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk. That means no meat or dairy, of course; but it also means no aquariums, no circuses, no hunting or fishing, no fur or leather, and no medical research using animals. PETA is even opposed to the use of seeing-eye dogs.
ActivistCash.com, in its tracking of records, shows that PETA "provides aid and comfort for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). The two groups are responsible for more than 600 crimes since 1996, causing (by a very conservative FBI estimate) more than $43 million in damage."
4) PETA is just plain loony! Here are some fun things to check out:
• The Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers lists some amusing articlesIf you are a vegetarian, please do so without adopting any of PETA's ideology nor buy into their intentional misinformation nor support them with your money.
• PETA pushed Fishkill, New York to change its name to Fishsave to remove the "violent imagery." But, the group only showed its ignorance of the fact that the town's name is Dutch, with "kill" meaning "creek."
• This past summer, PETA wanted to post billboards on the Mexico-US border to warn "visitors" that there is more to fear than the Border Patrol. The billboards say: ""If the Border Patrol Doesn't Get You, the Chicken and Burgers Will — Go Vegan." Said Lindsay Rajt, assistant manager of PETA's vegan campaigns: "We think that Mexicans and other immigrants should be warned if they cross into the U.S. they are putting their health at risk by leaving behind a healthier, staple diet of corn tortillas, beans, rice, fruits and vegetables." Uhhhh ... I guess they never checked into the fact that the Mexicans are big meat lovers. In my travels there and living with a host family, I saw them eating huge amounts of all types of meat -- every bit as carnivorous as we are!
With our weather having been in the 80's and sunny all week, I've got a hankerin' for barbecuin' me some MEAT the weekend!!!! Yum! So, if I happen to cross paths with a Vegetarian on Friday, sure -- I'll give him or her a hug. But, I'm gonna grill me some critters this weekend. Oh, and I think I'll find a lovely selection of Ben & Jerry's for dessert!
24 comments:
I CAN NOT BEILVE YOU DON'T HAVE ANY COMMENTS, I LOVE YOUR PAGE, I WORK WITH ANIMALS MYSELF AND HATE PETA
LOVE this entry! I too have a burning hate for PETA. These people need to grow up and get a life. I have a blog of my own and have wanted to post a rant on them. I haven't come across most of the info you provided, so great job! If I do get around to that post, could I quote you? Don't want to borrow your stuff with out asking!
Thanks!
Holli Hayes
I Hate Peta
aka; ” Nazi’s for Newkirk”
As an ex member of Peta, even I have come to the realization that they have gone too far and become just a laughingstock to the people they are supposedly trying to reach.
Their idiot stunts, their sexist ads, their offensiveness to victims of the holocaust and to people of color when they dress like the KKK, it all adds up to one thing: They have run amuck, they are an offense to true animal rights activists , and are very rude and some violent when disagreed with.
They think they are so effective but when you step back and take a look, have they stopped one circus, ended a single factory farm, and stopped animal research to any measurable degree? Sadly, no.
They rake in 30 million dollars a year most of which goes to pay for expensive and for the most part, ineffective ads and billboards. They spend most of their time posting at their own forums “hunting” and “killing” the posts of real animal rights activists that may have a dissenting opinion to some of their methods. While I like their campaign “I’d rather go naked than wear fur”, now, they go naked for any reason they can, just for shock value. They would go naked for the clouds over their heads. It makes no sense.
What they don’t seem to realize is that people aren’t shocked anymore. Peta thinks that any publicity is good publicity, I have to disagree. Negative publicity is just that…negative. People expect a show from Peta, they laugh and walk away. No one wants to hear about animal rights or cruelty any more, mostly thanks to Peta. They have managed to offend just about every person they might have had a positive effect on with their way over the top campaigns and protests. If you are a member all you get is a constant demand for money anyway.
They have become the Church singing to the choir. They admire themselves so very much, but few else do. They started off with good intentions and have managed to become a huge organization whose members are mainly white, privileged, teens and early 20’s females with nothing else to do with their lives other than to toe Newkirks line and regurgitate her “new-speak”. Can anyone say “cult”? One of the many rules (in their rigid and biased opinion) , is that a true ARA would never use the word “welfare” as in animal welfare, you may not say “pet” when speaking of dogs and cats, you must not admit that you are polite and gentle in your activism and so on. Peta has become a money grubbing, fascist group of real do nothings.
If I had 30 million dollars, I would have gotten more accomplished for the rights of animals in one year than Peta has in the more than 20 years they have been in “business”.
I would suggest to anyone considering joining or donating, do your homework first. Get your info from places other than Peta as they exaggerate their successes and downplay their many failures. Trust me, I’ve been there. If you think they help animals consider this: By their own admission, they have killed over 14,000 cats and dogs , many illegally, if you are portraying yourself as a shelter, then by law you must keep the animals for 3 to 5 days and yet they have killed many of them as soon as they got them in their vans. Stay away from Peta; join groups that aren’t in it for money and fame.
Hi,
A new site has been set up that looks at the economic and social damage the American-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) lobby group afflicts on Australian and New Zealand industry. It also examines its aims, philosophies, strategies and campaigns.
Just thought we'd let you know!
Kind regards,
Administrator.
i wonder...
DOES PETA GET PISSED IF ANIMALS VICIOUSLY KILL OTHER ANIMALS, AND THEN EAT THEM?
If a peta member died in the woods, would anyone hear it? Or better would anyone care. I hate peta!
I wholeheartedly agree with Christian (the first comment) The whole time I was reading your page I was itching to add a comment!
I recently became appalled with how much "pull" PETA seems to have with every situation out there, there tentacles reach TOO far. Do other organizantions have that much pull in a court system? (please answer because I really don't know.)
Honestly,what do they do all day, sit around and draw straws on who they can attack that day/week, then spring into action without really thinking it through?
Breast Milk??? really????
Are they going to donate that?
No offense, but they are probably the same people who breastfeed until their child is in kindergarten
Do you think they have a clue as to how much ice-cream Ben and Jerry's really produce -they would have to import the milk from a third world country or something.
Wouldn't this be cruelty to baby's and mothers? Oh wait, they don't have four legs and poop onto the ground.
Just one of the issues, but I feel better now,
thank you.
Great post. ALSO, another huge idiocy of PETA is the whole baning of horse slaughter in the USA, which is outrageous because it puts horses in MUCH more painful situations because:
1. Horse slaughter is needed to keep the market in a balance of supply and demand. Old,sick, lame, or plain crazy horses are able to be put down, and thus the owner would have room/money/need for another horse, keeping the market stable, and a profit in training quality horses.
2. Horse slaughter in America is highly regulated, and very humane. The MOST humane way to put an animal down is with a bullet to the head, not a shot. I have seen both ways, and it is quite obvious which one is faster.
3. Horses are now being shipped many more hours in the trailers to mexico, where slaughter is not regulated very well, and the horses can be in much more pain, and worse treatment than before.
4. We are wasting resources when people are now turning unwanted domestic horses loose in national forests to get hurt,starve, and die a very slow, painful death
All in all, PETA should stay out of things they know NOTHING about, horse slaughter was a very humane, and needed business in America. I own and love horses and have my whole life, and I have personally seen the pain that PETA has put them through.
i'm vegan, but i'm also a feminist, and PETA uses some of the most sexist advertisements i've ever seen. their representatives should be shot.
My Gawd, to response to alliston's post is that PETA are hypocrites. Their shelters have a 98% kill rate. They kill adoptable animals instead of putting the effort to find them some GODDAMN HOMES! Hmm, what's this? Only 8 adopted last year? Compared to the thousands that were euthanized? That's what I hate most about them. PETA needs to shove their current ads up their.. blow holes and pull out some 'Please adopt these homeless animals before we put them down!' signs.
And then they're against guide dogs? Really? In all honesty, it would make more sense to me if they were just against pets, period.
I'm against PETA too. They need to realize how stupifying their logic is. I liked this rant~ Good job.
PETA, PETA, PETA... they can all eat me. :) I was reading their website a while back, when I came upon something interesting. They (PETA) will NOT fight to change legislation on dog bands. Like in Ontario Canada, we are not allowed to own pitbulls, or like dogs- total BS. Both for the legislation and PETA's complacency. I believe in animal rights but I also believe in comprimise and solutions (which PETA doesn't seem to provide). Just to think that many of the protests are about events that actually keep animal species thriving (like horse races, and rodeos). Without these events, there would be a lesser need for them, its sad but true. Hunters also encourage large areas of conservation and crown land to ensure that they have the animals they want to hunt. Comprimise, solutions and understanding, are not in the PETA vocab, but it should be.
PS. GO SEAL HUNT! if only humans had the dignity to kill each other so mercifully. WHACK, WHACK, and DONE, not even like slaughter house animals, which are processed like factory parts. (doesn't stop me from eating though-food is food on my budget) Sorry if I offened anyone.
Ive been a vegetarian for 7 years and recently gone vegan and I hate PETA.
Yes, they have good values, but the way they push them on others is wrong.
PETA is now saying they like Vick, wonder why. Maybe he paid them off, or because he is opening an animal shelter. Yes, he is doing the right thing now but what he did in the past was inexcusable. If that was a human, he would he in huge trouble.
Really? Seeing eye dogs? Those things are treated like family and it has someone that depends on them, like family.
I dont like circuses, or zoo, or I dont believe that animals are here for exploitation so I dont partake in them. I dont take medicine because I dont believe in animal testing.
I own and dog and an aquarium full of fish and I love them all and spoil them rotten. I dont see them as pets but instead as family.
PETA takes thins way to far.
Some things need to be said and need to be shown to people, but dont scar them with what you do, instead do it "humane"ly.
Peta,is an organisation run by idiots. Their 'own' ethical views conflict with the nonesense they promote. Would i want sexist ads on the highway for kids to see? Naked pics of Jessica Biel?
Self refuting logic too: they compare humasn to animals, yet we are not supposed to eat animals?
So im to understand that there are a bunch of PETA memebrs picating on the grassy savannas of Africa, against the mistreatment of Gazzles by the Lions.
So I guess slavery would have been abolished and women's rights would have been achieved if everyone just rolled over and wrote a letter, right? I may not agree with everything PETA says/does, and I myself am strong pro-animal welfare, not so much animal rights as they are against keeping pets and the like, but some of the reasons you have listed are not reasons, for me anyway, that prove the point you're trying to make. They use shocking ads; uh, so what? Ads are supposed to stick in your mind.
They recently liberated 26,000 animals, they claim anyway. If this is true, then kudos to them. I DEFINITELY don't agree with their euthanisation of those animals or Ingrid's stance on Pitbulls and pets but at least they're doing SOMETHING.
I don't fall for this poppycock of 'but their protest isn't peaceful'. Animals are dying and being tortured every day and you care because they're not being all nice about it? It's called fighting for a CAUSE, and when there's suffering involved, you can't always be nice.
And regards to them making posters that emulate human tragedies, so fu**ckig what. We're not so special that our pain can't be remembered alongside another species.
Carmen: So, you wouldn't mind having a dear one's murder be likened to what happens at a pig farm? Wow ... I can't imagine telling a friend "Gee, cheer up! Don't feel bad about your mom. Hey, you should what goes on down the road! Now THERE'S some seriously heinous activity." No, can't see that going over well.
So, if you have no problem with PETA committing violent acts in the name of saving animals, I guess you side, too, with those who bomb abortion clinics or threaten the workers of such clinics?
Ads can stick in a person's mind without being shocking, cheap or theatrical/dramatic.
Nope, I wouldn't. Because suffering is suffering and I would never be so arrogant as to be upset that somebody DARED to care about a suffering of another living, sentient being that can feel pain and fear.
Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, violent acts were committed to abolish slavery and for many other civil rights movements. I'm guessing you would have been one of the people moaning then too, right? That's okay. When your right to live a life free of suffering, pain, exploitation and the like is taken away; I'll tell people not to fight for you too.
I guess then, Carmen, that back during the Civil Rights movement you would have gone the path of the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam, and I would hae gone the way of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.
The above picture is ovious one of those PETA wackos with two other PETA wackos wearing silly and stupid costumes to prove their out of their minds
On some farm out there the animals are enjoying a good laugh at those PETA wacktards
I find PETA hilarious cuz they just think they can change the whole world by putting on chicken costumes and walking around. I woul never in a million years walk around in a retarded costume.! I found it funny how they make millions but spend it on these insulting ads that I dont agree with. They need to take a chill pill drink some wine and calm it down. Sorry to say but I hope one day someone calls them up and gives them a piece of their minds and they decide to just give up!!!
Just because you can exploit something for your own personal gain does not mean you should. I feel that animals are way too exploited for people. I do not know much about peta but our relationship to animals and the environment is insane. We think we are in charge of all creatures. I imagine peta has to use some offensive tactics to get there point across. Look how many idiots actually agreed with the writer of that ridiculous argument. Suffering is suffering. What makes people better than other animals? Nothing. Actually they are better than us. WE have screwed up our entire environment. We have ruined it for all living things- yet we are to be celebrated. So ridiculous. we are an evolutionary disease. I pray the earth comes up with a virus to rid us all and then maybe..just maybe other creatures can thrive again.
Careful now, Anonymous, your insanity is showing.
I hate PETA also but your blog post just made me like them a little bit more. FAIL!
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