this is what happens when James and I read about PETA at work.
I hate PETA. I'm quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_for_the_Ethical_Treatment_of_Animals , mostly, which is pretty well cited.
It seems like animal rights is a really easy cause to jump behind. No one likes the idea of torturing poor bunny rabbits and puppies so someone can make shampoo, or killing hundreds of minks or foxes to make coats. I can't even bring myself to eat meat or poultry, it disgusts me. I eat fish, and feel guilty about it (but not lobsters--that's disgusting), I'm genuinely disgusted by the fact that I'm eating something that once had a face. But I digress.
Some PETA propaganda: "One pamphlet, "Your Daddy Kills Animals!" showed a cartoon father gutting a fish, and stated:
"Since your daddy is teaching you the wrong lessons about right and wrong, you should teach him fishing is killing. Until your daddy learns it's not fun to kill, keep your doggies and kitties away from him. He's so hooked on killing defenseless animals, they could be next." (You can download the pdf of it here: http://www.fishinghurts.com/feat-newcomic.asp).
(I mean, are you serious? Can they really write this shit with a straight face?)
That's not even close to the worst of their crazy propaganda. In 2003, they ran the "The Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign, which juxtaposed images of people in concentration camps with images of animals in factory farms. (PETA has since taken down that website, it used to be masskilling.com, but if you a google image search you can see it.) Chicken farming is apparently equal to genocide in the minds and advertising campaigns of PETA.
"Captions alleged that "like the Jews murdered in concentration camps, animals are terrorized when they are housed in huge filthy warehouses and rounded up for shipment to slaughter. The leather sofa and handbag are the moral equivalent of the lampshades made from the skins of people killed in the death camps." (wiki).
They had another campaign called "Are Animals the New Slaves?" using images of animals in chains juxtaposed with images of (mainly black American) slaves, but it seems like they took it down almost as fast as they put it up. Their website still references it here. And there is another article about it here.
PETA opposes all animal testing, even in the case of cancer and AIDS research.
"PETA vice-president Dan Mathews responded that: "AIDS is an easy disease to avoid, but our government squanders millions on duplicative animal tests, rather than issue frank warnings, especially to young people." Several PETA staff members have volunteered for human testing of AIDS vaccines."
"PETA’s Mary Beth Sweetland should also answer for her own personal hypocrisy. Like more than ten million Americans, she’s diabetic. Sweetland injects herself daily with insulin that was tested on animals; she has conceded that her medicine “still contains some animal products -- and I have no qualms about it…. I don’t see myself as a hypocrite. I need my life to fight for the rights of animals.” (from here).
If that isn't the biggest load of hypocritical bullshit I've ever heard. And I'm sure had synthetic insulin not been invented before PETA's founding, they would've fought against the animal research that led to it's creation, probably alleging that diabetes can be treated with a "proper vegan diet" alone. But, oh, excuse me, "she needs her life to fight for the rights of animals".
But the biggest reason I hate PETA is not because they're a bunch of self-righteous, propaganda-mongering hypocrits (did I mention they kill puppies?) It's because they're a bunch of fire-bombing terrorists.
Okay, okay, I'm exaggerating. They support firebombing terrorism.
In 1992, some douchebag named Rod Coronado, an activist for Animal Liberation Front, burned down a Michigan State University research lab and destroyed 32 years worth of data and was convicted of arson. And who paid for his legal defense? PETA. He received two donations, which PETA claimed on their taxes, for $64,000 and $38, 240. According to PETA's "vegan campagin director" (which already makes him sound like a douchebag), "If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then of course we're going to be blowing things up and smashing windows. ... I think it's a great way to bring about animal liberation, considering the level of suffering, the atrocities. I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them, exploded tomorrow."
They also allegedly donated $1.3 million to the "Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine". which promotes alternatives to animal testing (yay!) but also has links to the ALF (boo!). Jerry Vlasak, a former spokesman for the PCRM, said, "I don't think you'd have to kill too many researchers. I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives." He's also argued that this use of violence is "morally acceptable" and said, "And I -- you know - people get all excited about, "Oh what's going to happen when - the ALF accidentally kills somebody in an arson?" Well, you know I mean -- I think we need to get used to this idea. It's going to happen, okay? It's going to happen." (cite)
So murder is justified, as long as it saves some fish? Or cows?
And while they don't engage on the raids and terrorism themselves (just fund their legal defenses!) they somehow manage to meet with the Animal Liberation Front activists to get tapes of the raids that they conduct, to use in their own propaganda.
I'm not even going to mention throwing paint on fur coats or throwing a dead raccoon at Anna Wintour, because it seems trivial in comparison.
It's really hard to care about "a compassionate vegan diet" when there are people starving to death as a I type this. Animals are not the new slaves, PEOPLE are still enslaved and trafficked against their will. But PETA doesn't care about that, and they've made that clear. In fact, in 2003 when Ingrid Newkirk (head of PETA) sent a letter to the then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat, not on behalf of any of human victims killed in a Jerusalem bombing, but because a donkey was loaded with explosives and used to kill people. She defended herself by saying, "It's not my business to inject myself into human wars."
And they received $25 million in donations in 2005 alone.
In summation,
Dear PETA: Suck it.
It seems like animal rights is a really easy cause to jump behind. No one likes the idea of torturing poor bunny rabbits and puppies so someone can make shampoo, or killing hundreds of minks or foxes to make coats. I can't even bring myself to eat meat or poultry, it disgusts me. I eat fish, and feel guilty about it (but not lobsters--that's disgusting), I'm genuinely disgusted by the fact that I'm eating something that once had a face. But I digress.
Some PETA propaganda: "One pamphlet, "Your Daddy Kills Animals!" showed a cartoon father gutting a fish, and stated:
"Since your daddy is teaching you the wrong lessons about right and wrong, you should teach him fishing is killing. Until your daddy learns it's not fun to kill, keep your doggies and kitties away from him. He's so hooked on killing defenseless animals, they could be next." (You can download the pdf of it here: http://www.fishinghurts.com/feat-newcomic.asp).
(I mean, are you serious? Can they really write this shit with a straight face?)
That's not even close to the worst of their crazy propaganda. In 2003, they ran the "The Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign, which juxtaposed images of people in concentration camps with images of animals in factory farms. (PETA has since taken down that website, it used to be masskilling.com, but if you a google image search you can see it.) Chicken farming is apparently equal to genocide in the minds and advertising campaigns of PETA.
"Captions alleged that "like the Jews murdered in concentration camps, animals are terrorized when they are housed in huge filthy warehouses and rounded up for shipment to slaughter. The leather sofa and handbag are the moral equivalent of the lampshades made from the skins of people killed in the death camps." (wiki).
They had another campaign called "Are Animals the New Slaves?" using images of animals in chains juxtaposed with images of (mainly black American) slaves, but it seems like they took it down almost as fast as they put it up. Their website still references it here. And there is another article about it here.
PETA opposes all animal testing, even in the case of cancer and AIDS research.
"PETA vice-president Dan Mathews responded that: "AIDS is an easy disease to avoid, but our government squanders millions on duplicative animal tests, rather than issue frank warnings, especially to young people." Several PETA staff members have volunteered for human testing of AIDS vaccines."
"PETA’s Mary Beth Sweetland should also answer for her own personal hypocrisy. Like more than ten million Americans, she’s diabetic. Sweetland injects herself daily with insulin that was tested on animals; she has conceded that her medicine “still contains some animal products -- and I have no qualms about it…. I don’t see myself as a hypocrite. I need my life to fight for the rights of animals.” (from here).
If that isn't the biggest load of hypocritical bullshit I've ever heard. And I'm sure had synthetic insulin not been invented before PETA's founding, they would've fought against the animal research that led to it's creation, probably alleging that diabetes can be treated with a "proper vegan diet" alone. But, oh, excuse me, "she needs her life to fight for the rights of animals".
But the biggest reason I hate PETA is not because they're a bunch of self-righteous, propaganda-mongering hypocrits (did I mention they kill puppies?) It's because they're a bunch of fire-bombing terrorists.
Okay, okay, I'm exaggerating. They support firebombing terrorism.
In 1992, some douchebag named Rod Coronado, an activist for Animal Liberation Front, burned down a Michigan State University research lab and destroyed 32 years worth of data and was convicted of arson. And who paid for his legal defense? PETA. He received two donations, which PETA claimed on their taxes, for $64,000 and $38, 240. According to PETA's "vegan campagin director" (which already makes him sound like a douchebag), "If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then of course we're going to be blowing things up and smashing windows. ... I think it's a great way to bring about animal liberation, considering the level of suffering, the atrocities. I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them, exploded tomorrow."
They also allegedly donated $1.3 million to the "Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine". which promotes alternatives to animal testing (yay!) but also has links to the ALF (boo!). Jerry Vlasak, a former spokesman for the PCRM, said, "I don't think you'd have to kill too many researchers. I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives." He's also argued that this use of violence is "morally acceptable" and said, "And I -- you know - people get all excited about, "Oh what's going to happen when - the ALF accidentally kills somebody in an arson?" Well, you know I mean -- I think we need to get used to this idea. It's going to happen, okay? It's going to happen." (cite)
So murder is justified, as long as it saves some fish? Or cows?
And while they don't engage on the raids and terrorism themselves (just fund their legal defenses!) they somehow manage to meet with the Animal Liberation Front activists to get tapes of the raids that they conduct, to use in their own propaganda.
I'm not even going to mention throwing paint on fur coats or throwing a dead raccoon at Anna Wintour, because it seems trivial in comparison.
It's really hard to care about "a compassionate vegan diet" when there are people starving to death as a I type this. Animals are not the new slaves, PEOPLE are still enslaved and trafficked against their will. But PETA doesn't care about that, and they've made that clear. In fact, in 2003 when Ingrid Newkirk (head of PETA) sent a letter to the then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat, not on behalf of any of human victims killed in a Jerusalem bombing, but because a donkey was loaded with explosives and used to kill people. She defended herself by saying, "It's not my business to inject myself into human wars."
And they received $25 million in donations in 2005 alone.
In summation,
Dear PETA: Suck it.