About PETA...
I just wanted to say this for whatever 'record' is kept about such things, if any. I do agree, in principal with what that organization stands for. I'm NOT a vegetarian, though my diet rarely ever includes red meat. I DO eat chicken fairly often, and I confess that I often feel guilty about it.
I think PETA is extreme. I think that, at times, their methods go beyond what *I* would consider acceptable. BUT... I also understand why they behave this way. I believe they feel that only through extreme methods will they get the attention they seek and reach the goals they've set out for themselves.
Animals on this planet and in this country are treated with horrific cruelty. They are, quite simply, tortured... so that we can have the food we want and the leather we want and all the other things we want that we can only get by killing the creatures with whom we share this world. And it's not even the killing which is the worst of it. Killing them is quick and ends their torment. It's the keeping them alive under conditions so horrible and painful that it makes me shudder to think of it... simply so we can milk them for whatever byproduct of their existence we happen to want for our own uses.
To say this is wrong is a HUGE understatement. And while I do not agree with all of PETA's methods and behaviors, I absolutely understand their reasoning.
Maybe if we gave more support to the SPCA, the Humane Society, and other less extreme supporters of animal rights and were maybe just a bit more conscious of the fact that what we do really does have a powerful effect on the creatures we share our world with, then extreme groups like PETA would be come less needful.
If you wanted to, you could start by signing this petition.
Or by just taking a look at this information.
Or by checking out these cruelty-free, non-animal testing companies and products.
I'm not lecturing anyone else here. I'm speaking to and for myself alone. Make no mistake about it, I AM guilty of supporting cruelty to animals. And I think that Sean's essay for PETA served to make me uncomfortably aware of that fact. That's why I felt I had to make this post. In part to salve my guilty conscience.. I freely admit it. And to maybe make even one other person as uncomfortable as I became yesterday.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
- Mahatma Gandhi
*climbs off soapbox*
I think PETA is extreme. I think that, at times, their methods go beyond what *I* would consider acceptable. BUT... I also understand why they behave this way. I believe they feel that only through extreme methods will they get the attention they seek and reach the goals they've set out for themselves.
Animals on this planet and in this country are treated with horrific cruelty. They are, quite simply, tortured... so that we can have the food we want and the leather we want and all the other things we want that we can only get by killing the creatures with whom we share this world. And it's not even the killing which is the worst of it. Killing them is quick and ends their torment. It's the keeping them alive under conditions so horrible and painful that it makes me shudder to think of it... simply so we can milk them for whatever byproduct of their existence we happen to want for our own uses.
To say this is wrong is a HUGE understatement. And while I do not agree with all of PETA's methods and behaviors, I absolutely understand their reasoning.
Maybe if we gave more support to the SPCA, the Humane Society, and other less extreme supporters of animal rights and were maybe just a bit more conscious of the fact that what we do really does have a powerful effect on the creatures we share our world with, then extreme groups like PETA would be come less needful.
If you wanted to, you could start by signing this petition.
Or by just taking a look at this information.
Or by checking out these cruelty-free, non-animal testing companies and products.
I'm not lecturing anyone else here. I'm speaking to and for myself alone. Make no mistake about it, I AM guilty of supporting cruelty to animals. And I think that Sean's essay for PETA served to make me uncomfortably aware of that fact. That's why I felt I had to make this post. In part to salve my guilty conscience.. I freely admit it. And to maybe make even one other person as uncomfortable as I became yesterday.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
- Mahatma Gandhi
*climbs off soapbox*