Two ON-topic questions - I promise

[singing4every1]

I edited the last post I made about Curves. I apologized for a couple things. Go read if you wish. Anyway, if there's anyone here who still thinks I am a nice person (I promise, I am!) , I was wondering if anyone could answer these questions for me.

First off, PETA. Why do a lot of vegetarians and vegans dislike PETA? Besides the fact that some

Comments

[neva_butterfly]

I grew up in a hunting family. I don't doubt that many hunters believe that hunted animals are overpopulating and that hunting controls the population, but this is actually false. Whenever populations of animals are studied it is usually the food supply that controls population, not predators. Also, while a natural predator would take sick, injured, weak, and sometimes young animals, human hunters typically go after the healthiest and strongest member of a herd, leaving sicker ones to reproduce and this damages the overall health of the herd. You are right that our overpopulation creates more conflicts between humans and wildlife, but this isn't the only problem. In the area where I live white tailed deer are increasing in number. We killed all of their natural predators, then we cut down the forests creating more grazing land, then we planted ornamental plants that they like to eat. Then we complain when they eat our plants

[singing4every1]

Wow, great post. Yes, I actually talked to someone from PETA on the phone the other day and asked them about the killing of the animals and they said they try to take in hurt animals basically and save who they can, but a lot of them are too far hurt to be saved and must be put out of their misery. Seems like a good argument to me. And where are they racist? I can see the sexist thing because they could be seen as "exploiting" to women, but besides that, where's some evidence of racism? I am interested in seeing where that is on their site. And I loved what you said about hunting. More comments everyone, more :). Thanks.

[neva_butterfly]

I'm from the area of PeTA, more or less, so my volunteering for them went back quite a few years. I was a huge, huge PeTA supporter and I no longer am. Ingrid Newkirk comes from a traditional animal control background and that's the attitude that is dominant at PeTA. They do feel they are putting animals out of their misery, but the truth is that they openly kill perfectly healthy animals, even puppies and kittens who would have a better chance of adoption. This is because they subscribe so whole-heartedly to the philosophy that there aren't enough homes and that the only way to solve this is by killing the majority of animals that come through shelters and rescues

[singing4every1]

WOW! Again thank you, very informative and I feel lucky to see an insider's view!

[neva_butterfly]

I don't take a stance really one way or the other on the sexism and racism really. People feel that certain ads including the "I'd rather go naked" and a previous "fur trim" ad were sexist. Some think that certain ads that featured African American women in a jungle background, naked, with body paint to make them look like leopards had racist undertones. Also the comparisons between human slavery and farmed animals are controversial to many. Some claim that to compare human slaves to animals in any way is racist while others insist the comparison is legitimate.

[culturallyaware]

didn't they also do a nazi/holocaust campaign that started a lot of controversy? or at least someone from peta made some insensitive comments about it?

[miss_roark]

I did read about PETA being in a huge lawsuit a couple of years ago because they were basically going around and taking dogs and cats from shelters and then euthanising them in their van. People found out because they just threw them in dumpsters after. These weren't sick animals, one of the shelter people even gave them their own dog after they promised to place it with a family who would give it more time. The people took it and even took pictures of the dog with a new collar and sent it to the guy. Then they killed it and threw it in the dumpster.

We have the same issues with hunting where I am (New England) and every point you made was dead on! I'm going to use them. ;)

[neva_butterfly]

Exactly. And they ignore the entire body of scientific evidence supporting humane control for feral cats and still advocate killing them.