PETA
From RationalWiki
PETA stands for People Eating Tasty Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They oppose hunting, fishing, and animal testing and are really lousy hunters promote a vegetarian diet. They like to call your pets "companion animals" instead of pets. They have run into trouble for trying to run ads comparing eating meat to the Holocaust and promoting the consumption of beer in favor of dairy products, among other things. Their trademark ads tend to involve famous (and hot) vegetarian actresses and models photographed nude (while covering up their naughty bits). Animal rights activist Ingrid Newkirk is the president of PETA.
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[edit] History
PETA was co-founded by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco, after Pacheco uncovered the abuse of monkeys at a Silver Spring, Maryland laboratory in 1981. This and the court litigation that followed led to changes in the laws in 1985 regarding animal testing to ensure against cruelty. PETA should have quit at that point, because they have become rather more extreme and absurd since.
[edit] Some of PETA's nuttier actions
The conventional wisdom on PETA is that they are a group with a moderate membership and hardline leadership. Allegations that they have ties to ecoterrorism groups are not well-substantiated. Their reception even among liberals is, to put it politely, decidedly mixed. Less politely, they're extremely divisive, and likely to spark flamewars in gatherings of multiple points of view. While many liberals would argue that a certain amount of regulation of animal rights is necessary, the scientific community in particular (otherwise largely centrist-to-liberal) strongly opposes their antivivisection position as being unreasonably restricting on medical research due to current technology's lack of ability to accurately simulate living systems.
[edit] Ben & Jerry's
On 23 September 2008, PETA issued a press release[1] asking Ben & Jerry's to stop using milk from dairy animals, and instead start using — uh, um, oy veh — human breast milk.[2] No reaction yet from the National Organization for Women regarding the image of potentially millions of women attached to automatic milking machines. Of course, human milk based dairy products and ice cream already exist, if you know where to find them and can pay the obscenely high price tag. At least PETA didn't demand they start using soy milk.
[edit] No fur, no meat, but euthanasia is OK?
In April 2009, PETA came under fire for euthanizing 2,124 of the 2,216 (96%) of the pets companion animals turned in to its US headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, during 2008. A PETA spokesperson said that this was OK because 1) PETA doesn't really operate as an animal shelter (So why do they take animals that should go to shelters in the first place?); 2) America is facing a pet overpopulation epidemic and euthanasia is the most humane solution (Unlike no-kill shelters that spay and neuter animals before adopting them out.) 3) The vast majority of animals that PETA receives are not suited for adoption because they are unsocialized or too sick to make good pets companions (Funny how the worst of the worst found they way to PETA's doorstep. What are the odds of that happening?) 4) Yes, some adoptable animals were euthanized. But, hey, everybody makes mistakes now and then, right?[3] Critics claim that this incident — and PETA's tepid response to being called out on it — illustrates how PETA's high-profile advocacy regarding vegetarianism and the fur trade is a cash cow that can't be spent on the day-to-day plight of dogs and cats.
[edit] Sea kittens
Among PETA's more ridiculous campaigns has been their decision that fish should now be known as "sea kittens". Apparently having a cute and silly name is enough to stop global overfishing in its tracks.
[edit] The Great Renaming Campaign
PETA has sent demands to some towns requesting that they change their names, including Hamburg and Fishkill (both New York), and Rodeo (California).
Most recently PETA sent a letter to the Pet Shop Boys requesting they change their name to the Rescue Shelter Boys.[4] You can't make this stuff up. Even more strange is PETA's proposal to Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle that the state's license plate slogan be changed from "America's Dairyland" to "America's Cow Hell".[5]
[edit] Godwin's Law violations
In 2009 PETA held a protest in which they picketed a kennel club's dog show dressed in Ku Klux Klan uniforms, passing out flyers comparing the breeding of purebred dogs to the Ku Klux Klan's ideal of a pure race.
A 2003 PETA ad campaign called "The Holocaust on Your Plate" drew a moral equivalence between the consumption of meat and the genocidal murders of millions of Jews, Slavs, Roma peoples, homosexuals, political opponents, and others in Nazi Germany's concentration camps. It juxtaposed pictures of pigs in pens and children in concentration camps, and drew immediate outrage — not outrage about eating meat, but outrage over their exploitation of genocide to make their point.
[edit] Michael Vick
In 2007 then Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was sent to jail for two years on dogfighting charges. Granted, it was an extremely heinous and despicable crime, but he served his time and seems to be remorseful. The Philadelphia Eagles were willing to give him a second chance as a back up, however PETA has combined what Philly fans love to do (boo athletes who try to win championships for them) with PETA's passion for outrageous protesting. The result, they decided to protest his seven game suspension and the Eagles, claiming that millions of football fans are now heartbroken that the Eagles would be willing to give a reformed criminal a second chance at a career.[6] Never mind those NFL players who have spiked opponents heads with cleats, shot themselves with illegal handguns (in their sweatpants!), cover up a murder, repeatedly beat up girlfriends, or kill another human being in a DUI. If you ask them, PETA would tell you that Vick is the worst person to play in the NFL.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ↑ PETA press release requesting Ben & Jerry's replace dairy milk with human breast milk
- ↑ "How about a double scoop of mama's milk?": MSNBC, 25 September 2008.
- ↑ "Peta under fire over claim that it kills most animals left at its US headquarters": London Daily Telegraph article, 4 April 2009.
- ↑ "PETA to Pet Shop Boys: Rescue Shelter Boys, perhaps?" CNN.com, 10 April 2009
- ↑ PETA wants Wisconsin to change license plates,
- ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/01/michael-vick-peta-spokesm_n_194700.html
