Yet another reason why I hate PETA
I found the following story in the New York Times
Beastly killing unleashes attack by PETA's foes
The Hollywood-cozy animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is nursing a big PR black eye over a terrible dog-and-cat-killing incident involving PETA employees last month in North Carolina.
Two PETA workers are facing felony charges of animal cruelty after they allegedly collected puppies and kittens from shelters in Ahoskie, N.C., euthanized them in a van and threw the carcasses in a Dumpster behind a Piggly Wiggly store.
So yesterday one of PETA's enemies, the Foundation for Biomedical Research, crowed about PETA's image injuries in the Hollywood bible, Variety.
"If your name is on this list, fire your publicist," the $11,000 ad taunts 50 celebs - including Kim Basinger, Moby, Ally Sheedy and Al Sharpton - who are on the honorary committee for PETA's 25th anniversary gala in September.
"The recent gruesome discovery of 31 dead dogs and puppies in a Dumpster," the ad continues, "casts serious doubt on the legitimacy of this ... organization."
All but two of the PETA celebs contacted yesterday didn't return Lowdown's phone calls.
Sharpton said he joined PETA's honorary committee out of his love for animals, "and this is literally the first I've heard about the killing of any pets." He hasn't decided whether to let PETA keep using his name.
Sheedy defended PETA and criticized the animal-testing advocates, who are funded by universities, drug companies and research facilities.
"Why don't they take some fake blood and throw it on a fur coat?" she joked. "I don't know anything about the case. But it's one of those things where this is an organization that's done so much good for so long. I'll go to the party if I'm in L.A. I'm sure the two dog killers won't be there."
I have always had severe doubts about PETA's real committment to animal welfare, and if this is true it just underscores all the doubts I have about them. What kind of a psycho thinks that killing some animals is justified in order to call attention to the suffering of other animals?
Because whoever said that women don't have "the gaze" was smoking crack
About Me
- Cassandra Says
- I'm a progressive, left-wing Brit living in California. I used to be a high-tech sales guru, but got tired of that and am now thinking about going back to school to get a Masters in Journalism. My undergrad is in Psychology, but I have never used this in any constructive way. This is typical for me. I grew up mostly in the Middle East, was educated at a very fancy Scottish boarding school, moved to London at 18, and have lived in the Bay Area for the past 8 years. I am now suffering from a serious case of itchy feet, and am feeling that 8 years is quite long enough to stay in one place. Again, this is typical. If anyone really wants to figure me out they should Google "third culture" - I fit the prototype pretty closely. If any other Third Culture kids happen to stumble across this blog, write to me. There aren't very many of us.
6 comments:
I'd be interested to know why else you dislike PETA. As far as this instance, the larger any group is, and no matter what the group's moral stance is, the more likely you're going to have moral degenerates. And while in all these articles I see the accusation leveled at PETA, the reality is that no-one is coming forward with any evidence that the specific behavior of these two members has been repeated anywhere else, or that it was sanctioned by the organization as a whole. Even with the monomaniacal focus PETA has on animal rights, to the exclusion of everything else, the worst that can be said is that PETA is insensitive toward human beings.
There are some messed up things about PETA, but I don't think this can be laid on the organization as a whole, not with any justice.
Apologies... Did more research, and if I'd just gone one level deeper into the links I was reviewing I'd understand your points, and that PETA had been doing a lot of killing. >.<
My gripe with PETA goes back a lot further than this. I HATED the "dumb animal" posters that caricatured rich women in furs. I also hated the "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" ads.
Basically my problem with them is that I think their publicity-seeking and ill-advised attempts at creating ads for shock value discredit the animal welfare movement as a whole. Since PETA is the only animal welfare group many people are familiar with, many people assume that they speak for the majority. I'm also often uncomfortable with the issues they choose to focus on - for example, why pelting and not vivisection? I think they avoid the and genuinely controvercial topics (animals in medical research, vegetarianism) because they're a hard sell. Also, running around Manhattan throwing paint on people? All that does is piss people off. But that pretty much sums up their whole approach to me. It's shallow and sensationalistic, and it doesn't work.
And the killing puppies and kittens to make a point stunt? Despicable.
Out of curiosity, which links are you looking at? I wouldn't mind doing some more reading on this too.
A large part of my problem with PETA is their expolitation of women to get across their message. Here are some good link about what is going wrong at PETA. link link
Apologies for the delayed response... -_-;
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/23/EDG11DC9BK1.DTL
And a few others I'd have to dig up again. I stay away from ConsumerFreedom.org, it's a pretty scary site, and their propaganda is just as bad.
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