PETA's slogan is "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment."
Now I freely admit that I am all for rascally, farm, animals to romp around a sunny barnyard and spend what little time they have playing with their fuzzy and feathery friends.
But PETA crossed the line a few weeks ago when they likened the savage murder and subsequent beheading of a young man on a greyhound bus to the way that animals are processed..you can read about their strategic news release HERE.
How inf*ckingcredibly insensitive and stupid is that?
No, really?
I would love to see how founder Ingrid Newkirk and her cohorts would react if they were to re-enter the Food Chain. I wonder if they would still have the warm fuzzies for large, ferocious, predatory, carnivores, if they were dropped off on the African Savannah..naked and unarmed.
I have no idea if these people have any idea what actually goes on 24/7 in the natural animal kingdom..do you? I imagine that while one Lion or Hyena is clamping down on their throat as the others start to disembowel and consume them, that they'd simply gasp for something politically correct to say like,
"oh that's OK, these animals are just ((gurgle)) doing what comes ((gurgle))naturally to them ((aaaack))."
I imagine that they idealistically regard Humans as natural Herbivores? If so, at what point did they abandon Science and decide that we ignore millions of years of biological evolution ...HEY wait a minute, since they seem to love animals more than people, maybe they think that it's OK for Humans to eat, wear, experiment on, and use other Humans for our entertainment?
It all sounds quite Lecterian.
My best guesstimate is that the secret objective of PETA is to return Mankind back to that Edenic pre-'Fall from Grace' period mentioned in the Book of Genesis. If you remember your Sunday School lessons you'll recall the before SIN (Boo-Hiss) entered the world, Adam & Eve and every last one of the other 'lower' animals, were just easy goin' Herbivores.
Aw schucks..I can still see that cute, little, Lamb curled up beside that big, ole, Lion.
Perhaps PETA is a secret, religious, organization hellbent on returning the world to the way that God HIMSELF had supposedly intended it to be?
Hmmm?
I may have just uncovered an unforseen secret link between PETA and VEGGIE TALES.
Whatever their real goal is, the tall foreheads at PETA obviously prefer animals over people, and oddly enough, when it comes to Dinner, I do too.
While I usually support the usually excellent works of PETA, I do not endorse this latest campaign, which as you say is crass and insensitive and frankly in danger of backfiring - as your post demonstrates - to cause PETA untold damage.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I appreciate it is often hard to raise awareness of animal suffering/provoke humans into caring or giving enough of a damn/dime to do anything about it, shock tactics are NOT always the best way to go about it, particularly where such a horrific recent crime is involved and there are grieving families and friends to be considered.
If I were were the CEO of PETA I would make a public apology give the Campaigning department a darn good rollicking and seriously revise the direction they are taking.
I really don't give a crap about PETA telling me what I can and cannot eat. Animals eat animals. And I enjoy the taste of meat..with some fava beans and a nice chianti!
ReplyDelete*makes sucking sounds*
Seriously, though, that campaign is incredibly insensitive and offensive. I really do hope an animal eats those PETA mofos...really, I do...
Actually, I DO prefer animals over people, in that I would like to see alot less of US littering the landscape, running over THEM with our cars, destroying their habitats, and relentlessly driving species after species extinct. And no, I don't mind eating them "when necessary", or them eating each other as they have been since one amaoba looked at another and started the long process towards inventing steak sauce. And, I think the very thought of clubbing baby seals to make skinny super models look FABoulous is sick. It's all relative, and PETA just goes overboard sometimes, but then who else is looking after your average animals interest? Smack them upside the head when they get silly, but let them keep doing what they are doing within reason.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if you think meat is murder, as Morrissey sang, then you think animals are human.
ReplyDeleteSo the killing of a human being is no different from the killing of a cow.
So abbatoir workers and farmers should be in prison.
And meat eaters are cannibals.
Well, humans are animals and we are omnivores. We eat everything. Just like pigs and chimpanzees (yes, they catch other animals and eat meat - has PETA watched THEM on the hunt???)) and my dog - who will eat absolutely anything.
ReplyDeleteI dislike PETA because their tactics are squewed (sp?) and they just seem to have the wrong message. Like Tom said, there are too many of us destroying the planet - the habitat we ALL live in - humans and other animals alike - and that is what the real crime is.
If there is a god (and I, for one, don't believe in that guy), then all the beings on this planet were 'made' as we are - and what we humans are programmed to eat is meat AND veggies - it's in the genes.
So I will continue to munch on the moo cow and chew on the chicken - because it tastes good and is good for me - I am supposed to eat that stuff - and I am healthy too.
Drop by mine later for a nice sausage pizza.
ReplyDeleteI'm having a BBQ this weekend mate and you are invited........ I promise not ta put the kids on there as i have beef, lamb and chicken already.... might even throw in some pork as well.......
ReplyDeleteSorry but no vegies or salads as i am the president of save the plants which includes fruits as well.......
"... when it comes to Dinner, I do too." Not me. I'll have that with fava beans and a nice chianti please.
ReplyDeletePOET LAURE-EATE
ReplyDeletePersonally I would imprison the f*ckers who run Puppy Mills in Hell holes and I applaud the Shoot To Kill orders of Poachers..come to think of it, I actually like animals more than people too, but there needs to be some sort of balance. We need to stop Humans from indiscriminately overbreeding and destroying every habitat that they occupy HOWEVER a Pig is NOT a DOG which is NOT a Boy!
They've gone too far this time and I just wanted to get some.
EROSWINGS
HAHA! Unfortunately modern man is innundated with advertising so only the most hyberbolic and outrageous 'messages' can sift through the clutter..I know why PETA did it but I cannot tolerate or condone it. PETA members strying to survive one nioght in the wild would make an awesome Reality TV event..just listening to them rationalise with the Carnivores about why they should be spared would be..
well, for lack of a better term, delicious.
THE MICHAEL
I hear ya! There are other orgs that eschew such controversy but what needs to happen is for Mr & Mrs Backporch USA to pick up the cause and then something would happen.
Like every other industry the Lobbyists cicumvent any governmental action by filling the coffers with oodles of cash...reigning in the Western Food Processing Corporations is one thing but and Orient and it's 3 Billion people needs to abandon their ridicuf*ckinglous notions about Shark Fin Soup, Gorilla Paw, Bear Bladder, Tiger Balm, and Ivory charms for getting a boner!!
Mother Nature is not rebounding..the Fish are gone and we now live in a world that has armed guards watching over many of the remnants of once massive populations of large Mammals 24/7.
It leaves jaded Humanists like myself teetering on the verge of full blown misanthropy.
GEOFF
It's that simple..NOT! When the Neo Dark Ages arrive after the Big One is dropped and eradicates our present system, the playing field will once again be level and Humans will re-enter their designated slot in the Circle Of Loife as 50% Predator and 50% Prey Item...that'll change a few minds.
PONYGIRL
In the Matrix the Agent explains to Neo that Humans aren't really Mammals because we multiply exponentially and destroy our environment before we are forced to move on..like the other dominant force on Planet Earth, the VIRUS.
Now I realise that we are predominantly Vegetarian but Anthropologists have summised that our so-called Big Brains were boosted by scavenging and sup[plementing our diets with meat..which added valuable protein.
The real tragedy is that we have squandered most of that awesome advantage on inventing ways to control and kill other Humans! One thing is certain, in the end, the Virus will WIN this race.
MJ
Hey Mama
How happy I will be
Tra La La
it's the Pizza Girl for me
HEY!
What am I doing in the midst of so many intelligent people?!
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is PETA has somehow lost its perspective.
BTW, I used to be a member of PETA.
Yes, Donnnnn, we humans are a virus. I totally agree with that. We are out of control, just like the superbugs in the medical field (and I have experience with those) - and we are damn difficult to get under control, if indeed that can ever happen.
ReplyDeleteThe entire planet - all humans collectively - need to get on the bandwagon and have a much more moderate approach to expansion and utilization of the planet's resources. Cuz soon there won't be any, if we keep going at this rate.
And I 100% agree with you on the puppy mills and poachers - shoot to kill and throw their carcasses to the pigs to clean up. I am extremely pro-animal, but with lots of common sense and an understanding of animal behaviour. Unlike most of those at PETA....
i'm chinese. i eat everything that walks (on fours).
ReplyDeleteI was a vegetarian for 28 years. At first it was for spiritual reasons but then it became habit. (now eat feesh, but still no meat besides an occasional bite to try to like it again...but no go).
ReplyDeleteAnd ahem...how arrogant (and tyepical)is it to decide that humans get to arbitrarily rate the hierarchy of life form.
Vegeterrorists have always bored me silly. Even when I wasn't an animal eater, I used to say that if I was asked to be on a panel of vegeterrorists and cattle ranchers, I'd be sitting with the ranchers.
Peta is just another "Ism."
I think PETA does good things, however I think they lose sight of the big picture at times. They want it to be extremely dualistic and everything to do with animals has no compromise or thought behind some of their beliefs. I mean most of the animals we consume are only around and not extinct BECAUSE we eat them and raise them for food. I think the focus should be on conservation and humaneness.
ReplyDeleteI think they are incorrect when they say the ad may be offensive to 'some'. I'd say most.
I think that people have to regress
ReplyDeleteto a slightly more animal state,
before they understand that trying
to Anthropromorphize (?) other living creatures is a human foible
gone amuck. Fifi may be a beloved, boisterous pet to one, or a needed meal for four, to another. I have a
dog and a cat, who each obeys their
innate behaviour, pretty much. I love 'em both, but am not deluded
that either can make sense of any
of my little monologues. Come to
think of it, my buddies look at me
askance, too ;)
GAUTAMI
ReplyDeleteYou are in your element.
I can appreciate that PETA may have started out with the best of intentions but their ship is way off course and drifting into the rocks.
PONYGIRL
The superbugs may not wipe us out completely but they have been around for one Billion years and they keep adapting to our counter measures...we seem to have gotten too big for our britches and we have totally underestimated them.
They're coming.
MISTI
Ha! You're hilarious. Just think what we could do to improve the way that we care and harvest all of our food if we stopped competing and building stockpiles of weapons...
HA you forgot anything with zero legs and things with 2, 6 and 8 legs!
GILLETTE
I hope that you know that I was being a smartass about the lower animals.
I have nothing against Vegans I know plenty of them but the 'My Way or the Highway' Vegeterrorists that you refer to are on a Quixotic campaign that they'll never win. This isn't like quitting smoking or drunk driving.
If Civilization ended tomorrow we would all be scrambling to eat whatever we could scrounge and we wouldn't have the luxury of debating this issue. For instance, other Animals kill each other for territory, mates, as well as food...the whole Biosphere is loaded with something eating something else every second of every day.
SUSANNITY
That's quite true there are more chickens on Earth than Humans and I don't know anyone who can stomach Factory Farming. If we got all of our food within a few hundred mile radius we could circumvent these HUGE conglomerates and we'd all eat better FRESHER food.
Either way most of us just seem overwhelmed by the challenge but that shouldn't stop us from taking steps to regain control of our lives.
GRUMBLY
Yes. I loved all of my my Dogs because they COULDN'T understand all of my blathering or talk back.
We made God in our image so why wouldn't we give the other species Human qualities...we're incorrigible.
I know exactly what Dogs understand...
blah blah blah FOOD blah blah blah WALK blah blah blah GET DOWN blah blah blah GET OFF MY LEG
I'm rally hungry now. . .
ReplyDeleteI tried hard to be a vegetarian, for like 2 hrs...didnt work :( sorry PETA!
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
'I didn't spend 10 million years struggling to reach the top of the food chain, only to eat fucking lettuce'.
ReplyDeleteActually I am a veggie, but only for historical reasons - eat what you like guys, but I do strongly reccommend Organic.
And Peta, never heard of them but they sound like a bunch of wankers.
amen to that brother :)
ReplyDeleteHemm.. that seems like the job of a new hire.. hemmmm..
ReplyDeletePeta should stop hiring humans.
Mmmm dinner, we had Indian Butter Chicken and it was yummm oooo :)
ReplyDeleteSilly old clapped out hippy PETA , there is no secret agenda , they just enjoy playing the moral superiority card.
ReplyDeletesometimes i thank god for advertisement restrictions here. thought i also wish for good ol pepsi-coke ad fights, we have clean ads here in all media.
ReplyDeleteand those peta pita buggers, i have no words. probably they came up with the same during 9-11 and many other disasters, sumone might have a lead there.
A N D R E A!!
ReplyDeleteOkay now I gettit!
sorry I'm so DUH
;(
I always wondered what Ray Liotta's brains tasted like..
I mean they look pretty bland.
You would need Curry or Hot Sauce...and speaking of scene stealing have you seen Ledger's Joker? The last time that I saw an actor riffin' like that was Hopkins channeling Hannibal in Silence.
I'm listenin' to the Be Good Tanyas..ever heard them? The littlest birds sing the prettiest song and when dove's cry are my faves.
I LIKE THE VIEW
Rally? I just wanted to kick PETA in the knackers for being such insensitive twats. As far as the Veganism whatever floats yer boat.
Hey have you listened to the Midway State is this never again on the previous post?
You'd like it..a lot!
KESHIROO
Atleast you tried..I wouldn't have lasted that long HA! I could be a pure Carnivore no problemo.
TOM
You've never heard of them? I am surprised because they are always in the news..real publicity whores..which is what they need to be but they piss more people off than garner support..which they shouldn't do.
SWEETS
I'm preachin' to the choir agin!
Still I need to vent every once and a while and I may have kicked over too many cans this time..oh well what are ya gonna do.
NAHUATL
That's a great idea..you know the old theory that 100 Chimpanzees handcuffed to typewriters could eventually write the ultimate novel? Well I suppose PETA would be quite averse to chaining Chimps up...they have to hire Humans I guess.
CAZZIE
Showoff..sounds like my kind of artery collapsing goodness...
mmmm...butter! I could eat Cane Toads if they had enough butter smeared on them!
BEAST
You sound perturbed with their zany madcap antics? Aren't they just high spirited idealists whose encyclopedic ignorance about the nature of things makes our lives just a little brighter?
GHOSTAY
What the hell is a clean ad? I don't know how much longer our government will have control over the Media..the Interwebs is leaving the broadcasters in the dust.
You're very good about responding to your responders, so who am I to criticise? (OK, so that never stopped me before...:) I'll pass on Ray Liotta's brain but I hear Heath Ledger's is just about aged to perfection by now (euw).(I've heard of the Be Good Tanyas but never heard the actual music. Now I'm curious...)
ReplyDeletethe intertubes have killed radio, video, newspaper and jst about everything else except porn. :D
ReplyDeleteIt's really very simple. Believe what you want. Tell me if you want to. Sell me (or try to) if you have to, but try to jam your philosophy down my throat and prepare for a fight.
ReplyDeletePETA needs to get its priorities straight. Start by treating people ethically if you want to live in a society. Stop taking money from mentally ill people who internalize every animal cruelty and slaughter.
That disease could only happen in a well-fed, insulated, modern culture by the way. Your great-great grandmother knew how to kill and dress her own chicken dinner. No shrink-wrap or KFC for her. If civilization falls through the cracks, card-carrying PETA members are welcome to meet me on the street corner for some nice fried rat, or die of malnutrition for their principles.
the lion's last paragraph is so what I wanted to say. . .
ReplyDelete. . .only I couldn't write it that eloquently
I did wonder if any cave-men would have voluntarily chosen to be veggies (I have nothing against vegetarians, but I think it is a priviledged choice); obviously the "gatherers" of "hunter-gatherers" would have only managed to be gatherers, if the hunters didn't bring home the bacon (so to speak)
am I wrong in thinking that a successful hunters' "hunting" diet might have been a contributory factor in the development and growth of the "human" brain (homo erectus, or a relative of his? I'm getting a little lost now, but maybe you know what I mean) and also that the added nutritional value of meat in a diet might have freed up some time and/or parts of the brain to do things other than look for food - which might have led to our ancestors developing team work skills and eventually bonded groups/societies. . .
I'm fairly sure that wearing furs and skins for warmth and protection from the elements might have came way before the development the skills and knowledge of carding wool from fleeces* (and spinning cotton, for that matter) and weaving cloth. . .
*altho those animals would have originally been wild, and even when domesticated might not have been "factory farmed" - but do we know the conditions our genetic ancestors would have kept them in? would they have made the choice, if they could, to improve the animals' living conditions potentially at the cost of the deducing the nutritional value of meat in a diet
do you know what I'm trying to say? perhaps you said it already (this is why I don't try and say anything too meaningful, cos I get all mixed up!)
(reducing, not deducing - d'oh!)
ReplyDeleteANDREA
ReplyDeleteand let us never speak of this unpleasantness again.
This year I saw the two best Super Hero films EVER! You must see Ledger's Joker and Downey's Iron Man.
GHOSTAY
Nothing can kill porn or gossip NOTHING! Those are mankind's two favorite activities.
BREAKERSLION
IF Civilization falls I will be happy to be partners with you and start a national chain of fried rat cart vendors. We'll charge ex-PETA members double for having been such idealistic twats.
I LIKE THE VIEW
Excellent observations. The extra protein supplied did juice up our brains and we cam by it honestly..our predecessors and cousins were opportunistic scavengers and when we finally learned how to whack stuff with a big stick we were on our way.
When we were eventually forced to invent cities we had to develop large scale farming to feed all of the layabouts who became politicians..it was the beginning of the end..we're still doing it!
What a great response..we should do this more often.
funnily enough there was an article in The Guardian this week covering PETA complaining to the UK military about the fact it takes one bear skin to make each hat worn by the guardsmen at Buckingham Palace. . .
ReplyDeletefake skins are now used for the drummer's aprons, but the top brass have not been able to come up with anything of suitable quality to replace the bearskins (presumably they are distracted by issues more pertinent to their soldiers, but who knows)
PETA polled people (and tourists) taking photos of the guardsmen informing them of the one bear per hat scenario, apparently more people were shocked, so PETA then took it upon themselves to suggest redesigning of the hats and alternative materials for their fabrication
which might be seen as either very helpful, or slightly over-doing it
depending on what one's opinions of wearing a fur hat are. . .
I'm not sure what my view is on this, especially given the tradition of the palace guard; I don't know how uncomfortable the hats are to wear
it was interesting that the article appeared so soon after I'd read your piece here
you're as ever on the ball of current opinion, donn
I LIKE THE VIEW
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for PETA, this Summer there have been a few Bear attacks on housewives out gardening so the empathy level is down a notch.
The fact that we build new housing developments in the middle of the Forest is not completely lost on most people and making hats out of them for British Guards seems lofty compared to the Asian black merketeers who poach Bears for their tiny gall bladders and leave the rest to rot.
Personally I think that those hats are ridiculous and the guards need to learn how to smile and not be so serious.