Today’s blog can be summed up in a song. C+C Music Factory made a killing off making us go “hmm”, and so does PETA, or more appropriately, doing things that make you go “What the frikk is wrong with these lunatics?!?” I prefer the latter. PETA’s name is not all that bad, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Yeah, that sounds cool, protecting animals from abuse and mistreatment is great. I am in no way against that. But, once you start following PETA and see what kind of campaigns they push for you start to see what PETA is all about, and that’s attention. It seems more and more obvious that under the guise of caring about animals, they go past the ethical and into the ludicrous. For example, I think it’s great that they push to end the abuse and very cruel practice of skinning animals while they are still alive. You may have seen the video on YouTube and it is horrifying. That deserves to be stopped. But, where the sane ends and the insane begins is in things like petitioning against milk because it’s degrading to a cow. Let’s take a look at PETA and see where the ethical ends and the ludicrous begins.
In March of 2000 PETA launched their “Got Beer” campaign aimed at college students with the purpose of trying to raise awareness about the “cruelty of the milking industry.” While PETA denies that their goal was to encourage college students, some of which are underage, to start drinking beer instead of milk, it’s hard to imagine any different. Especially with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner. Take into account that college kids and beer go together like democrats and taxes and it’s easy to see through their excuses. Regardless of the obvious, RaeLeann Smith, PETA campaign coordinator, denied the campaign supported alcohol consumption. “This is just a campus campaign to urge college students to stop drinking milk,” Smith said. “We are not encouraging anyone to drink beer.” My question is this: Why just college students? Why beer? If you want to make the case for drinking something “healthier” or something that doesn’t come from a process that Smith says “[It] is a nightmare for animals”, why not promote something that doesn’t cause long term health problems and contributes to 18,000 traffic deaths per year? The reason is simple, they want attention. If they promoted a “Got Soy Milk?” campaign, which they do suggest on their website as an alternative to cow’s milk, they would have gotten a lot less attention. The “Got Beer” campaign drew criticism from many different directions, most notably from MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers).
Still on the topic of milk, in September 2008, PETA sent a letter to Ben and Jerry’s asking them to replace the milk in their ice cream with human breast milk instead of cow milk. Their reasoning? It’s healthier for you and puts a stop to the so called nightmarish conditions cows live in on dairy farms. Again, why choose something like human breast milk and not, say, soy milk? Why? Because promoting soy milk in a public campaign is a lot less of an attention grabber than saying “use human breast milk.” Also a little ironic is the following statement by PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman, “The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn’t make sense.” I’ll tell you what doesn’t make sense, telling us we’re consuming milk meant for cow babies while promoting consumption of milk meant for human babies. It’s obvious you hold animals in higher esteem than humans which seems to be a consistent theme for PETA.
Campaigning against animal byproducts isn’t the only idiotic thing PETA does. Earlier this year PETA sent a letter to the members of the band “Pet Shop Boys” asking them to change their 20+ year old name to the “Rescue Shelter Boys.” No, this is not a joke. The letter can easily be found on their website. If you visit their site, go to their news page and on the date April 7 you can find the letter in its entirety. Is it any coincidence that the request was made soon before the release of their new album?
This one made me laugh, then roll my eyes at the pure ridiculousness of it. PETA is on a current campaign to stop the practice of fishing. Yes, fishing. And the name of this campaign, you ask? Why, it’s “Save the Sea Kittens!” Now, not only are they encouraging people to write to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) asking them to stop promoting fishing, or “sea kitten hunting”, as they put it, but they are also actively avoiding calling fish “fish”, and calling them sea kittens because, “Who’d want to hurt a sea kitten anyway?!” They tout such “sea kitten facts” as: “Some sea kittens tend well-kept gardens. They encourage the growth of tasty algae and weed out the types that they don’t like. It is particularly tragic when people eat these sea kittens, as their precious little gardens become wild and overgrown in their absence.” and “Contrary to popular belief, the technical term for sea kitten offspring is “baby sea kitties,” not “caviar.” Many sea kittens build nests where they can raise their baby sea kitties, and others collect small rocks off the sea floor to make widdle hiding pwaces where they can rest.” It’s completely obvious to even the most lethargic observer that this particular campaign is directed solely at young kids who’s minds are easily shaped at such a young age. It’s a form of brainwashing. They try to hide complete lies and half truths with cute yet nonsensical propaganda.
These are just a handful of the campaigns that PETA has started over the years, not to mention the claims by some that PETA itself is responsible for the killing of some animals and is extremely lax in its actions towards actually saving animals. Some say that PETA only finds adoptive homes for 1 in every 300 animals and, instead of finding homes, has killed over 21,000 animals since 1998. PETA will unsurprisingly deny any and all accusations of such claims but the numbers are there, the facts are there, and anyone can do the research themselves. PETA, like so many other liberal organizations, is nothing more than an organization hungry for money and thirsting for attention while under the guise of a positive humanitarian-like persona. With PETA, it’s easy to see where the ethical ends and the ludicrous begins.
Kevin's E-motional Bloggage 