peta

[keryx]

This started as a comment on fatshionista, but I want to expand upon it.

PETA's talking trash at Michael Moore, and of course they're calling him a Fatty McFatterson. It's just PETA. That's what they do. And I mean, really? Michael Moore, of all people, ought to be able to take a little of what he dishes out (not the fat, just the fundamental disregard for the perspectives of others - I generally agree with him but still sometimes want to smack him).

The current state of PETA depresses the hell out of me, because some of their points are valid, we should be ashamed of the meat & dairy industry (whatever we might feel about using animals for food), we often don't treat pets with care and respect - our relationship to animals in general is out of whack. They used to have such a powerful message. PETA & ALF were the groups that really drew attention to the sheer cruelty of animal experiments (only 20 years ago, sheesh). When it was still considered (in my lifetime) totally swell to flat-out fuck with animals in order to get things like a model of chemical depression, PETA - using what would become their usual just-this-side-of-legal and overexaggerated tactics - managed to get most people angry about that.

I think, after being so successful at making fur (well, to an extent) & animal testing widely accepted as wrong, that they're grasping at straws for something else to make an issue of. They tried freaking people out about pets - they'll call you if you post an ad in the paper offering kittens or puppies, and there was a period where they picked up strays and killed them [FOR REAL; PETA is based in my hometown] - and lo, that didn't work. Though I will say, it's the same ideas as PETA holds about domesticating animals that have me currently squished on like 1/4 of my bed because one of the cats curled up in the middle while I was up - and hey, who am I to push her around just cause she's smaller & doesn't have a job?

Taking on the meat and dairy industries legislatively hasn't worked either, so they're trying to find a way to make vegetarianism popular - and they figure capitalizing on the Obesity Crisis is as good a way as any. PETA would prefer to offend people, because that garners attention - fat vegetarians aren't going to start eating meat, and maybe some people will be shamed into vegetarianism. I suspect it'll mostly turn out like my mom's meatless diet, though; once she didn't lose weight, she went right on back to the meat. Vegetarianism! The new Adkins Diet!

But more importantly, I'm sad for the people of PETA that they're turning into, or possibly have always been, asshats. If you "save" animals or reform the meat/dairy industry with such disdain for your fellow humans, what does that do to your psyche? Is it a requirement of radical, world-shifting activism that you lose touch with the world-as-it-is?

Comments

[cyprinella]

I lost what little respect that I had for PETA after they declared that all pitbulls should just be killed out of hand because they were obviously sick animals genetically destroyed by man. Or some such shit.

I'm borderline veg/vegan because of allergies, but I'm definitely not losing weight! Gosh, could it be because veggies have calories too and I'm not exercising? Never! It's the occasional butter, man! *eyeroll* Veganism is *hard* to do, especially given American culture. The couple of people I know who went vegan at my college (which was not in the least veg friendsly) ended up putting on like 20 lbs because they were living on things like pasta, pretzels and peanut butter.

[tupelo.livejournal.com]

I remember reading an article on Twiggy in People Magazine in the late 1970s/early 1980s -- a "where are they now" type of thing that reported she was "fattening up on a vegetarian diet." She looked great.

[crafting-change.livejournal.com]

As a Vegan I constantly wish they'd shut the hell up, and so does every vegan I run into.

Now Moore did make a dig about vegetarians in his latest book, but he was doing the 'don't be a mirthless liberal' schtick which is tired but I don't know how countering that shit with personal insults and fatphobia helps anything.

The way PETA approaches all things regarding the human body is sexist, sizist and offensive - and they have pretty much said that they don't give a damn what anyone else thinks.

[fierceawakening.livejournal.com]

and there was a period where they picked up strays and killed them [FOR REAL; PETA is based in my hometown] - and lo, that didn't work.

wtf.

why?

[cyprinella]

Money, at least according to this site. This one is a little easier to read. Does contain images of dead animals.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I think the CCF plays fast & loose with facts - it doesn't have its story straight relative to what I remember from news coverage.

PETA is definitely against the no-kill shelter idea. I suppose that can make sense, if you see it in the light of killing as ending suffering - but their tactics are awful. They make so much money every year that they could change the overcrowding at no-kill shelters if they decided to.

[cyprinella]

Yeah, I had a bit in my comment about taking the site with a grain of salt, but must have deleted it in my edits. Must proofread! :)

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Because they are CRAZY FUCKS. They'd get animals that were either headed for or in other kill shelters & "more humanely" euthanize them (via injection, not gas or shooting), in some cases before they got a chance to be adopted or not. Then a couple of employees were charged with criminal activity that I'm not clear about a couple of years ago. They do still euthanize feral & sick animals, but regional shelters have stopped cooperating with them.

Here's some less biased info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_for_the_Ethical_Treatment_of_Animals#Community_Animal_Project

Or there's the Center for Consumer Freedom (creepy & propagandified) version: http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

[attrice.livejournal.com]

Like someone else said, as a vegan, I hate PETA, and they seem to be increasingly disliked among all the vegans I talk to. Thankfully.

They're just out to shock people and to get more money.

[dreamalynn.livejournal.com]

As a fat vegetarian, PETA really cheeses me right off with their sizism and unbridled fearmongering via fat-bashing. As a Jew, the Holocaust-comparisons that are coming out of many in the PETA camp can come close to inspiring violence in me. Overall the group sucks, which is sad, because the message at the heart makes sense.

It's frustrating that there's no one presenting a moderate face to animal welfare issues and getting any notice for it.

[libskrat]

^^^^^^^^^

What dreamalynn said. (Except that I can only claim to be a former Jew.)

[maryjholliday.livejournal.com]

This was nice to read. I "mortally shamed" myself by telling my step-mom that I would eat at KFC (after she had just come back from her weekly PETA-sponsored, KFC picket). I was only trying to get her talking, and it worked!

[(Anonymous)]

There are many reasons I have little if no respect for PETA anymore. Among them, are the Holocaust comparison to animals being tested on. The constant sizeist propaganda in attempting to get people to eat Vegan.

What really makes me absoultley P.O.ed at PETA, is the propaganda they give to children. It is no less than emotional abuse. The one I'm thinking of, is the one where they say if the parents eat meat, then they might one day just kill the family pet. Ok, perhaps PETA should give a free check for the incuring therapy bill after a child sees that one. I'm an adult, and it disturbed me. An adult who watches horror films no less!

I really just think, fine attack adults. Don't go and tell the children they need to fear their own parents! Or tell them that they're filthy and disgusting for eating fish. As well as telling them, whenever a fish is caught how trumatic it is. They did this campaign in front of a school. Oh and also there's the Garbage Milk Kids campaign, a parody on the Garbage Patch Kids. Basically saying how milk will make you disgusting and fat.

That's really why I hate PETA. It's just appauling to tell innocent children, these horrific concepts. It is child abuse! Ok, trumatizing a child isn't going to make them care more about animals, it's going to make them messed up! It's just beyond me.