Peta?

[Cruentus]

As you can see, I've been watching Penn & Teller lately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ijLulwUTY&feature=related

What is your opinion on Peta?

 

[Empty Hands]

Basically identical to P&T. As a scientist involved in animal research, I've had to deal with more than my share of animal rights goofballs. I'm tired of my friends and colleagues being threatened.

While PeTA at least claims they aren't involved in the illegal, nasty stuff, they still provide money, support and political cover for those who do.

Big hypocrites too: "Twice a day I take synthetically manufactured insulin that still contains some animal products — and I have no qualms about it … I’m not going to take the chance of killing myself by not taking insulin. I don’t see myself as a hypocrite. I need my life to fight for the rights of animals.” MaryBeth Sweetland, PeTA VP.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Short answer: Pointless Waste.

 

[Cruentus]

[FONT=Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Times] PETA CALLS FOR THE EXTERMINATION OF ALL PIT BULLS
In June 2005 Newkirk published her position on Pit Bulls. Her title: "An Animal Deadly as a Weapon"
"Most people have no idea that at many animal shelters across the country, any pit bull that comes through the front door doesn't go out the back door alive. From California to New York, many shelters have enacted policies requiring the automatic destruction of the huge and ever-growing number of "pits" they encounter. This news shocks and outrages the compassionate dog-lover.

"Here's another shocker: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the very organization that is trying to get you to denounce the killing of chickens for the table, foxes for fur or frogs for dissection, supports the shelters' pit-bull policy, albeit with reluctance. We further encourage a ban on breeding pit bulls.

"Those who argue against a breeding ban and the shelter euthanasia policy for pit bulls are naive.

"People who genuinely care about dogs won't be affected by a ban on pit- bull breeding. They can go to the shelter and save one of the countless other breeds and lovable mutts sitting on death row. We can only stop killing pits if we stop creating new ones. Legislators, please take note." 1 [/FONT] [FONT=Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Times] Not only does Newkirk support the wholesale extinction of Pit Bulls, she goes to extraordinary measures to seal their deaths. For example, in 2001 PETA wrote a letter asking an Alabama judge to exterminate 32 pit bulls confiscated after their owners were arrested for dog fighting. In the end, the court ordered 28 dogs destroyed but held that 4 Pit Bull puppies could be adopted because they were 'not lacking any useful purpose' or 'vicious' as PETA claimed. 1[/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Times] PETA supports BSL or breed specific legislation. 1 BSL permits an entire breed to be designated as 'dangerous' such as in Denver, Colorado where Pit Bulls and their look-alikes are killed if not removed from the State. 1 See our arguments against SB861, BSL which passed in California August, 2005 : 1 2[/FONT]

[FONT=Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Times] [/FONT]
[FONT=Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Times][FONT=Arial
[url]http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAIngridNewkirkResign.htm[/url]

[FONT=Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Times]All I have to say is that PETA is a horrible organization that is counterproductive for animal rights. People need to never donate $$ or sympathy to them, and I would be happy to see the organization destroyed or disbanded.
[/FONT]

 

[Cruentus]

http://www.badrap.org/rescue/petaa.cfm

You can read their entirety of their corrupt logic in the example on their stance on "Pit Bulls." Their logic is basically that because the dog breed is the most abused breed on the planet, that the solution would be to eliminate the breed so that their won't be any more abuse. Then of course add in mythology about the breed and its "dangerousness" to support the position.

How these people (particularly the founder) can claim to be advocates of animal rights is beyond me.

Their position on "Pit Bulls" is akin to a white supremist claiming, "because African Americans are inherently unpredictable and dangerous as evident from crime statistics, and because they are abused and oppressed here in America as a race, then the solution would be to rid America of African Americans so that there won't be a problem. This would be the humane thing to do, after all."

The ignorance is absolutely the same.

Peta claiming to be an animal rights group is like the Neo_Nazi's claiming to be a humanitarian group.

They pretty much all need to go away... far far away...

 

[Kacey]

The problem with PETA and similar organizations is that their goals sound good to people who don't bother to investigate past the surface levels. People in such organizations need to avoid the hypocrisy that many of them display. You don't like animal testing? Don't use products that come from it. You don't agree with using animals for food? Don't do it - and don't use the byproducts of such animals, such as belts and shoes made of cow hide.

Do I think that many of the practices of the past were horrific? Certainly. Do I think that we still have a distance to go in treating animals in an ethical fashion? Also certainly. However, as far as PETA's extreme stands, I think they do their supposed ideal more harm than good by the way they operate.

I support ethical treatment of animals; I buy free range eggs, encourage labs to be as humane as possible to the animals they experiment with and on (while recognizing that some inhumanity is inevitable - and also recognizing the progress that's been made in that area), and won't buy leather unless it is the byproduct of an animal that was being killed for food (I find killing an animal for it's fur or hide and discarding the rest to be wasteful and cruel).

I adopted my dog from a shelter, and his predecessor from a woman who had no idea what to do with the puppies she'd brought home. My dog, like his predecessor, gets exercise every day, gets played with every day, eats high quality food (probably more balanced and nutritious than what I eat, if the label on his Innova is even slightly accurate), and sleeps on my bed with me. When I'm going to be gone longer than usual, I hire someone to walk and play with him. He spent this afternoon out in the yard, munching on his new beef bone (much to his evident pleasure). He's currently asleep on the floor, in his usual place on the doormat by the back door, keeping me company while I type. He is a happy, friendly, loved and loving animal - to the extent that several people have offered to take him off my hands for me, because he has such a wonderful temperament and is such a pleasure to be around. If that's "mistreatment", then somebody, please mistreat me the same way!

 

[Empty Hands]

The problem with PETA and similar organizations is that their goals sound good to people who don't bother to investigate past the surface levels.

PeTA deliberately markets their goals in a misleading manner to foment this sort of perception. They aren't telling the grade school kids that they lecture to that they don't want to treat Mommy's diabetes or Big Brother's AIDS if it means killing an animal.

"To those people who say, 'My father is alive because of animal experimentation,' I say, 'Yeah, well, good for you. This dog died so your father could live.' Sorry, but I am just not behind that kind of trade-off."

-Bill Maher, celebrity PeTA member and sometime spokesperson

 

[CoryKS]

My take on PETA? They'd be delicious - but they would need a LOT of cleaning first.

 

[Steel Tiger]

There is a staggering degree of hypocrisy in PETA. The ordinary members find it difficult to reconcile the obvious advances and benefits that have resulted from animal experimentation with their beliefs. In this they are not helped by the upper eschelons of the organisation who present often bizarre mixed messages.

The whole organisation is beginning to take on those tell-tale aspects of a cult. In this case a charismatic cult devoted to the founder. The only reason they are not being more closely watched is that they have yet to mention the aliens coming to take them to paradise.

 

[jamz]

In a similar somewhat amusing vein, from
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/pressRelease_detail.cfm/release/224

Consumer Group Asks Virginia Government to Reclassify PETA as a Slaughterhouse

New Data Shows PETA Killed 97 Percent Of Dogs And Cats In 2006

WASHINGTON, DC- Yesterday the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom formally petitioned Virginia's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), requesting that the government agency officially reclassify People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as a slaughterhouse.
An official report filed by PETA itself shows that the animal rights group put to death nearly every dog, cat, and other pet it took in for adoption in 2006. During that year, the well-known animal rights group managed to find adoptive homes for just 12 animals. Not counting pets brought to PETA for spaying or neutering, the organization killed 2,981 of the 3,061 “companion animals” it took in. According to VDACS, the average euthanasia rate for humane societies in Virginia was 34.7 percent in 2006. PETA's "kill rate" was 97.4 percent.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Aren't they against the idea of having pets of any kind?

 

[BrandiJo]

We had peta come to my high school once, and we where told that if even one animal has to die so that we could have a better chance at living, that was to much. Yet the woman in charge is using animal byproducts herself (insulin)

Personally animals deserve to be treated kindly, but humans are higher up on the latter so im sorry a few have to be tested on to get my grandads pacemaker invented, and im sorry that a some where given aids so that we can test some medications on them, but if it helps someone i know live a longer more healthy life then im all for it. The tests and experiments should be done as humane as possible and once it becomes obvious that the animal is suffering to greatly or that the method being tested has failed then kindly put the animal to sleep.

 

[jks9199]

I'm a proud, card-carrying member of PETA.

People Eating Tasty Animals.

Oh... you mean the hypocrites who don't understand the fundamental difference between a critter and a human being? I think my opinion shows...

 

[Cruentus]

Aren't they against the idea of having pets of any kind?

Yup.

 

[MA-Caver]

The Penn and Teller video is certainly better than watching Michael Moore. Funnier but to the point. Still, if we weren't made to eat meat then we wouldn't have canine teeth which is specifically meant for the tearing and cutting of flesh. Also there is NO plant that has the essential vitamin B-12.

PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals.

Seen on a t-shirt at a McDonalds... I love animals... right along side my mash potatoes and fries.

Gimme a steak anyday.

Meat is not murder.