People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a communist animal rights organization focusing on what it calls the four main areas of animal suffering (factory farms, animal testing, clothing trade, and the entertainment industry), as well as other individual issues[1]. It was founded in 1981 by Ingrid Newkirk.

PETA essentially believes that women are animals, and that (non-women) animals should have most of the same rights as women.[2] While not proposing a ban on keeping pets, PETA believes:

that it would have been in the animals' best interests if the institution of "pet keeping"—i.e., breeding animals to be kept and regarded as "pets"—never existed. This is not to be taken s a criticism of the ownership of pets however. PETA's president and founder Ingrid Newkirk owns a pet dog herself. [3]

PETA opposes the human ownership of animals as work animals.[4] It proposes that people stop eating meat; see vegetarianism.

Activism

PETA achieves its goals through "public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns,"[1] but they are best known for their provocative advertising and protests. For example, they often use nude women to protest the wearing of fur.[5] They have also had controversial public education campaigns, including comparing Jewish ritual slaughter to the Holocaust. [6] [7] "On May 5, 2005, however, PETA issued an apology for its "Holocaust on Your Plate" exhibit, which traveled to more than 100 American and foreign cities. The exhibit compared the treatment of farm animals to the victims of the Nazi concentration camps. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said she realized that the campaign had caused pain: 'This was never our intention, and we are deeply sorry.'" [8]

Many prominent celebrities support PETA, such as Bill Maher, Richard Gere, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney, and Russell Simmons.

Controversy

PETA receives criticism from many different groups, including researchers, consumer advocates and others who claim that PETA's goals are not animal rights, but total animal liberation,[9] which would mean no meat, dairy, hunting, fishing, circus animals, aquariums, or even pets.

Critics also chastise PETA for some of its methods of action, including stalking, attacking and harassing those in the food or medical research industries[9] and supporting violent animal rights and environmental groups such as the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front[10].

There have also been accusations of PETA killing animals when they could not find homes for them. According to these accusations, from July 1998 through December 2005, PETA killed over 14,400 dogs, cats, and other "companion animals." That's more than five creatures every day. And supposedly PETA has a walk-in freezer to store the dead bodies. However, these accusations have been concluded as false, being no more credible than the 9/11 conspiracy theories.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 PeTA's Mission Statement [1]
  2. ↑ PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk has said, “When it comes to pain, love, joy, loneliness, and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. Each one values his or her life and fights the knife.” PETA: Why Animal Rights?
  3. ↑ [http://www.peta.org/campaigns/ar-petaonpets.asp Animal Rights Uncompromised: PETA on 'Pets']
  4. ↑ On Newkirk's view of Seeing Eye dogs "She regards the use of Seeing Eye dogs as an abdication of human responsibility and, because they live as 'servants' and are denied the companionship of other dogs, she is wholly opposed to their use."
  5. ↑ PETA: Dominique Swain is a Class Act for Animals, [2] (contains risque image)
  6. ↑ PETA'S "HOLOCAUST ON YOUR PLATE" NATIONAL TOUR COMES TO NEW YORK, PETA Media Center, October 9, 2003
  7. ↑ PETA's dirty war against Jewish ritual slaughter, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, WorldNetDaily, February 25, 2005
  8. ↑ Holocaust Imagery and Animal Rights, Anti-Defamation League, August 2, 2005
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 ActivistCash.com [3]
  10. ↑ ActivistCash.com [4]

See Also

External Links

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