Those Funny Folks at PETA Are at it Again

[wolf]

Option 3.

Ad execs eat red meat.

And drink martinis.

And smoke.

You can't have a good ulcer and heart attack without 'em.

[wolf]

Nobody Knows the Trouble They've Seed

NEW HAVEN — A two-hour animal rights demonstration on the Green Monday sparked outrage instead of sympathy from the public.

"This is the most racist thing I’ve ever seen on the Green. How dare you," roared Philip Goldson, 43, of New Haven at the protest organizers at Church and Chapel streets.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a national animal rights group, posted giant photographs of people, mostly black Americans, being tortured, sold and killed, next to photographs of animals, including cattle and sheep, being tortured, sold and killed.

"I think it is an apt comparison," said Josh Warchol, 26, of Wallingford, president of the Southern Connecticut Vegetarian Society, which is aligned with PETA.

PETA officials said they had hoped to generate dialogue with the shocking photographs.

"We realize these images are hurtful. It’s hard for me to imagine the hurt the animals go through. We should be treating animals according to their own best interests, not to the best interests of people," said Dawn Carr, PETA’s director of special projects.

PETA wants people to stop eating animals, stop using them for clothing, stop forcing animals to entertain people (as in a circus) and stop animal experimentation.

Carr said she doesn’t want animals sold or treated as property either.

The controversial display, which is on a national tour, is intended to drive home PETA’s point.

However, critics said the organization’s demonstration backfired.

One man demanded that the NAACP get involved immediately. Five minutes later, Scot X. Esdaile, president of the state and Greater New Haven chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, arrived at the scene, surveyed the photos and blasted the organizers.

"Once again, black people are being pimped. You used us. You have used us enough," Esdaile said. "Take it down immediately."

"I am a black man! I can’t compare the suffering of these black human beings to the suffering of this cow," said Michael Perkins, 47, of New Haven. He stood in front of a photo of butchered livestock hung next to the photo of two lynched black men dangling before a white mob.

"You can’t compare me to a freaking cow," shouted John Darryl Thompson, 46, of New Haven, inches from Carr’s face. "We don’t care about PETA. You are playing a dangerous game."

Paul Tomaselli, 46, of North Branford took exception to an exhibit that included a photo of a black man being beaten to the ground by a white man with a stick while a white mob gathers.

Next to that photo was one of a man chasing a seal across the snow with a club.

"I think he’s right," said Tomaselli, who is white, in support of Thompson. "To compare people to animals is an unfairness to people."

The display, "Are Animals the New Slaves?" is on a 10-week, 42-city tour that started in early July. Today’s stop: Scranton, Pa., then on to Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

"New Haven is important because of the Amistad. This is a place where slaves were brought. What happened here was very important for abolition. The next great liberation movement is animal liberation," Carr said.

However, the Anti-Defamation League, a national civil rights organization, has publicly condemned PETA’s use of photos comparing human suffering in the Holocaust to animal suffering today; PETA apologized in May for the hurt it caused but stood by the comparisons.

That point of disagreement became a flashpoint in New Haven.

"This is the most hostile audience we’ve had," said PETA volunteer Ben Godwin.

At one point, police hovered at the edge of the Green, across from the demonstration.

Eight of the 12 banners compared the suffering of black Americans to the suffering of cattle, sheep, an elephant, a seal and a rooster. Other banners showed Native Americans exiled from their homes, children in a factory and men in a counter-demonstration against women’s rights.

A photo showing a concentration camp inmate with a number tattooed across his emaciated chest was juxtaposed against a shot of a monkey in a laboratory with a number branded across its chest.

"I have relatives who were in concentration camps," said Alex Reznikoff, 47, of Newtown. "I think this detracts from PETA’s message. It doesn’t make me think about animals at all."

[Troubleshooter]

I wonder if they're just trying to see how stupid they can get away with being.

I mean, are they really trying to marginalize themselves?

[mrnoodle]

They have nothing to offer but shock value. Their position is wholly rejected by the majority of their fellow carnivores, so they're stamping their feet and screaming like an attention-addicted 3 year old.

[Bullitt]

A backhand to the face usually takes care of that

[lookout123]

PETA. goes well with butter. seriously, if we just kill them, cook them, and eat them we will have no more PETA protesters and we will have our bellies full.

[Elspode]

Let's see if I understand this...PETA essentially wants us to allow animals to do as they please, just like a human, right? Reproduce at will, wander the streets, invade our homes, spread disease, attack, kill and eat us in the woods?

Screw that. These people are nuts. What's next? Making animals stop eating each other?

[lookout123]

come on patrick - they wouldn't eat eachother if they weren't psychologically damaged from their harassment and oppression from carniverous humans.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Bullitt

A backhand to the face usually takes care of that

Wow. Camp sure has changed a lot since I've been there.

[Bullitt]

We don't take no crap from high schoolers

[mricytoast]

Originally Posted by marichiko

I visited one of those chicken "factory" type farms once. It was horrifying. Put me off chicken for an entire year. Now I eat chicken and eggs again, but only "free range" ones. PETA should work to effect changes like that and not use concentration camp victims or the mis-treatment of black Americans and compare these atrocities to chickens.

Fast Food Nation anyone? If anything, that is what PETA should be against. Not people eating animals. If people don't kill the animal humanely, it's going to die a slow death by being picked by vultures and other scavangers.

I myself always found PETA to be condescending in a weird sort of way. From my view, they want equality for animals, no? Then why is it that people can't eat meat then? Other animals eat meat. We are like animals. So why can't we eat meat? It seems they view people above animals because we can chose not to eat other animals, which says we are above other animals, which is completely against equality.

And we all love their posters. Next big gathering they have, I wouldn't be suprised if they equated lab testing to partial birth abortion.

It's as if they want people to disband all civilization. Animals are nusances sometimes, such as chewing through electrical wires or getting stuck in transformers. I guess that's our fault for creating such a network that eases our lives.

[wolf]

Mari, I know that you, or others are likely to bust my shoes over this comment, but ...

you're awfully picky and elitist (free range chickens and eggs) for someone who says they've had to/been close to eating out of dumpsters.

Originally Posted by wolf

Mari, I know that you, or others are likely to bust my shoes over this comment, but ...

you're awfully picky and elitist (free range chickens and eggs) for someone who says they've had to/been close to eating out of dumpsters.

Nah, I never said I was close to eating out of dumpsters. I've had to go to food banks in the past, but never dumpsters. One thing about this country is that there are many places where low income people can go get food donated by charities for free or at low cost. Here in Colorado we have something called Care and Share where you donate an hour or two a week to helping out and can get very good food, including fresh produce and meat and eggs, at half price.

If you ever visted a chicken factory, you'd be "picky and elistist", too. When I can't afford free range, I do without. Usually the eggs will go on sale at some point and I'll buy a couple of cartons then.

[Clodfobble]

Jay Sherman ("The Critic"): What's that sulfur smell coming from the egg bin? Ah, it must mean the eggs have ripened. Wait a minute! Eggs don't ripen! Eggs don't ripen!

[wolf]

(I was making fun of PETA, not questioning you ... I would expect that kind of advertising from them as well. Or perhaps some stock footage from one of those Sally Struthers/children starving in Africa commericials. With the flies. Gotta have the flies.)