# A big 'ol "Fuck YOU!" to the PETA jackass at the circus **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 25, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945 "2009-01-25T19:54:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/121 "2009-01-26T15:53:00Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > How about “Stop capturing more animals and perpetuating this”? Phase this out. Leave the animals, in Asia, Africa, or (in the case of other exotics) wherever you found them. Zoos are an absolutely necessary part of the modern conservation movement; we’d have lost dozens of additional species if not for zoo-based breeding and reintroduction programs (and relocation of existing wild populations). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/122 "2009-01-26T15:55:15Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Oh come on now. I would say the same to everyone that is deadset against circuses though and I am not even a fan of circuses. I’ve seen nothing so far that convinces me in the slightest that Ringling Brothers needs to be shut down. BTW: PETA does have ties to animal-rights terrorist organizations that are real. ELF and ALF connections are real and proven. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/123 "2009-01-26T16:01:57Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > That’s aquarium sea kittens, please. > > And you’re changing the subject. Oh, yeah, I forgot about the sea kitten things and I did change the subject, for which I apologize. But since you mention them, how about the sea kittens that are displayed in aquariums? Should they all be set free? I presume PETA must have an interest in them are they wouldn’t have come up with the name ‘sea kittens.’ ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/124 "2009-01-26T16:06:55Z")
I object to the name “sea kittens” on the grounds that it infantilizes fish. Fish grow up and have lives too, and even if those lives mostly involve swimming in schools and making bloopy fishy faces, they deserve to be regarded as adults. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/125 "2009-01-26T16:09:58Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > I presume PETA must have an interest in them are they wouldn’t have come up with the name ‘sea kittens.’ [Fish in Tanks? No Thanks.](http://www.peta.org/factsheet/files/FactsheetDisplay.asp?ID=30) You had to ask. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/126 "2009-01-26T16:15:14Z")
**Jettboy** , While I do think that circuses should leave animals the fuck alone, PETA is mainly comprised of a bunch of self-important douchebags. My reaction, if I were there with my kid going to his first circus would have been similar to yours, thus I share this tactic I sometimes use for douchebag groups like PETA and CodePink: I immediately agree—passionately. I ask them how I’d go about joining the group, etc. (Already I’ve sucked up his or her time and prevented them from harassing and infecting others.) I then ask if I can help by handing out some of that literature. Whatever I get goes into the trash can and doused with some soda. and off I go to enjoy my day. ---
**Author:** ![Billy\_Baroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/76d3ee/32.png) [@Billy\_Baroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy_Baroo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/127 "2009-01-26T16:25:35Z")
> [@Jettboy](#): > > Harassing children is illegal in almost every state. There’s no _specific_ law on the books about harassing MY child, but it’s not a very bright thing to do; I tend to be a very reactionary father. Possibly you are feeling the rage of chickens and terror of cattle that you ingest? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/128 "2009-01-26T16:27:51Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > **Jettboy** , > > While I do think that circuses should leave animals the fuck alone, PETA is mainly comprised of a bunch of self-important douchebags. My reaction, if I were there with my kid going to his first circus would have been similar to yours, thus I share this tactic I sometimes use for douchebag groups like PETA and CodePink: I immediately agree—passionately. I ask them how I’d go about joining the group, etc. (Already I’ve sucked up his or her time and prevented them from harassing and infecting others.) I then ask if I can help by handing out some of that literature. Whatever I get goes into the trash can and doused with some soda. and off I go to enjoy my day. I don’t like PETA and I see some dark humor in what you suggest but mostly it makes you sound like a dick with too much time on his hands. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/129 "2009-01-26T16:33:32Z")
> [@Billy\_Baroo](#): > > Possibly you are feeling the rage of chickens and terror of cattle that you ingest? No more than the horror and the despair of the cabbage I chopped up last night. I don’t waste a lot of time considering the ‘feelings’ of the tomato in my salad or whether the eggplant I’m battering up and deep frying had it’s life ended humanely. I don’t put all that much thought into my food, it’s life, it’s feelings, it’s potential pain. Would it give me comfort to know that Mr. Chicken, Mrs. Cow and Señor Swine lived a fulfilling life that was relatively pain-free and ended humanely? I suppose so, but only just a little bit. I’m not all that concerned with how it died, how it lived or much else beyond “is it clean and safe?” and “how am I going to prepare it?” ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/130 "2009-01-26T16:40:36Z")
> [@Billy\_Baroo](#): > > Possibly you are feeling the rage of chickens and terror of cattle that you ingest? This was a joke was it not? Please tell me it was a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/131 "2009-01-26T16:55:02Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > I find it **highly** unlikely that it is true that circus animals are mistreated and the idea of beating an animal the size of an elephant into obedience is simply amazing. IIRC, [Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros.](http://www.colebroscircus.com/index.htm) stopped touring due to [animal cruelty](http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/Week-of-Mon-20031027/009102.html) charges. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/132 "2009-01-26T16:56:59Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > Ask and ye shall [recieve](http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/hsus_says_circus_visit_to_va_post_office_risks_public_safety_raises_concerns_over_animal_treatment.html). That cite mentions three incidents – once involving a tiger. And it also alludes to a trainer who was accused of cruelty but then acquitted, yet somehow suggests that the cruelty was true anyway. > [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > Believe it or not, I actually agree with you. But since you asked a question, I’ll try to answer it, as a liberal activist (for mostly-unrelated causes). > > Basically, widespread, comprehensive political education on the individual level is extremely important in a democracy. If people are educated about the issues, they have more power to make their own decisions. They may not make the exact decisions that we, the activists/educators, want them to, but they’ll make _informed_ decisions. Once an individual voter has the facts, s/he may well decide to continue to support, say, the circus, or Coca-Cola, or Nike, or whatever, and that’s his/her prerogative. But that person also has the right to know the facts, so we (as activists/educators) make sure we’re out there to tell them the facts, as we see them. Our presentation of the facts may be biased, but the point is that it may turn someone on to something they had never thought about before, and hopefully that person will start doing the research on it. That person may end up making one decision or another, but at least s/he is (hopefully) a little more educated than s/he was when the conversation first started. Which is why you favor abortion protestors with their signs showing dismembered fetuses, right? The OP raises two issues: is it appropriate for an advocate for a political position to attempt to convince a young child of that position? And is circus exhibition of wild animals _per se_ cruelty? No. And no. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/133 "2009-01-26T17:01:41Z")
I have protested the circus here in Sacramento with an organization called Born Free USA. But we are told specifically NOT to give the literature to children, for obvious reasons. We give it to the parents only. FYI, Barnum and Bailey will be in court on Feb. 3 aginst Born Free USA, the ASPCA, the Animal Welfare Institute, and the Fund for Animals in a lawsuit alleging charges of mistreatment of their elephants. [Details](http://www.bornfreeusa.org/a1a6_ringling.php) ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/134 "2009-01-26T17:17:22Z")
Can you hear the cries of the carrots? You see, Reverend Manyard, tomorrow is harvest day, and to them, it is the holocaust. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/135 "2009-01-26T17:26:45Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I have protested the circus here in Sacramento with an organization called Born Free USA. But we are told specifically NOT to give the literature to children, for obvious reasons. We give it to the parents only. > > FYI, Barnum and Bailey will be in court on Feb. 3 aginst Born Free USA, the ASPCA, the Animal Welfare Institute, and the Fund for Animals in a lawsuit alleging charges of mistreatment of their elephants. > > [Details](http://www.bornfreeusa.org/a1a6_ringling.php) Would you please be kind enough to report back to this thread the results of the upcoming trial. It sounds like your group has a case but of course it is all from the side of your group. I am interested in what the court determines. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/136 "2009-01-26T17:32:13Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > Hmmm, what state do you live in where political speech is illegal? Texas maybe? I suppose I’ll be nice and just write that comment off to pure, unadulterated ignorance on your part. And I agree with Jett - regardless of what message the idiot was trying to broadcast, it was totally inappropriate for him to approach a small child like that. Sounds like he took lessons from the Jehovah’s Witnesses with that never too early to learn the truth bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/137 "2009-01-26T17:36:57Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > [Fish in Tanks? No Thanks.](http://www.peta.org/factsheet/files/FactsheetDisplay.asp?ID=30) > > You had to ask. Oh, good grief. Here’s one headline off that page: > [@](#): > > Fish Can Speak, Make Tools, and Think 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/138 "2009-01-26T17:40:13Z")
Let’s get serious for a moment, if we can. Has any REALLY HOT GUY ever posed nekkid for PETA? ---
**Author:** ![Billy\_Baroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/76d3ee/32.png) [@Billy\_Baroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy_Baroo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/139 "2009-01-26T18:24:30Z")
> [@Jettboy](#): > > No more than the horror and the despair of the cabbage I chopped up last night. I don’t waste a lot of time considering the ‘feelings’ of the tomato in my salad or whether the eggplant I’m battering up and deep frying had it’s life ended humanely. I don’t put all that much thought into my food, it’s life, it’s feelings, it’s potential pain. Would it give me comfort to know that Mr. Chicken, Mrs. Cow and Señor Swine lived a fulfilling life that was relatively pain-free and ended humanely? I suppose so, but only just a little bit. I’m not all that concerned with how it died, how it lived or much else beyond “is it clean and safe?” and “how am I going to prepare it?” Mr.Chicken, Mr. Cow and Ms. Circus Elephant are Earthlings, and they were not put here to be used by humans. I’m grateful for PETA. Something needs to be done. Billions of livestock slaughtered each year, rivers of pig shit, zoos, pet breeders, vivisection – it’s pretty awful if you lift the veil. We did not weave the Web of Life. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945/140 "2009-01-26T18:28:01Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I have protested the circus here in Sacramento with an organization called Born Free USA. But we are told specifically NOT to give the literature to children, for obvious reasons. We give it to the parents only. > > FYI, Barnum and Bailey will be in court on Feb. 3 aginst Born Free USA, the ASPCA, the Animal Welfare Institute, and the Fund for Animals in a lawsuit alleging charges of mistreatment of their elephants. > > [Details](http://www.bornfreeusa.org/a1a6_ringling.php) Your group’s complaint includes the basic claim that, under the law, elephants cannot be captured or used in circus performances of any kind. Call me crazy, but on this claim, I do not believe they will prevail. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-big-ol-fuck-you-to-the-peta-jackass-at-the-circus/482945.md?page=8)