Macro Mom (my mom) has been highly active in PETA for must be around 15-20 years now. There is alot of dissention among the members, as PETA takes on more extreme, controversial, and (sometimes) stupid causes. There are two extremes in the “animal welfare” debate: those who want to save “only the cute animals”, and those who won’t kill a roach in their house. For many years, PETA has been some what left of center on the issue (leaning to the radical side), but I’ve seen them careening toward extreme (read: wacko) issues such as this. It’s unfortunate, because I’ve seen them do alot of good things.
When they concentrate on distractions such as this, they dilute their influence and alienate the potential audience for their message. I think, for the last few years, they’ve subscribed to the “any press is good press” ideology.