# Now PETA has a voice? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 10, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126 "2003-02-10T16:15:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/21 "2003-02-10T23:28:30Z")
People are animals, too! ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/22 "2003-02-10T23:45:56Z")
The analogies don’t seem to work. PETA claims that an animal life is equivalent to a human life implying that it is to be considered as sacred as human life is in our society. Does Sierra Club consider the issue of soil erosion on par with human lives? Does an aviation union believe that airplanes are more valuable than human lives? Considering the bloody conflict in the Middle East, this letter is incredibly demented but that is _precisely_ why it was written. From their POV, it would promote their belief on the world stage. Little do they comprehend the lack of support they already seem to have. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/23 "2003-02-10T23:52:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cowgirl \* > **I agree, zev, silly is just the right word. Faxing Arafat takes the cake** I trust the response was sent via carrier pigeon. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/24 "2003-02-11T02:02:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lieu \* > \*\*If there’s once bright spot, does this mean the Palestinians are finally running low on willing suicide murderers? \*\* Nope. They just used a different jackass, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/25 "2003-02-11T02:25:33Z")
If PETA had been around 100 years ago, they would have complained if a horse were mis-treated in the course of a lynching. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/26 "2003-02-11T02:35:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \* > \*\*Granted, PETA is a one-trick pony. Granted their main concern is about animal affairs. But this is like the president of an aviation union sending a letter to Al-Quida saying “Next time, use truck bombs instead of airplaines, OK?” It’s just so silly that PETA should have simply kept their mouths shut. > > Zev Steinhardt \*\* Actually it was the other way around. The teamsters sent a letter in 1993. I do agreee that PETA is a little slow when it comes to rational thought. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/27 "2003-02-11T03:01:47Z")
On the one hand, PETA is simply acting with in their self-apponted mandate, which is specifically focused on animals. On the other hand, it’s fuckin’ PETA. I say, get your kicks in whenever you can on these wing nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Fescue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/49beb7/32.png) [@Hank\_Fescue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Fescue)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/28 "2003-02-11T03:16:24Z")
I have to go with PETA on this one. If some human jackass wants to blow himself up at least he made a decision and a commitment. The donkey doesn’t know or care about the scuffle and wouldn’t know an enemy from a friend. When you put Palestinian, next to Israeli, next to donkey, there is only one innocent party I could identify for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/29 "2003-02-11T03:39:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hank Fescue \* > \*\*I have to go with PETA on this one. If some human jackass wants to blow himself up at least he made a decision and a commitment. The donkey doesn’t know or care about the scuffle and wouldn’t know an enemy from a friend. When you put Palestinian, next to Israeli, next to donkey, there is only one innocent party I could identify for sure. \*\* Um. Yes. So when the bombing kills the civilians that it’s been designed to the 6 year old kid is “less innocent” than the donkey? ---
**Author:** ![deb2world](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/30 "2003-02-11T03:40:10Z")
Some quotes from Ingrid Newkirk, President and Co-Founder of PETA “Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughter houses.”-(The Washington Post, November 13, 1983) “I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out or burn them down.” -(National Animal Rights Convention '97, June 27, 1997) Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it.-- (Vogue, September, 1989). “Animal liberationists do not separate out the human animal, so there is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They’re all mammals.”(Vogue, September 1989) > **[Quotes From The Animal Rights Movement - John Hawkins' Right Wing News](https://rightwingnews.com/quotes/quotes-from-the-animal-rights-movement-2/)** > > The animal rights movement portrays itself simply as a group of people who are concerned with the mistreatment of animals. That’s an easy position to sell in America where a (there are numerous sites which have the above quotes) * * * How a quote from Alex Pacheco, Co-founder and National Director “Arson, property destruction, burglary and theft are acceptable crimes when used for the animal cause.” (Reported in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Jan. 17, 1998) * * * [PeTA defends action of Peter Singer](http://www.asairs.com/peter_singer.html#peta) makes for some interesting reading of emails between Ingrid Newkirk and Greg Myers. From one of the email’s of Ingrid > [@](#): > > If it’s cruel, we don’t support it. Perhaps the “worst” someone could honestly construe from this is, for example, my pondering if a girl gets sexual pleasure from riding a horse, does the horse suffer? If not, who cares? If you French kiss your dog and he or she thinks its great, is it wrong? We believe all exploitation and abuse is wrong. If it isn’t exploitation and abuse, is may not be wrong. * * * So based on the above quotes and others that I have read, why would I take anything this crackpot organization says serious? Not that PeTA doesn’t get the right answer sometimes, but I don’t think I should have to filter out what is good from the stuff out in left field. deb ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/31 "2003-02-11T03:49:36Z")
> [@](#): > > “I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out **or** burn them down.” -(National Animal Rights Convention '97, June 27, 1997 But… if we don’t take the animals out before we burn them down, won’t we kill all the animals? ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/32 "2003-02-11T04:09:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by deb2world \* > \*\*Some quotes from Ingrid Newkirk, President and Co-Founder of PETA > “Animal liberationists do not separate out the human animal, so there is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They’re all mammals.”(Vogue, September 1989) \*\* I realize that this one is an older quote…but if they still think that way, then why focus on the donkey in that letter to Arafat? Why bother sending the letter at all? And **Rick?** You said… > [@](#): > > Actually it was the other way around. The teamsters sent a letter in 1993. No shit? If that’s not a joke, could you cite it, or send me an email? Damn, I’d LOVE to see that. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/33 "2003-02-11T04:10:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by december \* > \*\*If PETA had been around 100 years ago, they would have complained if a horse were mis-treated in the course of a lynching. \*\* Oh my god-I actually agree with **december** for once! :eek: Seriously, this is from a woman who compares broiler chickens to victims of the Holocaust. She’s nuts. ---
**Author:** ![StPaul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58f4c7/32.png) [@StPaul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StPaul)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/34 "2003-02-11T04:11:14Z")
Why does everyone jump to the conclusion that the donkey was innocent? Perhaps the donkey had a deep-seated hatred of Israel and volunteered to carry the bomb. For all we know that donkey spent the last two years spreading radicalism among other farm animals and is now wandering around donkey paradise looking for all the promised donkey virgins. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/35 "2003-02-11T05:39:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by StPaul \* > \*\*Perhaps the donkey had a deep-seated hatred of Israel and volunteered to carry the bomb. \*\* Indeed! It may even felt that the fight against ethnic cleansing and aparthied was worth dying for. Maybe it had a relative on the U.S.S. Liberty as well. 🙂 It seems awfully paternalistic of PETA to assume the donkey was being led like a shee…er, easily led thing. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/36 "2003-02-11T05:53:11Z")
Of course, information from someplace called [http://rightwingnews.com](http://rightwingnews.com) just _HAS_ to reflect reality. :rolleyes: I agree that PETA is nuts (I’m a bleeding-heart but even so I find them off-putting). However, I agree with other posters in this thread that: PETA’s mandate is to “advocate” for animals, not make statements about human wars, that since they equate human life with animal life, their position does **not** seem callous **to them** , and that using a being that cannot give consent as a homicide-bomber is despicable. I’d also like to point out that they may not want to appear partisan in this conflict, as they may have supporters on either side that they don’t wish to alienate. In which case the wiser thing to do would be to keep silent on the human issues involved. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/37 "2003-02-11T09:28:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by StPaul \* > \*\*Why does everyone jump to the conclusion that the donkey was innocent? Perhaps the donkey had a deep-seated hatred of Israel and volunteered to carry the bomb. For all we know that donkey spent the last two years spreading radicalism among other farm animals and is now wandering around donkey paradise looking for all the promised donkey virgins. \*\* Nah, I think it was just a mule. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/38 "2003-02-11T10:37:24Z")
Ingrid Newkirk proves herself to be so filled with excrement on a regular basis that I’m surprised she hasn’t blown up in a great torrent of crap. The message that this fax sent was deeply offensive. I don’t care what your specific advocacy issue is, when innocent people are being murdered, other concerns do not have any weight whatsoever. Nothing else is as important. The PETA position, the Greenpeace position, the position of any niche advocacy organization has no merit so long as it does not address the heart of the situation – the destruction of innocent human life by terrorists. Zealots, no matter how noble their cause, need to keep their mouths shut and their opinions to themselves – not because they’re wrong, but because the insertion of their pet causes into the situation takes the focus off of what’s important. Is it sad that a donkey died? Yes. But I’d rather every donkey on the planet die than another child or another grandma on her way to go shopping or a bunch of kids sitting in a coffeehouse. If Ingrid Newkirk sees things differently, and clearly she does, bully for her. But that opinion has no place in the midst of the argument. It is a slap, no, a battering ram to the face of every family torn asunder by a cowards’ bomb, every loss-racked parent, every orphan, every young person who will face the rest of their lives maimed and broken. And if Ingrid Newkirk cannot understand that, then screw her. She’s an inhumane lunatic and her words should hold no merit anywhere at any time for any reason. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/39 "2003-02-11T10:41:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*Nah, I think it was just a mule. \*\* Can anyone remind me how I attach a kick to an email? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126/40 "2003-02-11T13:11:50Z")
> [@](#): > > We watched on television as stray cats in your own compound fled as best they could from the Israeli bulldozers. I _ **LOVE** _ this part! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-peta-has-a-voice/154126.md?page=3)