# Okay, Now PETA's Trying To Be Funny . . . Right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 23, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595 "2003-04-23T14:58:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/21 "2003-04-23T16:25:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \* > \*\*You know, $15k seems like a lowball offer to me. How much did Truth or Consequences, N.M., get for changing its name? \*\* NOOOOOOO!! They can’t change their name! thats where Cactus Jack comes from! ---
**Author:** ![Oicu812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f475e1/32.png) [@Oicu812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oicu812)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/22 "2003-04-23T16:31:58Z")
**P** eople **E** ating **T** asty **A** nimals… [Bugs Bunny]What a bunch a’ Maroons[/Bugs Bunny] O ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/23 "2003-04-23T16:37:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Oh, _please_ tell me that was just a _Saturday Night Live_ sketch! \*\* I only wish, **Eve.** I read about it in a serious news article, alas. ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/24 "2003-04-23T16:55:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \* > \*\*You know, $15k seems like a lowball offer to me. How much did Truth or Consequences, N.M., get for changing its name? \*\* According to the _Cambridge Encyclopedia_, the promise of a yearly fiesta with the program held from there. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/25 "2003-04-23T16:55:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*They’re not actually serious—_right?_ \*\* Of _course_ it’s not serious. Like everything PETA does, it’s a _publicity stunt_. PETA’s guiding force, Ingrid Newkirk, is well aware that the organization is perceived as a bunch of wackos, even alienating its own members with some of its more extreme stunts. But her goal is to get people to _think_ about animal rights issues. As I understand it, PETA’s philosophy is that they have nothing to lose: nobody who is not already going to do so will eat meat or torment lab animals just because PETA is a bunch of buffoons, but _some_ people will be swayed–if not by the appalling public displays themselves, at least by consideration of the issues raised by those displays–enough to make a difference in the direction that PETA is hoping for. ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/26 "2003-04-23T16:59:43Z")
Headline of a newspaper in 20 years: PETA Disappears After Attempt to Lecture Sharks on Fish Cruelty ---
**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:** [April 23, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/27 "2003-04-23T17:04:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by butrscotch \* > \*\*Some PETA idiots in the State of Washington started “rescuing” guide dogs from blind people to release them from their enslavement, and the state actually had to pass a law making it a felony to steal someone’s guide dog. Sheesh. Why, if PETA is so concerned about the well-being of animals in this world, don’t they worry about young HUMAN mammals? I mean, they’re animals, too, right? \*\* Not that I don’t believe you, but do you have a site for that? If they did that, that’s sick. Besides-isn’t Hamburg, NY named after Hamburg, Germany? And since hamburgers were named after Hamburg, I believe, it’s not like the city is named after meat. Right? ---
**Author:** ![Zenham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a5b964/32.png) [@Zenham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenham)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/28 "2003-04-23T17:07:08Z")
I’m a fan of Penn and Teller’s [Bullshit!](http://www.sho.com/ptbs/), and a recent show documented the nonsense Greenpeace is spouting about the environment. This saddened me, because they, like PETA, have become alarmists, extremists, and bullshit artists, instead of doing the worthwhile work I could support and applaud. Why is it that alarmists and lunatics get the spotlight? As William Penn said in a letter to a friend, “Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.” Same thing goes for causes. Oh, and by the way, I had dead flesh for lunch… it was DELICIOUS. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/29 "2003-04-23T17:15:47Z")
[Here’s the full text of the fax](http://peta.org/news/NewsItem.asp?id=2208), from PETA’s own site. It gives a phone number for Joe Haptas if anyone want to contact him about it. BTW, they also claim that Hamburg NY is the place of origin of the hamburger, which is debatable in itself. [This article tells a different story](http://www.foodvenue.com/content/features/f020006_hamburger.asp), but does anyone here have the straight dope? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/30 "2003-04-23T17:17:24Z")
**Guinastasia** : that’ll teach me to preview more often. The question is still open though. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/31 "2003-04-23T17:24:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Not that I don’t believe you, but do you have a site for that? > > If they did that, that’s sick.\*\* Here’s the actual [law](http://www.leg.wa.gov/sl/2001-02/5942-s_sl.txt/) passed by the State of Washington in 2001. Lest you believe I jest. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/32 "2003-04-23T17:46:01Z")
**Hamadryad** and **Meatros** better watch it… ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/33 "2003-04-23T18:13:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by butrscotch \* > \*\*Here’s the actual [law](http://www.leg.wa.gov/sl/2001-02/5942-s_sl.txt/) passed by the State of Washington in 2001. Lest you believe I jest. \*\* That link doesn’t seem to work. However, here’s the [speech](http://www.dogsaver.org/adc/laylas_law.html) made by Washington’s governor on signing the bill into law. The primary impetus for the bill was that a blind man’s dog was harassed by **another dog** that was not restrained by its owner. [This](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134293836_guidedogs10m.html) article also mentions a single instance of an alleged animal rights person threatening to “turn loose” a guide dog, but I could find nothing that links PETA with this kind of atrocious activity. Yes, PETA really does oppose the use of guide dogs, but even Ingrid Newkirk uses weasel words (can I say that?) when discussing the issue: “(In) a perfect society, we won’t have a need for (guide dogs).” Oh. Wake me up when we have a perfect society, okay? ---
**Author:** ![BookReader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@BookReader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BookReader)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/34 "2003-04-23T18:32:43Z")
You mean this isn’t a perfect society? Damn. ---
**Author:** ![viking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/viking)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/35 "2003-04-23T19:07:40Z")
Sure the PETA are a bunch of buffoonish, irrational, way out there whacko’s that you just can’t take seriously. But we _need_ them. Because they make the organisations that actually effect small progressive changes look positively reasonable in comparison, and hence more able to do their jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/36 "2003-04-23T19:31:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Not that I don’t believe you, but do you have a site for that? > > If they did that, that’s sick. > \*\* From “The New Yorker”'s April 14th, 2003 issue, an article written by Michael Spector on PETA and its founder Ingrid Nekirk: > [@](#): > > (Newkirk) 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. She has had at least one dog taken from its owner. Later on the article quotes Newkirk as saying “I am opposed to having children. Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it is nothing but vanity, human vanity.” Then he describes one of Newkirk’s “war councils”, during which the topic of Charlton Heston comes up. > [@](#): > > “We can flaunt the idea that his disease (Alzheimer’s) is from deer meat!” somebody shouted. “He has to hunt. He’s a gun freak,” another person said. The group started to talk about his famous relationship with the National Rifle Association and complain about the gun lobby, but Newkirk cut them off. “We are not anti-gun, we are pro animals. Don’t lose the thread, people.” She then suggested renting billboards that would display a large picture of a gaunt Charlton Heston foaming at the mouth. .:Nichol:. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/37 "2003-04-23T19:42:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by everton \* > \*\*BTW, they also claim that Hamburg NY is the place of origin of the hamburger, which is debatable in itself. [This article tells a different story](http://www.foodvenue.com/content/features/f020006_hamburger.asp), but does anyone here have the straight dope? \*\* It’s a bit complicated but I’ll give it a shot. We can be fairly certain that the concept did originate in Germany but not necessarily in Hamburg. It also seems that [the hamburger](http://www.word-detective.com/111097.html#hamburger) and [Salisbury steak](http://www.word-detective.com/051600.html#salisburysteak) switched identities at some point. To the who, where, and when of the very first lump of ground beef being smushed down and placed on a bun is debatable. First we have Charles Nagreen in Seymour, Wisconsin at the Outagamie County Fair in 1885. The problem with this story is that when an original article on the 1885 fair was reprinted in 1989, the Nagreen’s invention was not mentioned. There’s also the Menches brothers at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, NY, in 1885. Problem here is the the invention of Charles and Frank Menches is not mentioned in the town’s official chronicles. The earliest documented hamburger sandwich was made by Louis Lassen (of Louis’ Lunch) in New Haven, CT in 1900. [cite](http://www.geography.ccsu.edu/harmonj/atlas/burgers.html) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/38 "2003-04-23T19:49:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*Just on the off chance people don’t know this, New York was originally a Dutch colony, so the state is FILLED with cities, towns, lakes, streams, mountains, etc., with Dutch names. > > “Kill” is the Dutch word for a creek or a stream. So, the name “Fishkill” has NOTHING to do with murdering guppies! A “fishkill,” in Dutch, is simply a stream that’s filled with fish. \*\* But that means “Catskills” is… gulp… Someone call PETA!!! ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/39 "2003-04-23T19:59:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nichol\_storm \* > \*\* > Later on the article quotes Newkirk as saying “I am opposed to having children. Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it is nothing but vanity, human vanity.” > > \*\* Conclusion: Either Newkirk believes that a half breed human/something else baby is possible, or she’s starring in all of that “Farm porn” spam that get’s sent to my junk email addy. Possibly both. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595/40 "2003-04-23T20:08:56Z")
**butrscotch’s** link doesn’t work, but if you copy the URL from it into your browser, it SHOULD take you there. At least it does for IE. I don’t know why it doesn’t work otherwise. I’m trying to figure out why a “perfect society” wouldn’t need service dogs??? Besides, I’ve known a bunch of guide dogs, and they’re as a group the HAPPIEST damn dogs I’ve known. If they’re miserably enslaved and mistreated, THEY sure don’t know it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-now-petas-trying-to-be-funny-right/170595.md?page=3)