# PETA can BITE me **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 27, 2000, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716 "2000-06-27T12:35:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Archer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@Archer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/41 "2000-06-28T01:20:25Z")
P E T A, People eating tasty animals. I am pro choice, it is my choide to eat meat and wear leather and it is my choice to live my own life and not to force my opinions on the remainder of humanity. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![shagadelicmysteryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ea924/32.png) [@shagadelicmysteryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shagadelicmysteryman)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/42 "2000-06-28T01:54:28Z")
Well shit, glad I found this. Well PETA can kiss my ass. Green Bay is my favorite football team. If they want to come talk to me about it, I’ll be in one of three places. 1)out in the woods hunting. 2)out on the river fishing. 3)sitting at the football game eating a HAMBURGER. While we’re on the subject of crazy animal rights groups, just let me mention The Sierra Club. They just take it a bit far overboard. Driving nails into trees to keep people from cutting them down. Wouldn’t that kill the trees anyways? Can you say extremists? So I’ll sit here on my electric computer, whose power comes from a coal power plant, eating my personal favorite 22 oz. “porterhouse” medium well. I’ll be kept warm by this gigantic bear rug. Maybe later I’ll go out and train my dogs in the fine art of bird hunting. * * * “I like animal cause they taste so good.”- Annonymous Bumper Sticker. “You don’t like cutting down trees? Try wiping your ass with plastic.”- Another Bumper Sticker. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/43 "2000-06-28T02:15:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > Do I think it’s reasonable? I dunno. What could it possibly hurt to ask? What if they DID change their name–think of the PR coup for PETA.\*\* I’ll go out on a limb here and say that asking a team to change the name they’ve had for so long, that’s so rich in recognition _and_ tradition, isn’t only unreasonable, it’s ridiculous. What could it hurt to ask? Other than holding PETA up for some more justifiable ridicule, not much. What if they did change the name? Then Vince Lobardi would surely reach 10,000 rpm. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/44 "2000-06-28T13:08:19Z")
> [@](#): > > What PETA is asking the Packers to do is huge. Do you think all the Packers have to do is take down the ‘A’ from their name and replace it with an ‘I’? A name change would cost them a fortune. Jersey’s changed, sportsware sold on a national scale, name recognition, etc… You mean they’d stand to make a bundle of cash off the sale of new merchandise to loyal Cheesheads around the world? The horror! 😉 > [@](#): > > Do PETA members forgo medical treatment? At least modern medical treatment? I cannot speak for all PETA members, but I do not forgo medical treatment. Because I am dedicated to a cause does not mean I am suicidal or a martyr. All I can put forth are the words of Walt Whitman: “Do I contradict myself? Then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.” (BTW, I _do_ know that Linda McCartney refused, to the best of her knowledge and ability, to use cancer treatments that were animal tested.) > [@](#): > > Last question, would a PETA member forbid modern medical treatment of their child? See above. SuaSponte: > [@](#): > > The only way PETA’s position makes sense is that humans are somehow different from other animals, that because we can cogitate, we are ethically obliged to treat animals differently than “lower” animals treat each other. But if there is something special about humans, then doesn’t it follow that the life of the “special” human is more valuable than the “common” animal? Isn’t it something of a leap from “different” in the first sentence to “special” in the second? And an even bigger leap from “different” to “better”? > [@](#): > > All animals manipulate the environment to their benefit, even if it is to the detriment of other animals. Are goats “unethical” if they eat all the grass in an area, causing the gazelles to starve? If there is nothing unethical about that, then there is nothing unethical about the human animal acting just like other animals . How exactly is testing cosmetics even remotely analogous to eating grass? ---
**Author:** ![2nd\_Law](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f475e1/32.png) [@2nd\_Law](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2nd_Law)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/45 "2000-06-28T13:47:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > It’s not like they asked the owner of the team to disembowel himself in public or to pay some big amount of money to some animal-related charity; they asked him to change the name. > \*\* Actually, the Packers don’t exactly have an owner. The team is owned by a not-for-profit corporation whose shareholders can not receive compensation for selling the team, which is why a town of Green Bay’s size can have a professional football team. I spent a couple of months in Green Bay on an internship while I was in college, and came to the conclusion if I ever wanted to rob a bank, the time and place would be Green Bay during a home game. The whole town goes to watch. PLDennison, the ALF is one of the reasons why I’d support a local animal shelter before I’d support PETA, in addition to my general attitude that doing things on a local level is more effective than trying things on a national level. Oh, yeah, this is the pit. Fuck! ---
**Author:** ![Jeannie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@Jeannie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeannie)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/46 "2000-06-28T23:40:47Z")
> [@](#): > > PETA wants Wal-mart to stop selling animal urine. _Huh???_ Wal-Mart sells animal urine? What is animal urine used for? And how would it hurt the animals to sell it? And who would buy animal urine? Okay…I now return you to your previously scheduled flame war… ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/47 "2000-06-28T23:52:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > PETA wants Wal-mart to stop selling animal urine. > > _Huh???_ Wal-Mart sells animal urine? What is animal urine used for? And how would it hurt the animals to sell it? And who would buy animal urine? > > Okay…I now return you to your previously scheduled flame war… > \*\* Presumably it’s (deer? elk?) urine used to disguise a hunter’s scent during hunting season. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2000, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/48 "2000-06-29T15:07:01Z")
It could also refer to Premarin, a menopause-treatment drug made partly from pregnant mare’s piss. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2000, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/49 "2000-06-29T15:23:10Z")
I’m not sure the questions about PETA members refusing medical treatment is fair. Well, actually, maybe it is. But I don’t think that to be a “true” non-hypocritical member of PETA you have to forgo coming into contact with anything that has ever involved the suffering or sacrifice of an animal. You could take that to enormous extremes, and not be able to do ANYTHING. I suspect the sensible way to deal with this issue is to forgive the “mistakes” of the past and say they expect more of society from this moment forward. They’ll accept the benefits that derived from previous (even unethical) use of animals, but use political and economic means to try to stop it in the future. Of course, there are still a shitload of contradictions in that. What the hell is wrong with selling animal urine? I assume the animals were done with it? Else you could level the same charge against PETA for using manure in their campaign. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2000, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/50 "2000-06-29T19:19:47Z")
Peta is protesting Chicken Run! [quote] PETA To Attend All Chicken Run (Qv) Premieres Animal rights group PETA plan to demonstrate at all of new movie Chicken Run (2000)'s premieres in protest at the chicken-eating stance of the film’s makers. [quote] What a bunch of friggin’ morons! ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/51 "2000-06-30T02:53:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > It could also refer to Premarin, a menopause-treatment drug made partly from pregnant mare’s piss. > \*\* Really? I’m saddened by the fact that I’m so shallow that, rather than contemplate the mircacles of chemestry, biology and medicine involved with this, all I can think is… Yuk. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716/52 "2000-06-30T20:20:49Z")
from **pldennison** > [@](#): > > \*\* > > SuaSponte: > > > [@](#): > > > > The only way PETA’s position makes sense is that humans are somehow different from other animals, that because we can cogitate, we are ethically obliged to treat animals differently than “lower” animals treat each other. But if there is something special about humans, then doesn’t it follow that the life of the “special” human is more valuable than the “common” animal? > > Isn’t it something of a leap from “different” in the first sentence to “special” in the second? And an even bigger leap from “different” to “better”? > > > [@](#): > > > > All animals manipulate the environment to their benefit, even if it is to the detriment of other animals. Are goats “unethical” if they eat all the grass in an area, causing the gazelles to starve? If there is nothing unethical about that, then there is nothing unethical about the human animal acting just like other animals . > > How exactly is testing cosmetics even remotely analogous to eating grass? > > \*\* One side point - how exactly is testing cosmetics even remotely analogous to eating a chicken? Main point - let’s get back to first principles here, **pldennison**. What is PETA’s position on man as a part of the environment? Does PETA consider man as an omnivorous animal, or as a different order of creature? Once we establish PETA’s position on that, we can debate the points you raise. Sua [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peta-can-bite-me/23716.md?page=2)