I am with them on this, I think animals should be given equal status in our civilization…only so that I can finally declare my dog as a tax write off.
I love it that PETA and IDA and these other groups always oppose the hunting of wild game because such vast numbers of poor, defenseless animals die. They seem to have absolutely no understanding of the fact that a prey species with no natural predators will continue to surge in population until it meets another natural barrier, such as lack of food supply.
Apparently to them it would be much better if six million deer died of starvation, disease or highway accidents (where they can potentially injure and kill human beings), typically much more slowly and with much more suffering than a very sudden death from a bullet wound. Nature will cull the herd, or humans will. Nature will not be so kind about it.
There is a deep anti-human message in much of PETA’s whacko literature. I realize that we are stewards of this planet…and I certainly want my children to inherit an earth that is liveable. But this insane idea that animals have rights and fish suffer because they become food for humans is so stupid. If the PETA people hate humans so much, why don’t they encourage their members to commit suicide? That would relieve the earth of the burden 9of carrying them).
:Stares hungrily at Tuckerfan
YOU’RE made of meat.
:drools
I agree, though, that PETA has finally gone insane. Their long-successful strategy of saying things outrageously in order to get people to keep talking about them appears finally to have failed.
Oh, wait…
Daniel
Brilliant! 
vanilla, who supports the murder of turkeys every year for our nourishment,
Well, I certainly won’t be eating fish.
But then that’s just because I don’t like the taste. 
The pigs etc are doomed though. Ummm sausages on legs…
And bacon, and ham…I love ham. Think I’ll see about having some for lunch.
If cats could read, write, and use computers they still wouldn’t lift toilet seats, opposable thumbs or not. They would expect us to do it for them, along with the myriad of things they expect of us now. And we would continue doing things for them, being completely in thrall to kitties.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said “If we aren’t supposed to eat humans, then why are they made of meat?” I thought it was cute.
There are good arguments to be made against beef, but fish? I have no ethical problems with eating a creature that has a brain smaller than my nipple, not including the aureola.
(bolding mine)
No one else got a chuckle from this?
Since nobody else said anything, I’ll say it: snort.
These PETA-bashing threads always go the same way - PETA does something silly or outrageous, someone links it, commenting “Speechless”, or some such bon mot, and then various passersby post how they’re going to eat a delicious steak for dinner. PETA is not the Flat Earth Society, you know. There are ethical underpinnings for what they are doing that you cannot short-circuit by proclaiming you are about to eat a ham sandwich.
Animals have to suffer in order for you to eat their dead bodies. There are a few psychopaths out there who truly don’t care about the suffering of other beings, but most people deep down know the truth. Yelling “Ham is yummy!” whenever the subject comes up is evidence that you’re not dealing rationally with the situation.
Fine, then. I’ll happily give up eating meat in all forms (except bearded clams) when PETA agrees to pay me to stop. Until then, I’m going to enjoy scarfing down every animal I can. I am not particularly troubled by the fact that Elsie, Porky, Daffy, Widow Hen, Bugs, Bambi, or Nemo might possibly have spent a life in captivity, or was slaughtered in a less than painless manner before winding up on my plate. The simple fact of the matter is that the amount of suffering they may have had to endure while meeting their demise is no doubt equal to or lesser than, the amount of suffering they would have had to endure when one of their natural predators or starvation brought about their demise.
So is Ingrid Newkirk’s stance that animals would be better off if we humans weren’t here.
Won’t someone please think of the yeast?
And the darling mold on the blue cheeses?
And the sweet little bacteria in the yogurt?
I’ve thought about them…right before I eat them!
Mmmm…fish. I ate seafood in San Diego and I have no qualms. Shameless me.
Your wisdom has shown me the light! I can see now that all human and animal corpses should be left in place to rot in the sun. Well, not exactly – the ones who died indoors or on pavement should be moved onto a patch of mother earth. Then the life within will have a chance chance to burst forth in vigorous swelling pustules of billions of our fellow beings.
And frankly, there’s no need to wait until death to serve as a gracious host for our microbial brothers and sisters. For instance, stop brushing and flossing, and offer a warm safe home in your mouth to any number of microorganizms. But remember, be a host to what seems most natural for you. For some people that means athlete’s foot; for others it means bubonic plague. Think of yourself as a “big tent” with room for a whole world under your cozy sheltering carcass.
snip
Actually, the life of the average beef cow or factory farmed chicken is quite a bit worse than it would be in the wild. Wild fowl, for example, don’t have their beaks removed so they won’t peck their neighbors to death when they go mad in their tiny wire cage. Wild cattle don’t usually suffer from constant diarrhea from an unatural corn diet, or suffer from the crowding and disease (barely controlled by massive doses of antibiotics) of the feedlot.
Hey, I like beef and chicken. But I vote with my wallet. I buy only free range chicken and beef. It costs a bit more, but I’m willing to pay for a better product produced with less cruelty. I have no problem with hunting, If I ever have time for it I’ll probably start myself. But the conditions of factory farms are intolerable.
Yes, PETA is nuts. But there are better methods than we use now.
Umm, the above post was me, not moi. For some bizarre reason she was logged in on my 'puter. Still, she seconds all that.
Agreed that there are better methods, but how many wild animals make it to adulthood without succombing to disease or predation? Watching sea turtle hatchlings struggle to make it into the oceans, it’s surprising any of them make it at all.
Being caught on a hook (or netted, as the case may be), iced down, and gutted is not necessarily any more cruel than the natural fate of marine critters, which tend to get culled as soon as they get sick, get injured, or simply get older and start to slow down. “Nature bloody in tooth and claw,” etc. The PETA gripe against fishing is basically the fallacy of the excluded middle (or somesuch), no?