They are advice on making sure that people only “rescue” pets, and have them all spayed/neutered. It is part of their overall goal to get rid of pet animals, other parts being things like BSL and impossible to deal with breeder legislation.
As I said at the time, those were a beginning and you had to spend the time to look further. There were plenty of links to other cites there, but you just choose to believe what you want to, much like all of the folks who believe that PETA actually cares about pets.
Here, try this. PETA ads and HSUS ads are almost identical. Both say that all pets should be spayed/neutered, breeders are all evil puppy mills and the only ethical place to get a pet is to “rescue” it, preferably from a shelter. Mixes good, purebreds bad. Etc. Both of these organizations have made life more and more difficult for the average responsible hobby breeder, which is the group they both should be supporting if they actually cared about dogs and cats. HSUS may have gotten smart and started sending a small tiny amount of the money they raise to local shelters, but that in no way makes up for all of the damage they do otherwise.
Riigght, so I give you specific cites to specific pages on HSUS, and you don’t bother to read them (as evidenced by your summary above). You give me cites, and I’m not only supposed to read the entire page you link to–I’m supposed to follow all the links from that page? Yeah, good luck with that debate strategy.
Some PETA ads are almost identical to some HSUS ads. I’ll wager that those PETA ads are the ones that most folks find least objectionable. When people object to PETA ads, they’re objecting to the ones that compare eating chicken to the Holocaust, not to the ads that ask people to spay and neuter their pets.
And the idea that HSUS wants to get rid of pet animals is tinfoil hat territory.
PETA angers me by picketing the circus every time it comes to my city and targeting small children with their handouts. C’mon guys! Don’t trash a 6-year-old’s day!
Sorry, I’m a little unimpressed with your tale of woe.
I am trying to imagine what led up to these decisions…
Manager: “Hey, guys, I’m trying to think of something cool for the restaurant. Any ideas?”
Dude: “I know! Sharks! Everyone loves sharks!”
Manager: “That’s a great plan. I’ll call up 1-800-SHARKS first thing tomorrow and place an order.”
Voice of Reason: “You know, I was just looking on the internet- the greatest research tool in the world at your fingertips- and it says sharks are big animals. It seems like our sharks will probably outgrow our aquarium in a year. These guys grow to 14 feet long. Maybe we should get some koi or something.”
Manager: “Koi?! Do I look like some kind of sushi chef. Sharks or nothing!”
Voice of Reason: “It looks like there are not even appropriate facilities in our state to take care of these things when they outgrow their tank, which will be in only a year.”
Glad someone else sees that. Very cursory research shows that nurse sharks grow up to 14 feet long; 360-gallon aquariums are apparently about 4’ long. This is called Not Planning Ahead, my friends–and if the press in Miami made y’all look foolish, well, they didn’t have to do much. Of course the PETA rep was nice to you: she was trying to get you to give up the sharks, and you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Once she’d gotten them out of there, she had no incentive not to speak her mind.
That said, what a ridiculous issue for them to focus on, even if you accept the premise of animal rights. The money they spent flying two sharks to Miami could have been spent to save many, many more animals.
I have protested the circus, but not with PETA. We specifically would not give to children and if a child asks for some literature we do not give it to them, we give it to their parents only. But, I have worked side-by-side with PETA at these events and I actually concur with you, I would see them giving to children and it made the rest of us cringe and quite angry.
What is interesting is how often we would give it to a parent who would, without even looking or giving it a second thought hand it to their child.
Yeah, clearly shortsighted and not all too smart. But my impression from the OP is that they were being accused of being satanical malicious jerkfaces. No, they were ignorant (w.r.t. the sharks) and shortsighted and then tried to do the right thing after they realized they had made a mistake.
:rolleyes: So if I don’t come up with the same conclusions as you do, it must be because I didn’t read the cites. Uh, no. I have far more background on the issues than you do, so obviously I am going to respond differently.
As for “supposed to follow all the links” - well, I didn’t say that did I? Lying isn’t exactly a great debate strategy you know.
When was the last time you saw a PETA ad that compared eating chicken to the Holocaust? PETA got smart about those sorts of things a long time ago. All I ever see now are the spay/neuter ads, and the “adopt from a shelter” ads. And they might as well have been put out by the same person.
Yet the idea that PETA wants to isn’t? What is the difference? The name?
HSUS would prefer/like/enjoy it if people adopted shelter animals (which can or cannot be purebred) vs continuing to adopt purebreds. Particularly since many people don’t do background checks on breeders.
PETA does advocate more strongly against pet ownership.
Note the happy reference to pets, wanting every pet to have a family, wanting people to adopt pets, etc.
A clear difference.
And for anyone who couldn’t be arsed to click on my previous links, here’s an example of what curlcoat considers HSUS propaganda, and what I consider helpful advice to animal shelters:
Clearly propaganda. Note the glaring reminder that puppies drool and tend to void their bladders inappropriately. Way more trouble than the little beasts are worth. Best to put them all down, I think.
Not a PETA supporter or advocate here, just some thoughts.
Well, why didn’t you?
I don’t think “tossing” would be necessary, but given that a simple ocean release was exactly what ended up happening… why did you have to wait for PETA? Why not take responsibility yourself?
See, that’s the problem with most folks that support PETA - they don’t know enough about animals to know what they are talking about. One doesn’t take even fish that have lived their whole lives in captivity and just release them into the wild. They aren’t going to have much of a clue as to where to find food and/or how to stay away from predators. So just releasing these sharks into the wild without any sort of segue just means they are likely to starve to death or get eaten.
That’s probably true, though there’s considerable variance among species in how much survival behavior is instinctual and how much learned. But in any case, that’s what did happen with these sharks. So the OP could have done as well himself without PETA ever coming into it. (Again, I don’t support PETA. Maybe you didn’t mean to say I did.)
Jokes are only funny when unexplained. But since there was sort of a point here, I’ll indulge.
So Alessan is saying that, yes, the images of slaughterhouses are unpleasant–like feces on the doormat–and that therefore he’d want to eat meat. I’m pointing out that being angry at the people responsible for confronting him with unpleasantness doesn’t mean that one should reactively embrace the unpleasant thing.
It rather sounds like it. Anyway, I don’t remember - did PETA tell the OP up front that all they were going to do was dump the sharks in the ocean, or did they “forget” to tell him that, along with the media circus they were going to bring in? I find it difficult to believe that you feel the OP is more at fault than PETA here. Nurse sharks don’t necessarily grow all that big in aquariums, and even if it were true that they always do, it’s a freaking fish ferchrissakes. Nobody deserves PETA problems because they didn’t know that a fish in their business aquarium might grow too big.
