PETA Confusion

I am confused. PETA confuses me.

Don't get me wrong I am an animal lover who hates the thought of an animal needlessly suffering. I am not as .... "devote" .... as PETA would have me be, I am not a vegetarian, I have worked in a Meat Packing Plant, but none the less, I support their general message in a very broad sense. Animals have rights that need to be considered. I have been reading the Twilight book series and Night World books that revolve around the concept that Humans are food, or prey and I believe that those books have certainly helped me see the world from an animals perspective to some degree.

However I am now confused with PETA. As many of you may know, apparently the last couple days have been EXCEPTIONALLY slow news days across North America. I have seen footage of President Obama's "fly swat" on pretty much every US AND Canadian network over the last 24 hours. I mean come on, he swatted a fly!! But none the less, I did a little poking around into the media sensation that has resulted from this incident as I (correctly) assumed it would provide me with ample writing material.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that this 'Fly Swat' is the same as Ronald Regan firing over 11,000 Air Traffic Controllers in that it sends a very clear message to America's enemies that the President of the United States will strike with deadly accuracy and precision when provoked...

"This was, indeed, a defining moment of this young presidency. Mess with Obama, and he might just swat you down." -- Full Story

While the mere fact that this story went to print, and that swatting a fly is compared to firing 11,000 people, and that is a defining moment in a presidency is in of itself amazingly stupid and certainly worthy of my critism, I got side tracked near the end of the article when it mentions PETA's reaction to this incident...

""We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," said PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich, explaining his group's disappointment with Obama's killer instinct"

Now this was just too juicy to pass up, I mean, I thought I fully realized the depth to their fanaticalism, but I was again proved wrong. So off I went to the PETA website to get the story from the horses mouth. Don't worry I did so in a kind, gentle manner that respected the horse's rights and individuality. Now when digging through their site I see the various campaigns that they have, Kentucky Fried Cruelty, Pets Mart Cruelty ok the first one was clever, but I just don't get this one, I think someone on the PETA Board was copying their neighbor when coming up with campaign slogans.

Torture for Sale, Military Training Trauma Yes, I agree Obama should have had one of his first orders of business to be signing an Executive order banning the torture of animals while being interrogated..... wait that makes NO SENSE. While I understand PETA believes animals are the same as humans, do they really think we interrogate animals and use torture methods on them? In all fairness though the campaign is geared towards stopping the use of animals to simulate training for combat medics, which I agree. Maybe that policy of training medics to be vets is why there have been so many casualties? "Yep looks like a broken ankle, just shoot him and end his suffering".... perhaps there is a better way? If only there were somewhere that a medic could go to practice treating injuries on Humans..... In other news, the wait times in ER rooms across the country were scorned as being completely inadequate due to the lack of staff available to treat patients.....Hey wait, I think I just had an epiphany..... no that was just gas.

Where was I? Oh yes, PETA Campaigns... Animal Liberation Project, Ringling Beats Elephants. Wow, what a piss poor campaign slogan. That is not a slogan that is a headline in the newspaper. They really need to get rid of the guy that is came up with that one and the Pets Mart one, they just plain suck. McCruelty : I'm Hatin It, I like it, catchy, nice play on words, but I think they should really use a thesaurus. Having Cruelty be the central word in 3 of their slogans is kinda repetitive. I think I was taught not to do that in grade 7. Might I suggest, McMalice, or McMeanness, or McSpite (ok that last one sucks I admit) Just some thoughts, please don't paint my door with fake cow blood as a response....

Canadian Seal Slaughter I like this one, play off the Olympics use that to flaunt your cause, while it is not original at all, and didn't work out so well for Tibet, by all means, it worth a go, us Canadians are known for our tenacity and non-apathetic ways....wait did I say Canadians? That makes no sense, I have no idea what I was thinking , strike that last comment from the record.

And last but not least ABC or Animal Birth Control. When I saw this I thought to myself "WTF they have come up with a condom to put on animals now instead of cutting off their balls??" And thankfully, no PETA does not expect us to fondle our cats when they are in heat to prevent procreation... But surprisingly (at least to me) they support spaying an neutering of animals to prevent any procreation. They are against all breeding or even allowing animals to breed. While I get that out of control pet populations contribute to the many animals dying through euthanasia and other means, and that preventing those animal deaths would be a priority for PETA, forced sterilization is CONDONED!??!!

Talk about the ends justifying the means. PETA sits there and repeatedly uses the argument that "You wouldn't accept [INSERT HORRIBLE THING HERE] being done to Humans, we should not accept it being done to animals!!" This is a pretty big reversal pm PETA's part. Forced sterilization and removing someones reproductive rights is a MASSIVE NO NO when it comes to humans. I mean there is NO WAY this flies. To my knowledge there is not anywhere in the world that is this allowed to happen in a open manner any more. So what the hell is PETA doing saying 'Nope it's too hard to feed and care for these animals, just cut their balls off'. I mean for christ sake, spaying or neutering any of my pets is NOT something that has ever been a given. I would only do it if the situation meant it would improve the quality of life for that animal. And since cutting off their balls could be considered as a fairly traumatic experience (well not for me, but that is beside the point) Denying an animal the most basic fundamental reason for their existence and using the ends to justify the means is nothing short of retarded.

I can understand that people may have belief's I don't agree with. I respect that. But for the love of all things holy, if you want to have an extremely fanatical belief structure and make the most extreme statements to push your agenda, at least be true to your fanatical beliefs. When you use the ends to justify the means, your nothing more then a sell-out and massively damage your message. Now it is apparent that PETA is a fraud, and only seeks attention for it's own fame and glory and has no real morals or ethics when it comes to the treatment of animals. I am quite disappointed, now I need to find another fanatical organization to support in a moderate casual non committal way. Sigh. Life is so hard.