Wonkette
Hey heads up: PETA is offering to take whatever prison that Obama decides not use for terrorist collecting—Guantánamo, or that maximum security job in Thomson, IL that might be New Guantánamo—and turn it into a “All Living Beings Empathy Center.” It’d be symbolic as shit, right, because the Guantánamo human torture can be sort of tenuously conflated to what it’s like to be a farm animal? This is the idea.
Some PETA gal said that the “Empathy Center” would feature such activities as “being crammed into a crate to simulate the life of a sow on a filthy factory farm and having packs containing 150-pound weights strapped to their backs to simulate the experience of chickens forced to support huge upper body weight because of drugs and genetic manipulation.” Also chances are the gift shop and cafe are going to be really overpriced. [The Caucus]
Why does every PETA press release make me want to eat a burger? It’s bizarre because I usually eat meat maybe once a week, but damned if I didn’t get a craving for a Big Mac reading this post.
I’ve been a vegan for years and PETA doing shit like this makes me wanna eat a whole cow.
Cicada: I love that I am reading this whilst chowing down on a medium rare burg. Let’s stop torturing humans first, and then I’ll start thinking about other animals.
Should this be in Guantánamo, I’m sure the Cubans would be touched and distraught by the plight of meaty animals. It would really put their difficulties into perspective.
whatacrack: Maybe PETA is actually an agitprop agency for factory farms. It’s hard to believe they think this crap will make people want to stop eating animals.
What does this story have to do with Sarah Palin?
Fuck PETA.
If de-lousing is part of the process, then count me in.
Will the tour guides at this museum work 12 hour shifts covered in blood and shit for less than minimum wage, to make it even more authentic?
I’m not a huge fan of PETA, but animal rights are not the only reason to give up meat.
Why can’t they just go back to protesting things naked? Thinking and planning is not really an organizational strength for them.
I can see their point. Learning about Gitmo made me leery about dating men from Fort Bragg.
“the ‘Empathy Center’ would feature such activities as “being crammed into a crate to simulate the life of a sow on a filthy factory farm and having packs containing 150-pound weights strapped to their backs to simulate the experience of chickens forced to support huge upper body weight because of drugs and genetic manipulation.”
Wow. EPIC conflation fail.
I love animals (particularly fried on my plate).
Much like the GOP, millions of dollars flow into PETA yearly because people just don’t understand what they really stand for. The intellegencia like Pamela Anderson (MIT grad I’m pretty sure) just keep supporting them b/c “hey who doesn’t like cute puppies”, but what they really stand for is animals before humans. Can anyone actually rationalize their stance that children should die of possibly curable illnesses before one rabbit is used for testing? Sorry for the lack of snark, but I can’t believe the people that send them money have a clue what this group stands for. If you love animals support the ASPCA, not PETA.
What makes me cry is the way they treat the broccoli florets. I’M SHAKING!!!!
Those pictures still get to me.
Firstly, stop torture and become America again (that means you Barry). And let’s not get confused like the NOBAMA retards with the signs, Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz are and shall always be the authentic & original American facists. Alsoly, PETA can suck my meat.
Mmm, 150 pounds of chicken sounds good.
You know, I actually would agree that farm conditions should be more humane if it wasn’t for those douchebags. But, when the arguments come these from fanatical morons, who claim that meat is murder, even attack dairy and eggs (wanting to bring about a world of severe protein deficiency?), think that animals should have rights like humans, and concentrate on these kind of asshole stunts that claim what happens to animals is equivalent to actual human suffering, I find it impossible to care. I find it’s better to ignore the issue than be on the same side as these cretins.
PETA is smrt, i mean smart.
hunter.blatherer: Er…that same argument could be made about the migrant workers who pick our vegetables. Maybe not the blood part, but substitute “cancer causing chemicals” and it fits pretty damn well.
Damn, does this mean I have to become an oxygenarian?
Don’t sweat the PETA things. PETA the sweaty things. Why yes, I am drunk again.
red sky:
One small trip through a traffic-choked strip of Generica on a Saturday afternoon (especially after Thanksgiving) is all I need to remind me that we shoot the wrong animals this time of year.
JMP: Well, it’s a convenient argument to say that animals don’t have feelings or suffer “like humans,” just like the slaveholders use to say that blacks weren’t “really people.”
… 150-pound weights strapped to their backs to simulate the experience of chickens forced to support huge upper body weight …
In other words, the daily experience of around 25% of the adult U.S. population.
red sky:
Agreed. The vaccination thing is insane.
I’m also sick and tired of the sanctimonious “this shampoo not tested on animals”. Every single thing in that shampoo (or whatever) HAS been tested on animals, just not this time around. I actually agree that you shouldn’t test something again that has been thoroughly tested already, but the preaching and pearl clutching drives me crazy.
What’s PETA’s opinion of that hotel (in Europe someplace?) where people can stay in a room fixed up like a hamster cage, complete with big running wheel, water bottle, hay on the floor, etc.? NPR, those innocents, said something about people who never had hamsters as pets wanting to stay there, but it seems more like a hotel for Furries.
BlueStateLibtard: Aaand there’s the false equivalency that I was criticizing. Note that I didn’t say that animals don’t suffer, but their suffering is not as important as human suffering. And thanks for the big insult to all the victims of slavery!
Cicada: Airitarian. The nutrients are in the pollution.
I don’t want my beef unless it’s been thoroughly waterboarded and sodomized.
whatacrack: same here. The problem is that their director is an utter moron, who thinks half-baked publicity campaigns are effective.
Over here in Germany, the animal-rights folks (as opposed to the animal welfare people, like PETA, whom most rightists regard as sellouts) set up stands in the downtown pedestrian zones with lifelike renderings of skinned animals, and show grisly videos right there in front of God’n ev’rybody. That shit is hard-core.
You wanna wake people up? Start showing slaughterhouse videos down on The Mall. This stuff is just lame.
Hey, PETA, a bunch of us are going restaurant-hopping tonight–why don’t you come on out and join us? We’re starting with sushi–lots and lots of raw fish–then doing some BEEF, CHICKEN and SHRIMP appetizers at another place, and then we’re all going over to that D.C. Chophouse place, or whatever it’s called, for some VEAL, LAMB, DUCK, RABBIT, BISON and STEAK! Lots and lots of big, juicy, raw, blood-splattered STEAK! For dessert, lots of real ice cream, made with real milk, from real COWS!
Hey, PETA, we’d love to have you come on out and join us in the real world!
And does PETA actually REALLY believe all this fringe, in-your-face stuff gets anything done to further their agenda? Don’t they see that all they’ve become is irritainment for the masses? More and more I think they’re just acting out, like the crazy people that scream and shout at you in any large urban area. Social nutjobs.
JMP: Yeah, and I was against Hitler until I found out so was Larouche. Now I think he was just peachy.
PETA does have a good point; the conditions under which most livestock are raised/butchered are pretty grisly. On the other hand, I still have all my teeth and can work through a little gristle.
Somehow I don’ t think an “empathy center” simulating being trapped in cages and having excess body weight is going to have much of an impact on people who work all day in cubicles and whose meals regularly consist of burgers, pizza, nachos, Hostess Ding-Dongs, and 32-oz bottles of Pepsi.
Cicada: That’s a good argument for eating local, organically grown. Thanks for making it!
JMP: “(wanting to bring about a world of severe protein deficiency?)”
I have a good source of protein for the PETA vegan ass holes that I will freely give.
In other words. Suck my dick.
Oh my god, I know, you guys. Like, whenever some advocacy group gets all EXTREME and goes TOTALLY OVER THE TOP, it just makes me want to oppress whatever they’re advocating for even more! Isn’t that hilarious? Seriously, why can’t people who have strong feelings about their own rights or those of others just express that in a calm, non-combative way that people outside the group being advocated for feel is appropriate, and that certainly doesn’t make anyone feel at all uncomfortable? Ask POLITELY for basic standards of decency so we can politely decline; don’t get all DEMANDY about it, or we’ll just have no choice but to stomp you back down. Why can’t these morans understand that?
ExecutorElassus: You know, the tactics of PETA and the like are surprisingly similar to those of Operation Rescue. Well, both are composed of fanatic assholes who want to force everyone else to comply with their way of thinking.
Stop the madness! http://www.guitarsandaudio.com/extras/shite/fork-potato.jpg
hunter.blatherer: Maybe, but since organically grown food is less healthy and worse for the environment than traditionally farmed food (not to mention that it tastes worse), the better solution would be forcing better safety standards for migrant workers and slaughterhouses.
Dear PETA,
Remember when you tried to get Ben & Jerry to start using exclusively human breast milk to make their ice cream? Things like that make meat eaters want to chase you around with raw beef just to hear you squeal.
The primary thing you actually accomplish is to increase the amount of harassment that non-proselytizing vegetarians and vegans endure from their meat eating neighbors and co-workers.
GREAT JOB.
Whatever you think of PETA, it’s kind of sad that a lot of these posts look like they could’ve been written by Sarah Palin.
PETA can eat a bag of vegetarian dicks. These people are freakin’ idiots…
But seriously, I’ve always wondered what PETA’s policy position is on Mexican Jumping Beans.
GuyClinch: Well, in one way, that’s a good indication of how far out on the fringe they are; when even the folks here make fun of them.
proudgrampa: cucumbers?
I think we can all learn from the brilliant strategists at PETA. In fact, I’m totally going to argue in favor of single-payer healthcare by comparing the uninsured to the victims of the holocaust! That will really get my message across well, and won’t result in any backlash whatsoever. Maybe I can make a big banner with pictures of dead concentration camp victims on it to really drive the point home.
Oh shit, that’s already been done hasn’t it?
Today we are all Having Second Thoughts.
GuyClinch: They do tend to bring that out in people. I have been a vegetarian for twenty years. The only time you will ever have a discussion of PETA that does not wind up an argument is at a Shelter or Fugazi show. Anyplace else, and it’s on.
I agree with Problem Child. They should stick to cute girls in lettuce bikinis handing out veggie dogs. Nobody’s mad at that.
GuyClinch: I’m pretty sure that Sarah Palin also believes that the prisoners in Guantanamo should have the same rights as factory farmed animals, it’s just a matter of working out what those rights are. Maybe she and PETA should have a little sit-down to hammer it out. A real meeting of the minds, as it were.
I know a cat who messily killed and devoured a chipmunk and showed no apparent remorse. I tried to explain how unethical that was, but a few days later, he just went out and killed another chipmunk the same way! I wonder if PETA can help me convince this cat of the virtues and benefits of veganism?
Cicada: What about healthcare for the chickens and cows? Where’s their bailout?
JMP: “their suffering is not as important as human suffering.”
Wow. Really? And who has declared such a thing - you?
You see, I don’t actually believe that animnals suffer - that’s why I can eat them with a clean conscience (in addition to plenty of napkins). And let me see if I have this other point of your’s straight - because PETA is staffed by a bunch of victimized projectionists, by proxy the animals that you believe are suffering should continue to do so?
What about the fucktillions of bacteria we kill EVERDAY when we callously poop into modern sanitation systems? Those poor little fuckers are slaughtered with horrendous oxidizing chemicals, like chlorine. without being charged with a crime, much less a speedy trial where they have the right to face their accusers.
Gopherit: Hey, as long as it’s single payer I’m cool with that. And every animal has the right to a clean living environment too. Oh wait, you said “bailout” not “muck out”. Nevermind.
When Gandhi said that the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated - he wasn’t speaking as an animal activist. His focus was on US and what makes usdistinctively human. I don’t believe his concern was so much focused on animal welfare as it was his desire that we be more compassionately human.
Also, Gandhi liked to fuck alot, so there’s that.
People who eat animals are responsible for the conditions in which those animals are raised, and in which they suffer terribly. PETA pointing this out to you just highlights this fact, and makes you lash out at the messenger. Simple as that.
The fact is that factory farms are hellholes for the millions of chickens, cows, and other animals that suffer and die in them every month. If you’re ok with that, fine, but don’t blame PETA for doing whatever it takes to get the national media to show you what you’re really buying.
Oh, and to those people that throw up this “what about the bacteria or the plants” bullshit–seriously? That’s the best you can come up with? FAIL.
I’m just glad I’m not a vegetarian or vegan so I don’t have to feign support for these whackadoos…
Click: victimized projectionists Wow!! Great term. Not that I agree with PETA you understand, yes animals do suffer but dammit I like steak and believe we have pointy teeth and eyes in the front of our heads ’cause we’re predators. Certainly respect your writing though. Honestly.
marley: Oh, COME ON. The problem is that PETA uses the very worst type of false equivalency bullshit to support it’s arguments. These are the people who compared the Westminster Dog Show participants to the KKK, fer chrissakes.
This is absolutely the same as the idiots who say Obama is just like Hitler/Stalin/Bin Laden, it’s just a different cause. That is why you get all these angry, visceral reactions.
Sorry, I’ve actually killed animals for food before. I don’t have a problem with it. I buy my meat from small local vendors (I’m lucky I live in an area where this is possible), and I don’t eat very much meat anyway because I don’t think it’s environmentally sound. But I still think these PETA people are assholes. It isn’t some sad little voice inside my head crying out for the chickens that is making me annoyed, it’s their jackassery. Pure and simple.
Having witnessed first-hand the force-feeding of geese, and having also driven past the factory cattle farms along California’s Interstate 5, I will happily eat foie gras but will go nowhere near a McDonald’s (unless it’s solely to use the McToilet).
Click: Animals can feel pain (well, most of the ones we eat; sponges & jellyfish don’t), so they can suffer yeah; but I don’t think that suffering - or pain, if that word seems too loaded to you - is as important as that among humans, as sentient creatures. That’s why I can eat meat with a clean conscience; because those creatures can’t think, can’t feel complex emotions. The pain of a non-sentient animal is not as important as that of a sentient creature, or even a semi-sentient one, but we don’t eat any of them, at least not here (I’m looking at you, Norway and Japan); except possibly for calamari.
JMP: This is why I ALWAYS purchase dolphin safe canned chimpanzee…
It’s a damn shame that a concept such as “empathy for all living beings” can be discredited by a group that has offended almost everyone with their
hysterical antics.
Has it occured to no-one that some animals are just assholes and deserve to die?
engulfedinflames: Now, be fair; PETA has shown by their actions that they have empathy for all living beings except for human women.
Jim89048: I know that’s true about domesticated turkeys. Those birds are just jerks.
JMP: My point was “important” is nothing if not a subjective term. So you can say that human suffering is more important - but that’s only true for those who agree with you. There is no ultimate objective truth to the matter.
“…having packs containing 150-pound weights strapped to their backs to simulate the experience of chickens forced to support huge upper body weight because of drugs and genetic manipulation.”
Something tells me more than a few Americans who are currently supporting huge upper body weight because of an addiction to eating these chickens when prepared in McNugget form could benefit from the exercise.
JMP: “Animals can feel pain (well, most of the ones we eat; sponges & jellyfish don’t), so they can suffer yeah; but I don’t think that suffering - or pain, if that word seems too loaded to you - is as important as that among humans, as sentient creatures. That’s why I can eat meat with a clean conscience; because those creatures can’t think, can’t feel complex emotions.”
People aren’t saying that the suffering of animals is as important/as bad as the suffering of people. The point is that if people have alternatives (and not everyone does, obviously), it would be nice to maybe choose something that doesn’t cause pain to other living things unnecessarily. I mean, I think burgers are tasty, but I don’t think the joy I get out of eating burgers outweighs the pain and death of animals involved in making burgers when I could just as easily eat burgers made of mushrooms.
But yeah, fuck PETA and their ridiculous and at times horribly misogynistic campaigns, and fuck people who think vegetarians/vegans are automatically fans of them.
Kathryn.: “and fuck people who think vegetarians/vegans are automatically fans of them.”
GREAT point.
Hey PETA, if God didn’t want animals to suffer, why did he invent cattle prods?
PETA stands for “People Eating Tasty Animals.” Pass it on.
http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/poem.html?id=171425
Oh, dear.
Mr. Schindler said in an interview he could not comment either way on boiling versus electrocution as the preferred method of killing lobster.
The animal rights group PETA bought two of the lobster devices and paid for Mr. Buckhaven and his wife to fly to the Arizona event last Saturday to demonstrate the technology.
Unfortunately, the courier service lost the two machines and the animal rights people had to look the other way as volunteers killed hundreds of lobster in boiling water for hungry supporters of the resource centre.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1153489.html
People, you are missing the larger point here!
Eric Holder’s decision to try KFC in New York City further highlights the inexperienced Obama administration’s dangerous naivité in the area of national security, and is all but guaranteed to result in a horrific Big Mac attack on our homeland that will make millions of Americans run for the border.
One Yield Regular: Exquisite.
Gopherit: I subsist largely on a diet of airboarded dolphins, raped-to-death baby bunnies, and Southern Comfort administered via a feeding tube in my nose.
YUM-O!
One Yield Regular: That was a wonderfully apropos piece, as its author is also responsible for ensuring that the phrase “now squeal like a pig” would become an indelible element of American culture.
Also butt rape, incest, compound leg fractures, and John Voigt.
Extemporanus: I mean, how else could you eat your baby bunnies?
Gopherit: Now see, that’s where it really gets silly. There is no reason to care about treating lobsters humanely, because they have no feelings or anything resembling them. Invertebrates, aside from the octopi and squids, do not have brains and are pure automatons.
JMP: And when they couldn’t kill them “humanely”, they killed them anyway. You can’t disappoint hungry supporters.
Extemporanus: Yeah, that Dickey’s about as subtle as the one Randy Quaid was sporting in “Christmas Vacation.”
JMP: “There is no reason to care about treating lobsters humanely.”
So maybe we are called to be unreasonably merciful, then.
Aaah, I love PETA posts. Y’all are just providing exactly the sort of reaction that they’re trying to provoke. The entertaining part is that you don’t seem to realize it.
Bison: Um, so the idea is to NOT get a useful message across, but just to get a knee-jerk reaction? I beg of you to please explain your comment in a way that does not make you look as though your whole grand purpose in life is to get a rise and then leave the room.
Terry: That they had to kill the damn oysters to get the fucking pearls, is what pisses me off.
Rosie Scenario: Why would I want to stay in a hotel that’s just like my office?