I like eating meat. It doesn’t matter how horrific were the conditions under which my tasty, blood-dripping char-grilled chunk of steak was raised and slaughtered, I’m not giving it up. Reach for it and you’ll pull back a bloody stump. Ditto for chicken, lamb chops, pork products–and I feel no guilt when I order veal at my local restaurant. I don’t oppose animal rights activism in general, not at all, but I believe I’m at the top of the local food chain for a reason, and by damn I enjoy eating meat.
I donate to the ASPCA, and think people who abuse animals (assuming we can agree on a definition for “abuse”) ought to be prosecuted and thrown in jail. Organizations like the ASPCA do good work, have a good reputation in the national community, and are effective spokespeople for raising public awareness about issues like the Michael Vicks of the world.
Which brings me to PETA. They are everything the ASPCA isn’t: an absolutely ineffective vehicle for supporting “animal rights.” They just got their panties in a twist over a goddamn FLY! A nasty, crawling buzzing vector of disease and filth that was spawned in some festering garbage, or perhaps in the stinking dog feces your neighbor never picked up from his back yard. If ever there were a justifiable killing in human history, President Obama’s swatting of such a creature tops the list. And PETA gets in a lather over it.
Let me offer some unsolicited advice: if ever you form an organization which you hope to become a beacon of inspiration for furthering a cause, start out by not branding yourself a bunch of over-the-top lunatics. Trust me on this one.
Posts
Saw a tee-shirt on the subway which made me chuckle. . .”PETA People Eating Tasty Animals”
| June 19, 2009 @ 2:55 PM
Here’s the fly story, for those who haven’t seen it.
PETA Wishes Obama Hadn’t Swatted That Fly
They didn’t jump, they CATAPULTED over the shark after this lunacy.
| June 19, 2009 @ 3:37 PM
What kind of a prius-driving, latte sipping hippy can you be and still hate Peta? The kind even I can respect.
| June 22, 2009 @ 12:52 PM
Linked to your post, in my post about this ridiculousness
| June 26, 2009 @ 5:56 PM
LOL. You’re not at the top of the food chain. You’re part of the western institutions that give you this power. Top of the food chain are autonomous… and they kill their own food, not shop for it. To be at the top you have to be part of a cycle where you get killed when you lose your strength and something eats you. Top of the food chain? What have you killed that could have killed you but you were better at killing.
Sorry, your point on silly PETA was strange. Why hate? Just ignore.
| June 30, 2009 @ 8:42 AM
Hi, Sarah!
My position in the food chain is secured by my adaptations to my environment, whether it be hunting in packs instead of alone, or developing a network of slaughterhouses and supermarkets. It’s all nature, and I’m sitting pretty at the top of the pyramid. Nothing that exists in nature can be un-natural, by definition.
Kudos on your ability to filter things better than I. I adapt by letting it out–hence the rant.
Spinny
| June 30, 2009 @ 9:59 AM
So you think the animals just die on their own? Face it, he might not kill the animal, but SOME human does.
| August 13, 2010 @ 10:32 AM
Cool post, just subscribed.
Editor’s note: I’m glad you liked the post, and I appreciate you stopping by. That being said, while I understand people trying to make a living with marketing, I expect you to contribute something more meaningful to the discussion before I allow you to use it as a springboard to your marketing link. I took the liberty of deleting it until I see more substantive posts. –Spinny
| June 30, 2009 @ 4:31 PM
I like McDonalds cheese burgers and i like all meat hot dogs and steak, dont want a bunch of animal rights hippyfreaks telling me what to eat and that gose for PETA,CSPI,PCRM and the rest of the wackos
| September 30, 2009 @ 1:26 AM
I agree! but to be honest, you’d be better off to donate to your local shelter instead of the ASPCA. The ASPCA is out to protect animals, and thats good, but they also are enemies of the meat industries. They wont tell you to go vegetarian, but they are trying to pass laws concerning how farmers raise/house their animals. the laws mostly try to limit the # animals per square feet to some insane number! If they get laws passed like this then that will force many farmers to lose their farms because they cant make enough profit to support their business. No farms=no meat! donating to your local shelter is a way to guarantee the money will help an animal, not go towards making a law that keeps us from having a big ol steak!
| February 16, 2010 @ 12:18 AM
I was once a supporter of the noble cause of PETA until I realized that they really are a bunch of lunatics. If they want people to actually listen to them, they should choose which battles are actually worth fighting and which ones are not. For instance, the butchering of dolphins and unnecessary abuse of farm animals by the mentally handicapped factory workers before they are butchered (such as punching, kicking and torchering of pigs for fun). I recently read a story about PETA getting their panties twisted again about Mike Tyson’s new show on the Animal Planet, which is why I searched for groups that hate PETA, (I found many). Everyone on the Animal Planet loves animals, so what the hell are they upset about? Tyson cherishes his pigeons and will be entering them in pigeon races, which has been a sport for hundreds of years. The races present no harm to the birds. Why doesn’t PETA try to stop horse racing or dog racing? They make me effin SICK! I wish they are disbanned and establish a group that makes sense!
| March 24, 2010 @ 11:27 AM