I think that PETA has to be one of the most exciting political organizations around. They have a simple mission, to make the world stop the mistreatment of animals, which is a very important cause. They have lots of great ad campaigns with famous people stripping down to show they would rather go naked than wear fur. The best one has to be David Cross, posing nude on a runway, all of his body hair fluffed out and spectacularly lit up, with the fitting caption “Wear your own fur!”
They also hold demonstrations outside of fashions shows to protest designers using fur in their collections. But they are branching out, using more aggressive tactics to get their message across. Just recently, a PETA operative got into Donna Karan’s inner sanctum, pretending to be applying for an assistant job. When she met with Karan, she whipped out a portable DVD player with graphic images of animals being tortured and killed for their pelts. While I wouldn’t want to be in Karan’s snakeskin shoes at that moment, I think that is so badass of PETA. It is really James Bond/007/Cleopatra Jones/Pam Grier/Charlie’s Angels-without-the-camel-toe. It makes activism exciting again!
I love animals so much, but I didn’t really know much about animal cruelty. I think most people are fairly ignorant about the way animals are treated, myself included. I am the worst. I wore fur without any thought to what I was actually doing. It was all vintage fur so I thought, well, at least I didn’t kill it first. It would have died of old age by now anyway. Fur also has a lot of cultural importance for women of color. It is a status thing. Fur can be symbolic of our success; it telegraphs our importance in the world, it shows that we can afford luxury, that we are good enough to have these things, and we want the world to witness it. Those symbols are hard to let go of. When you come from nothing, possessions have a lot of power. They mean that you have power. It is hard to explain to those who haven’t experienced it, but those who have been there, know exactly what I mean.
Even though I have attended events for PETA in the past, I didn’t really understand what fur had to do with it. Really! I am straight up ignant sometimes. And if I am that dumb I am sure that lots and lots of other people are just as bad as me if not worse. I happened to be watching one of my very favorite shows, The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, and Janice was showing her models a PETA video of caged foxes on a fur farm, and one of the foxes was just left in his cage with an exposed bone! It was so terrible and painful looking and I just cried and screamed and wanted to do something about it. It made me never want to wear fur ever again, and it made me a PETA fan for life. I love how they are so very direct. They show us what the truth is, and that truth is enough to change everything.
I have a fur coat. I bought it at a yard sale, and it was made before I was born. (It was originally for an art car, but the car died, and the coat is in AMAZING condition…)
If a fur coat is only worn for one season, or a few years, that is the bad thing. Wearing these older furs honors that animal. Wearing old furs would mean no animals would need to be killed for only their fur now. But I can’t wear this beautiful useful coat because some kooks think I killed it this morning. Sigh. Wasteful! Read “Ecotopia” by Ernest Callenbach!
PETA isn’t always right. They’re like the Republicans, only showing you the very worst of something in order to sway your opinion. If PETA had their way, you wouldn’t have any pets. Oops, I mean, you wouldn’t get to be a human guardian for souls in animal bodies. They want domesticated animals to be set free, where they can be maimed by predators both human and animal, hit by cars, poisoned, die young and in poor health, because that’s NATURE! That’s how they think things should be. That doesn’t sound so humane.
And have you ever been close to beef cattle? They are stinky, slimy, nasty animals. At both ends! I prefer steak and leather, thanks.
But I WOULD wear David Cross draped around me!
i used to support PETA too, but then they started this campaign some years ago, showing animal farms and animals trapped in cages on one poster and on another poster right next to it they showed jews in a german concentration camp in WW2. they put killing animals on the same level as the shoa! that was so disgusting and that is so typical for those “animal-liberation”-people. by fighting for animal´s rights (what does that mean anyway?) they forget about the fact that still millions of people are suffering from or dying of hunger, poverty, torture etc. they don´t see how inhuman they become by just focussing on animals. meaning it well is often the opposite of doing it well.
PETA did a good job in many ways. but this organization is also very ignorant towards critics and was going way too far by comparing animal torture with the persecution of the jews in europe. they should be so ashamed.
fur is no good anyway – but so is PETA.
Hmm, I’m not sure how I feel about PETA’s ad campaigns because of the way they use ultra-sexualized and objectifying representations of women in their ads. Though this ad is of a nude male, the pose is not sexualized the way some of their posters of women are. So I don’t know, on the fence here.
But I also wanted to add that Swarthmore adored you on Saturday night, and that your show was fantastic, and I wanted to forward along an open love letter that our sex columnist wrote to you: http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2008/02/27/open-letter-to-margaret-cho/
🙂
I think PETA gets alot of publicity for animal rights, and calls alot of people’s attention to it, which I guess is good overall, but, as a fat ex-vegan/current-vegetarian and animal lover, they lost me with all their size-ist ads. Like the one about going vegetarian to save on flights, because you’d only need one seat instead of two, with an unflattering picture of a large person? Not nice.
PETA IS fun. Put me in the “love them category” most charities are so stodgy – but PETA’s always up for good fun.
People can’t help ourselves, what can we do for the animals? The answer is to invent a Star Trek like translator so we can verbally communicate with the animals, and the animals with each other. Then the animals can organize themselves without (Hu)mankind. It would be hard for we people to go back into the pack. Maybe the animals can save us all?
Margaret – when are you going to do a PETA ad??? I can’t wait!!!!
Several years ago I got a beautiful suede jacket with a fur trimming as a gift. I wore it then (before I knew any better), but I haven’t worn it in years.
I still have it.
I am not sure what to do with it.
I am also conflicted on what to make of PETA…. I am not a fan of their sexist ad campaigns.
P.S. I love you and I want to have your babies.
I support the ASPCA. They do the day to day hard work of saving animals, punishing abusers of animals and educating people on the proper care of our animal friends. Not to mention finding as many homes for adoptable animals as possible. My big beef with PETA is that they are liars. Lie by omission I should say.
The ultimate goal of PETA is for no one and I mean no one to own any animals. Not farm animals…not dogs..not cats…nuthin. To stop the breeding of all pet trade animals so one day there will be none to have. To have the world be veggie eaters with not a single furry or feathery friend to share it with. And that world would suck!
And it makes me so mad when they get all this support by well meaning people who have no idea about their “hidden agenda”. Anywho…the ASPCA is awesome and needs all of us to be a part of the solution for homeless, abused animals and teaching everyone how to be a better friend to the ones who can not speak for themselves.
Nemaste! and I adore ur blog Margaret!
I have mixed feelings about PETA even though I am a vegan for animal rights/welfare. Yes, they use outrageous propaganda but it gets people talking about them, doesn’t it? I think their thought process is “They aren’t going to like our message anyway so why not give it some shock value?”
To what Brandy said: Yes, they don’t believe in having “pets” but they don’t say kick them out of the house today! PETA wants people to stop breeding pets, something like 20,000 pets are put down PER DAY because there are too many. Keep your pets now, love them, adopt other homeless pets. But when those that are alive today are long gone tomorrow, they say let it be because they feel it is unnatural to domesticate animals. ..And I’m sorry you feel that because an animal stinks it needs to be slaughtered and worn as clothing.
And to Martin: You have to understand, PETA DOES think that animals are equal to humans so comparing them to Holocaust victims is not so far fetched. There is a difference between animal rights and animal welfare. Animal rights is the belief that you think animals should have the same basic rights that we believe humans should have; included the right to live your life out without being systematically killed. Animal welfare is “How big is the cage the animal is being kept in?”, “Does it get a proper diet?”, “Is it killed humanely?”. Also, there is the connection of how some of the skin from Holocaust victims would be used as lampshades, etc and hair would be used as linings in coats, we use leather and fur.
I hope this didn’t come out as a rant, I don’t mean to offend anyone. It is a hotly debated subject and I am just trying to clear some things up.
Great Lori, I totally agree. People just like to complain about PETA…. Meanwhile, what are they doing for animals? If you think PETA is so bad than start an organization that is better, till then I think I’ll continue giving to this great organization that works hard every day to bring attention to the hypocrisy of animals born with invisible labels. This one is food, this one is family, and this one is a test tube….
PETA has no hidden agenda. If you know about it, it isn’t hidden, and Ingrid Newkirk will tell anyone who asks what PETA’s agenda is.
Also, if you have a fur coat or leather one (fur with the hair ripped out) that you feel embarrassed to be seen in (for good reason) donate it to PETA. They use them in their campaigns and send them to poor countries where people are freezing and have no other options!
“People who will not look at the gore, cannot take their eyes of the gorgeous”
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
This really blew me away.
Who knew?
Lori T,
Check out http://www.consumerdeception.com . And to everyone who is criticizing PETA, have a look around PETA.org, and you just may change your mind.
I’ve been a PETA supporter for about 6 years, since I first took at look through their website. Over a few nights after work, I’d sit and ‘educate’ myself. Even as a life-long vegetarian who was brought up to believe in animal rights, and someone who had a basic idea of vivisection and animal cruelty, I was still appalled by the things I read about… from animal testing to the fur trade, nearly all of it so that we can look hot in our makeup and coats. I started making sure that I only used cruelty-products after that first ‘wake up’.
The point here I guess, is that being ‘aware’ and loving animals means nothing if you still continue to avoid doing anything with that awareness.
If you own a vintage fur, no matter how much you justify it, it is still a dead animal. Donate it to PETA and at least a homeless person or a widow in Afghanistan will be able to really use it. Take a few minutes to check what companies test their products on animals, and avoid those products. Next time you’re out for lunch, think about what foi gras really means to the geese who are force fed, sometimes until their necks tear, to produce that ‘delicacy’. Next time you’re in a pet store looking at cute puppies, take a minute to consider the hell of breeding dogs and puppies who are mass produced in puppy mills to be sold to pet stores, not to mention all the puppies and older dogs that are withering away in shelters across the world.
If you really love animals, you wouldn’t want any animal to have to suffer for you. You don’t have to like PETA’s ads or agree with every one of their views – but the entire point of PETA is to eliminate animal suffering, and by making pro-animal choices, you can help this basic cause.
It’s that simple really, you have the power to choose.
Brandy – you are an idiot. wearing any fur does not ‘honor’ animals anymore than skinning my son and wearing it would honor him. bitch, please!
i find it hard to believe that everytime PETA goes undercover its always that slaughterhouse’s/laboratory’s/circus’s worst day. its not. what they uncover are standard practices.
also, peta isnt against pets. they are against buying them from breeders or pet stores but not adopting them. HELLO?! they have merch for companions in their own catalog. they have never called for domesticated animals to be set free. i cant believe im having to debate this. but hey, you do wear fur.
and cattle are smelly because of the deplorable conditions we raise them in. pigs and cows are actually very clean normally. maybe what you smell is your smelly fur coat.
martin – a Jewish survivor actually made the comparison first. (Isaac Bashevis Singer) and they adapted it from him. he said, “To animals, all humans are Nazis.”
moon – first, the ASPCA does not help animals. they only help dogs and cats and ignore elephants, mink, rats, seals, lobsters, tigers, raccoons, rabbits, etc….and they have some ‘splainin’ to do also. their CEO makes millions. Ingrid Newkird brings home just $34,000 a year. again, the goal of PETA is not to take away pets just for people to adopt only.
PETA often does stuff designed to shock people, but it’s not because they’re idiots. They’re desperate for attention for a very important cause! They don’t want to bring up the Holocaust or use pictures of naked people and so on, but they know people never hear about their serious reports, they know what they have to do to get people informed. Kudos to them for trying so hard!
PETA is no more an organization caring for animals than my Grandma is aged 20. They rake in the cash, Euthanize the animals brought to them, get caught doing it, go low for a while till it dies down and then come up for air claiming to represent the moral majority.
PLEASE, its only an excuse to raise cash to line the pockets of the head honchos – they don’t give a monkeys (literally and metaphorically) provided the cash rolls in.
When someone shows me a human with ALL NATURAL HERBIVORE TEETH then I’ll consider a 100% vege diet – but we ain’t herbivores! Its IN OUR DNA and no amount of wallowing in hypocrisy will change that.
Grow up, be OMNIVORE.
“PETA is no more an organization caring for animals than my Grandma is aged 20.”
–charity navigator gives them a very high score. who are you to judge?
“They rake in the cash”
–and it all goes to running the organization and outreach. they legally cant make a profit.
“Euthanize the animals brought to them”
–PETA is not a shelter and generally animals are not brought to them. they have a small staff of techs who go out in EMERGENCIES by REQUEST. thus the animals are not adoptable.
“get caught doing it,”
–they got caught disposing of the bodies improperly not for euthanizing. they have legal licensing to euthanize animals. how do you think they got the drugs?
“PLEASE, its only an excuse to raise cash to line the pockets of the head honchos”
–no one at PETA makes more than $60,000 and year. the freaking president brings home only $34,000. maybe you mean the ASPCA whose pres brings in millions.
“they don’t give a monkeys (literally and metaphorically) provided the cash rolls in.”
–or instead of making stuff up, you could go to the website and read the victories.
“When someone shows me a human with ALL NATURAL HERBIVORE TEETH then I’ll consider a 100% vege diet”
–are you suggesting that the dull small incisors we have are for ripping flesh?! its clearly for foliage. i have a six pound cat whose fangs are long and sharp – for the size we are, ours PALE in comparison.
“but we ain’t herbivores! Its IN OUR DNA and no amount of wallowing in hypocrisy will change that.”
–our closest relatives are largely herbiverous. i could give more examples about stomach acid, size of intestines etc…but its too long for here.
Grow up, be OMNIVORE.