Grouperhead,
Here is a very timely column I read in the Chicago Tribune this morning regarding the lunacy of PETA. (I copied the entire column into the article because the site it comes from requires registration.)
Furor brewing over PETA ad
Lew Freedman
What a dilemma. You are a poor college student walking through the grocery store and you have only enough money for either a six-pack of beer or a half-gallon of milk.
The angel on your right shoulder whispers, "Buy the milk." You remember the lessons of your youth, about how milk is good for you and builds strong bones. The devil on your left shoulder whispers, "Buy the beer." You think of the guys back at the dorm with a powerful thirst and the Saturday night party beckoning.
Mom and dad are proud of you if you buy the milk.
PETA--People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals--is proud of you if you buy the beer.
As if college students need more encouragement to drink. Forget the teachings of the past, youngsters, PETA claims beer is the healthy alternative to milk, beer is the wiser choice over dairy products.
PETA, as just about every hunter and fisherman knows, is the enemy of traditional outdoorsmen. It is an organization in the forefront of the animal rights movement. If PETA had its way, no one would hunt or fish, and likely deer and bass would have the right to vote.
The Got Beer? ad campaign, brought back as a parody and counterpoint to the long-running Got Milk? advertising program, demonstrates that the group's outlook and focus is much broader.
It is touching that PETA is so concerned about our diets, but it is always wise to remember what PETA stands for. PETA not only opposes hunters killing for meat, it is against people eating meat. Ditto for fish. It would prefer that everyone go vegetarian.
I used to think that a PETA banquet would feature a bowl of lettuce as the main course with side dishes of a variety of cheeses and with milk offered as the main beverage. Silly me.
This is the second time for the Got Beer? effort--it was created in 2000--and it is just as foolish this time. Apparently, PETA has not read the latest studies about binge drinking on college campuses, and the problems of date ---- on campuses, so heavily affected by alcohol consumption, or heard about the nation's drunken driving problems.
PETA, in its own usual skewed way, has come down on the side of cows over people. Of course, from PETA's standpoint, cows are people too. The group has a Web site that complains cows are warehoused and "treated like milk machines" and that male calves "endure 14 to 17 weeks of torment in . . . crates so small that they can't even turn around." And, PETA argues, the animals are injected with hormones harmful to humans.
The Ohio-based U.S. Sportsman's Alliance, a group that lobbies for hunter's rights and keeps close tabs on the doings of animal rights organizations, dismissed the PETA ad sent to college newspapers as "a propaganda piece that encourages young adults to consume beer rather than milk."
Also on its Web site, PETA says that dairy products are linked to "allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease and cancer." What, no West Nile disease? Gee, I wonder how Bossy can even function as a carrier of so many horrible conditions. Dairy products probably do cause major health woes--if you drink milk by the tanker truckload and explode, or eat a 2,000-pound wedge of cheddar. As if swallowing a keg of beer won't expand your gut.
PETA wants people to dump dairy products and switch to eating or drinking soy or rice milk, soy cheese, Tofutti ice cream, and tofu sour cream and cream cheese. I'm sure you are all salivating.
One group agitated by the Got Beer? campaign is Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
"PETA's Got Beer? campaign is totally irresponsible and the premise is not only ridiculous, but it is unethical," said MADD President Wendy Hamilton.
Probably the most peculiar thing that happened after PETA began the Got Beer? campaign last fall, as relayed by the Sportsman's Alliance, was a protest of a protest in England.
After two PETA activists railed about milk consumption at a school they had to be rescued by police when 100 students retaliated by throwing milk on them and shouting "Milk for the masses!"
"This is a stupid idea," a 16-year-old boy said. "We should be encouraged to drink milk and I certainly won't stop drinking milk just because a man has dressed as a cow outside my school."
For the rest of us--especially those who love fishing and hunting--protesting against what PETA recommends is simple. Just say moo.
Very sad to hear, and was wondering if anybody has heard about this? I also heard that since 1986 to 2002 that many sharks have reduced population by over 50%! And that the hammerheads are the closest ones to extinction, they have reduced in population to about 89%! Has anyone heard of this? It really sucks!
