I’ll still eat a sea kitten

PETA campaigns fail to make a legitimate argument

Where I grew up, ice fishing isn’t just a popular activity: it is the primary means of economic stability during the winter months when the tourist industry dries up.

Growing up in a small ice fishing town, you gain the appreciation for dishes that serve up fried pickerel, perch and jackfish. Either that or you starve, I suppose.

The point is I am getting sick and tired of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and their ridiculous attempts at shocking, scaring or guilting people into no longer eating any food that is derived from animals, or using animals as a resource at all.

I don’t have a problem with vegetarians or vegans by any means. I think if you choose to live your life that way, whether for moral principles or health reasons, good on you for doing whatever you feel is right. What I’m sick of is organizations like PETA going to preposterous lengths in order to further their own political agenda and force their beliefs on everybody. Whatever valid points they make about factory farming and unethical slaughtering practices is lost in their crazy, screaming voices.

Rather than being known for any legitimate work, PETA usually seems to be more associated with its ridiculous petitions. Take for example its current attempt to re-name all species of fish “sea-kittens” so that children who grow up calling them as such will never want to eat one. Personally, I think it adds a little something to the dish, but that’s just me.

Whatever valid points PETA makes about factory farming and unethical slaughtering practices is lost in their crazy, screaming voices.

PETA is guilty mostly of trying to brainwash children. They go so far as to publish and distribute children’s stories that depict any mother who prepares chicken for dinner a homicidal maniac, and fathers who eat meat as sick and twisted individuals. I think that once an organization starts trying to turn kids against their parents in such a disturbing manner, it ceases to get my respect even if it had virtuous goals to begin with.

Not that PETA was ever virtuous. Newsweek reports that since 1998 PETA has managed to kill off 85 per cent of the stray dogs and cats it was supposed to help under the guise that euthanasia was the only option for these “broken beings.” This is despite the fact that the Humane Society of the United States is only forced to euthanize 50 per cent of their animal wards, whilst adopting a much greater volume of animals than PETA-run shelters.

Not to mention PETA’s extreme attitudes towards “animal rights.” When I think animal rights, I think humane treatment, painless slaughter for livestock animals, and a life free of hormone injection and other alterations. When PETA talks animal rights, they mean “total animal liberation,” which means the abolishment of pet ownership and any form of raising livestock right down to bees that produce honey. PETA even petitions against all forms of medical research and testing on animals, despite the fact that medical research would likely grind to a halt without animals to test on. Insulin, for example, was created through testing on dogs.

If you love animals, and I know I do, you probably know there are a lot of organizations out there that do good things for them. The Humane Society, Anti-Cruelty Society and the International Fund for Animal Welfare are only a few of the organizations that support humane treatment of animals without resorting to brainwashing children and funding domestic terrorism against medical testing facilities.

Now then, I’m going to go fry up a nice juicy sea-kitten for dinner.

Will Dumont is a University of Winnipeg student and blogs at dumontnation.blogspot.com.

Published in Volume 63, Number 20 of The Uniter (February 12, 2009)

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