Written by Michelle Sherrow
Presidents, hip-hop moguls, and now PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews have taken the stage at New York arts-and-culture venue 92YTribeca. Dan, together with new "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" model Cornelia Guest, New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott, and Newsweek and Daily Beast celebrity columnist Lloyd Grove, discussed how PETA's eye-catching naked campaigns and celebrity collaborations push animal rights issues into mainstream media outlets.
If the audience members came in with doubts or criticism, we're betting that they left with insight into PETA's tactics after hearing Dan explain that PETA has wonderful stories about building houses for "backyard dogs," rescuing animals from cruel circuses and laboratories, and much more—but what news outlets like Inside Edition want to cover is controversy, nudity, and celebrities.
Although he was there to serve as an unbiased voice, Stuart Elliott noted that PETA's ability to create "buzz" through naked ads and the use of celebrities in protests was decades ahead of modern social-media campaigns. He also commented that the success of PETA's "shockvertising" has persuaded other organizations to follow suit. I guess imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery.
Written by PETA
Eight Belles did it for New York Times sports columnist William C. Rhoden. After watching the filly break both front legs just after crossing the finish line in the 2008 Kentucky Derby, Rhoden never covered another horse race. "From Eight Belles to Barbaro to thousands of horses in between, racing is a brutal game that grinds up young horses," he wrote in a recent column. "This unrepentant industry exists solely for the pleasure of gamblers and gambling."
Rhoden also joined PETA in condemning the racing industry's abandonment of burned-out, used-up thoroughbreds and backed PETA's proposed Thoroughbred 360 Lifecycle Retirement Plan, which would require that thoroughbred owners and breeders pay a $360 retirement fee for every foal registration, ownership transfer, and breeding registration. Rhoden calls the Jockey Club's refusal to take action in response to PETA's proposal "hardly … acceptable in an industry in which an estimated 10,000 horses from the United States end up slaughtered for meat every year …."
You can help prod the Jockey Club to do right by the animals it uses by sending an e-mail asking that it adopt PETA's retirement plan.
Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's new book is hitting bookstores this week, and the advance word is that the lady who never saw a wolf, polar bear, or moose she wouldn't like to see ground up into burgers doesn't have many nice things to say about vegetarians. As was pointed out by PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk in her open letter to Palin, the only surprise is that Palin's jibes are as yawn-inducing as a rerun of The Man Show.
One has to wonder if there is an original line in Sarah Palin's book, given her remarks in it about vegetarians. (She seems to believe that we only eat salad, but if she's keeping an eye on the New York Times bestseller list, she will spot two vegan cookbooks in the top five with barely a salad recipe in either of them.) The long-brandished rebuttal to Ms. Palin's filched quote "If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?" is "I guess God also intended for humans to be cannibals then because we are also made out of 'meat.'" And as for the amazingly glib "I love animals—right next to the mashed potatoes," the first time I saw that slogan was a few decades before America was graced with Ms. Palin's public presence, when it was used interchangeably with "I love spotted owls: baked or fried." Ms. Palin reportedly finds evolution a bit hard to swallow. Judging from her book, that applies to the evolution of ideas and attitudes as well. Very truly yours, Ingrid E. Newkirk
One has to wonder if there is an original line in Sarah Palin's book, given her remarks in it about vegetarians. (She seems to believe that we only eat salad, but if she's keeping an eye on the New York Times bestseller list, she will spot two vegan cookbooks in the top five with barely a salad recipe in either of them.) The long-brandished rebuttal to Ms. Palin's filched quote "If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?" is "I guess God also intended for humans to be cannibals then because we are also made out of 'meat.'" And as for the amazingly glib "I love animals—right next to the mashed potatoes," the first time I saw that slogan was a few decades before America was graced with Ms. Palin's public presence, when it was used interchangeably with "I love spotted owls: baked or fried."
Ms. Palin reportedly finds evolution a bit hard to swallow. Judging from her book, that applies to the evolution of ideas and attitudes as well.
Very truly yours,
Ingrid E. Newkirk
Written by Alisa Mullins
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