PETA's philosophy is "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment."About PETA In support of that position, it focuses on four core issues: factory farming,"Meet your meat", Peta.org.fur farming, animal testing, and animals in entertainment. It also campaigns against fishing, pest control, abuse of backyard dogs, and cock fighting. The organization's activities include advertisements, undercover investigations, animal rescue, and government lobbying. It takes in stray and abandoned animals, finding homes for some and euthanizing the rest."Euthanasia: The Compassionate Option", Peta.org
PETA has been criticized for its campaigns, for the actions of its employees,Freeman, Darren. "PETA workers face 25 felony counts in North Carolina", The Virginian Pilot, October 15, 2005 and for its support of the Animal Liberation Front, an US-declared terrorist organization. Doward, Jamie. "Beauty and the beasts", The Observer, August 1, 2004.Newkirk, Ingrid. "The ALF: Who, Why, and What?", Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals. Best, Steven & Nocella, Anthony J (eds). Lantern 2004, p. 341./
PETA is an animal rights organization, meaning that in addition to focusing on animal welfare and protection issues, it rejects the idea of animals as property, and opposes all forms of speciesism, animal testing, meat eating, factory farming, and hunting, as well as the use of animals in entertainment"Animal rights", Encyclopedia Britannica, retrieved July 10, 2006. or as clothing, furniture, or decoration. PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, said in 1983: "Animal liberationists do not separate out the human animal, so there is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They're all mammals."Derbyshire, Stuart. "A timeline of reaction", Spiked Online, March 8, 2001.
The organization's website states: "PETA believes that animals have rights and deserve to have their best interests taken into consideration, regardless of whether they are useful to humans. Like you, they are capable of suffering and have an interest in leading their own lives; therefore, they are not ours to use â€" for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other reason."PETA's homepage.
In PETA's 2004 annual review, Newkirk summed up what she sees as some of PETA's achievements: "Everyone eats, so we have done our best not only to reform the worst abuses in factory farming and slaughterhouses, but to promote a compassionate vegan diet, providing all the resources, from recipes to health tips, that a person could ever need. We have also revolutionized the way some companies do business, getting them to stop selling fur, boycott Australian merino wool, and abandon painful animal-poisoning tests in favor of sophisticated non-animal methods. We have shown how to prevent flooding without destroying beavers' homes and how to prevent birds from entering "big box" stores without using cruel glue traps. In the past year alone, former circus and zooelephants were sent to sanctuaries, hog-dog rodeos were banned, and cruel companies were fined. We also educated millions of kids about animal rights through our teacher network and education programs.""PETA annual review 2004", Peta.org.
History
PETA co-founder Alex Pacheco's undercover investigation at the Institute for Behavioral Research in 1981 first brought PETA to public attention. See Silver Spring monkeys.
Founded in 1980, PETA first came to public attention in 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case.Newkirk, Ingrid. Free the Animals. Lantern Books, 2000. ISBN 1930051220Alex Pacheco, PETA co-founder with Newkirk, conducted an undercover investigation inside a primate research laboratory at the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The lead researcher, Dr. Edward Taub, was studying regeneration of severed nerves by cutting nerves in the limbs of 17 monkeys, then applying electric shocks, physical restraint of intact limbs, and withholding food to see what, if anything, would force them to use the damaged limbs.Johnson, David. Review of The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, curledup.com Pacheco visited the institute at night and took photographs that showed the monkeys were living in "filthy conditions," according to the Institute for Animal Research's ILAR Journal.Sideris, Lisa et al. "Roots of Concern with Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Ethics", Institute for Laboratory Animal Research, ILAR Journal V40(1) 1999. He turned his evidence over to the police, who raided the lab and arrested Taub. Taub was later convicted of six counts of animal cruelty, the first conviction in the U.S. of a research scientist, although it was later overturned on appeal.
The case, which lasted ten years, led to the creation of the Animal Welfare Act of 1985,Schwartz, Jeffrey M. and Begley, Sharon. The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, Regan Books, 2002. and became the first animal-testing case to be argued before the United States Supreme Court,Newkirk, Ingrid. Free the Animals. Lantern, 2000. which unanimously rejected PETA's application for custody of some of the monkeys. They remained instead with the National Institutes of Health, which had funded Taub's research, until they died or were euthanized. The case defined PETA as an activist group that was able and willing to use undercover methods, the courts, and the media to achieve its aims.
The organization is known for its undercover investigations and aggressive media campaigns. Newkirk has said of PETA's campaign strategy: "How do we pick our battles? By trying to touch the public imagination, the public heart, and by choosing targets that will result in great change for large numbers of animals and set an example for others to follow when we win our battles with them."
It is also known for its celebrity supporters, who include Sir Paul McCartney, Pamela Anderson, Dolly Parton, Morrissey, Montel Williams, P!nk, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Sarah Jessica Parker. McCartney has said: "When I first heard of PETA, the idea that it would be called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals appealed to me because it was elegant and gentle about the idea that we simply just need to treat them ethically. I think the idea has grown from that platform, and now it's a huge voice for animal awareness.""We will win!", PETA interview with Sir Paul McCartney, retrieved July 10, 2006. McCartney's first wife, Linda, and their daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, also became committed supporters, as did McCartney's second wife, Heather Mills McCartney. Stella McCartney, who turned down a chance to become lead designer for the Gucci Group in 2000 because of the fashion house's work with leather and fur,"Stella McCartney", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006. recorded a video for PETA in 1998"Fur farm investigation", narrated by Stella McCartney, PETAtv.com. (video) showing footage from its four-month undercover investigation into fur farming.
Many of PETA's campaigns focus on large corporations, such as KFC, McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, PETCO, Procter & Gamble, Covance, and Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). In 1997, PETA initiated what has become an international, and frequently violent, campaign against HLS, when video footage shot covertly inside the company by PETA investigator Michele Rokke was aired on British television, showing staff beating the beagles in their careUndercover video footage of HLS employees beating a puppy, filmed at the Huntingdon Research Centre, England. (video). When HLS threatened legal action, PETA was forced to retreat from the campaign, fearing crippling costs, and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, a loose affiliation of activists with links to other groups, took its place.
Ingrid Newkirk is firm in her support of direct action, which has led to criticism of PETA's backing of Animal Liberation Front activists, some of whom have received financial support from PETA when faced with legal action. The Observer has noted what it calls a "network of relationships between seemly unconnected animal rights groups on both sides of the Atlantic," writing that, with assets of $6.5 million, and with the PETA Foundation holding further assets of $15 million, PETA funds individual activists and activist groups, some with "links to extremists," such as activists operating under the names Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, named as domestic "terrorist threats" by the United States Department of Homeland Security.Rood, Justin. "Animal Rights Groups and Ecology Militants Make DHS Terrorist List, Right-Wing Vigilantes Omitted", Congressional Quarterly, March 25, 2005.
Rod Coronado, a former ALF activist, is alleged to have received $70,000 from the group to fund his legal defense when he was convicted of having set fire to a Michigan State University research lab in 1992. PETA is also alleged to have donated $1.3 million to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an organization that promotes the use of alternatives to animal testing, but which has been criticized for its links with the ALF, and in particular with Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon who runs the North American Animal Liberation Press Office.Doward, Jamie. "Kill scientists, says animal rights chief", The Observer, July 25, 2004. Vlasak caused controversy in 2004 when he told The Observer: "I don't think you'd have to kill too many [researchers]. I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives." PETA also gave $5,000 to the Josh Harper Support Committee, before Harper was convicted of "animal enterprise terrorism" in the U.S. in connection with the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaignWoolcock, Nicola. "Animal rights activists convicted in the US of terrorising British lab", The Times, March 4, 2006. and, according to the New York Post, gave $1,500 to the Earth Liberation Front in 2001.Friedman, Stefan C. [Friedman, Stefan C. "The PETA-ELF connection", New York Post. Newkirk said of the ELF donation that it was a mistake, and that the money was supposed to be used for "public education about destruction of habitat."
In general, Newkirk makes no apology for PETA's support of activists who may break the law, writing that "no movement for social change has ever succeeded without 'the militarism component'. Not until black demonstrators resorted to violence did the national government work seriously for civil rights legislation. In the 1930s labor struggles had to turn violent before any significant gains were made. In 1850 white abolitionists, having given up on peaceful means, began to encourage and engage in actions that disrupted plantation operations and liberated slaves. Was that all wrong?" Of the Animal Liberation Front, she writes: "Thinkers may prepare revolutions, but bandits must carry them out."
PETA members have themselves crossed the line between campaigning and direct action, particularly in their long-standing efforts to halt the fur industry,History of PETA's fur campaign, Furisdead.com. which has involved disrupting fashion shows and throwing paint at fur coats."Fur", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006. In 1996, PETA activists famously threw a dead raccoon onto the table of Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, who promotes the use of fur in fashion, while she was dining at the Four Seasons in New York, and left bloody paw prints and the words "Fur Hag" on the steps of her home. PETA supporters have also pied Wintour more than once,Zappia, Corina. [http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0543,zappia1,69148,15.html "Bloody BrilliantPie, Anna Wintour, and the history of fur protest"], Village Voice, October 20, 2005. and a member delivered a package of maggot-infested innards to her office in April 2000, explaining in a press release that "Anna stole this animal's skin and his life, she might as well have his guts."Loewenberg, Anna Sophie. "The Fur Police", The New York Review of Magazines, undated, retrieved July 11, 2006.
Campaigns
Christy Turlington during PETA's "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" campaign
PETA is best known for its creative campaigning, which is often light-hearted (See below.). The Lettuce Ladies, young women dressed in bikinis which appear to be made of lettuce, gather in city centers to hand out leaflets about veganism. Every year the "Running of the Nudes" campaign sees PETA activists run naked through Pamplona, Spain in a parody of the annual Running of the Bulls traditionRunningofthenudes.com (video). Supermodels such as Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell have posed naked on billboards with the slogan "I'd Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur" emblazoned across their chests."Fashion and Dress", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006. Cities are regularly asked to change their names in exchange for supplies of veggie burgers: the New York suburbs of Hamburg and Fishkill have both been approached, as have Hamburg and Frankfurt in Germany.
Other campaigns are hard-hitting and controversial. The 2003 Holocaust on your Plate exhibition, funded by an anonymous philanthropist,Teather, David. "'Holocaust on a plate' angers US Jews"], The Guardian, March 3, 2003. consisted of eight 60-square-foot panels, each juxtaposing images of the Holocaust with images of factory farming. Photographs of concentration camp inmates in wooden bunks were shown next to photographs of battery chickens, and piled bodies of Holocaust victims next to a pile of pig carcasses. Captions alleged that "like the Jews murdered in concentration camps, animals are terrorized when they are housed in huge filthy warehouses and rounded up for shipment to slaughter. The leather sofa and handbag are the moral equivalent of the lampshades made from the skins of people killed in the death camps."Smith, Wesley J. "PETA to cannibals: Don't let them eat steak", San Francisco Chronicle, December 21, 2003.
Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute wrote in The San Francisco Chronicle that: "Making odious moral equivalencies between animal husbandry and the worst crimes against humans has become a PETA trademark."Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said the exhibition, which was shown in San Diego, New York, and the University of California in Los Angeles, was "outrageous, offensive and takes chutzpah to new heights ... [T]he effort by Peta to compare the deliberate systematic murder of millions of Jews to the issue of animal rights is abhorrent."
The creator of the campaign, Matt Prescott, who is Jewish and lost several relatives in the Holocaust, told The Guardian: "The very same mindset that made the Holocaust possible — that we can do anything we want to those we decide are 'different or inferior' — is what allows us to commit atrocities against animals every single day ... The fact is, all animals feel pain, fear and loneliness. We're asking people to recognise that what Jews and others went through in the Holocaust is what animals go through every day in factory farms."
PETA had used Holocaust imagery previously in a television public service announcment titled "They Came for Us at Night," which aired on US cable networks and in Warsaw, Poland in July 2003. According to the Anti-Defamation League the "television ad showed the outside world through the slats of a boxcar and is narrated by a man (with an accent) who describes the plight of being transported with no food and water," drawing an analogy between the plight of animals being transported to their deaths in cattle cars with Jews in the same situation during the Holocaust.
PETA president Ingrid Newkirk has been quoted as saying "Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses.""This time PETA's guilty of missing the point", Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, May 20, 2005
The organization was criticized again in 2003 when Newkirk sent a letter[http://www.peta.org/feat/arafat/ PETA's letter to Yasser Arafat, February 3, 2003. to then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat in response to a Jerusalem bombing attack, in which a donkey was loaded with explosives and blown up.Lynne, Diana. [http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31211 "PETA likens chickensto Holocaust victims"], February 25, 2003. After being "bombarded with calls," according to a PETA spokesperson, Newkirk asked Arafat to appeal to those involved in the attacks to keep animals out of the conflict. When criticized for involving herself on behalf of the non-human victims only, Newkirk told the Washington Post: "It's not my business to inject myself into human wars."Dougherty, Kerry "Arafat gets ass-inine plea from PETA on intifada", Jewish World Review, February 10, 2003.
One of PETA's primary aims is to document the treatment of animals in research laboratories and other facilities where animals are used. To achieve this, it sends its employees into laboratories, circuses, and onto farms, sometimes requiring them to spend many months undercover, filming and otherwise documenting their experiences.
PETA does not itself engage in raids on facilities to free animals, but it receives and publicizes tapes recorded by the Animal Liberation Front during the latter's raids, arranging to meet with ALF activists to receive video footage and documentation, or having them forward it via a third party. This practise has led to criticism, as the raids are sometimes violent and may involve the destruction of property, and there has been one allegation that PETA may have had advance knowledge of an attack. In 1995, during the trial of ALF activist Rod Coronado for an arson attack on Michigan State University, U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer alleged in a sentencing memorandum that Ingrid Newkirk had arranged, "days before the MSU arson occurred," to have Coronado send her documents from the lab and a videotape of the raid.Government Sentencing Memorandum of U.S. Attorney Michael Dettmer in USA v. Rodney Coronado, July 31, 1995, pp. 8-10.
Many of PETA's investigations have led to legal action against the target companies. PETA conducted an undercover investigation of Covance, a drug development services company, from April 2003 until March 2004, obtaining video footage that a British judge called "highly disturbing.""Covance fined for violations of the Animal Welfare Act", Peta.org. The evidence, which PETA submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), appeared to show monkeys being hit, tormented, and humiliatedVideo footage from inside Covance. (videos). According to PETA's website, Covance was subsequently fined for violations of the U.S. Animal Welfare Act based on PETA's documentation.
Researchers working for PETA went undercover into Huntingdon Life Sciences, a contract animal-testing facility, in 1997, where they filmed staff beating dogs in the UKUndercover video footage of HLS employees beating a puppy, filmed at the Huntingdon Research Centre, England. (video) and what appears to be abuse of monkeys in the company's Princeton, New Jersey facilityUndercover video footage of HLS employees apparently dissecting a live monkey, filmed at the HLS Princeton Research Centre, NJ, USA. (video). The employees were sacked and HLS's licence in the UK was suspended. After the video footage aired on British television in 1999, a group of activists set up Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty with a view to closing HLS down, a campaign that is still ongoing.
In 1990, a Las Vegas entertainer lost his entertainment licence, as well as a later lawsuit against PETA, after the group filmed him beating orangutans. A North Carolina grand jury handed down indictments against pig-farm workers, the first indictments for animal cruelty within that industry, after they were filmed skinning a sow who was allegedly still conscious."Pig Farm Cruelty Revealed", Peta.org. In 1985, the U.S. government suspended funding to the City of Hope biomedical research center in California over its alleged treatment of dogs, and East Carolina University agreed to stop using animals for classroom experiments after a PETA investigation.
PETA's filmUnnecessary Fuss shows researchers' footage from a study that involved inflicting brain damage on baboons.
In 1984, a 26-minute PETA film[2] Unnecessary Fuss from Peta.org. The film can be downloaded from *Unnecessary Fuss Part 1 *Unnecessary Fuss Part 2 *Unnecessary Fuss Part 3 *Unnecessary Fuss Part 4 *Unnecessary Fuss Part 5 (video), based on 60 hours of researchers' footage obtained by the Animal Liberation Front during a raid on the University of Pennsylvania's Head Injury Clinic, led to the suspension of funds from the university, the closure of the lab, the firing of the university's chief veterinarian, and a period of probation for the university. The footage was made by the researchers as part of a study that involved inflicting brain damage on 150 baboons using a hydraulic device intended to simulate whiplash. An independent investigation by the Office for Protection from Research Risks (OPRR) confirmed that there had been "extraordinarly serious violations" by the lab of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.McCarthy, Charles. R. "Reflections on the Organizational Locus of the Office for Protection from Research Risks", The Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science at Case Western Reserve University, undated, retrieved July 10, 2006.
PETA was nevertheless criticized by the OPRR for having edited the film in a misleading way. Twenty-five errors were identified in Newkirk's voiceover, including a scene where she described an accidental liquid spill over a conscious baboon as an acid spill, with no evidence to suggest it was anything but water. The film also gave the impression that a scene involving the hydraulic equipment smashing against a baboon's head represented several baboons being damaged, whereas subsequent examination of the 60 hours of original footage showed that the same scene had been constantly repeated.Sideris, Lisa; McCarthy, Charles & Smith, David H. "Roots of Concern with Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Ethics", Bioethics of Laboratory Animal Research, Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) Journal V40 (1) 1999.
PETA was also criticized in 1999 regarding undercover film it took inside the Carolina Biological Supply Company, which appeared to show wriggling cats being embalmed alive. Two veterinarians from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed that the cats appeared to have been alive at the time, and the video was introduced as evidence before a departmental hearing. An anatomist called by Carolina Biological's lawyer subsequently demonstrated that the wriggling may have been the effect of formalin on freshly dead muscle tissue, which causes muscle fibers to contract and move, and the case against the company was dismissed. [3]
Policy on euthanasia
PETA does not operate animal shelters, and does euthanize most of the animals turned over to them. They recommend euthanasia for sick and dying animals, for certain breeds of animals (e.g. pit bull terriers)Newkirk, Ingrid. "Controlling an animal as deadly as a weapon", San Francisco Chronicle, June 8, 2005. and, in certain situations, for unwanted animals in shelters: for example, for those living for long periods in cramped cages.Ingrid Newkirk has said: "Our service is to provide a peaceful and painless death to animals who no one wants."The Virginian Pilot, July 20, 2005. PETA recommends the use of an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital provided it is administered by a trained professional.
Before founding PETA, Newkirk was chief of animal-disease control and director of the animal shelter in the District of Columbia. During her time working in animal shelters, she has said that: "I would go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself. Because I couldn't stand to let them go through ... [other workers abusing the animals]. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day."The New Yorker, April 14, 2003. The organization says that it takes in feral cat colonies with diseases such as feline AIDS and leukemia, stray dogs, litters of parvo-infected puppies, and backyard dogs, and as such it would be unrealistic and unkind to operate a no-kill policy."A reply from PETA to a letter inquiring about its euthanization decisions", Petrescueonline.net. Newkirk has said: "It is a totally rotten business, but sometimes the only kind option for some animals is to put them to sleep forever."Barakat, Matthew. "PETA Euthanized More Than 1000 Animals Last Year", Associated Press
PETA was criticized in 2005, when police investigators staked out a garbage dumpster in Ahoskie, North Carolina after discovering over one hundred dead animals had been left there over the course of a month. Police observed PETA employees Andrew Benjamin Cook and Adria Joy Hinkle approach the dumpster in a van registered to PETA and leave behind 18 dead animals. Thirteen more were found inside the van. The animals had been euthanized by PETA in shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties. PETA condemned the dumping as against their policy, and suspended Cook. Police charged Cook and Hinkle each with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty and eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals.PETA Employees Face 31 Felony Animal-Cruelty Charges for Killing, Dumping Dogs â€" Lincoln Tribune
Conflicts with other activists
PETA has been the target of criticism by other animal rights advocates. Virginian activist John Newton (formerly of Meower Power) describes the group as "cult-like" adding "If you're not radical enough, they drive you out." Merritt Clifton, founder and editor of Animal People has said "Ingrid Newkirk runs PETA like a guru cult. Sooner or later, everyone who questions her or upstages her in any way, no matter how unintentionally, ends up getting shafted in the most humiliating manner Newkirk can think of." Sue Perna, an animal rights activist and former PETA employee calls Newkirk "an abuser of the human animal" adding "Many of us believe that the further we distance ourselves from PETA, the better off the animal rights movement will be." "PETA's zeal pushes the envelope too far for some", The Virginian-Pilot, December 3, 2000.
John "J.P." Goodwin, founder of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, argues that some of PETA's campaigns are detrimental to the credibility of the animal rights movement: "some people have positioned the movement as flaky, based on silly claims and goofy stunts. It's time to say no to pie throwing, manure dumping, and naked models, and get back to talking about animals."
PETA's "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" campaign has generated criticism from feminists for objectifying the female body. In response to an ad campaign in which Patti Davis posed naked with Hugh Hefner's dog, Batya Bauman, director of Feminists for Animal Rights, asserts that "PETA has now escalated the tactic into pornography and got themselves into bed with Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine". She added that PETA "severely overstepped the boundaries of respect toward women"Editorial Comment by Batya Bauman, Feminists for Animal Rights newsletter, vol 8, no 3-4, 1994Carol J. Adams, a prominent feminist and animal rights advocate, objected to PETA's campaign saying "I don't liberate animals over the bodies of women" and "I think the further insult was the celebration of PETA's alliance with Playboy by having a jointly sponsored event last summer, at which Patti Davis was featured. I'm glad she gave some of her money to PETA. But like Catharine MacKinnon, I'm not sure reparations money is the way we go about changing the status of women. I abhor the alliance of any animal advocacy with pornography.""Do Feminists Need to Liberate Animals, Too?", On the issues: Dialogue, Spring 1995.
In 2005, a coalition of advocates for AIDS patients (Patient Advocates Against PETA, [4]) launched a campaign assailing PETA for its opposition to using animals to test possible AIDS drugs and calling on PETA's celebrity supporters to account for their high-profile role in what they described as "hindering the search for a cure to AIDS." PETA vice-president Dan Matthews responded that: "AIDS is an easy disease to avoid, but our government squanders millions on duplicative animal tests, rather than issue frank warnings, especially to young people." Dr. Genevieve Clavreul, the coalition's organizer, expressed concern that in order to find an AIDS vaccine "We are going to have to go to an animal model to do it and I don't want to have to be fighting every five minutes against PETA." AIDS Coalition Clashes with Animal Rights Activists by Erin Cassin, The New Standard, September 20, 2005 In May 2006, the Center for Consumer Freedom ran a series of ads in the Metro system of Washington, D.C, criticizing PETA for its opposition to medical animal research. The ads quote PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk as saying, "Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it.", and then suggesting that given the choice between saving the lives of sick people and lab rats, PETA would choose the rats. PETA rejected this implication, quoting Ingrid Newkirk as saying, "Even if animal experiments did result in a cure for AIDS, of which there is no chance, I'd be against it on moral grounds."PETA argues that real progress in understanding AIDS will come from "modern, sophisticated non-animal tests, not crude animal experiments." Advocacy Groups Clash Over Animal Research by Melanie Hunter CNS News, May 10, 2006
Finance
PETA received donations from the public of over $25 million for the year ending July 31, 2005, according to the group's audited financial statement. Nearly 85 percent of its operating budget was spent directly on its programs; 10.83 percent on fundraising efforts; and 4.18 percent on management and general operations. Regarding its employees, 53 percent earned between $14,560 and $27,999; 32 percent between $28,000 and $38,499; and 15 percent over $38,500. Ingrid Newkirk earned $32,000 from her PETA position during that year."Annual Review 2005", Peta.org.
PETA has a major campaign targeting that has included more than 10,000 demonstrations worldwide and support from the Dalai Lama (although the Dalai Lama later declared he was misrepresented by PETA [5]), Al Sharpton, Paul McCartney, and Dick Gregory, among others. PETA has requested that KFC require that its suppliers adopt the welfare recommendations of KFC's own animal welfare committee, including stopping the breaking of birds' limbs and drowning conscious birds in tanks of scalding water [6]. PETA shot video footage at a slaughterhouse in Moorefield, West Virginia and posted the footage on PETA's website. KFC is PETA's 4th fast food target, for alleged animal cruelty, after campaigns against McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. See also: Kentucky Fried Cruelty.com
Circuses
The group regularly protests circuses that use animals. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is a frequent target of PETA's allegations of abuse. PETA asked a number of mayors to pass legislation banning items used to train elephants from cities the circus was due to visit. In one specific case, PETA asked that "bullhooks, electric prods and other devices that inflict pain on, or cause injury to, elephants" [7]"Carson & Barnes Trainer Videotaped Beating, Shocking Elephants", PETA Media Center, July 6, 2006. be banned, after the animal care director of the Carson & Barnes Circus, Tim Frisco, was filmed allegedly attacking elephants with bullhooks and electric prods. PETA's videotape of one of Frisco's training sessions allegedly shows him attacking elephants with steel-tipped bullhooks, shocking them with electric prods, and shouting "Make 'em scream!" The elephants are shown screaming and recoiling in pain, according to PETA.PETA undercover video of Tim Frisco, animal care director of the Carson & Barnes Circus, training elephants, PETAtv.com. (video)
In response to PETA's request, Mayor Rod DesJardins of Munising, Michigan called the organization "radical extremists with a bizarre philosophy that considers the life of an insect equal to the life of a human being." [8]
Jesus was a Vegetarian
Several PETA commercials have used Christian themes to promote vegetarianism, including one claiming that Jesus was a vegetarian, and another featuring a pig with the caption "He Died for Your Sins." [9]
Lettuce Ladies
Lisa Hayes and Lynn Minmei are PETA Lettuce Ladies in Columbus, Ohio
The 'Lettuce Ladies' are women, some of them Playboy models, who appear publicly in bikinis made to look like lettuce leaves, and distribute information about the vegan diet. [10] There is a lesser-known male counterpart to the Lettuce Ladies, called the Broccoli Boys. [11]
Name changes of cities
PETA regularly asks towns and cities whose names in its view are suggestive of animal exploitation to change their names. In April 2003, they offered free veggie burgers to the city of Hamburg, New York, in exchange for changing its name to Veggieburg; the town declined the offer. PETA also campaigned in 1996 to have the town of Fishkill, New York, change its name, claiming the name suggests cruelty to fish. (The root "kill", found in many New York town names, is Dutch for "creek".) In October 2003, the group urged the town of Rodeo, California, to change its name because it invokes images of the sport of rodeo, which they claim is harmful to animals, even though the town's name is pronouced differently (ro-DAY-oh) than a cowboy 'rodeo'. As a replacement name, they suggested Unity, an acknowledgement of Union Oil's role in saving the area economically in the late 19th century. PETA offered to donate $20,000 worth of veggie burgers to local schools if the name was changed. The town declined.
Anti-fur campaigns
Two long-running campaigns are "Here's the rest of your fur coat," [12] and "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur," in which supermodels appeared nude to express their opposition to wearing fur, which has resulted in widespread media coverage. In May 2006, they held a naked protest near St Paul's Cathedral, in London to continue their protest against the use of real bear fur in the Bearskins used by the Foot Guards. [13]
The group runs a website geared towards children at Petakids.comPetakids.com with contests, online games, online videos, a free subscription to Grrr! Magazine, comics, and songs that are supportive of PETA's causes. The website also provides an e-News listPetakids e-News.
PETA2 dispatched supporters on 61 summer concert and skateboard tours including the Warped, Phish, and Morrissey tours. At these events, PETA screened the "Meet Your Meat" video and disseminated information.
The group has several programs helping cats and dogs in poorer areas of southeastern Virginia and northern North Carolina. PETA has spayed or neutered over 25,000 cats and dogs for reduced price or for free in the last few years. The organization comes to the aide of neglected dogs and cats who are severely ill and injured, and it pursues cruelty cases against extreme cases. They offer free humane euthanasia services to counties that kill unwanted animals via gassing or shooting. PETA also offers free euthanasia to people whose companion animals are severely ill/dying but who cannot afford euthanasia at a veterinarian. PETA paid for and built a cat shelter in a North Carolina county. Each year the organization builds and sets up hundreds of sturdy dog houses, with straw bedding, for dogs that are chained outside all winter. PETA also creates and airs numerous public service announcements and billboards urging people to help control the pet overpopulation through spaying/neutering, and adopting animals from shelters instead of purchasing cats and dogs from pet stores or breeders.
Cover of the "Your Daddy Kills Animals" pamphlet [16] (pdf)
Your Daddy Kills Animals
The organization has been criticized for distributing graphic pamphlets to children. According to PETA's website, [17] the pamplets are geared toward making parents aware of how their actions affect their children. One pamphlet, addressing the wearing of fur, was headlined "Your Mommy Kills Animals," [18] and featured a cartoon of a mother slicing a knife into a rabbit's stomach. Another pamphlet, "Your Daddy Kills Animals!" [19] showed a cartoon father gutting a fish, and stated: "Since your daddy is teaching you the wrong lessons about right and wrong, you should teach him fishing is killing. Until your daddy learns it's not fun to kill, keep your doggies and kitties away from him. He's so hooked on killing defenseless animals, they could be next." [20]
Milk campaign
PETA was ordered by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority to discontinue claims it made about milk consumption in a campaign aimed at school children, concluding that the compaign "played on children's anxieties and were likely to cause some children undue fear and distress." The ad featured trading cards with statements such as "Sue's milk-drinking led to her battle with zits." Other cards claimed that dairy products cause obesity, belching and flatulence, and excessive nasalmucus build up.
Running of the Nudes
Every year, naked PETA activists, wearing red scarves and bull horns, take to the streets of Pamplona two days before the city's annual "Running of the Bulls" in protest at the tradition, which sees bulls goaded and injured by the crowd. Over 1,000 activists took part in 2006.Runningofthenudes.com (video)
