My reasons for not supporting PETA

For many vegans and animal rights activists in the United States,the international group known as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA (or People Eating Tasty Animals, if you’re a meat eater with absolutely no imagination) is the group that offers them their first foray into veganism and animal rights activism. I myself first learned about veganism through them, sobbed my eyes out when I first watched “Meet your Meat,” joined their student email list, and even interned for them last August and the previous August. In other words, I was once an avid supporter of theirs. But what was it that changed my mind?

Well, for one thing, I noticed that while they have done some good, like convincing PepsiCo and Coca-Cola to stop testing on animals, and inspiring countless people to get into animal rights, and while I do agree with them on some positions, such as promoting veganism and animal liberation networks like the ALF, many of their activities are just plain illogical or unhelpful. For instance, whenever they campaign against a fast food giant (i.e. McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, etc.), they’ll declare a victory and end the campaign as long as said giant adopts more “humane” methods of murdering (sorry, slaughtering) the animals they raise for food (and, in BK’s case at least, add a non-vegan “veggie burger” to their menu) . I don’t really care “humanely” an animal is killed (and frankly, neither does the animal in question); killing an animal is either wrong or it isn’t.

Also, their countless ads featuring nude women are just entirely pointless. No one’s looking at those and thinking “Gee, I’d better go vegan” or “gee, I’d better give up my fur coat.” They’re thinking “by George, look at that woman’s bare form!” (or something along those lines). Which makes the nudity….ENTIRELY POINTLESS. Wait, no, there’s a point: PUBLICITY. Which is also why you’ll find that any of their celebrity supporters aren’t vegan (some aren’t even vegetarian) or still wear leather or wool.

My advice? For all the good PETA has done, the negative outweighs the positive. Support a group which does more and compromises less, like Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, or Compassion over Killing, a group from my neck of the woods (Washington, DC area). COK mostly does vegan advocacy, but has also managed to get some pro-veg PSAs on MTV and was one of the groups that helped persuade Boca to stop using eggs in their products. That’s a group that gets things done!

~ by lunacoyote87 on June 2, 2010.