A Note About Differences with PETA

4) PETA activists regularly target children as young as six years old with anti- meat and anti-milk propaganda, even waiting outside their schools to intercept them without notifying their parents. One piece of kid-targeted PETA literature tells small children: “Your Mommy Kills Animals!” PETA brags that its messages reach over 1.2 million minor children, including 30,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 12, all contacted by e-mail without parental supervision. One PETA vice president told the Fox News Channel’s audience: “Our campaigns are always geared towards children, and they always will be.”

5) PETA’s president has said that “even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS , we would be against it.” And PETA has repeatedly attacked research foundations like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, solely because they support animal-based research aimed at curing life-threatening diseases and birth defects. And PETA helped to start and manage a quasi-medical front group, the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, to attack medical research head-on.

6) PETA has compared Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust to farm animals and Jesus Christ to pigs. PETA’s religious campaigns include a website that claims—despite ample evidence to the contrary—that Jesus Christ was a vegetarian . PETA holds protests at houses of worship, even suing one church that tried to protect its members from Sunday-morning harassment. Its billboards taunt Christians with the message that hogs “died for their sins.” PETA insists, contrary to centuries of rabbinical teaching, that the Jewish ritual of kosher slaughter shouldn’t be allowed. And its infamous “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign crassly compared the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide to farm animals.

7) PETA frequently looks the other way when its celebrity spokespersons don’t practice what it preaches. As gossip bloggers and Hollywood journalists have noted, Pamela Anderson’s Dodge Viper (auctioned to benefit PETA) had a “luxurious leather interior”; Jenna Jameson was photographed fishing , slurping oysters, and wearing a leather jacket just weeks after launching an anti-leather campaign for PETA; Morrissey got an official “okay” from PETA after eating at a steakhouse; Dita von Teese has written about her love of furs and foie gras; Steve-O built a career out of abusing small animals on film ; the officially “anti- fur ” Eva Mendes often wears fur anyway; and Charlize Theron’s celebrated October 2007 Vogue cover shoot featured several suede garments. In 2008, “Baby Phat” designer Kimora Lee Simmons became a PETA spokesmodel despite working with fur and leather, after making a $20,000 donation to the animal rights group.

7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA

1) According to government documents, PETA employees have killed more than 19,200 dogs , cats, puppies, and kittens since 1998. This behavior continues despite PETA’s moralizing about the “unethical” treatment of animals by farmers, scientists, restaurant owners, circuses, hunters, fishermen, zookeepers, and countless other Americans . PETA puts to death over 90 percent of the animals it accepts from members of the public who expect the group to make a reasonable attempt to find them adoptive homes. PETA holds absolutely no open- adoption shelter hours at its Norfolk, VA headquarters, choosing instead to spend part of its $32 million annual income on a contract with a crematory service to periodically empty hundreds of animal bodies from its large walk-in freezer.

2) PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk has described her group’s overall goal as “total animal liberation.” This means the complete abolition of meat , milk, cheese, eggs, honey, zoos , aquariums, circuses, wool, leather, fur , silk, hunting , fishing , and pet ownership . In a 2003 profile of Newkirk in The New Yorker, author Michael Specter wrote that Newkirk has had at least one seeing-eye dog taken away from its blind owner. PETA is also against all medical research that requires the use of animals, including research aimed at curing AIDS and cancer .

3) PETA has given tens of thousands of dollars to convicted arsonists and other violent criminals. This includes a 2001 donation of $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an FBI-certified “domestic terrorist” group responsible for dozens of firebombs and death threats. During the 1990s, PETA paid $70,200 to Rodney Coronado, an Animal Liberation Front (ALF) serial arsonist convicted of burning down a Michigan State University research laboratory. In his sentencing memorandum, a federal prosecutor implicated PETA president Ingrid Newkirk in that crime . PETA vegetarian campaign coordinator Bruce Friedrich has also told an animal rights convention that “blowing stuff up and smashing windows” is “a great way to bring about animal liberation,” adding, “Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.”

Peta promotes (as you said) happy meat , which there is no such thing. Even if the animal does have a "happy" life, their beds be stuffed with straw, time out to roam around in the fields. When it comes down to it, when that animal is slaughtered it still feel's the same fear, confusion and anxiety that the In-humane animals feel. Peta is not vegan at all. Sure little abuse is better than tons, but it still get's killed in the end.

I am not personally familiar with PETA but it seems from the general comments that they are taking a more incremental approach to affecting change. Instead of making the issue all-or-nothing they've chosen to fight the battles they can hopefully win while they build the might necessary to accomplish more substantial changes to our way of living. The difference lies less is matters of belief and more in matters of method.

As for the comment that they present utilitarian arguments as opposed to rights-based arguments I would find this logical, regardless of the source of their own beliefs, since our society is one that responds to utility arguments; an in fact non-vegans are likely such for utilitarian reasons as opposed to philosophical ones and as such they understand the utilitarian language.

I am hoping they will catch up to more current ideas soon. I think most Welfarists will ultimately become Abolitionists as they become increasingly informed. Just vegetarianism is oft a stop over on the path to Veganism. We ought to treat them as we would any sick animals who need nurturing. Fighting them pushes them further away.

Every time I see/hear PeTA mentioned, the first word that comes to my mind is HYPOCRISY!!!

I'm Vegan and an Animal Rights activist, I'm NOT a Welfarist but certainly am an Abolitionist! I know that animals are sentient & believe they have the right to be left alone... PeTA (the Welfarists) think the animals can & will be killed, as long as they say so, eg if they're 'homeless', if they're treated 'better', etc.

Vegans should NOT be supporting PeTA!!!
(neither should anyone else!)

Although this may appear to be a side-issue, I note that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is regularly cited as experts on issues involving the use of nonhuman animals and also described as an "animal rights" organisation.

There are serious doubts about the veracity of the latter claim as they as an organisation adhere to the welfarist philosophy of utilitarian Peter Singer. This means that PeTA do not present a rights-based argument against animal use and, as Prof. Francione pointed out, are increasingly involved in the regulation of animal treatment. For example, their recent campaign in Canada involved striking a deal with KFC to get millions of chickens gassed in controlled atmosphere killing systems.

Since Opposing Views puts great store on the involvement of experts, their status is important.