Comments on: ‘Why is anyone still listening to PETA?’

By: Trudy Jackson

Trudy Jackson — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:46:53 +0000

Just follow the money trail.
Personally I don’t trust any of them. My money will go to the smaller rescues.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:05:42 +0000

I really wish someone would put together a chart that shows what all the pet acronym people actually do and stand for.

PETA, HSUS, ASPCA, etc. on one axis
No-Kill, “companion” status, etc on the other

I’d do it, but I’m not well versed enough (despite reading a lot on the issues) and when you do find info on policy positions, it’s often on a huge bill that groups will vote for or against for very different reasons.

Not easy to decipher at all.

By: LauraL

LauraL — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:16:26 +0000

Other Pat -
Sorry, didn’t mean to say we should all support licensing per se. The point I was making is that there are arguments on both sides of that issue and others that never get heard - because all anyone has to do is shut down the conversation is to mention PETA. Does that make sense?

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:44:15 +0000

I am conflicted on the licensing thing. With city after city trying to pass pet limit laws, anything that gives the local government a way to identify me as well as know how many animals I keep makes me nervous. It also gives them a way to mandate rabies vaccination schedules - still yearly in many areas which is WAY too often. And in many cities, Animal Control (which is where licensing fees typically go) runs shelters that are often high-kill and poorly-managed. Not to mention I’ve run into a LOT of Animal Control employees who are “anti-breeder”. Why should I pay license fees to fund THAT?

By: LauraL

LauraL — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:33:53 +0000

I turned against PETA for real the day they attacked Steve Irwin (um, that’d be the day after he died and could no longer defend himself). How many kids did Irwin reach versus PETA? To me, PETA’s the worst thing that ever happened to reasonable animal-rights people, because it gave our opponents a totally fringy, crazy group to tie us to.

For proof, just listen to your legislators next time any animal-positive legislation comes up. Want to make starving an animal to death a felony? Must be PETA. Want to require all pets to be licensed? That’s PETA, trying to keep people from having pets.

Of course it isn’t, and we all know it - but PETA’s the perfect straw-man opponent for puppy mills, crooked pet-food manufacturers, the works. “We didn’t screw up - it’s just PETA out to get us.” You’d be appalled by how often it works.

PETA has screwed animal lovers for years by dominating the national conversation about pets’ importance to people. They DON’T speak for anyone I know. And it’s time to stop letting them pretend that they do.

By: Deb

Deb — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:58:45 +0000

There is such a dichotomy between Animal Rights and Animal Welfare. Both PETA and HSUS are Animal Rights organizations. They maintain a highly funded and active PR organization that leads most pet loving people to believe they are for animal welfare. They aren’t. Their goal is to totally sever the human/companion animal/domestic stock bond. They want the breeding of non human animals for any reason to stop. Period. Gina’s face to face with Ingrid Newkirk is so right on! Ms. Newkirk and Mr. Pacelle are out to totally eliminate all domesticated animals from our lives.
Animal Welfare activists want to continue the interspecies bond. They basically are after supporting and instituting laws and their enforcement that prevents cruelty and abuse.
It gets confusing over certain issues, especially if it’s something the Media has focused on. PETA and HSUS with their elegant PR machines will be there first to get their propaganda in, and they will be the source quoted. AR and AW may agree on things like CA AB #1634, or breed specific legislation, or seuter laws, but their motives are different. A
When you donate to either organization, that’s really where your money goes.To PR. Not the care of companion animals in a shelter. take the Vic case, the money donated to HSUS by people thinking they were helping the dogs was such a waste, because HSUS never had care of the dogs in the first place! The donations just went to salaries and PR!
The dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, ferrets, birds, etc that you love are better served if you donate to a Breed or Species Specific organization, or to an individual shelter in your municipality. That’s where your money will directly help the the animals you/we care so very much about!

By: Trudy Jackson

Trudy Jackson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:57:03 +0000

I believe that during the same time they were dumping the pets in the trash bins here in town that they stole My 2 cats. A white van kept going by, I should have known. I had 2 outside cats that went missing the same week, and I have never seen them since. They were indoor-outdoor cats, all spayed and nutered and very beloved pets.
PETA also says- Better Dead then bred!
No, they don’t like the TNR, they want them dead.
But they don’t even touch the real issues- Like the shipyard torturing the cats there. Right in their own back yard.

By: Jennifer J

Jennifer J — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:17:58 +0000

I have three of those vanity babies. Not sure what the heck makes one “purebred”. Love it when people like Ingrid say having a child is just vanity or selfishness. Makes me wonder about her upbringing

Vanity. Hmmm. Let’s see, ruining your body . Have not had a full nights sleep in two years and over the last 8 years maybe one full nights rest(6-8 hours) in 4. A fortune already spent on clothes and camp and schools etc with college down the line, GULP!. Lot’s of gray hair, stress, worry, my life utterly at their(or my pets) beck and call and my biggest joy is their happiness and success. I hope and pray that I survive the teen years!

My dogs and kids go very well together. Many of my favorite childhood memories are of pets. I hate that PETA and other extremists wish to sever this bond, to deprive my children or any child of a future with animals. What a sad and sterile place that would be!

By: straybaby

straybaby — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:51:31 +0000

wow. thanks Jennifer! ok, so it’s not just companion cats and dogs they want gone, but all. i never really made that connection. of course, i never realized that all ferals lived in concrete jungles either . . .

so i guess the right thing to do would be let companion animals die out. and then we should die out so wild cats and dogs and other formerly used as domestic animals could have their land back? they obviously can’t live safely as long as we exist which means they will always have to be companion animals, which is obviously not the right way for them to live. dogs and cats were meant to be here since they have been all along, so that seems like the only way to go, right PETA?

good thing i never had those vanity babies! OY!

By: Elaine

Elaine — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:31:19 +0000

PETA is obviously a DON’T DO AS I DO, DO AS I SAY organization! What do you want to bet that THEY would still have pets? They just don’t want the “unwashed masses” to have them.

Case in point: A lobbyist for an environmental group that is opposed to harvesting trees wrote an article promoting his idea of a better world.

He stated he looked forward to the time we would ALL be forced to live in cities, have a community garden, share tools and ALL ride bikes—no automobiles.

He lives in a huge LOG home overlooking a lake heated by 3 WOOD STOVES! No doubt he also drives a big SUV or truck!

I’m sure he thinks he will be passing all the bicyclists on the road in his SUV as he drives to Salem to tell the rest of us how to live!

It is very important to thoroughly research an organization BEFORE donating to them! This guy is making BIG WAGES promoting an agenda that he surely doesn’t think he will have to follow.