In their most tasteless effort yet to squeeze themselves the news on the tails of real tragedy PETA compares bus decapitation to animal slaughters. "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals submitted an ad for publication in the Portage Daily Graphic this week that compared the murder of Tim McLean, 22, to the "needless killing" of chickens, cows and pigs in "factory farms."" Yeah, because when a dude on a greyhound bus decapitates and cannibalizes another rider, I think of chickens.
The copy of the ad reads:
Manitoba . . . an innocent young victim's throat is cut . . . His struggles and cries are ignored . . . The man with the knife shows no emotion . . . The victim is slaughtered and his head is cut off . . . His flesh is eaten . . . It's still going on!
And even though the ad hasn't run as the Portage Daily Graphic refused it, PETA admits they got quite a lot of hate mail for it.
Other ad stories related to the horrific murder on the greyhound bus: When a simple line goes horribly wrong adfreak tells the story that Greyhound pulled their "nobody has ever heard of Bus Rage" campaign, now that everyone has heard of bus decapitation.
Another fine example of human vultures who like to ride on news for their cause - the Westboro Baptist Church were stopped at border of Canada, after announcing that they picket Mr. McLean's funeral to let Canadians know that his decapitation was God's response to Canadian policies enabling abortion, homosexuality and adultery.
People are really messed up.
They really are ridiculous now. I'm upping my meat intake.
Any sympathy I may have had for PETA's concerns have totally gone out the window. This type of work - it's not advertising, it's propaganda of the most insidious kind - just makes me want to puke.
I'm a vegetarian (for the simple reason that I shared a house with several of them in my early ad days and couldn't afford my own fridge) and yet I'm considering upping my meat intake too. :)
As a Canadian, this ad is COMPLETLY disgusting. I sent PETA an email. They are warped and deranged people, I am guessing they are somehow tied in with the Scientologists, rational and compassionate human beings do not do things like this.
pretty disgusting stuff.
if you're not familiar with those westboro baptist freaks, i'd recommend looking deeper. they're as consistently and thoroughly execrable a group as i've seen, at least in their particular cultural context. they love to picket funerals. funerals.
Freaks is the word, they seem to only picket funerals which is just appalling. They think they're converting people with that tactic? The Patriot riders (yep, motorcycle posse) try to get there first and stop them, and successfully ran them off at Fort Drum before they picketed some fallen soldiers funeral.
The thing is, there's also a great lesson here in advertising. Its one thing to create awareness with the attention of gaining fans, and quite another to create awareness with the attention of gaining enemies. PETA needs a new strategy. Preferably one that doesn't include outrageous polemical arguments that make them seem like ten year olds.
By the way if anyone likes sweetbreads, email me and I'll send you a great recipe. I'll bet you can make it with veal.
PETA have been annoying me for years but this really takes the cake.
Veal! Yay veal! Delicious.
In another forum, we've been discussing veal and other yummy meats.
Ok, I'm a total carnivore but I don't eat veal I never liked it to be honest. (nor do I eat meat I don't know where it comes from, I'm dead picky about paying more for humane living, travel [I'd rather have no travel for my meats] and slaughtering conditions - it's a good thing I live close to some awesome humane pig farms else I'd never eat pork.)
PETA promote the no-meat-ever (nor fur) lifestyle, but the vegetarian lifestyle doesn't work for everyone (I've been one in my early teens and the protein counting to ensure me still growing like I should drove me bananas) - and they never point to meat options for people who want humane animal treatment. Here in Sweden there are plenty such options, and there are very strict handling and slaughtering laws (with religious exceptions) which we try to push on the rest of Europe with moderate success. It would be nice to see a campaign promoting humanly treated meat for the family dinner table. I don't know what to buy when I'm abroad. Couldn't there be a symbol on meat that has passed some sort of humane-rules? Imagine if restaurants used them as well. "Yeah I'll have the free range chicken gumbo please"
That ad is in such poor taste it's unreal. Even for PETA.
As far as I know, there are several restaurants in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., and even in Philadelphia (my original hometown, and still only minutes away), where you can order free-range chicken or non-hormone, grain-fed beef (as oppossed to those stuffed with corn meal), and other such niceties. [The beef might be Kobe Beef, if you've got the money]. You can also ask for (and get) wild-caught salmon, or shrimp, or you can specify that you want farm-raised salmon or shrimp, or oysters.
There are a several markets (Whole Foods comes to mind) where you can buy these, and most of the food (meats, vegetables, and fruits) has a little sign on the bin or on the package to tell you which farm it came from, and how it was raised. Even many of the regular markets are pushing the "Locally Grown" foods. I don't know about the middle of the US, or most of the rest of the world, in these matters; just my little piece of America...
Just to be clear, I don't usually mind vegetarians - although I'm an omnivore [that means I'll eat meat or vegetables, or almost anything, to be fair] - but this ad is very offensive. (I like that PETA often gets good looking actresses to bare themselves for the cause, even if you can't see everything).
By the way, the ad states that the man with the knife showed no emotion. IIRC, the man initially showed no emotion, then, when he began to kill the sleeping young man, he showed quite a bit of emotion.
PETA did something similar in 2004:
Anti-meat ads referencing Pickton case 'grotesque'
I don't anthropomorphize my food.
EDIT: Decided to delete link to clip of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! PETA episode due to graphic content. Look it up on YouTube if you want to see it. Talks about PETA's "Holocaust on your plate" ad campaign. (PETA likens meat industry to Shoah)
You can leave the link in, just warn "graphic content" - we're all adults here and anyone clicking it will do it knowing what to expect, I reckon.
Thanks. I just found the short clips of animal abuse PETA uses disturbing to watch. (From approximately 6:30 to approximately 6:50) I really hate PETA.
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
...and no animals used for medical research, no animals used for entertainment purposes, no animals used to assist people with disabilities, and no animals as pets.
I would like to see PETA run an ad campaign about not wearing leather. Throwing red paint on model wearing fur is easy. Try throwing red paint on a biker wearing leather.
No seeing eye-dogs??? Really? Oh shit, if I don't watch it PETA will come after my cat. He's my stress-level checker. Too stressed? He'll snuggle out on me with LOUD purrs so that I may not move for hours. Not stressed enough? He'll miauw like an opera singer while getting up to no good in another room. Need a stress-boost? He'll play hide-and-go-puke. He's a highly trained senior professional and I could not live without the furry bugger.
Round here, a good butcher will tell you the provenance of your meat. We also have farmer's markets and organic shops where you can buy good, free-range, happy meat. That's all I buy these days.
No dogs for the blind. No dogs for people in wheelchairs. No dogs for people who have epilepsy. No dogs for use in therapy. PETA calls all this, and and keeping animals as pets "slavery".
No animal insulin for diabetics (something that has saved human lives for 80 years). No animal shelters (they cage and occasionally euthanize animals). No use of any animal (and insect in the case of bees - no keeping bees for honey or pollination of crops) by humans for any purpose whatsoever.
PETA is a group of dangerous anti-human, lying, manipulative, nut jobs.
I don't buy free-range meat, (or organic food) because it costs more than I am willing to pay (afford), and I don't believe the chicken, cow, or pig cares if it was free-range or not before it ended up being my meal. The government standards for the slaughter of food animals in Canada meet my standards. The is no widespread abuse or cruelty, and that is enough for me. I've also talked with farmers to try to better understand a way of life people living in the city rarely, if ever, see. I've learned a lot.
Ultimately, it comes down to freedom of choice. Respecting the right of everyone to choose, even if we don't always agree with all the choices made.
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