PETA Post

Amazing. I actually agree with PETA on this one (and its methods aren't even over the top here). Too many healthy animals are euthanized because there are too many companion animals available and not all are able to be cared for by humans. So, I disagree with the sale of animals by pet stores. I won't even go into puppy mills. I am and always have been one bleeding-heart animal lover.

But back on topic. PETA put out a press release on September 17, 2003 that targets PETCO and prompts it to halt the sale of live animals.

This is part of a series of protests taking place outside PETCO stores across the country, all designed to give consumers the full story about the "pet"-shop chain—lawsuits, suffering animals, and angry customers. The activists will also be encouraging PETCO employees to blow the whistle on cruelty. PETA is offering up to $1000 for information leading to a cruelty-to-animals conviction for the chain.

Date: Saturday, September 20
Time: 12 noon-2 p.m.
Place: 13750 E. Mississippi Ave.

According to Forbes magazine, PETCO "has been embroiled in at least four recent court-related matters … charging animal cruelty or neglect." The city of San Francisco has filed a lawsuit to bar PETCO from selling animals there because of "the cruelty and pattern of brazen violations … [that] continued over three years." After years of receiving a never-ending stream of customer complaints—including reports of sick and injured animals who were left to die in their cages or placed in freezers to die, enclosures caked with feces, a lack of veterinary care, severely stressed animals’ cannibalizing each other, and staff members untrained in basic animal care—PETA has launched a national campaign against PETCO aimed at getting the chain to stop selling live animals and carry only animal supplies.

Earlier this month, PETA, a PETCO shareholder, took its case directly to PETCO’s shareholders and board of directors. PETA filed a shareholder resolution calling on the chain store to stop selling birds, reptiles, fish, and other small and vulnerable animals—which, according to PETCO CEO Brian Devine, makes up less than 5 percent of the chain’s annual revenues—and urging PETCO to focus instead on selling companion-animal food, supplies, and services and expanding adoption programs.

And, because this is PETA, the issue will get some exposure.

hln

Posted by: hln at 07:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 389 words, total size 3 kb.

Free the Chickens (PETA Post)

Via The Center for Consumer Freedom, I found this article.

Kweisi Mfume, president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has signed a letter in support of an animal rights group's campaign against Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Norfolk, Va.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a low-budget group that often seeks high-profile supporters to spread its message, posted the letter on its Web site this week to add weight to its three-year battle.

The one-page letter, dated Sept. 10 and written on NAACP letterhead stationery, is addressed to David Novak, chairman and chief executive officer of Yum! Brands Inc., which owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands. It asks the company to require its suppliers to employ more humane methods in breeding and slaughtering chickens.

Uh, okay.

Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! responded to the PETA campaign with a release that said: "KFC is committed to the well-being and humane treatment of chickens and we require all of our suppliers to follow welfare guidelines developed by us with leading experts on our Animal Welfare Advisory Council."

The fast-food chain, which has a large presence in black neighborhoods, also points out on its Web site that it was named one of Fortune magazine's "50 best companies for minorities."

Mfume's support for PETA, while limited to a five-paragraph letter, raised eyebrows among some NAACP observers.

Ronald Walters, director of the University of Maryland's African American Leadership Institute, said he was not sure how much more Mfume could do before being criticized by NAACP membership for diverting focus from people.

He said involvement might be warranted if the criticism targeted labor practices or marketing to blacks, who make up a disproportionate number of fast food customers and workers. The letter, however, could have some impact.

Lovely. Now chickens are an issue of race. I like Consumer Freedom's take on it.

Doesn't the NAACP have better things to do than educating Americans that, yes, chickens expire in the making of two-piece dinners?

Breast and a leg or a wing and a thigh, biscuit, cole slaw, and a little tub o' mashed potatoes.

hln

Posted by: hln at 06:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 366 words, total size 3 kb.

PETA Party

I found this on Consumer Freedom.

Ha ha ha ha. What if you threw a party, and nobody showed up? Guess this is that. What'd PETA have to say?

U.S. Marine Cpl. Ravi Chand, who just returned from his tour of duty in Iraq, has rejoined his old "unit" at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), but he’s not through fighting the war on terror just yet. Cpl. Chand, who saw combat in Iraq and stuck to his pure vegetarian diet throughout the war, will lead a demonstration in front of the White House, highlighted by PETA members dressed as an oversized knife and fork and holding signs reading, "President Bush: Found Your WMD—Meat’s the Biggest Killer of All," to make the point that eating meat kills far more Americans each year than war or other weapons, in addition to terrorizing and killing billions of animals.

In my mind: "What?" says Cpl. Chand, "What's a vulture? What are lions, tigers, and bears, oh my? Animals wouldn't...kill each other, would they?" Hey, dude. You know what I have to say? Food chain. F-O-O-D C-H-A-I-N.

hln

Posted by: hln at 02:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 190 words, total size 1 kb.

PETA suing you today? PETA harassing you tomorrow

PETA suing you today? PETA harassing you tomorrow

Wow, no one saw the PETA post coming today, eh? Hah.

Yum! Brands caved. Yes, that's right. KFC gave in to the harassment, which bodes well for PETA and its nutbars everywhere. There's no room for debate and disagreement - only discord and celebrity-backed over-the-top obnoxious campaigns that malign facts everywhere, regardless of any veracity in PETA's claims.

I've posted on this before, not the lawsuit specifically, but of PETA's KFC badgering. So what's new here?

PETA's suit, targeting KFC's Web site and consumer hotline, claimed KFC disseminated false information. According to PETA, KFC agreed to remove certain claims from its Web site and from the script that customer-service operators use when consumers called with concerns or questions.

KFC phone operators will now say: "KFC disagrees with PETA's claims. KFC believes that animals should be treated humanely. For this reason, KFC has established animal welfare guidelines for vendors who supply KFC restaurants with chicken," according to Yum documents provided to PETA.

Earlier, PETA said, the company told callers that PETA's claims are "untrue," and that chickens raised for KFC suffer no pain or injuries.

Okay, KFC. I agree that was just a small change, but what you have set now is a precedent. PETA. Will. Not. Stop. The next attack will be some permutation of this one; perhaps the thinktank that fosters PETA's "outreach" will deliver something with more glitz next time. Chrissy Hynde may haunt every store in the US soon. "Gonna make you notice." Paul McCartney can sing "Freedom" to the chickens. Say, you know, there was a skit on Saturday Night Live that basically covered this topic - it was a show opener back in the early 90's, my college days. A bunch of celebrities got together and cut a single much like "We are the World" to benefit the free-range chickens. Lyrics from said work include

raise your hands, raise your voice, give the vegans another choice

And...

Mister Farmer, take that feed
To the chicken's throa-oat.
To the chicken's throa-oat!
Let's build a world
where cages don't exist.
Tell the children
To tell the world
To tell the chickens that we are on our way!

(Courtesy of a good soul at Bully Magazine)

Yep, really. I through my extensive Google research have discovered that this very skit is on the Saturday Night Live: 25 Years of Music Performances and Sketches, Disk 4. And now I want it, of course.

Ahem. <seriousAgain>Remember, though, the single point of the winding post: There's no room for KFC in a vegan world.</seriousAgain>

hln

Posted by: hln at 09:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 448 words, total size 4 kb.