Protect Your Kids from Peta!
Friday, October 01, 2004
Their name is misleading.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sounds like some sort of animal welfare agency seeking simply to protect animals from mistreatment. To the true animal rights activists, it’s not ultimately about animal welfare at all, but complete animal liberation.
As a Christian, I believe that humans are above the rest of creation in that we are uniquely created in God’s image. However, Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA, said in Vogue Magazine: “Animal liberationists do not separate out the human animal. There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They are all mammals.”
Really? Rats are equivalent to humans? I don’t think so. Even Jesus said, “You are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:7)
It gets worse.
Newkirk had the unmitigated audacity to say: “Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughter houses.”
I’m sorry. Make no mistake. The wholesale slaughter of the Jewish people in The Final Solution by Adolph Hitler is in no way comparable to our consumption of chickens!
God Almighty declared that we are to “rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air” – including chickens I might add – “over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26)
Does that mean we are to mistreat animals? Absolutely not. Proverbs 12:10 says “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal.” But the animal rights folks object to the basic Biblical worldview that we humans have been given, by God, dominion over the animals. Even if we provide our pets with the best of care and kill our food in the most humane, pain-free ways, it’s not enough for the likes of PETA.
Their clarion call is for “total animal liberation.” This means you can’t eat meat, drink milk, go to a zoo, visit the circus, go fishing, or wear leather. PETA President Newkirk actually went on record to say, “Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it.”
So much for the precious lives of the 20 million people worldwide who have died from AIDS since 1981. In PETA’s world, their human lives are not worth the lives of laboratory rats. And I thought the liberals had the corner on compassion!
Not only do they disapprove of the very term “pets” because of its clear ownership implication, but, in their lust for “total animal liberation,” PETA would like to deep-six animal ownership altogether!
OK everybody. This coming Thursday at 6:45 p.m. and, on the count of 10, let’s simultaneously release our dogs and cats into the streets of the Alamo City once and for all, letting them return to the wild where they belong. Yeah, right! These people clearly have a screw loose.
But, despite their fringe beliefs, their budget this year alone was $24 million! That’s a lot of money.
And now, according to the Center for Consumer Freedom, they’re marketing their radical activism to your children with violent and graphic campaigns without your knowledge.
For example:
In late 2003, PETA began targeting children of fur-wearing women outside Christmas performances of The Nutcracker in 15 states with grotesque comic books entitled “Your Mommy Kills Animals!.”
If you think the title is bad, you should see the picture.
A blonde, June Cleaver-like woman -- complete with a string of pearls -- is featured on the front comic book cover with a sadistic grin grabbing a scared bunny rabbit by the ears in her left hand, and stabbing it with a blood-spattered nine-inch long knife. The text is no less gruesome.
“Ask your mommy how many dead animals she killed to make her fur clothes…the sooner she stops wearing fur, the sooner the animals will be safe. Until then, keep your doggie or kitty friends away from mommy. She’s an animal killer!”
Dr. Jeffrey Dolgan, chief of psychology at Denver’s Children Hospital, explained to the Denver Post that PETA’s “Your Mommy Kills Animals” campaign is “beyond insensitive” and “is potentially very anxiety-arousing.” The kid-themed “Fishing Hurts” website uses images from the Disney film Finding Nemo to tell kids that “fish are friends, not food” and that “eating fish is dangerous.” Apparently, Jesus did not think fish were “our friends” since he ate breakfast fish tacos. (John 21:10-13)
Starting in 2000, PETA distributed “Unhappy Meals” to children outside of McDonald’s restaurants – focusing on the franchises with playgrounds from California to South Carolina. The handout included a bloodied toy pig and a stuffed Ronald McDonald doll holding a butcher’s knife.
PETA features a website entitled PETA2 aimed at teenagers complete with skateboarders, violent imagery and outrageous slogans such as “F*** Animal Cruelty.” In fact, PETA distributes thousands of stickers with that disgusting slogan to kids at rock concerts.
But my objection to PETA is not just about their graphic campaigns targeting your children.
According to the Center for Consumer Freedom, “PETA has donated over $150,000 to criminal activists – including those jailed for arson, burglary, and even attempted murder.”
For example:
“Since 2000, rank-and-file PETA activists have been arrested over 80 times for breaking various laws during PETA protests. In 2001, PETA donated $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front, a criminal organization that the FBI classifies as ‘domestic terrorists.’” PETA contributed over $70,000 to Rodney Coronado’s legal defense for his 1992 arson of a Michigan State University research lab for which he served 57 months in prison. Just last year at American University, Coronado showed a crowd of college students how to build a “crude incendiary device” using a plastic milk jug.
Not surprisingly, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk actually went on network television describing Coronado as a “fine young man.” You’ll be pleased to know that this same criminal is the featured columnist in Grrr! Kids Bite Back, a periodical described as “PETA’s magazine for students aged 8 to 14.” In 2003, PETA claims to have distributed “almost 160,000 copies…to kids and teens.”
Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s vegan campaign coordinator and a previous debate opponent of mine on KSLR, said, “I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it’s perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through windows…Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.”
Sadly, because PETA is a non-profit, tax-exempt group, you, the taxpayer, have helped to pay for their child-seducing, violent and criminal agenda. They avoided paying $3.5 million last year alone. Clearly, they have not operated within the bounds of the law to which all non-profits are obligated.
It’s time for Christians to tell PETA to keep its hands off not only our tax dollars, but off our kids as well. I have one last verse for Ingrid Newkirk. It’s from Psalm 32:9: “Be not as the horse or mule, which have no understanding.” In other words, get a clue!
TAKE A STAND ACTION STEP:
1. To sign a petition asking the IRS to revisit the legitimacy of PETA’s tax-exempt status, go to http://www.consumerfreedom.com/article_detail.cfm/article/154.
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