uproar

recently my interest in PETA and it's fight against the seal hunt in canada has sparked a bit of controversy amongst my readers, and i now feel the need to strengthen my opinion and speak openly a little more about why i support their causes.

below is PETA's mission statement for a starter:

"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than a million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. Founded in 1980, PETA is dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.

PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.

PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns."

so basically what this is saying is that this group is against ANY and ALL unethical treatment of animals, no matter how large, small, or unimportant the particular species of animal may appear.

many people have said that the seals that they're slaughtering on the ice are overpopulated, and that they're not killing the baby seals, and that they really play no useful role in the animal kingdom...so that makes it ok, right?

WRONG

in my opinion, (and from what i've read on PETA's site) it doesn't matter what role these animals play, or how important they are to us as a race, or how cute or cuddly they are...they're animals, and any mistreatment of them as a whole should be prohibited.

so why has PETA been so involved with this issue? why has the humane society not intervened? how come how come how come?????? well i can't speak on behalf of the humane society, because i really don't know why nothing has been done on behalf of this issue. maybe in their eyes it's not all that important, maybe they see it as an expendable issue; i don't know.

my point is that PETA sees it as an issue. an issue that is unfair and has to be dealt with. some people are saying that PETA breeds propaganda, and only attacks the really trendy issues, and that they are an extremist organization. and you know what, maybe they do tend to lean towards the MORE extreme situations, or atleast focus only on the EXTREME of the situations...but maybe that's just how they work. it obviously takes a little bit of graphicness to really get the public's attention, and sometimes that's what it takes to actually make a difference.

if they don't throw the worst of the situations at us, then we'll never really understand the extent of it.

and using celebrities as they're "spokespeople" is a totally legit way of being heard; what it comes down to is the idea that we have given celebrities a HUGE voice in society today, and so what if these organizations use these 'big names' to advertise their plight. celebs have a voice, and i applaud those of them who are actually using their influence to stand up for a cause. it's the exact same thing using people in the music industry as the spokespeople for the "aldo aids campaign; hear no, speak no, see no evil".

for some reason we listen to what these famous people have to say, and let's just be glad that there are still some of them out there in la-la-land who are still putting it to good use.

and i'll continue to aid PETA and do whatever a little silly person such as myself can do; i'm almost a vegatarian, (and even ordered my first vegetarian cookbook online) and even if it's only by word of mouth, i'll continuously try and express my point of view and stick up for our defenseless little friends...(the animals, that is!)

www.peta.org


check it out people!