People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently attacked Florida Southern College for a fundraiser held by students that included a game of cow bingo, which PETA maintains is inherently cruel.
FSC held a number of fund raising events on January 16, 2002 to raise money for the school’s sports teams. One of the fundraisers was a game of cow bingo. A field was divided into a bingo grid and prizes were awarded, as the Lakeland Ledger delicately put it, “based on where the cow heeded the call of nature.”
PETA fired offer a letter claiming that the vent was cruel because, “We are told that the cow’s ‘owner’ force-fed the cow a laxative in order to make the ‘game’ move along faster.”
Shari Szabo, a spokeswoman for FSC, said this was not true. “A couple from Polk County volunteered their cow to be used, and they were there the entire time,” Szabo said. “They would never have allowed the cow to be given laxatives.”
Not that this fact would make any difference to the animal rights group. As PETA’s Amy Rhodes told the Lakeland Ledger,
Surely you would agree that subjecting an animal to the stress, confusion and fear of such a demeaning and silly ‘game’ does nothing to compliment the school and its importance to the community. In fact, treating animals with such callous disregard sends the message that it is acceptable to make a public spectacle of another living being — a dangerous message for an otherwise reputable school to send to area children.
Yeah, this writer cannot think of anything more cruel than watching a cow wander around a field waiting for it to defecate. There’s probably a separate level of hell reserved just for those guilty of such a horrendous transgression.
You just know at some point PETA is going to go after bird watchers for infringing the privacy rights of our feathered friends.
Source:
Cow bingo protest is no moo-t point. Erik Ortiz, The Lakeland Ledger, February 2, 2002.