Tag: Dawn Carr

PETA's Latest Anti-Fur Ad

In the 1990s, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals gained a lot of publicity with its “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur Ads” featuring super models doing just that. But recently fur has made quite a comeback in fashion circles, and many of those same models are once again appearing on runways decked out in fur rather than in their birthday suits.

So now PETA is turning to singer Sophie Ellis Bextor for an anti-fur campaign photographed by Paul McCartney’s daughter Mary McCartney.

The ad features Bextor holding up a skinned fox with the words, “Here’s the rest of your fur coat.”

Yes, PETA used a real fox for the shoot. According to PETA, the fox was found dead and skinned for the sake of the photo shoot. A Northern Territory News story on the ad noted that the photo shoot “had to be curtailed to one hour because of the stench of the decomposing animal.”

Bextor said she wanted to make a strong stand against fur,

I think fur is really pathetic when there are so many alternatives.

I’m part of the generation that grew up with the ‘We’d rather go naked than wear fur’ campaign and it’s something that really struck a chord with me. It felt a very natural thing to do, to be on the side of the animals when it came to fur.

PETA’s Dawn Carr admitted to The Daily Telegraph that fur had made a comeback in fashion shows,

We have been seeing a lot more fur on the catwalks recently. But, obviously, fashion shows do not reveal the pain and suffering behind each garment.

Animals are electrocuted, gassed and have their necks broken in the name of fashion. We are trying to make the point that fur is never going to be back in fashion.

We have never used a skinned, dead animal in this way before. It is quite shocking and quite difficult to look at.

But Sue Carroll, a columnist for The Mirror, put PETA’s message into the proper perspective,

Most women wear leather, not fur. Why wasn’t Sophie posing next to the skeleton of a cow with the slogan, “Here’s the rest of your shoes.”

Source:

Comment on Anti-Fur Advert. Sue Carroll, The Mirror, November 13, 2002.

Pop singer brandishes skinned fox in protest against the fur trade. Sally Pook, The Daily Telegraph (London), November 12, 2002.

Anti-fur campaigners step up battle. Graham Hiscott, Press Association, November 12, 2002.

Sophie attacks fur trade with advert shocking image: Sophie Ellis Bextor with a skinned fox. Birmingham Evening Mail, November 12, 2002.

Fur flies as Sophie joins fight. Northern Territory News, November 14, 2002.

PETA: Feeding Children Meat Is Child Abuse

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wasn’t winning any friends in Great Britain where it recently premiered a billboard that read: “Feeding kids meat is child abuse. Fight the fat. GoVeg.Co.UK.”

British newspaper The Herald quoted Dawn Carr defending the billboard saying,

There has been a lot of discussion in the Uk recently about the obesity crisis and the campaign points out feeding children cut-up animal parts can leader to cancer, heart disease, strokes, and diabetes later in life.

The Herald quoted two academics, however, who attacked the ad as malicious and extreme. Mike Lean, a nutrition expert at Glasgow University, told The Herald,

Living on a vegan diet is extremely difficult and there has been concern raised about growth blocking and vitamin deficiencies. Meat is a sound source of iron, which effects the way the brain works and the body grows.

Hugh Pennington of Aberdeen University told The Herald,

This kind of campaign might frighten people into taking extreme measures which are simply not justified. A vegan diet is not natural because it does not provide all of the ingredients vital for a normal life.

That last sentence of Pennington’s is too extreme, but taking dietary advice from a group as prone to errors and outright lies as PETA is probably not in the best interest of children.

Source:

Vegan ‘child abuse’ campaign attacked as scaremongering. Billy Briggs, The Herald (UK), September 17, 2002.

PETA: Stop "Hunting in the Water"

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter last week demanding that the Boy Scouts of America eliminate its “Fishing” and “Fish and Wildlife Management” merit badges, since they require Scouts to engage in violent acts that are training young men to enjoy violence. Specifically, both badges involve Fishing — or as PETA calls it, “hunting in the water.”

According to PETA’s letter,

Fishing is no longer considered a benign activity. It is hunting in the water, and the idea of a scout armed with a gun or rod, setting out to actively attack animals who were minding their own business, is not in keeping with the image of scouting, now or in the past.

…

Promoting fishing teaches young people that hooking, maiming, suffocating, and killing is acceptable. We call on you to help break the cycle of cruelty by promoting activities that teach only compassion, rather than indifference and violence.

In case any reporters missed the point, in a news release, PETA said,

Desensitizing children to the suffering of others is a dangerous lesson. According to FBI profilers, the American Psychiatric Association, law enforcement officials, and child advocacy organizations, cruelty to animals is a warning sign commonly seen in people who eventually direct violence toward humans.

“In an era of school shootings and hate crimes, it is folly to encourage young boys to harm innocent animals,” says PETA’s Dawn Carr. “The Boy Scouts are supposed to be compassionate role models, not bloodthirsty fish killers.”

Source:

PETA’s letter to Milton H. Ward, president of the Boy Scouts of America. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Press Release, March 15, 2001.

Confessions of a killing machine. Terry Tomalin, St. Petersburg Times, March 18, 2001.

PETA Asks Boy Scouts To “De-Merit” Badges Promoting Cruelty To Animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Press Release, March 15, 2001.

Dawn Carr Receives Probation for Miss Rodeo America 2000 Pie

Last year animal rights activist Dawn Carr, 31, cowardly threw a pie in the face of 21-year-old Brandy DeJongh immediately after DeJongh’s crowning as Miss Rodeo America 2000. Carr intended the pie in the face as a commentary on rodeos and animals.

Not surprisingly, Carr is a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

In December 2000, Carr pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in Las Vegas, Nevada. She received one year’s probation and was ordered to pay $1,700 in restitution to DeJongh for damages done to the dress DeJongh was wearing.

Source:

Sentence set in activist’s pie incident. Las Vegas Review Journal, December 5, 2000.

PETA protester charged with arson

In June, Timothy Andrew Ray,
35, of Norfolk, Va., was charged with first-degree arson for allegedly
starting a fire on the steps of the Iowa capitol to protest the World
Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. Ray could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

The Iowa fire was one of two
fires set at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protests this year — in January twelve people were
arrested at a protest at the U.S. capitol after someone set fire to bales
of hay set up as part of a PETA protest.

PETA spokeswoman Dawn Carr
said the Iowa fire was not a planned part of the protest and tried to distance
PETA from Ray, saying “We were just out doing our thing with the
dancing pig when this guy ran up and tried to set the hay on fire.”

As Americans for Medical Progress noted in its newsletter, however, the Des Moines Register reported
that none other than Carr herself put up $6,500 to bail Ray out of jail
on June 15. Pretty generous for someone Carr claimed not to have met before
the Iowa protest. (PETA’s spokesperson bails out a suspected arsonist
she claims she didn’t even know and yet IDA’s Roy and Kleiman insist Americans
for Medical Progress and others unfairly portray the animal rights movement
as full of extremists!)