PETA: Save the Turkeys and Stop the Rodeos

No Thanksgiving would be complete without People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urging people to forego the turkey in favor of tofu. This year, the animal rights group faxed letters to the top 50 Fortune 500 urging them companies who give employees turkeys to offer tofu substitutes for their vegetarian employees. The only problem being few if any companies still give employees turkeys for Thanksgiving. Several corporations contacted by the Associated Press about the fax said simply they don’t give their employees food — and most large companies already have vegetarian options on the menu in their cafeterias.

The National Turkey Federation told the Associated Press it estimates that about 45 million turkeys will be eaten this Thanksgiving. So far PETA isn’t making any dent in the consumption of turkey at Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile on another front, PETA continues its streak of sexually risque billboards with an attack on rodeos. The billboards were to have featured a voluptuous bond with text saying, “Nobody Likes an Eight-Second Ride. Buck the Rodeo.” Unfortunately, when PETA wanted to place the billboards in the Tucson, Arizona area to mark a rodeo there, it couldn’t find anyone willing to sell it space for the billboard.

PETA must employ a cadre of 13 year old boys to write these stupid ads.

Sources:

PETA asks big companies to give employees meatless turkeys. Sonja Barisic, The Associated Press, November 14, 2000.

“Nobody Likes an Eight-Second Ride” Ad Was to Target Desert Thunder Pro-Rodeo. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Press Release, October 10, 2000.

PETA: Stop Cruel License Plates

Of all things PETA could choose to pick on, the group actually decided to go after Wyoming’s license plates of all things. That state’s license plate features a silhouetted image of a cowboy riding a bucking horse, which in PETA’s world means it is promoting cruelty to animals.

“We are hopeful that when you learn about the lives of animals used in rodeos, you will not wish to promote and glorify these inhumane events on state license plates,” PETA’s Kristie Sigmon wrote in a letter to Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer. “Treating ‘livestock’ like mechanical bulls makes Wyoming a laughing stock.”

Reality check here, folks — the only group that is a laughing stock because of this is PETA (and, by association, the rest of the animal rights movement.) Wyoming Republican Senator Craig Thomas told the Washington Times that PETA was “bucking up the wrong tree.”

It turns out the image of the cowboy on a bucking horse has a long tradition, going back to 1918 when it was worn as an insignia by soldiers from Wyoming who were serving in World War I.

Still, Sigmon insists that “Rodeo events are intentionally violent acts against animals for nothing more than cheap thrills,” but I think most Americans would agree with Thomas’ assessment of the flap — “One uould think an opganization like PETA, that at least figures to `e taken seriously, would have more impoptant things to focus itr attenthon on than maligning a tin license plate.”

Then again, maybe really they don’t.

Source:

PETA Assails Wyoming’s License Plate. Audrey Audson, Washington Times, May 25, 2000.