Tag: William Rivas-Rivas

PETA Sends Letter to Rumsfeld Over Killing of Stray Animals in Iraq

Shortly after the coalition victory in Iraq, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the British Army chief H.J. Hickman asking them to stop commanders on the ground from authorizing the culling of stray animals in Iraqi cities.

According to the Associated Press, USA Today reported that a British commander in Umm Qasr had created a checklist of steps to take to restore order to that city which included killing stray animals in order to reduce the risk of disease and other problems.

PETA’s William Rivas-Rivas told the Associated Press,

We were just shocked and appalled. Poisoning [the method recommended in the Umm Qasr checklist] has long been regarded [as] one of the most cruel ways to kill animals. . . . And we’re not even convinced that killing these animals is necessary.

As with their earlier letter about the military’s use of dolphins, the Department of Defense did not respond to PETA’s letter though a spokeswoman for the DOD was quoted by the Associated Press as saying she was unfamiliar with either the checklist in question or the extent of the problem of stray animals in Iraq.

Source:

PETA asks military to stop encouraging animal poison in Iraq. Justin Bergman, Associated Press, April 18, 2003.

PETA Targets Hispanic Kids in Florida

In mid-March People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals targeted its anti-dairy campaign at young Hispanic with its Eche la leche, which roughly translates as “Dump Dairy.”

Of course the campaign got off to a bad start when some people pointed out the slogan in Spanish also has a double entendre meaning which we won’t go into here.

PETA also chose to hand out its Milk Trading Cards, but this time the cards had an ethnic theme. Here’s how Cloe Cabrera of the Tampa Tribune described the cards,

The new cards feature “Ear Infection Enrique,” “Diabetic Diane,” “Lactose-Intolerant Latoya” and “Milk-Stealing Ming,” [!!] all suffering ill effects from consuming milk.

. . .

The free cards he [PETA’s Hispanic Outreach coordinator William Rivas-Rivas] handed out to students made those points — in a way some might find offensive. “Milk-Stealing Ming,” depicted as an Asian, grabs a cow’s end as he sucks her teat; “Lactose-Intolernat Latoya,” a black girl, squats over a toilet; and “Ear Infection Enrique,” a Hispanic, pulls a gob of gunk from his ear.

And, of course, lets not forget this is the same PETA that Ingrid Newkirk insisted on national television does not target children. That claim, of course, was about as accurate as PETA’s claims about milk.

Sources:

PETA’s Having a Cow Over Milk Consumption. Cloe Cabrera, Tampa Tribune, March 16, 2003.

Anti-milk campaign’s Spanish translation hits sour note. Noaki Schwartz, Sun-Sentinel (Florida), March 31, 2003.

PETA Screens Slaughter for Restaurant Patrons

Representatives of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals showed up at Greenshields Brewery and Pub in Raleigh, North Carolina, and screened an hour-long video of an animal slaughter for restaurant patrons on a big-screen television.

According to PETA’s Bill Rivas, “Most people really need to know that if they are eating meats in any way, they are supporting this type of industry, and people actually appreciate us showing this video to them.”

WRAL.Com added that “PETA officials said they consider showing the video a vegetarian campaign, saying if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”

Which is an odd claim, because even when the United States was a largely agrarian nation where large numbers of people would have had more first hand experience with the slaughter of animals, there was hardly any move toward vegetarianism. In fact, the reality is just the opposite — it is precisely because many people have never seen an animal slaughtered that the video is shocking.

Source:

PETA Targets Lunchtime Patrons In Raleigh. WRAL.Com, October 9, 2002.