PETA compares slavery, the holocaust... to animals. (1 Viewer)

[Not-That-Bright]

Outrage on the green

"This is the most racist thing I’ve ever seen on the Green. How dare you," roared Philip Goldson, 43, of New Haven at the protest organizers at Church and Chapel streets.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a national animal rights group, posted giant photographs of people, mostly black Americans, being tortured, sold and killed, next to photographs of animals, including cattle and sheep, being tortured, sold and killed.

"I think it is an apt comparison," said Josh Warchol, 26, of Wallingford, president of the Southern Connecticut Vegetarian Society, which is aligned with PETA.


PETA officials said they had hoped to generate dialogue with the shocking photographs.

"We realize these images are hurtful. It’s hard for me to imagine the hurt the animals go through. We should be treating animals according to their own best interests, not to the best interests of people," said Dawn Carr, PETA’s director of special projects.

PETA wants people to stop eating animals, stop using them for clothing, stop forcing animals to entertain people (as in a circus) and stop animal experimentation.

Carr said she doesn’t want animals sold or treated as property either.

The controversial display, which is on a national tour, is intended to drive home PETA’s point.

However, critics said the organization’s demonstration backfired.

One man demanded that the NAACP get involved immediately. Five minutes later, Scot X. Esdaile, president of the state and Greater New Haven chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, arrived at the scene, surveyed the photos and blasted the organizers.

"Once again, black people are being pimped. You used us. You have used us enough," Esdaile said. "Take it down immediately."

"I am a black man! I can’t compare the suffering of these black human beings to the suffering of this cow," said Michael Perkins, 47, of New Haven. He stood in front of a photo of butchered livestock hung next to the photo of two lynched black men dangling before a white mob.

"You can’t compare me to a freaking cow," shouted John Darryl Thompson, 46, of New Haven, inches from Carr’s face. "We don’t care about PETA. You are playing a dangerous game."

Paul Tomaselli, 46, of North Branford took exception to an exhibit that included a photo of a black man being beaten to the ground by a white man with a stick while a white mob gathers.

Next to that photo was one of a man chasing a seal across the snow with a club.

"I think he’s right," said Tomaselli, who is white, in support of Thompson. "To compare people to animals is an unfairness to people."

The display, "Are Animals the New Slaves?" is on a 10-week, 42-city tour that started in early July. Today’s stop: Scranton, Pa., then on to Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

"New Haven is important because of the Amistad. This is a place where slaves were brought. What happened here was very important for abolition. The next great liberation movement is animal liberation," Carr said.

However, the Anti-Defamation League, a national civil rights organization, has publicly condemned PETA’s use of photos comparing human suffering in the Holocaust to animal suffering today; PETA apologized in May for the hurt it caused but stood by the comparisons.

That point of disagreement became a flashpoint in New Haven.

"This is the most hostile audience we’ve had," said PETA volunteer Ben Godwin.

At one point, police hovered at the edge of the Green, across from the demonstration.

Eight of the 12 banners compared the suffering of black Americans to the suffering of cattle, sheep, an elephant, a seal and a rooster. Other banners showed Native Americans exiled from their homes, children in a factory and men in a counter-demonstration against women’s rights.

A photo showing a concentration camp inmate with a number tattooed across his emaciated chest was juxtaposed against a shot of a monkey in a laboratory with a number branded across its chest.

"I have relatives who were in concentration camps," said Alex Reznikoff, 47, of Newtown. "I think this detracts from PETA’s message. It doesn’t make me think about animals at all."

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15000578&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=6

 

[braad]

do animals have a conscience?

 

[absolution*]

PETA are a bunch of shitbags.

 

[Rafy]

Peta are almost as crazy as greenpeace.

 

[braindrainedAsh]

I think PETA are crazier than Greenpeace. I'm a lefty.... but PETA piss me off. They take everything too far. Did anyone see recently how Toni Collette was forced to eat her words cos she said something really stupid and incorrect about some practice done to sheep because she just listened to PETAs view?

 

[Comrade nathan]

The thing is PETA will take this shock as a good thing. Thinking that now we are getting it.PETA should be illegal.

 

[supercharged]

Someone should ask the PETA if eating a salad is cruelty to vegetables?

 

[Riewe]

Why don't PETA go to an island in the middle of nowhere, where they can take as many animals as they like and STAY THERE. Their representation on South Park (when they had to choose a new school mascot) is about the best representation of them i've seen.

This is one group in the world who i would not miss, and i sincerely hope that they fail in every endeavour they embark on, so they will give up and leave us all in peace. Unfortunately it is but a dream

 

[Riewe]

And as for their comparison with black slavery with the current farm animals, we must not forget that PETA does not like people. If they did, they would not be doing this. This only shows their racist, bigot views, which are against all of humanity

 

[loquasagacious]

PETA are stupid and ignorant (see tail docking), this just deomonstrates that they are insensitive and tasteless.

The only thing thats going to persuade me is a why, why shouldn't i eat animals? So far I will accept endagered species, inefficient animal and doesn't taste good.

I would like to see PETA hauled across the coals for this by a class action led by the NAACP, ACLU, etc. I would like the campaign banned and compensation ordered. And maybe for PETA activists to be eaten....

 

[transcendent]

Cruelty to humans in the form of slavery is something that should be stopped. But taking that example and placing it on animals is disgusting. I'm against animal rights activists defending against something as stupid as animal cruelty. What are they going to do? Turn lions into vegetarians? I'm all for the prevention of poaching for endangered animals like elephants and rhinos. But I couldn't give a rats arse if they killed some flea bitten rodent and turned it into a scarf. Whats more is that they are domesticated animals. They belong to us, not YOU. Bugger off.

 

[jennylim]

"I didn't climb to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian." <--- haha i love that quote.

PETA is the stupidest thing ever. for goodness' sake go get a life. humans were born with canine teeth for a reason (to eat meat). i like my leather shoes and don't fancy plastic.

yeah, saving endangered animals is cool. helping those bears that actually get tortured is ok. condemning practices that are actually good for sheep, or condemning the killing of possums in nz is not, seeing as possums are an absolute pest that kill their native vegetation and wildlife like crazy.

this is one organisation i just don't get (greenpeace, RSPCA, even the WWF if animal rights is your piece of cake are fine).

 

[katie_tully]

PETA are a bunch of shitbags.

Shitbags who unfortunately have much more say than they should be allowed to have.


Commodify animals? Animal husbandry has been around since, well, forever. What they do is over exaggerate. They've suddenly given animals this little personality that they've never had, and after a few hundred thousand years we're supposed to stop eating meat, let animals free, etc, etc. I am in agreement with the ceasation of cruelty to animals. That aspect I find quite sickening. What I don't agree with is the fact that they're ruining entire industries by instilling fear through propaganda with no basis. Ie. Mulsing. If they saw the aftermath of a sheep which hadn't been mulsed, I doubt they'd find the practice nearly as barbaric as they promote it to be.

PEta often go too far but you have to admit there are some idiotic people out there who think Humans were designed to be meat eaters.

Meat is essential to our diet. It provides minerals and such that cannot be found in vegetables. If we were to cease eating meat, then we'd have to take supplements to fufil these requirements.

Our teeth now aren't designed purely for meat. This is whether you believe in evolution or not. Since people have started to cook and prepare food so that it's actually edible, our teeth too have evolved. If you study teeth from a human 2000 years ago with that of a human now, yes they're substantially different

 

[katie_tully]

In all seriousness, I wouldn't be listening to a word PETA says. They're radical trouble makers. I hope they get eaten by an alligator.

 

[supercharged]

Actually it's possible to be vegetarian and be 100% healthy, you just need to eat plenty of beans, chickpeas and lentils instead. However whichever diet you choose should be up to you, people shouldn't be demonised for having a steak.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Well from what I heard on national geographic (this may be wrong) the reason why we're so much bigger than chimpanzee's is because we started to cook meat and were able to eat more meat (chimpanzee's do occassionally eat meat). Of course we eat too much red meat, but we eat too much EVERYTHING.

 

[Iron]

Insects are the latest thing on the green menu arent they?

 

[supercharged]

Well from what I heard on national geographic (this may be wrong) the reason why we're so much bigger than chimpanzee's is because we started to cook meat and were able to eat more meat (chimpanzee's do occassionally eat meat). Of course we eat too much red meat, but we eat too much EVERYTHING.

That's gotta be bullshit, what about gorillas or orangatans? They're heaps bigger than humans.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Yea but they attributed this to the reason why we're much bigger than alot of our ancesters (chimpanzee's obviously isn't their actual name). For example it would be used to prove why some super huge gorilla is different to a normal sized gorilla...

 

[katie_tully]

The debate isn't about whether we eat too much. PETA say we shouldn't eat meat AT ALL, because we shouldn't eat small furry creatures. They also say we shouldn't have any animals in captivity, and that sheep, cattle, pigs and other farmed animals should not be restricted and should be left to scurry around freely.
Keep in mind that they are the same people who cry when large populations of animals require culling, even though a region of over populated breeds means a higher demand of resources (see the Koalas on Kangaroo Island), which leads to a lower quality of life...which is animal cruelty :s