What the hell was PETA doing giving Michael Vick “tests” anyway? January 30, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Animal Rights, News and politics, PETA, bigotry.trackback
Apparently, shortly after Michael Vick pled guilty to charges related to his dog-fighting ring, he responded to a PETA test.
Now, I’m not interested in what Vick said, given that it’s hard to imagine that everyone involved wasn’t doing this for their own reasons (in Vick’s case, salvaging something of his career and public image; in PETA’s case, publicity for PETA). What does interest me is why the hell PETA is given respect on this or any other issue. Simply put, they have no credibility. Real animal rights activists think PETA are scumbags, as does anyone with even a cursory knowledge of their positions.
PETA is a misogynist, anti-animal group. They argued that all of Vick’s dogs should be destroyed (yes, that’s these dogs) and even that pit bull breed should be eliminated. PETA’s version of animal rights is absolutely sick. If you love animals, PETA is your enemy.
I can think of no group less qualified to say if Vick has learned his lesson than PETA. They responded to Vick’s revolting actions by being revolting themselves. They masquerade as a reasonable animal rights group, while pursuing an evil, anti-animal, anti-woman, anti-human agenda.
Having them give Vick such a test, and trying to get them to endorse a Vick PSA about animal cruelty is bad enough. And even worse, now they have the nerve to demand Vick be tested for mental disorders, since they have declared themselves the arbiters of both sanity and animal welfare.
PETA should have no say in Vick’s case. They should not be given a public forum. The only appropriate response to them is scorn.
NOTE: Michael Vick’s actions were beyond abhorrent. I wish he’d been given a harsher sentence, and if he spent the rest of his life cutting animal rights PSAs, it would not be nearly enough to atone for his crimes. But for PETA to present itself as the arbiter of his fate (and even more for them to claim some special knowledge of the psychology of dog fighting) is so overwhelmingly disgusting as to beggar belief. I honestly feel sick.
The good people at PETA should go fuck themselves, and leave animal welfare to the people who actually care about it.
I could say a lot of things, as an animal rights advocate, but I will limit myself to only a couple: First, animal welfare is not the same as animal rights. Animal welfarists support the exploitation of animals as long as you’re not too cruel to them (and the definition of cruelty varies widely, depending on who you’re talking to); animal rightists, in contrast, believe that animal exploitation by humans is wrong, period. Where PETA falls on that spectrum is debatable. In many ways, it’s a welfarist organization with an animal rights facade. I greatly admire it’s in-your-face chutzpah, but as an ethical vegan, I have some problems with its often welfarist agenda.
ardeth:
I appreciate the distinction you’re drawing, but I don’t think you’re going to find much in the way of an appreciative audience here. Certainly I don’t have much patience for people who would take my pets away.