And another contestant for the Fail Olympics steps forwards

[sparkindarkness]

Our newest entrant is PETA. A regular competitor in the Fail Olympics, the PETA is aiming for gold with this one.

The PETA decided to protest the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York by handing out pamphlets outside... dressed as members of the KKK

I know I thought it was a typo too - but the picture shows the text was right, they really are that dumb: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2009-02-09-peta-westminster-kkk-protest_N.htm

The PETA acknowledges that it's an "uncomfortable comparison." Well, that's one way of saying it. See, I was going to go with "bloody stupid, complete fuckwittery and sets new standards of arseholery" but "uncomfortable" probably scans better with the press. Sadly, the spokesman missed the opportunity to say "the extremist and highly reprehensible actions of some our members do not represent the group as a whole and we deny all association and unreservedlky condemn them." See, that's the sensible thing to do.

Sadly, the PETA and sensible rarely come together and are certainly not on speaking terms.


OK, PETA, here's some free advice. I'm giving it because, damn it, I AGREE with some of your positions. I hate animal cruelty. I hate factory farming. I hate puppy mills and I hate pedigreeing creatures until the genetic anomolies pile up into defects and deformities. But you're making it DAMNED hard to agree. Really. Your protest methods are so extreme, your rhetoric so beyond the pale that it is almost impossible to be insulted by you - it’s just too funny. It’s hard to take someone seriously who compares farming to concentration camps. It’s actually even hard to be properly outraged, because it is a level of whatthefuckery that the brain just can’t take in.

These crazy stunts actually fail in 3 ways.

Fail the first: You are actually crazy enough that people who AGREE with you would actually DENY their agreement for fear of being tarred with the same brush as this level of crazy. I understand passion, I understand anger and I understand the dramatic and even the use of hyperbole. But this? It’s too extreme for anyone to walk alongside you - we’re too busy crossing to the other side of the road and keeping a wary eye on you.

Fail the second: You’re making unnecessary enemies. Every cause needs friends and supporters and every cause will have enemies. The factory farmers, cosmetic animal testers etc will be natural enemies. Fair enough. But by dressing up as the KKK you are making enemies of people who are sympathetic and even supportive. This is fail-level dumbness.

Fail the second: you obscure your message. Sure you do dramatic things to get people’s attention and get your message out there - we had Fathers 4 Justice in the UK who were very good at it. They went from obscure to well known by their stunts - but most of all we knew WHAT their message was. PETA can’t say the same. The message? We’re crazy people. What will people remember about this demonstration? That excessive selective breeding is wrong? That the inbreeding of some pedigrees is such it causes crippling deformities? That some breed’s “standards” are so extreme they actually hurt the dog? No, people will remember “Those crazy people dressed in KKK robes.”

So have a celebratory straight jacket - and work on that crazy thing. It’s not helping

Comments

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with you. I loathe PETA with every fiber of my being because they make it so much harder for the rest of us. I say, "Hey, maybe we shouldn't, you know, cut off the beaks of chickens and shove them 100 to a cage," and people say, "Isn't that what PETA says?"

STFU crazy people, and let the rest of us argue our case against animal cruelty without you, thankyouverymuch.

[sapphybelle.livejournal.com]

The head of PETA wants all kinds of whacked out stuff to be done to her body when she dies, in the name of preventing animal cruelty. I hope she gets vaporized somehow and therefore unable to have her wishes carried out.

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

I saw that a few days ago and the grin that silly white “man” (looks like a college boy) was wearing in his KKK gear and I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him. They warp the message of defending animals against horrible humans by acting like whack jobs themselves. I don’t think the organization has a lick of common sense to split between them.

[soappuppy.livejournal.com]

It's sad that the USA's loudest and most visible supporters of animal protection are complete whackjobs. They're in such a good position for people to hear what they are saying, and they are saying things like "Sea kittens!"

Guys, seriously. Get a marketing agent that isn't on drugs and really think about what you're saying. You could be doing so much good, and instead you're giving people a good laugh. :P

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Heh. Maybe it's different in the UK, but everybody I knew in the USA who cares about animal welfare despises PETA and the animal rights movement. Because they are two different things. Animal welfare = treat animals decently. Humane slaughter, regulations on farming, no puppy mills, etc. Animal rights = animals are just like people and if you wouldn't do it to your own child you shouldn't do it to an animal, not even a fish. :P Which position I find quite absurd. I am an omnivore. My natural, evolved, or God-given, or whatever place in the world involves killing things and eating them. Because I am an intelligent omnivore and thus have the option to do so, I should kill them painlessly and not waste their deaths, but fish are not kittens, and even kittens are not humans.

*ahem* Yeah, PETA really gets my goat sometimes. Idiots.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

OMG I'd probably have gone loco and beaten them to death with a bat. KKK makes me twitch like that.

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

Fathers 4 Justice is hardly a model to emulate. PETA make me sick, and I say that as someone passionately committed to animal welfare. This latest thing is so revolting, I wish it was actually illegal.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Nothing will destroy a cause faster than having people who are completely round the twist support it

(one of the reasons I've always thanked the gods for Rev Phelps)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

What weird stuff she does to her body I wouldn't mind. But it's the craziness that she brings that makes me wish for the vaporising!

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I need my anti-stupidity super powers. I would concentrate and a large walrus would fall out of the sky and squish him. On its side would be written "This individual has been removed from the gene pool. Rejoice."

There's no common sense at all, they're just making it harder for those who agree with (some of) them to argue their side

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

See, that's the problem. They are so loud and crazy. I bet the humane societies and SPCAs LOATHE them with a deep and abiding fiery passion.

*groan* the Sea Kitten thing just made me cringe. Guys guys, seriously, do you think you're going to convince ANYONE with this ridiculousness

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Well over here we call the animal rights or welfare - but we don't expect animals to have the same rights as humans - that's just silly. And vegetarianism as some kind of evangelical religion (which the PETA love to preach) is pretty damn alien.

I respect animal rights. I campaign for it. I loathe factory farms, I despise animals being treated as things and animal cruelty sickens me. I fight the good fight against these. BUt a fish does not have the same right as a person. Nor should it - it's ludicrous

But, like you, I nom nom the tasty animals. I am an ominvore. I am a predator. I don't even think pure vegetarianism is a great idea. If the act of predation violates animal rights then it happens every day in the natural world ANYWAY

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I am AMAZED that no-one hit them. Utterly amazed

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Lol, no they weren't very effective. But if you want to attract everyone's attentions with crazy stunts there are ways to do it that don't make everyone wantr to kill you.

See I thought the PETA were doing well when they decided the way to get their message across was by using nekked people. And then they do this *le sigh*

Exactly, even those of us who support animal welfare to the hilt are repelled by these ridiculous tactics

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

LOL

Yeah, that's the biggest trouble with PETA's radical action most of the time, it make more people ignore them as "liberal wackos" rather then getting the important messages accross.