Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A comment conundrum


“WalterH” commented on my February 10 post, and instead of simply publishing or deleting what he said, I decided to address it here.

Reacting to the "Go, PETA!” post about a lawsuit PETA brought in behalf of captive killer whales, or orcas, WalterH wrote: “ Pat, As a responsible journalist, you should really represent who PETA really are. (http://beefmagazine.com/blog/peta-killed-95-pets-its-care-2011-watchdog-group-charges )”

First of all, Walter, you must be eager to criticize PETA if you seize on a post having nothing to do with PETA and pets – which is the subject of your link. Second, were you careful about the source of your information? (I’d sure have questions about something called Beef Magazine, and one look at it would have proven any suspicions.)

Do you know what a front group is, Walter? I checked with PETA about it, and for your further reading, I recommend the response received from Nicole Dao that’s reprinted below. After that, you might want to contact PETA directly when you have issues/questions/complaints.

CCF is a front group for Philip Morris, Outback Steakhouse, KFC, cattle ranchers, and other animal exploiters who kill millions of animals every year—and do so not out of compassion, but out of greed. Have a look at BermanExposed.org and ConsumerDeception.com.

CCF puts out this release every year when we submit our numbers to the state. We have a small division that does hands-on work with animals, and most of the animals we take in are society's rejects; aggressive, on death's door, or somehow unadoptable. We have posted many blogs about this over the years. CCF's goal is to damage PETA by misrepresenting the situation and the number of unwanted and suffering animals PETA euthanizes because of injury, illness, age, aggression, and other problems, because their guardians requested it, or because no good homes exist for them.

PETA sent out a news release about these numbers weeks ago, and it was picked up by media at that time. So, as you can see, CCF is distributing old information.

I would also like to direct you to a recent blog post [http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2012/02/20/a-gentle-hand-for-the-toughest-cases.aspx] about PETA’s work on helping to end the suffering of animals in Norfolk, VA.


(Blogger's note: Tune in next time for still another look at this issue.)

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