Why am I such a mean, bad person?

[Snake lover 3-25]

who are these people?????

PETA TV:Chew On This

99.99% of this is PURE CRAP!!!!!!!

[jitami]

99.99% of this is PURE CRAP!!!!!!!

I'm glad you can see that Shanley. A lot of young Americans buy into it. Do I condone how those animals were treated before their deaths? Absolutely not, and there are changes that need to take place in the meat industry, but Peta's tactics take it a step too far in the other direction for me.

I didn't mean to start this debate here. I thought long and hard about just what to say about Peta, if anything at all, but their beliefs are clearly affecting many in this country and I can only hope that people stop and think for themselves rather than follow blindly.

[ssssnakeluvr]

those PETA people go overboard! they have some good ideas, making sure animals are cared for, but for the most part, I don't care for them!!!! My stepdad cracked a joke a while back, said he belonged to PETA, People Eating Tasty Animals....

[anji1971]

My stepdad cracked a joke a while back, said he belonged to PETA, People Eating Tasty Animals....

That's funny, Don!
PETA is like any other organization gone too far. They start out with good beliefs, and get all fanatical and end up doing more harm than good. It's like the anti-abortionists who bomb the clinics or shoot the staff members working in them..............they just get so twisted in their belief that they totally lose judgement and any sense of right and wrong, and basically all that's left is hypocrisy. Sad really, when you think that someone most likely began these things with their heart in the right place.

[infernalis]

No your not a bad person.

and PETA has personnel with leather chairs, how humane is that?

Pesonally, I view leather as a by product of the beef industry...

[Stefan-A]

Then she asked me, "So why didn't you just let him be a happy snake out in the wild like he was meant to be?"

I felt a little bit insulted, to be honest. What makes her think I am incapable of keeping a snake "happy"? I mean, I'm not sure snakes actually feel "happiness" in the sense that humans or mammals do, but I know that it's probably safe to say that healthy = happy for a snake.

Well, my first reaction is to ask what makes the other person think it was "happy" in the wild? Maybe give the person a "short" list of reasons why it should not be "happy" in the wild and how captivity is so much better for it.

Not that the argument I'd be making would be valid in my own opinion, but it would follow the same logic that the other person is using. Neither of us know whether or not the snake feels oppressed in captivity, or if it can appreciate a reliable food source and complete absence of predators. Most humans certainly can't.

I encounter that attitude all the time. Or to be precise, I intentionally draw that attitude from fanatical animal rights advocates, because their attitude and general lack of reason annoys me.

[Stefan-A]

PETA is one of those groups that I refuse to deal with. Much like the Animal Liberation Front, there can be no dialogue with them. I don't mean there shouldn't be, I mean they aren't open to the exchange of ideas.

To me, that means that their message should be ignored and that you should fight them on any issue they bring up. But not if a reasonable organization wants to bring attention to how animals are treated. That's because PETA is motivated by ideology whether or not any actual suffering is involved, while moderate organizations are driven by concrete problems. PETA says that they are opposed to the use of animals, but in their propaganda, they use examples of abuse, as if the two have to be connected. That's why they're so successful; they know how to convince sentimental morons that use = abuse.

I'm not saying things couldn't be made better for animals in our society, but PETA sure as hell isn't interested in actually doing something about it.


Oh and they aren't active in this country as far as I know, but the internet is international.

[drache]

it's never occurred to me to view the keeping of pets as being comparable to what the meat industry does, but I have to say that there are animals that come into the rescue some times that clearly show that some pet owners think of animals as objects they bought and can do whatever they want with
while I'm not fond of fanatic nut jobs, I can see how they got that way - so now what?
should we shoot them, or give them a caring home and lock them up until they stop biting? (like that even exists for humans)

[Stefan-A]

while I'm not fond of fanatic nut jobs, I can see how they got that way - so now what?
should we shoot them, or give them a caring home and lock them up until they stop biting? (like that even exists for humans)

Siberia will teach them.

[drache]

Siberia will teach them.

sure - that sounds good
lots of freedom there - just like in real life

I think the guy that solicits for unwanted animals on KS, telling people he'll give them a good home, and then setting them free in city parks, is peta
he's a local nut job