by Mick Marten

Created on: June 23, 2009

PETA is a group that all of us have become familiar with. We have seen their members posing nude or walking nude on the street in order to draw attention to what they feel are inhumane practices in the fur industry; and I whole-heartedly support their right to do so, even if I don't agree with them. This is America, and in America, dissent is a protected part of free speech, and drawing attention to something we feel is shameful in the hope that those to whose attention we bring it will agree, is a very effective way to end bad acts; that is, if people actually do agree. Most of the time, when PETA presents an argument, it is inane and irrational, and the vast majority rejects it. I have only to point out PETA's worries over the fish market out west tossing fish to one another for their customer's amusement (dead fish, being sold for food), or over President O'Bama swatting a fly, and I'm sure you will begin to see why so many people find it easy to disregard their shrill whining.

However, I could also point out their association with eco-terrorist groups like the Animal Liberation Front for an even stronger effect. "In 1992, PETA made a US$62,000 grant to a former member of the ALF, and later a US$32,000 loan to Rod Coronado, in a bid to support his lawsuit. His crime? Fire-bombing a Michigan State Research University laboratory." (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/150330/ani mal_rights_movement_gone_wrong_petas.html) Cases like this, where PETA has embraced or even simply condoned arson, vandalism, and the endangerment of people make the organization very hard to like, and renders them morally questionable. Needless to say, this makes it very hard for them to sway people on what is essentially and ethics argument about animal rights. And just let one of them throw paint on my wife's fur coat, which was a popular tactic back in my childhood; suffice it to say that the well-being of our furry friends would quickly be replaced by concern for their own well-being. Vandalism, arson, threats, intimidation? I can't speak for anyone else, but after seeing PETA's tactics, I couldn't support them if they were handing out food to the homeless.

Most people believe that the humane treatment of animals is not only something that is proper to do, but that it is an obligation. I need only point out the fact that many forms of treatment, which are almost unanimously viewed as inhumane, are criminal. For instance, when Michael Vicks was caught in the

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