Horrifying animal abuse

Tonight I watched an HBO documentary on People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), called "I am an animal". PETA is the group you hear about that splashes fake blood on people, throws pies in peoples' faces, cages themselves naked in city streets, etc. They think that any publicity is good publicity. I feel the same way about animals, but this kind of behavior really discredits their organization in the eyes of most people. They do other good work though. For example, they send people undercover into research centers, slaughter houses, and anywhere there are animals to capture video of what people are doing to them. You would not believe what happens on a daily basis. I'll describe some of the videos.

There was an animal that looked like a dog, but I'm not sure what it was. Just think of it as your neighbor's dog. It was laying on the ground with someone's boot crushing the neck until blood squirted out of the nose. Then they stepped up onto the skull to crush it. Next, a knife was shoved into the butt to skin the animal. The entire skin was peeled off, right up to the snout. Picture a skinned dog. The animal was still breathing!!!!! Imagine someone went that person's house and did the same to his child. It is exactly the same, the only difference is that there are better laws to protect humans. I hope PETAs video put that guy in jail for the rest of his life.

Next was a Butterball turkey slaughter house. They kill 50,000 turkeys a day. Some people might think it's ok, as long as it's done humanely. What kind of person do you have to be to slit the throats of animals all day every day? The kind of person who thinks nothing of animals, thinks they feel no fear, pain, and have no feelings. These people have fun abusing the turkeys daily. Breaking legs, smashing their heads, sitting on them to crush them, putting fingers into the vagina of a hen, etc. It was all caught on video. Yes they are all going to die anyway, but why torture them like this?

How about monkeys in American research institutions being shoved into tiny cylinders so they can't move. Or, being put into an immobilizing device so that the monkey can't move any part of its body, then purposely inflicting pain once per month. Or sticking tubes down their noses twice a day to test chemicals on them. These monkeys clearly had terrible open wounds on their skin, and were absolutely terrified.

I also saw how pigs are killed -- being chased around the pen with a crow bar and being beaten to death while other pigs watch and squeal in terror, waiting for their turn. A friend of mine was telling me that there's a pig farm around here that kills pigs the same way.

I remember reading in the local newspaper about a local congressman (possibly the Mayor?) who has a farm with a dozen reindeer. He was starving them to death, and the OSPCA went there several times to check on the animals. Imagine pictures of Jews during the Holocaust; just skin and bones. That's what he did to these animals until they were all dead, and the laws did not permit the OSPCA to do anything until after the fact.

I can certainly empathize with PETA activists because I've lived with dogs and animals all my life. I know they are more than just a living organism. I wish I could do something but I don't know what. Maybe every time someone phones asking me to donate to a charity, like the Police Association asking for $35 towards their "Fish with a policeman" thing (why do they need money for this?!?!), I will turn the conversation around and ask them to donate $100 to WSPA, OSPCA, PETA, and other grossly underfunded organizations that could actually use the money for a good cause that will make a difference in the world. Maybe one day I'll be one of those people secretly video taping animal abuse then putting people in jail for what they have done. Maybe when I retire it will be on a farm that cares for rescued animals. Who knows.

Comments (2)

Comments:

I agree with you whole-heartedly about PETA. Their cause is a good one but their methods are unscrupulous and extreme. From their site: (PDF | HTML)
The Colonel’s “secret recipe” is a secret no more, as PETA exposes the cruel ingredients that go into every bucket of body parts with our own “Buckets of Blood.” Filled with fake blood, bone, feathers, gristle, chicken wire, and a plastic chicken with her throat slit, our buckets are being handed out at KFC restaurants nationwide in an effort to reach kids with the truth about what really goes into every bucket of KFC.

Any alarm bells going off? "..in an effort to reach kids..". That's right! PETA wants to educate your kids for you! As I understand it, the logic goes something like this: "McDonalds markets their murderous McCruelty© to kids. We're just fighting fire with fire." ..with kids as innocent casualties. I've read complaints from parents telling of how some of PETA's ever-so-compassionte dignified ambassadors walked up to their children while they were eating and started showing them disgusting pictures of slaughterhouses. Those are the actions of an individual and it is of course dangerous to generalize to the whole organization. But the entire campaign is based on the premise that it is ok to spew propaganda at other people's children. Out of love, of course. A tad presumptuous, to say the least. Without PETA I, for one, probably wouldn't be as aware of the severity of the issue as I am. Don't presume to freak out my kids for your cause though. It's my job to freak out my kids.

Posted by Craig Burnett on December 12, 2007 at 01:16 AM EST #

We parents MUST teach our children at a young age to respect all creatures who are weaker than ourselves.
The horrors these animals go through is real, the least we can do is not hide it.
The children of today are better off not eating eat anyway.

Posted by Tina Halloran on January 04, 2008 at 02:10 AM EST #

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