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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

"If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then, of course we’re going to be, as a movement, blowing things up and smashing windows … I think it’s a great way to bring about animal liberation … I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it's perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through the windows ... Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it."

"Serving a burger to your family today, knowing what we know, constitutes child abuse. You might as well give them weed killer. "

"Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it."

"… the Shining Path of activist groups."

"Our nonviolent tactics are not as effective. We ask nicely for years and get nothing. Someone makes a threat, and it works."

"It may have been ELF, but then, I sometimes get them confused with ALF, the Animal Liberation Front. And then there's Earth First! and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). There's a lot of cross-pollination between them, and some people here are probably members of two of those groups, or more."

"We are complete press sluts."

"I will be the last person to condemn ALF [the Animal Liberation Front]."

"Our campaigns are always geared towards children and they always will be"

Background

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been described as “by far the most successful radical organization in America.” The key word is radical. PETA seeks “total animal liberation,” according to its president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk. That means no meat or dairy, of course; but it also means no aquariums, no circuses, no hunting or fishing, no fur or leather, and no medical research using animals. PETA is even opposed to the use of seeing-eye dogs.

Amidst the dozens of animal rights organizations, PETA occupies the niche of -- in Newkirk’s own words -- “complete press sluts.” Endlessly seeking media exposure, PETA sends out dozens of press releases every week.

In the past, PETA has handled the press for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a violent, underground group of fanatics who plant firebombs in restaurants, destroy butcher shops, and torch research labs. The FBI considers ALF among America’s most active and prolific terrorist groups, but PETA compares it to the Underground Railroad and the French Resistance. More than 20 years after its inception, PETA continues to hire convicted ALF militants and funds their legal defense. In at least one case, court records show that Ingrid Newkirk herself was involved in an ALF arson.

PETA has even begun to adopt the tactics of an ALF offshoot known as SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty). This group is notorious for taking protests outside the boardroom and into the living room, attacking their targets at their homes.

PETA began to do this in 2003 when its representatives targeted a fast-food restaurant company. Not content to write letters and picket the chain restaurant’s offices, PETA’s leaders met with the CEO’s pastor, and visited his country club and the manager of one of his favorite restaurants. PETA activists, one dressed in a chicken suit, even protested at the church of two executives, annoying worshipers by driving a truck with giant screens of slaughterhouse video back and forth along the street.

In an effort to win more media exposure, PETA has adopted the counter-intuitive tactic of buying stock in restaurant and food companies that serve and sell meat. After buying just enough shares to qualify, PETA’s pattern is to introduce shareholder resolutions that would require animal-rights-oriented practices in the way animals are handled and slaughtered.< /p>

PETA’s goal as a shareholder, of course, is not to turn a profit. Its resolutions, if passed, would increase the cost of doing business and lower the value of everyone’s investment. The group has claimed that it’s “not trying to remove meat from the menu.” But with a stated long-term goal of “total animal liberation,” pushing for animal-welfare changes is just a first step. PETA’s short-term goals are to economically cripple these companies, force them to increase the retail price of meat, and nudge consumers toward eating less of it.

PETA collected more than $16 million in donations in 2002 alone, but few donors understand exactly where their money is going. During the past ten years, PETA has spent four times as much on criminals and their legal defense than it has on shelters, spay-neuter programs, and other efforts that actually help animals.

From both a moral and a legal standpoint, there are far too many objectionable things about PETA to list here in detail. But the following “top ten list” is a good start:

• PETA is not an animal welfare organization. PETA spends less than one percent of its multi-million dollar budget actually helping animals. The group euthanized (killed) more than 1,300 cats and dogs in 1999 alone, preferring to spend its money on cheap publicity stunts and criminal defense, rather than finding the animals suitable homes.
• PETA assaults common decency. PETA’s leadership has compared animal farmers to serial killer (and cannibal) Jeffrey Dahmer. They proclaimed in a 2003 exhibit that chickens are as valuable as Jewish Holocaust victims. They announced with a 2001 billboard that a shark attack on a little boy was “revenge” against humans who had it coming anyway. They have branded parents who feed their kids meat and milk “child abusers.” In 2002 PETA organized a campaign to sabotage a popular Thanksgiving hotline, which provides free advice about cooking turkeys. The group has even contemplated (literally) dancing on the grave of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders.
• PETA receives rock-bottom ratings from charity watchdogs. Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest nonpartisan evaluator of non-profit organizations, gives PETA a rating of one-star ( “poor”). It says PETA “fails to meet industry standards and performs well below most charities in its cause.” PETA’s “ Foundation to Support Animal Protection” -- now doing business as “The PETA Foundation” -- was one of just 23 organizations nationwide to receive zero stars (“exceptionally poor").
• PETA peddles its “animal liberation” food agenda through a medical front group that pretends to offer objective nutritional advice. A group misleadingly named the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has duped the press into believing that it is an association of conscientious doctors promoting good nutrition. In fact, it is a PETA front group. PCRM and PETA share money, offices, and staff. The American Medical Association calls PCRM a “pseudo-physicians group,” has demanded that PCRM stop its “inappropriate and unethical tactics used to manipulate public opinion,” and argues that PCRM has been “ blatantly misleading Americans” and “concealing its true purpose as an animal ‘rights’ organization.” Taking a page out of PETA’s press book, PCRM has labeled U.S. school lunches “weapons of mass destruction” because they include meat and milk. PCRM’s president, a psychiatrist named Neal Barnard, recently duped Newsweek into covering his “study” (of seven people) supposedly demonstrating that a vegan diet helped prevent type-2 diabetes. In 2002, PCRM was cited in major newspapers more than 550 times. It was identified as an animal-rights organization in only a handful of those cases.
• PETA exploits sick people. PETA famously suggested that drinking milk causes cancer, in an advertisement mocking then-NYC Mayor Rudy Guliani with the words “Got Prostate Cancer?” PETA has also erected a billboard reading: “Got Sick Kids? Drinking milk contributes to colic, ear infections, allergies, diabetes, obesity, and many other illnesses.” In 2003 the group held a demonstration in front of a Toronto-area hospital that was under a SARS-related quarantine, spuriously alleging that animal husbandry has something to do with the epidemic’s spread. Upon hearing that Charlton Heston had fallen ill with Alzheimer’s Disease, Ingrid Newkirk suggested that PETA would “toy with the idea that both Alzheimer’s and CJD [Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease] are related to meat consumption.” According to a profile in The New Yorker, she considered “renting billboards that would display a large picture of a gaunt Charlton Heston foaming at the mouth.”
• PETA propagandizes children. PETA’s website for kids puts a skull and crossbones next to the logo of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and tells the horror story of a fast food restaurant employee who “had taken a patty into the potty with her, then returned and said she had peed on it.” It hands out trading cards to kids that allege drinking milk will make them fat, pimply, flatulent, and phlegm-ridden. PETA also has a child-themed website, and a kiddie-oriented magazine, called GRRR! Kids Bite Back. The name is significant, as it is intended to prep children to identify with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which has long-used the phrase “bite back” in its promotional materials. In fact, as early as 1991, convicted ALF arsonist and PETA grantee Rodney Coronado was calling his own crime spree “Operation Bite Back.” PETA also sends “humane education lecturer” Gary Yourofsky into high schools -- and even middle schools -- to promote the “animal liberation” agenda. Yourofsky is a convicted ALF criminal who has said he would support burning down medical research labs even if humans were trapped in the flames.
• PETA distorts religious teachings. Not only does PETA oppose the age-old Jewish tradition of Kosher slaughter, but the group’s leaders maintain that Jews have misinterpreted their own sacred texts on the subject. They also claim, ignoring mountains of scripture to the contrary, that Jesus was a vegetarian. PETA celebrated Easter in 2003 with a billboard depicting a pig, reading “he died for your sins.” PETA also insists (again, selectively ignoring contradictory evidence) that Muhammad “was not a meat-eater.” In his speeches to adolescents, Gary Yourofsky regularly compares himself to Gandhi and Jesus Christ. PETA’s in-school presentations include the application of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” to birds and turtles -- not people.
• PETA opposes life-saving medical research. PETA has repeatedly attacked groups like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, for conducting animal testing to find cures for birth defects and life-threatening diseases. When asked if she would oppose an experiment on five thousand rats if it would result in a cure for AIDS, Newkirk responded: “Would you be opposed to experiments on your daughter if you knew it would save fifty million people?” In addition to opposing any and all medical research that uses animals, PETA also insults medical professionals by arguing, with a straight face, that animal testing is a counterproductive means of finding cures for human diseases.
• PETA devalues human life. PETA’s efforts to treasure every mosquito and cockroach invariably lead them to hate human beings for using bug spray and RAID. Ingrid Newkirk argues that as human beings, “we’re the biggest blight on the face of the earth.” For more on how PETA devalues human life, click on “Motivation.”
• PETA openly supports violence and terrorist activity. PETA has long-standing ties to militant groups like the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). The FBI calls these criminal groups a “serious terrorist threat.”

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  Officers & Other Supporters

  • Medical Advisor- Neal Barnard: Founder, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine; Advisory Board Member, EarthSave International; Director, The Foundation to Support Animal Protection; animal rights activist
  • Substantial grantee- Rodney Coronado: SHAC speaker & organizer; editor, the Earth First! Journal; Animal Liberation Front arsonist jailed for 57 months for torching a university research lab; confessed fur-industry serial arsonist; recipient of $70,400 from PETA
  • Vegan Campaign Coordinator- Bruce Friedrich: Former anti-war protestor & spokesman, Atlantic Life Community; Jailed in 1994 for destruction of government property
  • Grantee- Joshua Harper: National organizer & spokesperson, SHAC USA; former crew member, Sea Shepherd Conservation Soc.; producer, Breaking Free animal rights videos; jailed in 1997 (assault on a police officer), 1999 (firing on a whaling ship), 2001 (grand jury contempt)
  • Endorser- Bill Maher: Comedian and host of the former TV show "Politically Incorrect"
  • Director of Media Relations- Dan Matthews: Former anti-fur campaign director and current celebrity outreach director, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
  • President- Ingrid Newkirk: Co-founder, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; Advisory Board member, EarthSave International; Advisory Board member, United Poultry Concerns; Director, The Foundation to Support Animal Protection; animal rights activist
  • Co-Founder- Alex Pacheco: President, All-American Animals; Co-founder, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; Co-founder, Humane America; Advisory Board Member, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
  • Spokesman (1998)- Bryan Pease: Spokesman, Animal Protection and Rescue League; Activist, SHAC; Spokesman, PETA ( 1998); jailed (2002) for trespass after a SHAC protest; arrested (2002) in full camouflage dress after trespassing at Marshall Farms, a vendor of laboratory animals
  • Grantee- Craig Rosebraugh: Former “spokesperson,” Earth Liberation Front; founder, Liberation Collective; proprietor of a vegan bakery in Portland, OR; outspoken defender of ultra-violent environmental criminals
  • "Lettuce Lady" activist and sometimes-stripper- Kayla Rae Worden: "Lettuce Lady" activist and sometimes-stripper
  • Humane Education Lecturer- Gary Yourofsky: "Humane Education Lecturer," People for the Ethical Treatmnt of Animals; convicted Animal Liberation Front felon; sports an "ALF" tattoo on his forearm
  • Endorser- Pamela Anderson- Buxom actress and former cast member of internationally popular Baywatch. She has posed topless for PETA advertisements.
  • Endorser- Kim Basinger: She starred in the mainstream erotic film 9 1/2 Weeks and more recently in the true depiction of a woman's life in I Dreamed of Africa.
  • Activist- James Cromwell: Advisory Board Member, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society; star of the film Babe and animal rights activist. He was arrested in 2001 for his participation in a PETA-sponsored Wendy's protest.
  • Spokesperson- Christopher Lee: Actor appearing most recently in the "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars" trilogies ; Spokesperson for PETA's campaigns against the American Heart Association and the British Heart Foundation
  • Activist- Bob Lyon: Climbing trainer, the Ruckus Society; Chicago office staffer & boating trainer, Greenpeace USA; activist, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; arrested at the 2001 presidential inaugural
  • Spokesperson in denial- Martie Maguire: Member of the country music group the "Dixie Chicks"; Posed for PETA's " I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign, later allegedly paying $10,000 to PETA to not run the ad
  • Spokesperson in denial- Natalie Maines: Lead Singer of the "Dixie Chicks", a country music group; Posed for PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign for, later allegedly paying $10,000 to PETA to not run the ad
  • Honorary Chair Member- Rue McClanahan: "Golden Girls" television actress
  • Spokesperson in denial- Emily Robison: Member of the country music group the "Dixie Chicks"; Posed for PETA's " I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign, later allegedly paying $10,000 to PETA to not run the ad
  • Treasurer & Chairman- Michael Rodman: Former human resources manager, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; former human resources manager, Guest Quarters Suite Hotels.
  • Secretary- Jeanne Roush: Former Director of Research, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
  • Federal Agency Liaison- Jessica Sandler: Former Senior Industrial Hygienist, US Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA); Former officer, Rocky Mountain Animal Defense
  • Spokesperson- Michael Strahan: Professional football player with the New York Giants; Star of PETA "Cold Paws" ad campaign
  • Vice President- MaryBeth Sweetland: Director of Research & Rescue, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
  • European Campaign Director- Toni Vernelli

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    Connections

    • Center for Food Safety Darcy Kemnitz, current executive director of the Wildlife Advocacy Project, has served as a registered lobbyist for PETA, and as staff attorney for the International Center for Technology Assessment (CFS’ parent organization).
    • Earth First! In the spring and early summer of 1999, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) made three donations to the Earth First! Journal. These grants were all made during the time convicted arsonist -- and PETA beneficiary -- Rodney Coronado was editor of the Journal. PETA has also sent money to various Earth First! chapters.
    • EarthSave International PETA president Ingrid Newkirk sits on the advisory boards of both EarthSave International and United Poultry Concerns.
    • Farm Animal Reform Movement Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have co-sponsored several annual gatherings of American animal-rights leaders. The most recent example was a July 2001 conference held in the Washington, DC area, where speakers included PETA’s Bruce Friedrich. PETA activists have also participated in organized observances of FARM ’s “great American meatout” event – in one case actually handing out free veggie burgers in front of McDonald’s restaurants in order to discourage the usually carnivorous lunch crowd.
    • Farm Sanctuary PETA and Farm Sanctuary have supported a number of petitions and initiatives in common, including a 1920s-style “educational farm” in Illinois, whose purpose was ostensibly to highlight the idealized vision of “old style” animal husbandry and care for which modern animal activists yearn. Unfortunately, the exhibit forgot to highlight the excess animal mortality and increased incidence of human disease that came with this rural “utopia.”
    • Greenpeace Michael Rodman, who runs Greenpeace USA's human resources department, previously held the same position at PETA.
    • Humane Society of the United States Numerous former People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) employees have worked at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), including Richard Swain, vice president of investigations; Jonathan Balcombe, Cristobel Block, and Virginia Bollinger, investigations section; Howard Edelstein, computer programmer; Leslie Gerstenfeld and Kimberly Roberts, international affairs section; and Leslie Ison and Rachel Lamb, “companion animals” section. PETA “Humane Education Lecturer” Gary Yourofsky, a convicted Animal Liberation Front felon, spoke at HSUS’s 2002 CompassionFest for children. HSUS and PETA joined eight other animal groups to demand that the U.S. Department of Agriculture restore to its website documents concerning the use of animals in research. HSUS and PETA are both active members of the International Council on Animal Protection, which seeks to limit research on animals.
    • Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine PCRM president Neal Barnard is also the president of the Foundation to Support Animal Protection (FSAP), which shares a mailing address with PETA. Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s president, is listed as a “Director” of the same foundation. As of 1998, its assets were in excess of $2 million, and its tax filings list both PETA and PCRM as “supported organizations.” PETA has given PCRM over $850,000, most of it funneled through FSAP. Barnard is PETA’s Medical and Scientific Adviser. And PCRM’s Jerry Vlasak serves on the board of the Los Angeles Animal Defense League with PETA’s Gary Yourofsky.
    • Sea Shepherd Conservation Society PETA co-founder and former chairman Alex Pacheco started his career with SSCS, in the late 1970s. He now serves on its Animal Welfare, Humane and Animal Rights Advisory Board. Pacheco is rumored to be a “commander” of the Animal Liberation Front and has been subpoenaed in connection to ALF activities.
    • SHAC Working for PETA as an “investigator,” Michelle Rokke first ignited the global SHAC campaign by infiltrating Huntingdon Life Sciences. From October 1996 to May 1997, Rokke was employed at HLS under false pretenses (while also on PETA’s payroll). Her “diary,” detailing various incidences of alleged animal abuse inside Huntingdon, has been denounced by many as an outright fraud. More recently, PETA has issued public appeals on behalf of several SHAC criminals, hoping a deluge of phone calls or faxes will convince prison officials to serve these inmates a special vegetarian-only diet. As we’ve come to expect, PETA has put its money where its mouth is: in 2001, the organization made a $5,000 cash payment to SHAC leader Josh Harper, and back in 1995 PETA paid convicted Animal Liberation Front arsonist $70,400. Coronado now speaks on behalf of SHAC. Also, PETA is no stranger to SHAC’s all-out battle to put medical research laboratories out of business. Until a 1997 court injunction forced them to cease and desist, PETA operated its own aggressive campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. Lastly, some of PETA’s officers run in the same circles as SHAC’s more prominent activists; for instance, PETA campaign director Joe Haptas is also an officer with the Northwest Animal Rights Network -- a group whose most prominent member is SHAC leader Jake Conroy.
    • United Poultry Concerns PETA president Ingrid Newkirk sits on the advisory boards of both EarthSave International and United Poultry Concerns. Activists from both groups have collaborated on dozens of organized protests over the years; this apparent collaboration has increased since United poultry Concerns moved from suburban Maryland to southern Virginia, following PETA’s similar geographical move. The two organizations are presently less than 50 miles apart.

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