http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 20 May 2008 22:46:37 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/05/19/031434.php#comment-719941 If you really care about life, you'll go Jainism. 719941@blogcritics.org Tue, 20 May 2008 22:46:37 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/05/19/031434.php#comment-719761 If you really care about animals, you'll go vegan. 719761@blogcritics.org Tue, 20 May 2008 11:42:25 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/05/19/031434.php#comment-719603 7 Things You Didn't Know About PeTA 1. PeTA has stated repeatedly that their goal is "total animal liberation." This means no pets, no meat, no milk, no zoos, no circuses, no fishing, no hunting, no farming, no leather, and no animal testing for lifesaving medicines. 2. PeTA has given tens of thousands of dollars to convicted arsonists and other violent criminals. 3. PeTA funds the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine an animal-rights organization that presents itself as an unbiased source for nutritional information and has links to violent animal-rights groups called SHAC and ALF. 4. PeTA has used their contributors tax-exempt donations to fund the North American Earth Liberation front and the Animal Liberation Front, FBI-certified domestic terrorist groups responsible for fire bombs and death threats. 5. PeTA regularly targets kids as early as elementary school with anti-meat and anti-milk propaganda. They are totally opposed to traditional farming methods. 6. PeTA spends less than one percent of its $13 million budget actually caring for animals. PeTA kills animals. 7. 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. source: www.consumerfreedom.com www.petakillsanimals.com www.animalscam.com www.naiaonline.org 719603@blogcritics.org Mon, 19 May 2008 23:46:47 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/05/19/031434.php#comment-719360 My complements on a good article. I'd like to extend the crucial point Amada made about the difference between Animal Rights and Animal Welfare. The AR ideology hinges precariously on the moral equivalency of humans and animals: to the AR person, the life of a human and that of an animal are of equal moral value, and, as Amanda pointed out, to an AR advocate, if it is morally or ethically unacceptable to do something to a human, it is no less so to do it to an animal. Indeed, AR groups believe that discrimination on the basis of species differences ("speciesism") is as morally reprehensible as racism, ageism, sexism, etc. The human/animal moral equivalency is why AR activist and erstwhile self-appointed spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front Dr. Steven Best said he'd save his dog from a burning house before he'd save a human stranger. http://tinyurl.com/cobho Why? Because to Dr. Best (and other folks who understand and buy into the AR ideology), both lives are of equal moral value, and his dog brings HIM more pleasure than the human stranger — say your child, parent, spouse or sib — brings HIM. If this horrifies you, keep in mind that the logic is flawless, IF you accept the assumption that that both the dog's life and that of the human are of equal moral value. But here's the fly in the AR logical ointment. PeTA, the pre-eminent AR group, kills upwards of 80% of the animals it takes into its Norfolk VA "shelter", a far higher percentage than the impoverished other shelters in the area. And, AR groups (including Vlasak's own ADL-LA) advocate the spaying and neutering of dogs and cats, ostensibly to fight pet overpopulation. If AR people really believe that humans and animals are morally equivalent, how can they justify all this killing, spaying and neutering of dogs and cats unless they support killing, spaying and neutering humans for the same reasons they favor doing so to animals? The AR people have either fatally undermined their own argument of human/animal moral equivalent . . . or more disturbingly, would kill and forcibly sterilize human beings on the same moral/ethical basis they do animals. 719360@blogcritics.org Mon, 19 May 2008 12:33:03 EDT