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more from the PETA-files

more from the PETA-files

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"Kids will be clamoring for PETA’s colorful new trading-card stickers featuring parodies of the popular cigarette brands Camel, Marlboro, Cool, and Salem. But when kids see the gruesome pictures on the backs of the cards, they’ll learn about yet another danger of smoking—cruelty to animals.

PETA’s Tobacco Torture trading-card stickers will be handed out to children at school to teach them that if they smoke, they not only put their life at risk, they also help pay to inflict suffering on innocent animals."

Clamoring for the stickers? How about cowering in fear or disgust?

I'm all for teaching the kids about the dangers of smoking, but I'd rather not do it through guilt, and I certainly don't want the extreme acticvist freaks from PETA teaching my children anything at all. Especially not when they will use phrases like this: "Experimenters have also inserted electrodes into dogs’ penises to measure the effects of cigarette smoke on their sexual performance."

I can just imagine some ten year old saying "hmm..inserting things into dogs' penises? Hmm...."

And some eight year old: "Teacher, what does he mean by sexual performance?"

Sure, these wacky cards might become the hot item on the playground. But for every Lisa Simpson who will hand them out as Valentine's cards, there's a hundred Barts who will assign a point value to the cards based on grossness and make a playground game out of them. Magic the Gathering has got nothing on the new role-playing card game, Wacky Tobacco Torture.

Should any of the misguided, overzealous folks at PETA ever come within two feet of one of my kids with any of their propaganda (that goes for the truth.com people, too), I will eat a kitten right in front of them and then kick them in the balls with my leather boots.

related: see here for Stacy's PETA rant.

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Comments

I'm not convinced they have balls.

i second that balls statement. i remember the things they taught us in school, telling us to go home and tell our parents. my mum was outraged. this is just that much more disgusting.

tcha, just goes to show that you shouldn't smoke animals. Even an 8 year old knows that.

tcha, just goes to show that you shouldn't smoke animals. Even an 8 year old knows that.

I think that labeling PETA members as "freaks" is a little extreme. PETA tends to use very in your face methods to make their point, but their fundamental argument is one of compassion. One that I understand and agree with.

Chris:

A) I said "extreme acticvist freaks from PETA." That does not imply that all PETA members are freaks. See, it works like this:

All extreme activists that belong to PETA are freaks.
Chris belongs to PETA.
Therefore, Chris is a freak. True of false.

That would, of course, be proven false. On the other hand you have:

All extreme activists that belong to PETA are freaks.
Chris is an extreme activist that belongs to PETA.
Therefore, Chris is a freak. True or false.

Now that would be proven true. So if you, Chris, are not an extreme activist, you are not necessarily a freak just because you belong to PETA.

B) They can use whatever "in your face" methods they want, but when they try to use those methods on my children and brainwash them into thinking that everything I do for them is wrong and evil, that's where my fist comes in.

And actually, their fundamental argument is one of compassion for ANIMALS. They have no compassion for human beings who are able to think and make choices on their own.

There are varying levels of extremism present in the PETA ranks. Many of their members are people who just honestly feel that human beings should strive harder to take better care of animals. On the other hand, there are many adamant folks in PETA with ivory tower views about the nature of human-animal interactions, and many of them would seek to impose these views if they could. One's message of compassion is severely watered down if one has no compassion for the people they are bringing the message too either. I'm not saying that PETA should condone people who out and out abuse animals, but I've seen many other people, even people who really love animals, villified because they don't toe the line on all of PETA's agendas. (One such example might be the keeping of pets. Many radicals believe that any domestication of animals or keeping of domesticated animals is wrong, and against the animal's instincts. Ironically enough, we have other internal PETA factions who believe that doggies and kitties can be made to conform to vegetarian lifestyles and feed their pets specific pet foods which contain no meat products.)

But I digress. The actual point I wanted to make is that obediance to an agenda through compulsion or guilt only ends in creating resentment. And sadly, PETA often sees fit to employ compulsion and guilt as their tactics for spreading their messages. This often destroys the value that the average person could recieve from their messages and is counterproductive.

you know, they used to put collectible cards in cigarette packs. i have a whole bunch of alice in wonderland ones from the 1930s.

wait. more tequila.

Do PETA people know any actual children so they can realize how completely inappropriate this is?

Michele:
I agree with you about their approach to children. They crossed the line. But that is what PETA does, which gets them attention--granted not all positive. Their public relations department needs to be a little more conservative, but if their tactics bring people in to read some of the literature they provide, then maybe something good came out of it. And this campaign, grated I don't agree with their methods, may encourage parents to discuss some of these issues with their children. My point is that behind PETA's shocking ads, there is often a real issue that deserves people's attention, or at least their consideration.

Then perhaps, when dealing with children, they should take a softer approach. If they don't outrage the parents, the literature is more likely to be read at home. Sensationalizing and dramatizing to the point of horror will only make the parents tear up any pamphlets and tell their kids to "stay away from those people."

When my daughter was in third grade, she brought home a ten page pamphlet about drug use. The pamphlet described, in great detail, how cigarettes and Ritalin and caffeine are all drugs. It made no clarifcation, no exception, nothing. So my daughter thought her mother and best friend were drug addicts.

There is a way to deal with kids if you want them to learn something useful. That way does not include heavy handed preaching, propaganda, attempts at brainwashing, scare tactics or "in your face" activism.

Your right.

Wow. that's just wrong. The general over the top extremism is why I could never support PETA. Even if they went back to pre-industrial society, they would still have an ox to pull the plow, and that would be a no-no.