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PETA Strikes Again
I recently read an interesting but outrageous article in the Wall Street Journal regarding the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
It appears that PETA has gotten their claws into retailers such as Duluth Trading Company and Lucky Brands and their marketing of items made of wool. PETA recently erected billboards in Boston and New York’s Times Square that display a nude picture of actress Alicia Silverstone with the phrase “Leave Wool Behind.” PETA and the Humane Society of the US is alleging that shearing sheep is inhumane and harmful to the animals. Most veterinary practitioners recommend an annual shearing. Weighed down by too much wool a sheep can suffer heat stress, inability to feed babies, lack of vision and infestation.
Both companies have backed off their “compliance” with PETA demands upon learning the truth of the matter, but how many lemmings have the image of bloody sheep in their head? This movement can only hurt ranchers who have a vested interest in maintaining healthy, happy sheep and providing clean wool as they have for centuries.
These animals rights groups do much more harm than good. Yes, I’m lumping them all together because of their shotgun approach to animal welfare. My local Humane Society does an exemplary job but the Mothership, like all these groups, seem to exist for the benefit of their executives.
How many contributed dollars went into the large billboard in Times Square?
I wonder where they stand on the extermination of rats in NYC?
Published in General
Ever heard of potato or other carnivorous plants?
Good point. What people do to flax, to turn it into a manageable fiber that can be spun and woven into linen is nothing less than criminal. It is pulled up by the roots, then beaten, then rotted, then dried, then crushed, then combed through and split on a bed of nails.
Awful.
Trying to scoop @aharant here. Not quite the singing group known around here as the “Howling Bulgarian Women” (we love them BTW), but close:
Fake News propagated by Big Meat.
Sounds a like like breakfast to me.
This is precisely the salient point. In those fools’ minds if we did not use the wool these animals would live happy lives roaming meadows unmolested. But in fact the course of action they are advocating (without the sense to understand) is likely the elimination of these sheep from the planet.
But let’s take it a step further. An animal like a pig that is farmed in conditions PETA despises, that is bred, fattened and slaughtered, would have no life at all otherwise.
Seeing as this pig has perfect equality and a full belly all its life I am not sure what PETA is complaining about. Is this not the socialist ideal for us all?
It is the ideal, but it usually ends with less of the fattening and more of the slaughter.
From Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (emphasis mine):
A large dairy animal approached Zaphod Beeblebrox’s table, a large fat meaty quadruped of the bovine type with large watery eyes, small horns and what might almost have been an ingratiating smile on its lips.
“Good evening,” it lowed and sat back heavily on its haunches, “I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in the parts of my body?”
It harrumphed and gurgled a bit, wriggled its hind quarters in to a more comfortable position and gazed peacefully at them.
Its gaze was met by looks of startled bewilderment from Arthur and Trillian, a resigned shrug from Ford Prefect and naked hunger from Zaphod Beeblebrox.
“Something off the shoulder perhaps?” suggested the animal, “braised in a white wine sauce?”
“Er, your shoulder?” said Arthur in a horrified whisper.
“But naturally my shoulder, sir,” mooed the animal contentedly, “nobody else’s is mine to offer.”
Zaphod leapt to his feet and started prodding and feeling the animal’s shoulder appreciatively.
“Or the rump is very good,” murmured the animal. “I’ve been exercising it and eating plenty of grain, so there’s a lot of good meat there.”
It gave a mellow grunt, gurgled again and started to chew the cud. It swallowed the cud again.
“Or a casserole of me perhaps?” it added.
“You mean this animal actually wants us to eat it?” whispered Trillian to Ford.
“Me?” said Ford, with a glazed look in his eyes, “I don’t mean anything.”
“That’s absolutely horrible,” exclaimed Arthur, “the most revolting thing I’ve ever heard.”
“What’s the problem Earthman?” said Zaphod, now transferring his attention to the animal’s enormous rump.
“I just don’t want to eat an animal that’s standing there inviting me to,” said Arthur, “It’s heartless.”
“Better than eating an animal that doesn’t want to be eaten,” said Zaphod.
“That’s not the point,” Arthur protested. Then he thought about it for a moment. “Alright,” he said, “maybe it is the point. I don’t care, I’m not going to think about it now. I’ll just… er […] I think I’ll just have a green salad,” he muttered.
“May I urge you to consider my liver?” asked the animal, “it must be very rich and tender by now, I’ve been force-feeding myself for months.”
“A green salad,” said Arthur emphatically.
“A green salad?” said the animal, rolling his eyes disapprovingly at Arthur.
“Are you going to tell me,” said Arthur, “that I shouldn’t have green salad?”
“Well,” said the animal, “I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point. Which is why it was eventually decided to cut through the whole tangled problem and breed an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly. And here I am.”
It managed a very slight bow.
“Glass of water please,” said Arthur.
Ah, The Classics!
I like to say that everything I know in life I learned from Douglas Adams. It’s not really true, but he puts things so clearly.
42
What? That’s your comment? To life the universe and everything? 42?
Poison ivy?
Venus Fly Traps kill and eat animals . . .
Not to add to the confusion, but our local SPCA makes it clear on their web site they are not affiliated with the ASPCA.
I’ll be happy to answer your question but I’ll need 7.5 million years.
Sounds doable. What’s the question.
I agree—and sheep farming is relatively gentle on the land itself, too, since sheep crop the grass rather than yanking it up by the roots.
All I can think is that they’re just…stupid? Or should I be more polite and say “ignorant?”
No, “stupid” fits.
This is something I had to explain to my daughter when she was in elementary school. In every school year starting with kindergarten, they made the children feel guilty and bad for being born. It drove me nuts. They taught them that the Earth was a pristine place of beauty until filthy old Man came along. But, but but but Man occurs in Nature, too. (Then after they taught them to feel vile and disgusting, they’d have “Self-Esteem Hour.”)
Is a beaver dam “Natural”?
What about Hoover Dam?
Good point. And by the way, of what are the PETA people’s clothes made?
If beavers are natural and their dams are therefore naturally occurring then, yes, Hoover Dam is all natural. In fact Hoover himself was once criticized for walking through the White House all natural as the French say. And visitors saying “Aw, dam! Hoover has nothing on,” as they encountered him walking through the corridors lit only by moonlight was what gave him the idea.
So I guess he was the first Green president. And AOC has nothing on Hoover.
You have seen the ads?
Clothes?
She probably uses Gillette razers to remain fur free.
LOL! More coffee through the nose . . .
Oh, “fur free”, not “free fur”. My dyslexia kicked in again.
You sure about that?
Plants behaving badly
Let’s take this to it’s logical conclusion. We can’t wear fur, because it’s cruel killing an animal for it. We can’t wear wool, because shearing sheep is discomforting to the animal, even thought it’s painless.
We are left with no other choice – we must wear live animals.
A plant destroyed the basement wall of my house. And right now in another house a tree had to be taken down because it’s growing underneath the slab. Plants have a plan.