Not quite getting the outrage...

[catsittingstill]

PETA is planning to put up two billboards. They have the same picture of cute baby chicks.

One will say "Pro-Life"? Go Vegetarian"

One will say "Pro-Choice? Choose Vegetarian"

Some people are really mad about this.  Now I understand being mad about the murder of Dr. Tiller.  I'm mad too.  But the billboards are referring to this only in an extremely meta way ( if I may use the word that way)--in their timing.  And in the meantime, I'd *much* rather see PETA putting their time and efforts into billboards (billboards that don't even degrade women--which I understand is kind of a step forward for them) than see them vandalizing labs and stealing lab animals (white, with red eyes, spent their entire lives in cages with food and water conveniently on hand) and throwing them over the tailgate in the middle of the desert to live or die as best they can manage.  Or any of the other objectionable things they do.

They are trying to persuade people to become vegetarians.  Persuade, not force, not intimidate--just persuade people to consider the idea.  And they're trying to appeal to both sides, which makes sense to me, because vegetarianism really has nothing to do with abortion either way, so both sides should be potentially persuadable.

And it does seem likely that people will have been thinking about which side of the abortion issue they are on (or where in the middle) and why, so the billboards might catch their eye.

Is that what makes it objectionable, that the billboards bring the murder back to mind?

One person in the article says "How long was PETA hoping for a doctor to get killed to get these signs up?"

I don't support PETA but even I don't think that is quite fair.  Any major newsworthy incident would have done.   I do think that an act of violence was the most likely newsworthy event, and when I think about the two groups, I see a pretty good guess at which way the act of violence will go, and only a couple of possibilities of what it will be, but I don't think PETA was hoping for this outcome.  If the newsworthy event had been a pro-choice person murdering an anti-abortion person, or a clinic bombing, or a pro-Choice person bombing an anti-abortion Church or something, they would have used the same billboards.  Or for that matter a *good* newsworthy event, like, um....say pro-choice and anti-abortion people working together on a major nation-wide birth control campaign to make sure every person of fertile age had it and knew how to use it. 

All it had to do was hit the news and make a splash.
 

Comments

[maiac.livejournal.com]

"Is that what makes it objectionable, that the billboards bring the murder back to mind?" Some people think it's in poor taste to exploit a murder to promote your personal agenda, and that it shows a lack of consideration for the victim's family and friends. I'm not outraged, exactly. Let's just say it doesn't change my opinion of PETA, and I don't mean that in a nice way.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, okay I can see that. Again, they seem to me to be "exploiting" it in a sort of removed way, but it does seem like they are deliberately bringing it back to mind in order to get attention.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

To quote Bertrand Russell: "Seems, madam? Nay, it is!" PETA's Holly Beal (http://www.kmbc.com/news/19648883/detail.html): "The right-to-life issue is at an all-time high right now, and we want people to look at an animal's rights, and each time they sit down to eat, they can stop animal suffering by what they choose to eat."

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I agree that seems pretty deliberate.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

This link (http://www.mofed.org/THANK_GOD!.htm) might explain some of what you don't understand.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. Speaking of "unpersuasive and vaguely sophomoric"...I'd like to see the local PETA head locked in a cage with a "cruelty caseworker", preferably each of them with one hand glued to the same bowling ball; they couldn't deserve each other more.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Goodness knows I don't admire or respect PETA and goodness knows I agree they do some silly things, as well as actually destructive things.

I just had the impression that it was the ads causing the outrage, rather than their sponsor. And while I'm not a vegetarian myself I don't see anything in the ads themselves that seems that outrageous.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Seems to me those two bilboards would have made just enough sense a week ago. What, abortion wasn't controversial until just now?

And, yeah, because it uses the words "pro choice" and "pro life", some people will scream and rant about it. Someone ALWAYS screams and rants whenever abortion is discussed. That's why I tend to leave the topic alone except for times like now when someone has done something too disgusting to ignore.

And, also yeah, PETA's tactics strike me as unpersuasive and vaguely sophomoric, as usual. At least, this isn't as dumb as when they tried to have fish re-named "sea kittens" on the theory that fewer people would want to eat them.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, that's true; they would have worked about as well last week or the month before. Or two months from now, for that matter. And I think (I could be wrong though) that they're proposing to put them up in the town where the murder took place, which seems insensitive.

I guess I understand better.

I hadn't heard about the "sea kittens" thing. I thought you were joking, but wow, it's real. (http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/) Well, good luck with that. Write if it actually works.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

It is an exaggeration to say that PETA is the Westboro Baptist Church of vegetarianism -- the worst PETA has done doesn't begin to be as hateful and contemptible as Fred Phelps' homophobic thugs -- but their level of effectiveness is about equal. I believe in both cases that their real purpose is to get as much attention (and monetary donations) as possible, not really to achieve their stated aim.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

My first exposure to PETA was when a sub-branch, the ALF, broke into the animal care facility at my University and stole all the antibody rabbits and all the hamsters that had been bred to have unusual sleep cycles. One of my friends lost his antibody rabbit, which set his research back a couple of months. The guy with the hamsters--as far as I know they put an end to his research career; all his grants were based on those hamsters.

PETA praised the break-in and said that the animals had been examined by a vet and adopted to good homes.

Four of the (white) antibody rabbits were found in a blinking huddle in the desert south of Roseburg, Oregon. Well, technically five rabbits, but the fifth one died before they could be rescued. They couldn't be used for research anymore, but at least they were saved.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yes. I'd forgotten about little pranks like that. And that reminds me of the reports that they "liberate" kittens and puppies from animal shelters, and then kill them to spare them a life of degradation and slavery.

Let me amend my comment: It is not an exaggeration to say that PETA is the Westboro Baptist Church of animal rights.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

From what I've gathered, it was the placement to some extent; people thought it was tacky to do it in the town he was murdered in.

I'm surprised at the amount of vitriol it has garnered, but I suspect that most people find it hard to divorce PETA's past action from a current one. So their views may be colored by that.

(And I speak as one who despises PETA and the unethical things they do.)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

It took me a while to realize they were doing this in the very same city. Yes, that *is* tacky.

And yes, I understand why people might already be angry at them for their past actions. See my response to maiac above. They also did a lot of damage to the labs in that break-in. It was pure luck that my lab (I was working in a lab as an undergraduate assistant at the time) wasn't affected.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

My impression is that it's in the same line of propaganda tactics as (and shares some of the moral rigidity of) Operation Rescue.

[kittyguitar.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think using somebody else's controversial issue to promote one's own controversial issue is a bit dodgy even if nobody's been shot lately. I wouldn't say I'm outraged about it, but I do find it tacky.

Then again I can't remember the last PETA campaign that I didn't find tacky.

Non-tacky campaigns

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

You know, I really like that ad campaign with the two cows trying to persuade everyone to eat chicken (presumably instead of cows) for Chik-Fil-A or whatever it is.

Something like that trying to persuade people to go vegetarian might get the same message across without being tacky. Say, a cow, a pig, a lamb, a chicken and a fish?

Just a passing thought. But there's got to be a better way to do that.