PETA WATCH

Tacky vegan lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is attempting to forge a connection with the coastal NSW town of Byron Bay by urging its Mayor to introduce a 'vegetarian day' once per week.

The group wrote a letter last week to Byron Mayor Jan Barham urging her to proclaim one day a week as a vegetarian day to 'help fight climate change by changing people's diets.'

'Byron Bay has a golden opportunity to lead the charge for a greener Australia', claimed a PETA employee.

'The best thing that any of us can do to protect our health, animals and the Earth is to go vegetarian.'

Byron Bay is a popular surfing haven that lies near Australia's most easterly point. It is renowned for its beauty and cosmopolitanism.

Comment is being sought from the Major.

UPDATE: Ms. Barnham has told this site local government has no power to institute PETA's proposal.

After much debate by our small (but fiesty and not entirely argument-adverse) team, the winning entry of our 'Name the E' competition is:

Entoprocta - by Devon Mcdonald

word definition: A group of bryozoans, sometimes considered to be a subphylum, having a pseudocoelomate visceral cavity and the anus opening inside the circlet of tentacles.


Runners up

Ebola - by Brian
Emeo - by Captain Cook
Ewwww - by Anonymous
E Coli - Shannon

Thanks folks for all the funny entries!

In keeping with the shroud of mystery that appears to cloak the true word, this site will be awarding a very cool (but secret) electronic gadget to the winner Devon. So Devon, contact us via email with your details and we will post out your prize.

Runners-up please contact us also: you will receive some PETA WATCH merchandise!

administration@petawatch.com

Thanks for participating in our first PETA Watch competition! More to come in future.

Fat-shaming vegan lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of animals (PETA) wants to erect another trashy billboard in Hagerstown, Maryland that ridicules overweight and unattractive men.

The move follows an infantile survey conducted by website totalbeauty.com that claims that the men of Hagerstown, Maryland are the second ugliest in the US.

PETA's proposed billboard depicts an 'unattractive, overweight man' with the vulgar strap line:

'The 400 pound virgin: Lose weight, look great, get laid, go vegan'.

'The billboard aims to let Hagerstown males know that the best thing they can do for their appearance and their sex life--not to mention for animals--is to avoid meat,' the lobby says.

We've heard it all before.

The lobby's co-founder Ingrid Newkirk was forced to apologize earlier this year after erecting an array of billboards that compared women to whales and fat-shamed men.

The apology was disingenuous and the same tactics continue unabated.

Read more about PETA's fat-shaming techniques here and here.

Virginian resident Lydia Netzer has told the Washington Post she has killed her cat after fearing the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) would take him instead.

Lydia Netzer, who unfortunately lives next door to PETA's Norfolk head office office, says she put 'Hoity' the cat down, after months of lectures from her neighbors about letting him outside.

In the end she feared PETA would take him.

“Every time a new intern moved in, they would come over and say they needed to talk to me about the dangers of cats living outside," said Ms Netzer.

"I would have this parade of pierced, tattooed vegans at my door.”

However Netzer says that her cat would go insane when she tried to keep him indoors but the lobby wouldn't listen.

Better she did it we suppose than PETA.

UPDATE: Competition winner will be announced on Monday November 9!

US Basketball star Manu Ginobili swatted a hovering bat on court in San Antonio last week prompting violent vegan lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) into an hysterical rage.

The incident occoured in a game against Sacramento with the bat delaying the game once in the first quarter.

When it swooped again later in the match Ginobili batted the bat from its flight pattern with his left hand and then picked up the animal and handed it to an arena worker.

He said afterward the bat was still moving when he scooped it up. “I just stunned him,” Ginobili said.

Despite not being present at the match and reports from players to the contrary the lobby has hysterically claimed that the bat was killed:

'To bludgeon a 4-ounce animal to death, it takes either a small man or a totally unthinking one—with no respect or consideration for lives humbler than his own. This is a time when athletes in particular need to be on their best behavior around any animal and show that they have brains and a heart, not just reactionary brawn.'

But NBA website Hoops World believes it is PETA who needs to show it has brains:

'PETA is the worst. They are worse than the radical right and left combined. We may go out and buy a really nice and expensive fur coat tonight just to spite them. Even if we can’t afford it.'

News that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are recruiting for a new Aussie 'Celebrity marketing and media coordinator' has unearthed a curious question in the job application form that asks if the potential candidate agrees with the lobby's killing policy.

See the application form here.

The question reads:

8. Please review the argument regarding euthanasia and explain whether you agree or disagree with it. Please include the reasons why you agree or disagree.

The 'argument' presented is a lengthy essay on why PETA deems itself entitled to kill any animal it takes in, while ignoring the arguments for why it shouldn't or the hypocrisy inherent in lecturing others not to slaughter while it itself does.

Working at the organisation in 1991 former PETA intern Dave Shishkoff said:

"The vast majority of the animals Peta kills are far from terminal or suffering from incurable conditions. Peta claims to have a $30 million annual budget, yet cannot find home for about 2,000 cats and dogs each year. Not with $30 million dollars, or millions of members and huge lists of email addresses. Literally an armful of cats and dogs somehow survive Peta's 'rescues' each year."

Think you would get the job if you disagreed with PETA's position?

A new mcjob has become available for the Australian limb of radical vegan lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in the form of a 'Celebrity Marketing and Media Coordinator'.

The job will be based in either the lobby's spacious Sydney office or attractive Manila.

Crucial animal-welfare responsibilities include:

- Staying informed about celebrity and internet celebrity news and gossip

- Approaching celebrities and/or their management to garner support for PETA Australia's campaigns

- Coordinating marketing efforts at the launch of each celebrity campaign

- Develop and make recommendations for new pitch ideas and ways to increase media coverage of PETA Australia's campaigns, using independent judgment and discretion

So watch out Aussie C-list celebs. Your 'services' will be required soon, sans wardrobe, to help kill off Australian industries and subvert the Aussie lifestyle.

As for the successful applicant, we hope you enjoy your new fun role:

Sue Perna of Chesapeake went to work for PETA as a receptionist soon after the organization moved to Norfolk from suburban Washington in 1996. She says she found a high level of turnover and job anxiety. ``The tension was so thick you could feel it,'' Perna says. ``Everyone was so scared for their jobs at one point, we began to call the office telephone list Schindler's List.''

Firings came frequently and without warning, she says. ``It was done so capriciously and with such seeming zeal by Ingrid,'' she says. ``She seems to take joy in extinguishing people's careers.'' It's ironic, Perna says: A woman who has dedicated her life to fighting animal abuse is herself ``an abuser of the human animal.''

Read more about working for PETA here.

This site has been wondering for a while what the 'E' stands for in Ingrid 'E' Newkirk.

Do you have an idea what it is? Or do you think you know what it should be?

What is that mysterious 'E'?

Post your ideas in this PETA WATCH comment thread. The most creative idea, be it true or not, will win a very cool prize!!#*

So get your entries in while you have time! Competition is open worldwide and ends on Wednesday November 4, 2009.

Enter now in comments!

*Entry must be no longer than two words
# Prize will be awarded on the basis of humor, creativity or as determined by editorial staff.
#Prize will consist of either an electronic gadget or PETA WATCH merchandise at the discretion of management.
*Winner must supply name and postal address to the site administration
* Entries can be made via email @ administration@petawatch.com
*Winning entry will be highlighted on the site alongside the prize
*Enter as many times as you want

What are you waiting for? Get those creative juices or investigative skills flowing and win a prize now!

UPDATE: Competition winner will be announced on Monday November 9!

Controversial vegan lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is seeking to lease a former Elvis Presley property in Mississippi and turn it into an animal-rights museum promoting veganism to children.

The 'Don't be cruel' museum would feature the group's notorious propaganda in the form of 'educational displays about farm animals' and include a cafe offering vegan food.

"...[the facility] will educate students about how smart and sensitive the animals we eat really are and why a vegan diet ... is kindest for animals, the Earth, and even our own arteries," claimed PETA mouthpiece Tracy Reiman:

But in a blow to the move real estate agent Rodger Motz said the current owner of the property Dennis McLemore was unmoved by PETA's proposal.

McLemore is "not interested in leasing it to those people [PETA]," Motz told the Commercial Appeal.

The following statements by PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk are from the New Yorker magazine which published a 14-page essay on the lobby. It is entitled "The Extremist: The Woman Behind the Most Successful Radical Group in America."

Newkirk on violence

"[People] need to understand that if they support the torture and misuse of other animals they will be made to pay. The animals are defenseless. They can't fight back. But we can. And, no matter what it takes, we always will."

Newkirk on former employees calling PETA "the cult of Newkirk"

"If you put the cult stuff in [your article] nobody will take what we do seriously."

Newkirk on the press

"We are complete press sluts."

Newkirk on being a press slut

"That Reuters reporter was so thrilled when I told him my position on hoof-and-mouth disease. Don't you need something like that [i.e., an outrageous quote for your article] too?"

Newkirk on what she strives to be

"The biggest nag on earth."

Newkirk's last will and testament

"That the meat of my body, or a portion thereof, be used for a human barbeque...my skin, or a portion thereof, be removed and made into leather products...my feet be removed and umbrella strands or other ornamentation be made from them...my eyes be removed, mounted and delivered to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency..."

Newkirk on Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders

"Why not find out when his birthday is, call the newspapers, and go dance on his grave?"

Newkirk on drooling

"People drool when they look at [Pamela Anderson, who poses for PETA ads]. Why wouldn't we use that? We need all the drooling we can get."

Newkirk on her divine mandate

"I am just trying to make the best case for animals. That is clearly what I was put on this earth to do. Even after I am gone, I will try to continue."

Newkirk on having children

"I am not only uninterested in having children. I am opposed to having children. Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it is nothing but vanity, human vanity."

The New Yorker journalists' observations:

On PETA's press strategy

"PETA's publicity formula -- eighty percent outrage, ten percent each of celebrity and truth."

On Newkirk's view of Seeing Eye dogs

"She regards the use of Seeing Eye dogs as an abdication of human responsibility and, because they live as 'servants' and are denied the companionship of other dogs, she is wholly opposed to their use."

On Newkirk dreaming

"Ingrid Newkirk told me once, with genuine conviction, that McDonald's -- which feeds hamburgers and chicken nuggets to twenty million people a day in the United State alone -- would stop serving meat in her lifetime."

On attacking Seinfeld's Jason Alexander for appearing in KFC commercials

"Then PETA's Dan Matthews spoke up again. 'Do you know that fat little guy from Seinfeld? He has become the main pitchman for KFC, Jason Alexander. And beginning in May he is going to star in the West Coast production of 'The Producers.' It's made for us. We can be slamming him as the play opens. If we do this properly, he will wish he never saw a chicken."

On mad cow disease

"Next on the agenda: the case of Charlton Heston. Heston has fallen ill with Alzheimer's, a disease with symptoms that can resemble those of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, the human form of mad-cow disease. Deer have a chronic wasting syndrome similar to that found in cattle, and, tenuous though it is, the link presents PETA with an opportunity to, as Newkirk put it, 'toy with the idea that both Alzheimer's and CJD are related to meat consumption.'"

On PETA supporting violence

"Its leaders wholeheartedly defend and encourage guerilla groups like the Animal Liberation Front. In fact, Bruce Friedrich, one of PETA's most prominent leaders, says in a speech readily available on the Internet [CCF caught and recorded Friedrich saying this at a 2001 convention] 'I think it would be a great thing if, you know, all these fast food outlets and these slaughterhouses and these laboratories and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow.'"

On PETA's success

"PETA is by far the most successful radical organization in America, raising more than fifteen million dollars a year, most of it in small contributions from its seven hundred and fifty thousand members and supporters. Newkirk believes in spending as much of that as she can."

On Newkirk's extremism

"She told me, in the most unequivocal terms, that the world would be an infinitely better place without humans in it at all."

(via the Center for consumer freedom)

Pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is now calling for a boycott of zoos in Malaysia using model Amber Chia as its celebrity carrot.

Zoo's play a critical role in educating people about the animal kingdom, conduct breeding programs for endangered species and routinely assist animals injured, abandoned and unprotected in the wild.

The lobby however claims animals in zoos are only used for human entertainment and are always unhappy.

Saleng Zoo caretaker J. Siva Priyan said the group’s claim that zoos only exploited animals for entertainment was untrue and unfair:

'At least in zoos, animals such as tigers and lions are safe from becoming victims of poachers. We take care of the animals and provide them with sufficient food and protection at all times,' he told The Malaysian Star yesterday.

He said representatives from Peta should have carried out a proper study on zoos before making allegations against them. 'In our zoo, we have 24 tigers. All of them are happy and, like all our other animals, are well taken care of,' he added.

PETA has been attacking Zoos for years, creating their most recent fracas at Edmonton Valley Zoo in Canada.

Reader-in-exile 'Truth' has been summoned to reply to a fellow reader:

Truth, many of the personalities you claim to be vegan have later denounced the whole concept. Gandhi even went so far to say that veganism is the reason why Indian people were suffering so much.

A fiery type, let's hope Truth can respond calmly and with rationality.

US Pest control company Motomco Limited has accused animal rights lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) of making false claims in a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission last year following its campaign against glue traps: devices designed to trap and control rats.

The traps are one tool in a range of rodent-control products the company makes and work by holding fast any rodent that touches its surface. PETA's claim against Motomco is part of the group's campaign against home improvement giant Lowe's which sells the product. The traps contain the additive Eugenol which is said to supply an anesthetic effect.

PETA's complaint relied upon a claim that the anesthetic was ineffective. But when the complaint failed PETA claimed it was because Motomco removed all references to Eugenol's anesthetic effects before the FTC took any action.

Not true says Motomco parent company Bell Laboratories in a statement:

'There has been no finding that Motomco misled anyone, and the FTC took no action on PETA's complaint. The phrase with Eugenol continues to appear on our packaging, and Eugenol provides a clear improvement in the performance of our product.

PETA has continued to make false claims in a highly misguided campaign against glue traps, which are an essential form of rodent control.'

'Glue traps cause animals a painful and terrifying death-period,' claimed Daphna Nachminovitch from the lobby.

UPDATE: (via Karen in comments) '...Do you think we could order one big enough for Ingrid?'

Thirty four year old Asian Elephant Lucy from the Edmonton Valley Zoo is now embroiled in a legal stoush thanks to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) threatening the zoo with legal action to force it to move her to a sanctuary.

Toronto-based lawyer Clayton Ruby acting for PETA says unless the City of Edmonton agrees by Nov. 19 to allow Lucy to be shipped to a sanctuary in California, he will file a lawsuit alleging that the city is violating the Alberta Animal Protection Act by keeping the sick elephant in distress.

The pressure group claims the elephant seems depressed and has arthritis.

Zoo veterinarians who have cared for Lucy her whole life say that moving her will cause stress and push the animal over the edge.

An elephant in a similar situation was moved to a sanctuary after pressure from animal rights activists six years earlier only to die one year later.

The Zoo is resisting the pressure believing she is better off staying where she has always lived.

'This is where she has been loved by people she knows,' Edmontonian Ryan Watson had previously said. 'The people love her here'.

(Via AB)

Islam is the latest target by animal rights lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) with a PETA website being launched to promote vegetarianism to Muslims.

The new site - Islamic Concern - includes hadiths, quotations from the Qur'an and Fatwas on Vegetarianism.

PETA already operates a Jewish website alongside a Christian one and has claimed in the past that Jesus was a vegetarian.

Halal meat however is an important part of Islamic cuisine and tradition. After the month of Ramadan for example many Muslims break their fast with Haleem - a stew made from pounded wheat and mutton (or beef) made into a thick paste.

Islam is known for its strict adherence to tradition. Nudity, the promotion of pornography and using the sexual act to market a philosophy is at complete odds with the conservative religion.

Just weeks after Melbourne designer Alannah Hill was forced to drop the use of fur trimming in her collections following a PETA campaign and death threats to her son, Sydney designer Gail Elliot has also surrendered to the pressure group and ditched her signature fur vests.

The designer is the latest Aussie victim in PETA's war against everything and has long featured fur elements in her Boho style collections. Her Little Joe Label has attracted celebrity fans that include Elle Macpherson.

After months of intimidating Alannah Hill the lobby has now forced Elliot to drop her use of fur.

At the time of posting this site is unclear what tactics the lobby used to force the designer to acquiesce.

PETA had previously picketed Hill's Melbourne boutique and flooded the designer with thousands of intimidating emails.

This poignant piece of art has naturally been condemned by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Apparently only the lobby has the right to make statements using dead animals -such as the time it threw a dead raccoon onto the restaurant table of Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine.

People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA) is offering a cash reward for information on why four dogs were found in a US dumpster recently despite the arrest of its own employees in 2005 for allegedly killing 31 adoptable animals and tossing their bodies into its own dumpster.

The militant lobby is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction in the case of four dead pit bulls found in a dumpster on Route 17K last week.

But it was its own employees who were caught dumping dead animals into a dumpster in 2005 which lead to cruelty to animals charges that included 'unlawfully, wilfully, feloniously and maliciously' killing animals and dumping them into black trash bags.

Read about the trial charges here.

The lobby has a history of scurrilous hypocrisy yet still pitches itself as a benign and 'kind' 'charity'.

(via the Center for Consumer Freedom)

The PETA swine-flu ad that sought to create a dubious link between meat consumption and the acquisition of human swine-influenza has been banned in Britain for being misleading and potentially creating undue fear and distress.

Britain's Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) banned the ad on Wednesday for wrongly implying that eating meat caused swine flu.

PETA protesters had previously claimed intensive pig farming was behind the swine flu pandemic.

But in a convenient about-face the lobby responded by claiming it was not suggesting eating meat caused swine flu, only that it merely wanted to make people think about the processes of livestock production and farming methods.

But the ASA disagreed and said the advert could cause some readers to wrongly infer swine flu could be caught in this way.

'Although we understood the intention was to refer to livestock and meat production rather than just eating meat, we considered that the message was, at best, ambiguous,' the ASA said.

(Via newshound Alberta Boy)

Animal rights killing machine People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has blasted socialite Paris Hilton for buying a mini pot-bellied pet pig, despite the heiress being a major animal lover with ample cash that allow her animals to live in the lap of luxury.

Hilton recently posted pictures of this little piggy - a female of "mature weight" of 25 to 29 pounds - on Twitter, telling her fans that she plans to call it Miss Pigelette. She will take possession of it in the next few weeks.

'So excited for my new piglette to come home to me,' she tweeted. 'I just picked out the cutest piggy from Patty at Royaldandie.com.'

Violent vegan lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) showed up outside the NBC studios in LA last week to protest an advertising partnership between The Jay Leno Show and fast-food giant McDonald's.

From the LA Times:

Dressed as chickens and armed with signs -- some reading "McDonald's: I'm Hatin' It," others lampooning NBC's trademark peacock as a dead chicken -- the protesters arrived in time to provide a pre-show of sorts to audience members lined up to enter Leno's studio. Their aim: To convince the comedian to call off the McDonald's promotion, for which Leno plans to hype the restaurant chain's Monopoly contest on-air during 29 consecutive shows.

PETA and McDonald's have long been at odds, but the controversial animal-rights group has recently ratcheted up the pressure over what it calls the inherently inhumane way the company's U.S. suppliers slaughter the unlucky chickens that become McNuggets. Toward that end, members have passed out "Unhappy Meals" containing rubber chickens stained with fake blood to customers, and a recent appearance by Ronald McDonald at a San Francisco event left the spokesclown covered in vegan custard, courtesy of a PETA supporter in a chicken suit.

Leno once worked for the chain but there is no word yet about what he thinks of this latest pointless fracas.

Fresh from strutting the catwalks in Indiana and Auckland for her new organic fashion range busty Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson is said to be using the hype to help raise money for the violent vegan lobby People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

The A*Muse label includes bathing suits, hoodies, zip ups, a full range of casual dresses, and beachwear. Anderson mainly showed off the beachwear range at the Auckland premier.

New Zealand Fashion writer Claire Hedgley however was unimpressed with the range:

'The collection...was revealing, garish and generally impractical. The guy sitting next to me described it as a cross between supré and Borat, which was a very good description.'

Revealing, garish and generally impractical? This site sees no affinity whatsoever between Anderson's range and the lobby which is apparently set to profit from it...

Radical animals rights lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been stalking downtown Montreal recently in a bid to convince locals that Thanksgiving is 'murder on Turkey's'.

PETA activists were seen handing out dozens of tofu turkeys, or "To-Furkeys" in an attempt to subvert the iconic Turkey-feasting tradition.

'Thanksgiving is murder on turkeys,' claims Kristina Addington from the lobby. 'With fabulous faux fowl, you celebrate without causing suffering--and give a bird something to be thankful for.'

Some comments from around the net about the batty stunt:

Pessy: I don't know. Is it just me or does that tofurky look totally disgusting?...

Jess: I can't believe they want us to eat tofurky... It looks gross... and honestly, whats thanksgiving without a turkey?

MamaB: Seriously, I think PETA...is pure satire rather than real activism. They are a joke. Everything they do is either funny or outright stupid. I find them amusing, and their antics just reaffirm my desire to eat meat, just to spite their lunacy.

Just months after being snapped sporting a 'F*#k fur' jacket in the US, Brisbane popette Jessica Origliasso of the Veronicas has finally secured a profile-boosting campaign with the radical vegan outfit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

"We're taking our time to experiment and push the assumption of what people think they know about The Veronicas," she announced.

But the photoshoot was not without harm: the singer was left with a cut above her eye after doing the 'hands-on' campaign.

The world waits with baited breath for the launch of the profound campaign.

(Via Alberta Boy)

A PETA speared campaign to force a Canadian university to expand its vegan cafeteria options has drawn strong criticism from the university's own animal rights group.

Ontario based Brock University is the latest victim in PETA's rabid push to promote its vegan agenda.

Teaming up with the Brock Animal Rights Club (BARC) over 2,000 signatures were recently collected to petition for more vegan food.

Students already have the luxury of choosing from between six to seven vegetarian dishes a day, with two or three of those being completely vegan.

But a PETA press release issued after the petition has angered the university's animal rights group.

The release in part stated:

If you are a university student in Canada these days, it's easy to find top-notch vegetarian and vegan foods - unless you attend Brock University.

The school's dining services department has consistently failed to meet the increasing demand for vegan options on campus.

BARC Director of Events, Kimberly Costello, said the way PETA followed up on the petition was nasty.

'I was concerned with the negative tone of the article...I feel that such hostility was unfounded,' she said.

'Indeed, Sodexo (the campus caterer) should be responsible for recognizing and accommodating students' dietary concerns but […] I am confident that they will make an attempt to work with us to improve these issues on campus.'

Malcolm Dales, Resident District Manager for Brock Dining Services explained that Sodexo and Brock are committed to meeting the needs of students and recent initiatives include the use of separate kitchen tools for vegetarian dishes, as well as the complete crossover to cage-free eggs.

Dairy alternatives including soy, rice and lactose-free milk are available alongside Halal meats and vegetarian pasta, stir-fry, salads and pizza.

One of the major problems with the alternative diet demands explained Dales was that some of the alternative products, particularly dairy milk alternatives, are thrown out as too few people buy them.

Not that food wastage appears to be of any concern to the belligerent lobby.

If it is true that movements are defined by their leaders there is no better example than that which exists between the extremist animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and its belligerent founder Ingrid E Newkirk.

Born in the UK in 1949, the animal rights activist is a walking contradiction and has fashioned an organisation with an array of changing faces and incongruous elements that reflect back her own.

Consider this statement by Newkirk made to American news outlet Mother Jones: "…at PETA we've always made the point that the most important thing you can do in life is to be kind."

The most important thing you can do in life is to be kind? Let us look closer at Newkirk's kindness in action.

In July 2008 Newkirk wrote a letter to US actress Sharon Stone to discourage her from wearing fur. It read in part:

"Scientific studies suggest that the prefrontal regions of the brains of people who lack empathy might be underdeveloped. Here's our offer: Would you allow PETA to pay for a scan of the prefrontal region of your brain to determine if comments and actions that seem to demonstrate a lack of empathy are the result of a physical defect?"

Stone had previously suffered a widely publicised brain hemorrhage.

Like daughter like mother her organisation has a similar history of practicing kindness: recent kind acts include publicly labeling impressionable young girls as 'trolls', 'hags' and a 'maggot'.

Name calling and puts downs are stock in trade. They are mercilessly deployed against anyone who resists conforming to the groups vegan beliefs.

But it is perhaps Newkirk's own existential beliefs that underpin her organisations' lack of regard for human thought, welfare and feeling. Early on in her career she said "I am not a morose person but I would rather not be here. I don’t have any reverence for life, only for the entities themselves."

She would later go on to equate the human experience with that of a rodent: "A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy."

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is a mirror of its founder. But like its founder this mirror has many faces.

Editor

From PETA's website:

The nutritional needs of dogs and cats can be met with a balanced vegan diet and certain supplements....They are nutritionally balanced and also come in special formulas for kittens, puppies, and lactating cats and dogs.

From Wikipedia:

Cats are obligate carnivores and require nutrients (including arginine, taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and niacin) found in meat sources that cannot be obtained in sufficient amount in plant sources.

(Via Karen)

Partly anti-mulesing pop singer Alecia Beth Moore (Pink) took time out from her Funhouse tour in Washington last night to praise America's First Lady Michelle Obama for not wearing fur.

"Let's get political for a second," Pink told the estimated 10,000 in the audience, according to a PETA spokesman. "Since we're near D.C., I have to give a shout-out to Michelle Obama, who has announced that she is officially fur free. I love an animal-lovin' first lady!"

Seems as though Pink wasn't always an 'animal lovin' gal herself given her prior penchant for all things leather.

For 20 years, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has waged a brutal war in the name of kindness. It champions the welfare of animals with a flinty, take-no-prisoners strategy that has alienated a growing group of humans. Among them are the likely cast of hunters, meatpackers, dairymen, furriers and animal researchers. Perhaps more surprisingly, the list also includes fellow animal advocates, some of them former PETA employees, who complain of a zealous culture that has little tolerance for the squeamish.

``They're brutal on their people,'' says John Newton, formerly of Meower Power, a local organization that cares for stray cats. He uses the term ``cult-like'' to describe PETA. ``If you're not radical enough, they drive you out.''

PETA crusaders plot their outrageous, sometimes illegal antics from the organization's headquarters overlooking the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk. They often use shock, insult and even nudity as their hook.

The resulting press coverage fans the organization's recruitment and fund raising. It's that media savvy, PETA loyalists say, that has vaulted the organization into the world's most recognized and effective animal rights group.

Leading the charge and setting the tone is PETA's co-founder and president, Ingrid Newkirk, whose wispy frame and soft British lilt mask a will of iron and an unbending demand for allegiance to the cause.

``Ingrid Newkirk runs PETA like a guru cult,'' says Merritt Clifton, founder and editor of the national animal protection newspaper Animal People.

``Sooner or later, everyone who questions her or upstages her in any way, no matter how unintentionally, ends up getting shafted in the most humiliating manner Newkirk can think of.''

Newkirk is unapologetic. She acknowledges that ``we have disgruntled employees who've left here. There is a little club of disgruntled employees.'' But she says the people she's fired over the years were fired for good cause.

``It is true, I am tough,'' she says. ``I believe we should be -- and I say this at staff meetings -- a lean, mean fighting machine. This is not a rest home for people who just have warm feelings about animals.''

*The above is an extract of an article by Bill Sizemore of the Virginian Pilot. A prior extract is here. More extracts will be published in the future. With thanks to the author.

Sue Perna of Chesapeake went to work for PETA as a receptionist soon after the organization moved to Norfolk from suburban Washington in 1996. She says she found a high level of turnover and job anxiety. ``The tension was so thick you could feel it,'' Perna says. ``Everyone was so scared for their jobs at one point, we began to call the office telephone list Schindler's List.''

Firings came frequently and without warning, she says. ``It was done so capriciously and with such seeming zeal by Ingrid,'' she says. ``She seems to take joy in extinguishing people's careers.'' It's ironic, Perna says: A woman who has dedicated her life to fighting animal abuse is herself ``an abuser of the human animal.''

After a year on the job and several run-ins with Newkirk, Perna walked out. She remains a dedicated animal rights activist -- she was arrested two years ago for climbing onto the roof of a McDonald's in Virginia Beach -- but she steers clear of PETA. ``Many of us believe that the further we distance ourselves from PETA, the better off the animal rights movement will be,'' she says.

Sue Gaines tells a similar story. Gaines, who moved to Hampton Roads from Connecticut in 1996 to take a job in PETA's education department, says she found the work environment ``quite a shock.'' ``It is a very horrible place to work,'' she says.

During Gaines' tenure, PETA donated computer software to area high schools to be used in biology classes as an alternative to dissecting animals. At one of the schools, Green Run in Virginia Beach, a PETA protester -- dressed as a frog with its internal organs hanging out -- showed up with the software and was ordered off the grounds by school administrators.

Gaines got a call about the spectacle from the teacher she had been working with. ``She was almost in tears, afraid for her job,'' Gaines says. ``I went in to talk to Ingrid, and she laughed at me. It was of absolutely no concern to her that that teacher might lose her job.''

Newkirk denies laughing at the teacher's plight, calling the allegation ``dirty'' and ``scurrilous.'' As it turned out, the teacher kept her job but Gaines lost hers -- fired by Newkirk after a year at PETA.

`I think she thought I didn't have the guts to be a PETA person,'' Gaines says. ``I can't paint with a broad brush like they do. I don't think meat eaters are evil. If that's what it takes to be a PETA person, I guess I'm not one.''

Kim Bartlett, publisher of Animal People and wife of the editor, Clifton, worked for PETA briefly in the 1980s. ``I admire Ingrid in many respects,'' Bartlett says. ``She's done some amazing things.'' But she also describes Newkirk as ``totally confrontational. She doesn't understand the concept of compromise.'

Mary Beth Sweetland, director of research, investigations and rescue, who has been at PETA 13 years, says the attacks on Newkirk by departed employees are unfair and inaccurate -- even though her own sister, Judy, was among those fired. ``I don't think it's anything but sour grapes,'' Sweetland says. ``I think they need to get over it.''

Judy Sweetland says she harbors no ill will over her firing. ``Not everybody is cut out for PETA,'' she says. ``It demands a high level of energy and dedication. . . . They are unapologetic about helping animals. They take a hard, fast line, and that demands that you give 110 percent.''

*The above is an extract of an article by Bill Sizemore of the Virginian Pilot. More extracts will be published in the future. With thanks to the author.