PETA WATCH

News just in from Canada:


26 January 2010

A PETA activist, unhappy with Canada's seal hunt, was arrested yesterday after striking Fisheries Minister Gail Shea in the face with a pie moments after she began speaking at an event in Burlington. Ms. Shea said she was shocked when she was hit by the tofu cream pie. She said she remains steadfast in her approval of the controversial seal hunt. "This just strengthens my resolve to support the seal hunt and Canadian sealers," Ms. Shea said. Sergeant Brian Carr, a spokesman with the Halton Regional Police, said New York resident Emily McCoy, 37, is charged with assault.


27 January 2010

An incident in which the federal fisheries minister was hit with a tofu cream pie by a PETA protester should be seen as a terrorist act, says a Liberal MP. Gerry Byrne made the comment to Newfoundland radio station VOCM after Gail Shea was hit in the face on Monday by an American animal-rights activist, unhappy with Canada's seal hunt.

29 January 2010

A People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) protester was on the receiving end of a pieing on Friday. Emily Lavender stood outside a hotel where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was slated to talk Friday before meeting with Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams. Dressed as a seal and protesting the hunt, Ms. Lavender was accosted by the dog mascot for Downhome Magazine who came up behind Lavender and pulled her around, tripping her in the process. Her seal head went flying and, as the dog mascot helped pull Lavender up, he pied her in the face and ran off down the street.

Some extracts from a recent NYT article:

...[B]efore we cede the entire moral penthouse to “committed vegetarians” and “strong ethical vegans,” we might consider that plants no more aspire to being stir-fried in a wok than a hog aspires to being peppercorn-studded in my Christmas clay pot.

The more that scientists learn about the complexity of plants — their keen sensitivity to the environment, the speed with which they react to changes in the environment, and the extraordinary number of tricks that plants will rally to fight off attackers and solicit help from afar — the more impressed researchers become, and the less easily we can dismiss plants as so much fiberfill backdrop, passive sunlight collectors on which deer, antelope and vegans can conveniently graze.

Plants:

-“forage” for resources like light and soil nutrients and “anticipate” rough spots and opportunities

-respond to touch, sight, hearing, speech, recognize different wavelengths of light, listen to chemical signals and "talk” through chemical signals.

-Cry for help. Some of the compounds that plants generate in response to insect mastication — their feedback, you might say — are volatile chemicals that serve as cries for help.

PETAWATCH ethical dietary tip for PETA supporters: try dead twigs and sticks.

This site will be reporting exclusively from the US over the next few weeks.

Stay tuned.

A KIWI couple in Texas who are facing animal cruelty charges have claimed that one of their employees - an undercover PETA worker - set them up by willfully neglecting animals.

New Zealand couple Jasen and Vanessa Shaw own US Global Exotics, a business based in Texas that was raided just prior to Christmas. Over 26,000 animals were seized.

The couple's lawyer Lance Evans has said one of the businesses 'snake carers' was PETA employee Howard Goldman who deliberately neglected animals to further his agenda as an undercover investigator for the group.

Mr. Goldman 'could have done more to provide food, water and care for the animals that he said were being mistreated' but instead 'secretly took photos, reported daily to PETA and never called authorities in the seven months that he worked for the business'.

He was more concerned about helping PETA achieve its goal of putting US Global out of business than helping animals he felt were in distress, said Mr. Evans.

While the company is fighting to regain custody of the animals seized it has been revealed PETA paid Mr. Goldman $135 for each day he turned in a report while working at the business.

A fellow employee of the business Paul Boiko told a court hearing most animals were fed and watered regularly and a veterinarian visited weekly.

(Via APBTA)

THE WHITE HOUSE has been angered by a sneaky move by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for using a picture of US first lady Michelle Obama in a campaign against fur without her consent.

The ad features model Tyra Banks, Oprah Winfrey, singer Carrie Underwood and Michelle Obama with the strap line 'Fur-Free and Fabulous!'

'We did not consent to it,' said Semonti Stephens, spokeswoman for the wife of US President Barack Obama.

She declined to comment further.

PETA mouthpiece Ingrid Newkirk told ABC news 'We haven't asked the White House to fund or promote the campaign, as they can’t do such things, but the fact is that Michelle Obama has issued a statement indicating that she doesn't wear fur, and the world should know that in PETA's eyes, that makes her pretty fabulous'.

So if I like chocolate, does that mean Hershey's can use me in a campaign munching on it without my permission?

Click here to see Oprah Winfrey's aversion to fur and here for Tyra Banks' thoughts on PETA's vegan agenda.

A Trappist monastery in a tiny town in Canada has been attacked by militant vegan lobby People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for the cardinal sin of running a farm.

The Our Lady of Calvary Abbey based in Rogersville, New Brunswick raises chickens and cows on its property and was awarded 'Farm of the Year' in 2008 by the National Farmers Union.

But the animal rights group has loudly protested the operation and wants the farm to be shut down. The tiresome mantra that all 'factory farming' is 'inhumane' has been cried alongside the bizarre claim to 'stop denying god'.

The local president of the NFU Jean Eudes Chiasson however says the monk's animal husbandry practices should be commended.

'That farm has won awards and is certainly not any different than any other chicken farm in Atlantic Canada,' he said. 'I think the complaint is completely unfounded and that PETA chose to target them because of who they are'.

Monastery Abbot Bede Stockill has been forced to respond to the inevitable media coverage by assuring that the farming methods adhere to all government and veterinary approved guidelines.

The methods have not changed since they bagged the award in 2008, he said.