Posted on 05/31/2007 3:14:37 PM PDT by Jean S
Edited on 05/31/2007 3:41:52 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Citing the need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling on congressional leaders to give vegetarians a tax break.
In a letter sent Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), PETA President Ingrid Newkirk stated, “[V]egetarians are responsible for far fewer greenhouse-gas emissions and other kinds of environmental degradation than meat-eaters.”
The letter added that vegetarians should receive a tax break “just as people who purchase a hybrid vehicle enjoy a tax break.”
Asked how the government would certify that taxpayers are vegetarian, PETA spokesman Matt Prescott said, “I imagine that a system could be adopted whereby taxpayers could show receipts for food purchases and/or sign an affidavit attesting … that they are vegetarian. If Congress is seriously interested about rewarding people for reducing their carbon emissions, then it could develop a system to verify that people are vegetarian.”
Congressional leaders, however, have not shown any indication of pursuing such a tax break.
The PETA letter draws on research conducted at the University of Chicago and a U.N. report. According to the letter, anyone switching to a hybrid car will lessen the emissions of carbon dioxide by only one ton per year, while anyone forgoing their love of meat will spare the environment one and a half tons per year.
Citing the U.N. report, Newkirk wrote, “[S]cientists determined that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, and [planes] in the world combined.”
“Although most Americans can’t afford to pay upward of $20,000 for a new hybrid car,” the letter continues, “everyone can go vegetarian.”
Newkirk added, “Anyone who buys a hybrid in order to cut down on their contribution to global warming and uses it to drive to the supermarket to buy chicken, steaks, and milk should face up to the fact that there’s no such thing as a meat-eating environmentalist.”
News Release: PETA to Congress: Hybrid Owners Get a Tax Break, but What About Vegetarians?
And there you have it - money for living someone else’s lifestyle - its for your own good.
LMAO!!! I eat vegetables. I need a tax break too!
Phhfffttt. Break out the Beano, because vegetarians are the gassiest people I've ever met. Is methane not a greenhouse gas or something?
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Not until they pry my cold dead fingers from the drumstick.
How about we feed the PETA folks to cannibals instead?
Abolish the IRS. Repeal the 16th. End this kind of foolishness.
“Envirowackos are nuts!”
How is this whackier than any of the scams businesses are arranging to earn carbon credits?
I think the PETA people are pretty sharp here. Get on the carbon offset wagon now before it falls apart.
Asked how the government would certify that taxpayers are vegetarian, PETA spokesman Matt Prescott said, “Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala......”
Other than the obnoxious nanny state/Big Brother aspect of this, does anyone doubt for a moment that meat eaters will simply have their meat purchases rung up on a separate reciept, and simply show the food nazis the non-meat receipt?
If a PETA freak says something, and there's no one there to hear it, is it still stupid?
The DemocRATS are the communist party of America, proven, pure and simple.
Seconded.
Don't see any Beef on the label do you?
Vegetables are what food eats.
Is this a joke?
I don’t think so. The Hill is a reliable source.
Of course I am a vegetarian — of course I am
How about a 100% tax break for every PETA members who agrees to stop exhaling?
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