Animal activists PETA raise corporate America's ire

NORFOLK, Va.,, July 12 (Reuters) - With a cat snoozing on her desk and clad in a rumpled "Love Animals" T-shirt, Ingrid Newkirk hardly looks like a woman who could make corporate titans tremble.

As the founder and the passionate force behind People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Newkirk says her organization is made up simply of "kind people" who want only to end animal abuse and exploitation.

But try telling that to the corporate retail and food giants who have seen -- and felt -- PETA's claws.

Using tactics that sometime make even avid animal lovers squirm, and backed by nearly $30 million yearly in private contributions, PETA has become known worldwide as a radical but formidable foe of big retailers and food companies.

At a May protest at a KFC restaurant, also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, PETA protesters dressed as Grim Reapers and carried a coffin with a human-sized chicken in it while decrying the fast food giant for "live scalding and painful debeaking" of the chickens it serves.

PETA has also run "McCruelty," "MurderKing" and "WickedWendy's" campaigns to assail fast food chains for the way animals used in their products are treated. The group has picketed the homes of executives, dispatched undercover investigators to videotape animal mistreatment at laboratories and on farms and run stomach-turning ad campaigns with bloody images of abuse and slaughter.

"Sometimes sadly, you have to look quite scary and carry a big stick," Newkirk says of the tactics.

Industry leaders say the campaigns are embarrassing but do little to deter customers. But few deny PETA campaigns were the catalysts behind a range of animal welfare reforms made in recent years by McDonald's Corp. , privately held Burger King Corp. and Wendy's International Inc. .

"They've got $29 million a year, you can do a lot of massaging of public opinion with that kind of money," said Rick Berman, executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, whose membership includes restaurant and food companies. "PETA is very good at attacking."

This summer, as PETA celebrates 25 years of largely successful campaigns, the group has set its sights on one of its toughest challenges yet as it seeks sweeping change in the $29 billion U.S. poultry industry.

PETA wants the estimated 9 billion chickens slaughtered each year in the United States to first receive a mixture of gas and oxygen to make them unconscious, a method used in Europe, but one that would require costly overhauls of U.S. poultry slaughterhouses.

Current U.S. systems shackle live chickens, hang them upside down and run them through electrified baths to stun them before their throats are slit and they are put into scalding defeathering tanks. PETA cited USDA reports as evidence that millions of chickens annually are conscious through most if not all of the process.

"I don't understand how anyone with a conscience can learn about the horrifically cruel conditions for chicken slaughter and not want to do anything about it," said PETA campaign director Bruce Friedrich.

Under pressure from PETA, McDonald's issued a report on June 30 saying it was studying the matter. Restaurant operator Applebee's International Inc. is also confronting the issue, thanks to PETA.

National Chicken Council spokesman Richard Lobb said the current slaughter system is both "effective and humane," and PETA's latest reform requests are efforts to drive up costs and put chicken companies out of business.

"They're just trying to come up with things that will be costly for food companies as part of their overall desire to move to a strictly vegan world," Lobb said.

Because of the issue, KFC, a subsidiary of YUM! Brands Inc., of Louisville, Kentucky, and one of the world's largest fast-food purveyors of chickens, is emerging as one of PETA's staunchest foes.

Having seen PETA protesters smear fake blood on its restaurant walls and smear the company name with gory undercover videos of alleged abuse at its suppliers, KFC officials have dubbed PETA's actions "corporate terrorism" and have cut off communications with PETA representatives.

KFC officials are loathe to discuss anything having to do with PETA publicly. But the Center for Consumer Freedom is backing KFC and its brethren and is running anti-PETA ads, including a billboard in New York's Times Square.

"We are taking the fight to PETA," said Berman. "They've hit a roadblock with the chicken industry." Critics accuse PETA of lying and other misdeeds including a range of deceit and misbehavior, including financially aiding acts of violence and unfairly claiming tax-exempt status

PETA officials say they have no intention of letting up on KFC, after staging 8,000 protests against the company so far.

Indeed, PETA's highly successful track record shows that some campaigns run for years, the longest, which put an animal trainer in Las Vegas out of business, lasted 16 years, according to Newkirk.

Other notches in PETA's belt include persuading General Motors to stop using animals in crash tests, convincing Abercrombie & Fitch and J. Crew Group Inc. clothing retailers to boycott Australian wool and pressuring Revlon , Avon Products Inc. and more than 500 other cosmetic companies to stop animal testing.

Over the 25 years since PETA was founded in Newkirk's suburban Maryland home, the organization has grown to include more than 800,000 members and about 200 employees with offices in the United Kingdom, India, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Wealthy benefactors help fund sophisticated multi-faceted marketing and secret investigations.

Stray animals are given homes in PETA's headquarters, and cat-sized holes are cut into the bottoms of many office doors so the animals can move about freely.

Newkirk says PETA's ultimate goal is a world where humans don't eat, wear or exploit animals.

"We are the pit bulls of animal protection," Newkirk said in a recent interview. "Don't mess with us. We will win."

Physicians Committee For Irresponsible Medicine.

Anti-Atkins, Anti-Meat Group's True Agenda Revealed.

By Anthony Colpo, December 14, 2003.

Readers may have heard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a group of outspoken "doctors" who have been particularly vocal in their opposition to high protein, low carbohydrate diets. The Committee recently attracted press attention by claiming that a 41-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl died from sudden cardiac arrest while on the Atkins diet.

The PCRM also actively campaigns against the use of animals in laboratory research, and is a prolific source of anti-meat and anti-dairy propaganda. The PCRM even has a website encouraging people to consider "legal recourse" (read: find an unscrupulous attorney and sue) against doctors who prescribe low-carb diets.

While it may portray itself as a "responsible" purveyor of diet and health advice, the PCRM is in fact little more than a band of radical vegan activists masquerading as medical professionals. Despite the impression given by its title, PCRM’s own literature reveals that 95 percent of its members never graduated from medical school. Nonetheless, PCRM are frequently quoted in scare-mongering media stories about the alleged "dangers" of animal foods and high protein diets.

The Center for Consumer Freedom recently revealed that the PCRM has long-standing ties with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an extremist animal rights organization that has funnelled over $850,000 to its medical front group. PCRM president Neal Barnard, a non-practicing psychiatrist, co-chairs the PETA Foundation with PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk.

"This misnamed 'physicians committee' represents a tiny fraction of America's doctors who place animal-rights ideology above their patients' health," said Center for Consumer Freedom research director David Martosko. "PCRM has asserted itself as a home for anti-meat, pro-vegan nutritionists who are committed to removing beef, dairy, poultry, and other animal products from the American diet for good."

Just how fanatical and misguided are PCRM and PETA? These organizations' most senior members are only too happy to elucidate:

Neal Barnard, founder and president of the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine:
"Meat consumption is just as dangerous to public health as tobacco use."

"To give a child animal products is a form of child abuse."

Toni Vernelli, PETA European Campaign Director:
"Serving a burger to your family today, knowing what we know, constitutes child abuse. You might as well give them weed killer."

Ingrid Newkirk, PETA President:
"There’s no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They’re all animals."

"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. I would rather see a blank space where I am. This will sound like fruitcake stuff again but at least I wouldn’t be harming anything."

"Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it."

The above quotes (click here for more) raise serious doubts about whether or not these folks are fit to tie their own shoelaces, let alone give advice to the public on health and medical issues. In the nihilistic, human-hating worldview of PCRM and PETA, your child's life is no more precious than that of a rat, those burger patties you served to your family last night are grounds for child abuse charges, and consuming meat - something which humans have done with great benefit for millions of years - is no different to consuming highly toxic man-made chemicals or smoking tobacco!

And that's just for starters. According to ConsumerFreedom's 7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA page;

* PETA has stated repeatedly that their goal is "total animal liberation." This means no pets, no meat, no milk, no zoos, no circuses, no fishing, no leather, and no animal testing for lifesaving medicines.
* PETA has given tens of thousands of dollars to convicted arsonists and other violent criminals.
* PETA has links to a violent animal-rights group called SHAC.
* PETA has used their contributors’ tax-exempt donations to fund the North American Earth Liberation front, an FBI-certified “domestic terrorist” group responsible for fire bombs and death threats.
* PETA regularly targets kids as early as elementary school with anti-meat and anti-milk propaganda.
* PETA spends less than one percent of its $13 million budget actually caring for animals.
* PETA has repeatedly attacked groups like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, for conducting animal testing to find cures for birth defects and life-threatening diseases.

PCRM advisory board members include Dr. Andrew Weil - who, judging by his generous midsection, looks as if he himself could do with a good stretch on a low carb diet - and Dean Ornish, the outspoken vegetarian advocate who is fond of claiming that low carb diets will cause everything from impotence to heart disease.

Sign ConsumerFreedom.com's petition to revoke PETA's tax-exempt status.

http://tinyurl.com/byovp

Ingrid Newkirk

Ingrid Newkirk Biography
Ingrid Newkirk isn’t just the President of PETA, she’s also a militant activist. She’s soaked herself in fake blood, of course, but she’s also been arrested more than 20 times. And she’s an avowed supporter of the terrorist Animal Liberation Front.

Newkirk wrote a book called Free the Animals! The Untold Story of the U.S. Animal Liberation Front and Its Founder, ‘Valerie.’ In it she writes that she has “become somewhat used to jumping on a plane with copies of freshly purloined documents and hurriedly calling news conferences to discuss the ALF’s findings.” In 1993, Newkirk arranged an interview for TIME magazine with “Valerie.” Later, the animal-rights movement would be abuzz with speculations that Valerie was just one of Newkirk’s PETA employees. The entire episode has suggested what many federal law enforcement officers have openly speculated: that ALF and PETA may be populated with identical personnel, the only difference being a setting sun and a ski mask.

Newkirk gives interviews to ALF’s publications, supports the legal defense efforts of ALF criminals (with PETA’s money), has been subpoenaed in regard to her ALF connections, and has even been accused in court documents of participation in the ALF arson of a Michigan State University research lab.

In the 1970s, Newkirk worked for Montgomery County (Maryland), and then for the District of Columbia, as an animal protection officer and deputy sheriff, before becoming DC’s first female poundmaster in 1978. She co-founded PETA in 1980 with established animal-rights activist Alex Pacheco. Since then, PETA and Newkirk have become synonymous. Former employees refer to PETA as “the cult of Newkirk.”

Background
Co-founder, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; Advisory Board member, EarthSave International; Advisory Board member, United Poultry Concerns; Director, The Foundation to Support Animal Protection; animal rights activist

Ingrid Newkirk's Will

By Brian Carnell
Sunday, June 22, 2003

Ingrid Newkirk managed to garner a fresh round of publicity by publicizing the conditions of her will. The stories centered on explicit instructions Newkirk's will gives for the disposition of parts of her body. Below is the full text of her will,

DIRECTIONS FOR THE DISPOSITION OF THE REMAINS OF INGRID NEWKIRK

As someone who has dedicated a part of my life to the alleviation of animal suffering in various parts of the world, it is my wish that upon my death, my body be used to further that same goal. It is with this purpose in mind that I make the following directions and designations relating to the disposition of my final remains. I make these directions and designations after thorough consideration and pursuant to my firm belief in the purposes for which they are made.

1. Upon my death, it is my wish that my body be used in a manner that draws attention to needless animal suffering and exploitation. To accomplish this, I direct that my body be donated to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 501 Front Street, Norfolk, Virginia 23510, to be used in whatever manner it chooses in order to accomplish the specified purpose, with the hope that most of my body will be put to use in the United States, with parts also dispatched to awaken the public consciousness of governments and citizens in the United Kingdom, where I was born, in India, my beloved childhood home, and in Canada, Germany, and France.
2. While the final decision as to the use of my body remains with PETA, I make the following suggested directions:
1. That the “meat” of my body, or a portion thereof, be used for a human barbecue, to remind the world that the meat of a corpse is all flesh, regardless of whether it comes from a human being or another animal, and that flesh foods are not needed;
2. That my skin, or a portion thereof, be removed and made into leather products, such as purses, to remind the world that human skin and the skin of other animals is the same and that neither is “fabric” nor needed, and that some skin be tacked up outside the Indian Leather Fair each year to serve as a reminder of the government’s need to abate the suffering of Indian bullocks who, after a life of extreme and involuntary servitude, as I have seen firsthand, are exported all over the world in this form;
3. That in remembrance of the elephant-foot umbrella stands and tiger rugs I saw, as a child, offered for sale by merchants at Connaught Place in Delhi, my feet be removed and umbrella stands or other ornamentation be made from them, as a reminder of the depravity of killing innocent animals, such as elephants, in order that we might use their body parts for household items and decorations;
4. That one of my eyes be removed, mounted, and delivered to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a reminder that PETA will continue to be watching the agency until it stops poisoning and torturing animals in useless and cruel experiments; that the other is to be used as PETA sees fit;
5. That my pointing finger be delivered to Kenneth Feld, owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, or to a circus museum to stand as the “Greatest Accusation on Earth” on behalf of the countless elephants, lions, tigers, bears, and other animals who have been kidnapped from their families and removed from their homelands in India, Thailand, Africa, and South America and deprived of all that is natural and pleasant to them, abused, and forced into involuntary servitude for the sake of cheap entertainment;
6. That my liver be vacuum-packed and shipped, in whole or in part, to France, to there be used in a public appeal to persuade shoppers not to support the vile practice of force-feeding geese and ducks for foie gras;
7. That one of my ears be removed, mounted, and sent to the Canadian Parliament to assist them in hearing, for the first time perhaps, the screams of the seals, bears, raccoons, foxes, and minks bludgeoned, trapped, and sometimes skinned alive for their pelts; that the other ear be removed, preserved, and displayed outside the Deonar abattoir in Mumbai to remind all who do business there that the screams of the cattle who are slaughtered within its walls are heard around the world;
8. That one of my thumbs be removed, mounted upwards on a plaque, and sent to the person or institution that, in the year of my death or thereabouts, PETA decides has done the most to promote alternatives to the use and abuse of animals in any area of their exploitation;
9. That one of my thumbs be mounted in a downward position and sent to the person or institution that, in the year of my death or thereabouts, has gone against the changing tide of societal opinion and frightened and hurt animals in some egregious manner;
10. That a little part of my heart be buried near the racetrack at Hockenheim, preferably near the Ferrari pits, where Michael Shumacher raced in and won the German Grand Prix;
11. That anything else be done with my body that PETA believes will serve to draw attention to and so abate the plight of exploited animals.
3. As a resident of Virginia, and pursuant to Virginia law, including § 54.1-2825 of the Virginia Code, I designate PETA as the “person” who shall make arrangements for carrying out the directions contained in this document for the disposition of my remains upon my death. If, at any time, PETA is unable or unwilling to carry out these directions, I designate, in the alternative, Daniel Mathews as the individual who shall make arrangements for carrying out the directions contained in this document for the disposition of my remains upon my death. If Daniel Mathews is unable or unwilling to carry out these directions as required, I authorize either of the two listed “persons” in this paragraph to designate a third party to make arrangements for carrying out the directions contained in this document for the disposition of my remains upon my death.
4. While I prefer that my directions be first executed in the United States, I also direct that parts of my body be transported to the United Kingdom, of which I also am a citizen, and to India, my beloved spiritual home, to be executed there. If my directions cannot be executed in any of these countries, I authorize the transport of my remains to any location where my disposition directions, in whole or in part, may be lawfully executed.
5. I authorize the person carrying out these directions to deviate from them in any manner he or she deems appropriate to further the purpose expressed herein. If any provision or provisions of this document shall be held to be invalid, illegal, unenforceable, or in conflict with the law of any jurisdiction, the validity, legality, and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired thereby.

Source:

Ingrid's Unique Will. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

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