A Good Day for PETA

Have we lost our sense of irony?

So PETA, being the shock-seeking radicals they are, released a proposal to Ben & Jerry’s asking they switch from cow’s milk to human breast milk for their ice cream products. This isn’t the first time PETA has challenged milk production by equating it to women’s breast milk: remember the “Milk Gone Wild” commericals? This request of theirs is obviously so ridiculous, that you would think the media would catch on. But they didn’t, and they fell right into PETA’s clever publicity stunt.

PETA is ideologically positioned in believing that animals are at equal status to humans. They believe animals should not be eaten, used for products, experimented on, or used for entertainment (this includes zoos and pet-owning). They are pretty radical, and have been associated with the Animal Liberation Front, a vigilante group who has been known to use violence and property destruction to spread their pro-animal message.

In protests and demonstrations PETA often uses shock-value and macabre images; this use of the tasteless and obscene may do more damage than good (are they simply trying to shock people into becoming vegans, or do they really wish for the peaceful liberation of animals?). Past campaigns have included protestors raiding high-fashion store fronts while wearing furs spattered with “blood”, and billboards juxtaposing images of prisoners in Holocaust camps to cows in slaughter houses.

Anyone who knows anything about the way PETA functions as an activist group would be able to figure out that their “request” to Ben & Jerry’s is a simple satirical ploy to fool the typical American. Their absurd idea is so strange that it of course made the headlines, spurring bloggers to talk about how they “respect PETA, but this is just going too far!” Well, my dear blogger–that is exactly the point!

PETA wants you to equate milk-giving-cows to milk-giving-mothers, because in their mind these two species are equal and both deserve happiness. Their hope is that this reasoning will lead to the question: if cows suffer intensely due to the overproduction of milk, what would happen if we did this to human mothers?

Good one PETA. I can’t say, like many of the bloggers out there, that I respect PETA. I believe many of their tactics to be too extreme, and not founded on education or tolerance (not to mention that they exploit and degrade women in their campaigns). I believe they give animal rights activism a bad name. And unfortunetly because they are the most well known animal rights activist group (and the most extreme), any who fight for animal rights is immediately shunned by association. However, I must say that their marketing is smart, and in this case, witty, sardonic and clever beyond belief. So kudos to PETA today for showcasing the shallowness of our media: joke’s on you!