PETA Thanksgiving

Yesterday I watched a documentary about Ingrid Newkirk, founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also known simply as PETA. At the beginning of the film Newkirk read from some of the letters sent to the organization by individuals with contrary views. Now, PETA is one of those organizations about which people hold very polarized attitudes. Rather similar to those engaged in the Pro-Choice / No-Choice debate. You are either fervently for them, or you regard PETA members as a bunch of, in the words of one correspondent, “carpet-munching motherfuckers.”

Now, when you give it a little thought you cannot help but be puzzled as to why anyone would express such vile hatred toward people who seek to halt the needless suffering of animals. I’ve given the issue a little more thought, and I’ve concluded that it’s probably because people know they are doing wrong by engaging in the thoughtless and violent slaughter of millions of innocent lives. Most people don’t like to be reminded of their complicity in mass murder. And some people take it quite personally when they are called killers. Such people react aggressively and violently.

Before watching the documentary I liked to believe that I could occupy a reasonable middle ground between animal rights and the practical necessity to engage in the euphemistically-termed practice of animal management. The film reminded me, however, that PETA does not allow one to occupy a middle ground. PETA reminds people that they are either complicit in the mass slaughter of innocent lives, or not. If not, then you don’t eat that Big Mac or cashew chicken dinner. If not, you don’t buy that bomber jacket with the fleece lining or those doeskin gloves with rabbit fur lining. In other words, refusing to participate in the slaughter goes beyond simply being kind to your dog or cat. It demands that one totally reorient their eating and buying habits away from products made by the killing of animals. It demands that one makes the effort to be aware of the scale of suffering inflicted upon animals by a huge corporate consumer society which relies upon the wholesale thoughtless slaughter of innocent lives to feed the marketplace.
It’s easy to dismiss the tactics used by PETA activists to protest the treatment of animals. It’s easy to scoff at the theatrics and histrionic behavior of the protestors as the actions of a bunch of loonies and naïve bleeding hearts who ought to shut up and mind their own business. It’s easy until you see the videos taken in the slaughterhouses. Or when you see an animal being skinned, and realize the bloodied body hanging from the hook is still blinking, breathing. Still alive.

The scale of the slaughter is staggering. It’s difficult to comprehend how many animals it takes to feed the huge hunger of a single nation each year. Consequently we tend not to think about it at all. PETA is there to remind us of the extent of the slaughter, and of our complicity in it.

Think of that chilling scene from the film ‘War of the Worlds’ with Tom Cruise. As the human survivor cowers in the cellar of a house and watches the gigantic alien machines spreading human blood over the landscape he comes to realize that people are being used simply as fertilizer. He realizes that human beings have simply become an agricultural commodity. The aliens have no regard for thoughts or feelings. The things which wriggle and scream as they are pierced and squashed are, well, mere things.

Well, we are those aliens. We can’t be bothered with wondering whether or not the animal screeching and bellowing as it is stabbed and beaten is a thinking, feeling being. We reduce the living to mere things.

Carry this thought one step further and you can see the logical progression from animal slaughter to the Holocaust, from McNuggets to genocide, from the slaughterhouse to mass killings in schools. A society which casually accepts the wholesale slaughter of animals for the marketplace is inherently a violent society.

But that’s another subject altogether. There comes a time when people can no longer remain silent when they see a grave injustice. At such a time they can either continue to argue politely, or they can throw the tea into the harbor. They can either let the lawyers squabble, or they can storm the Bastille and undo the system of injustice. Silence abets the actions of those who slaughter the innocents. PETA has disavowed silence. It regards theatrical activism as a necessary adjunct to speaking with corporate heads and the occasional polite ad on PBS.

Frankly, I agree. More people should be made aware of what is at stake. I really doubt that this awareness will serve to prompt many to change the way they live. But at the very least people should be aware of the price of their choices. People should accept responsibility for their actions.