[San Francisco] deserves a neighborhood named after a delicious cruelty-free food instead of the flesh of an abused animal.
PETA’s Tracy Reiman • Regarding the city’s notorious Tenderloin district. The TL, as some call it, is a notoriously rough area near San Francisco’s financial district; according to local lore, it’s named after the preferred cut of meat for neighborhood cops overflowing with bribe money. PETA is offended at this carnivore-centric nomenclature, and wants to rename the neighborhood “The Tempeh,” after the soy product. Once again, PETA really ought to consider picking their battles more carefully. Besides, renaming it “The Tempeh” might imply that the corrupt cops preferred cruelty-free food. And we don’t want to glorify corrupt cops, do we? source
A talking greeting card that is clearly labeled as being about space used the phrase “black holes.” The NAACP for some reason thought it sounded like something else. Now they want a formal apology. Dudes, do you remember why people laugh at PETA? It’s because of stuff like this. You guys have a stellar reputation. Why waste it on stuff like this? To its credit, Hallmark pulled the card, despite the fact that they had a pretty sound case for ignoring the claim. source
Hey, when you’re broke and desperate, these things start to seem like good ideas. Nadya Suleman, a.k.a. Octomom, is about to lose her house due to a pending mortgage bill. While PETA’s $5,000 is only a drop in the bucket (the family owes hundreds of thousands of dollars), it’s a very helpful one, because it also includes free veggie food for her family. Here’s something we don’t say often: PETA wins. source
PETA posted about this billboard and then, just a few hours later, took the post down. Wonder why. Doesn’t seem controversial on its face, does it? source
If PETA is trying to convince us that we shouldn’t eat turkeys, this video kinda sorta does it. But man, is it ever harsh. NBC said they’d be willing to air the ad in late-night time slots, but PETA wanted it to air during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, where tons of families – clearly, the target audience – could see it. Not so much, guys. source
For all the good they’ve done, PETA has a way of alienating itself from the general public. And there is no group of people that is more ‘general public’ than football fans.
24SevenCities blogger Jesse Scaccia • Discussing PETA’s current role in the Michael Vick saga. Rather than be willing to forgive and leverage Vick’s role in what happened, they released this cutting quote: “PETA and millions of decent football fans around the world are disappointed that the Eagles decided to sign a guy who hung dogs from trees. He electrocuted them with jumper cables and held them under water.” We’re with Jesse: Longtime vegetarian, in favor of many of the beliefs they espouse. But they could have leveraged Vick as a huge media opportunity. • source
He has served his reduced sentence, but no child should ever look up to Vick as a role model. And for the sake of all the young football fans and all the dogs he electrocuted, drowned, slammed to the ground, and hanged, we are going to watch him like a hawk.
A statement from PETA • Regarding the release and conditional reinstatement of Michael Vick, which we’re sure will mean weeks of additional entertainment from animal rights group. SEA KITTENS WHAT?! (Disclosure: When we were laid off, we considered applying for a job with PETA, as we’re longtime vegetarians and are such for animal rights reasons. Plus, PETA is located in our adopted hometown of Norfolk, Va. But just because we have some positive opinions of what they stand for doesn’t mean we’ll agree with their means.) • source
