On the first day of my current job, I was talking to my manager about food(I don't remember how we got on the topic) when I mentioned that I didn't eat meat. He asked me if I was a vegetarian, and I proudly answered "Yea, I have been since I was 8 years old." He laughed. When I asked what was so funny, he said that everytime somebody said they were a vegetarian, they immediatly followed it up with how long they've been one for. It had never occured to me before, but it was 100% true.
I started wondering why this was. After all, when somebody asks you whether your a democrat or republican, you don't give your answer and then say "And I have been for 15 years", because nobody really cares-all that matters is that's who you are. After doing some research, I came to the conclusion that the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is to blame for the vegetarian image as seen by meateaters- that is liberal, outspoken, a little psychotic, very proud, and desperate to convert anybody that they can.
Before this conversation occured, I was a member of PETA. I had the "Meat is Murder" stickers on my car, I had the "Animals need their fur more than I do"shirt, me and my friends put the "Kentucky Fried Cruelty" stickers all over our local KFC, and I always commented at meals that whoever was eating meat was eating a dead animal. At the time, I thought I was doing my part to convert everyone in the world to vegetarianism. And when you really do care about animals, like I do, you want to do something to help them so desperatly that your willing to make an idiot of yourself while fighting for them. While I'm not against this all, I finally realized that doing all those things wasn't getting my point across at all, it was just making anti-vegetarianist laugh.
I compare my PETA protesting years to the protesters that stand outside Planned Parenthood everyday. No matter what side your on, it's obvious that these people are a little off their rockers (who else has the time to stand around yelling at people all day and not work?). I always thought that they were crazy people, until I realized that PETA does the exact same thing.
When I first signed up for PETA, they sent me a bunch of stickers, a DVD and a graphic booklet about animal abuse. I felt like throwing up after reading it. Although there are real facts and pictures in it, the way they present them is very unproffessional. The cover was bloody and had a knife, and the inside wasn't much better. The DVD had images of dead animals, injured animals, and the devastating environments that they live in. Don't get me wrong, this was all true and very sickening, but if you want something to be done, using the gross factor isn't going to work, just like how holding up pictures of aborted fetus' isn't going to outlaw abortion.
Recently, I saw a picture of Janice Dickinson and some models from her agency holding signs that said "I'd rather go naked than wear fur." This was a little surprising to me. I'm pretty sure that these models ate meat(especially the guys with six packs), so why are they at a PETA protest? Sure they may not wear fur, but now PETA is so desperate for people that they have to get semi-animal activist to protest for them?
I understand the idea of PETA and completely support it. However, having your ultimate goal be converting the entire world to animal activists is, sadly, not going to happen. Especially when your main form of protest is nudity(the Janice Dickinson case is just one of many incidents). Think about it-what do these people look like to a sophisticated person who eats meat? To my freind, they look like a bunch of brainwashed spoiled college students with nothing better to do but strip down to 'fight' animal cruelty. And although these people will say this is completely not true and call somebody closed-minded for thinking that way, it's true. They arn't thinking about what they look like in the eyes of the people they are trying to convert. The only people they are getting support from our people like themselves, who have no clue as to how getting something done actually works.
Of course, PETA has done a lot to help animals. The research they have done has put laws into affect and helped vegetarians and vegans learn to eat healthy without meat. Their website even features vegan-freindly recipes(and the food is actually good!). But they also seem like a very hatefull group. When Al Gore didn't stop eating meat after being asked by PETA, they made an ad saying "Too chicken to go vegetarian?" With a picture of Al Gore eating a chicken wing. They mentioned how if you stopped eating meat, you'd actually be doing more good for the planet than if you drove a Prius. That's great news. But this guy has done so much, and they have to pick on his one flaw? It sounds like high school all over again.
I could go on and on about different examples of how immature PETA has acted, but I'm not going to waste your time. I highly reccomend visiting their website (www.peta.org) and learn for yourself. I know they mean good, but somebody really needs to teach these people to grow up and take legal action instead of getting meat eating celebrities to protest for them.
i'm against animal cruelty (who's for it??) but i think there are other things more pressing in the world that we need to take care of. protesting animal rights? what about human rights? what about the genocide in some parts of Africa? what about the friggin war? yet we have a bunch of celebrities complaining about animals.
This was a really well written post, and even as an omnivore I agree with you. I try to avoid eating at KFC and opt for Chipotle (which has free-range beef and chicken) whenever I can. PETA is a pretty radical group which I find a little bit hypocritical since the vice president is a type two diabetic and uses insulin which was developed by research on dogs. When the president claimed that if animal testing could find the cure to AIDS she would still be against it, I pretty much lost all respect for them. Keep up the good posts :)
`lacey
There are no beautiful surfaces without terrible depth...
Well Meghan - I read your comment on another blog where you wrote - "i'm a vegetarian and i hate peta." - http://www.progressiveu.org/055228-peta-a-huge-exaggeration
I hope that in time you will become a happier person.
".....but somebody really needs to teach these people to grow up and take legal action instead of getting meat eating celebrities to protest for them. " - not a very intelligent conclusion - dropping massive amounts money into lawyers / judges pockets.
Lacey - how does Chipotle slaughter the cows & chickens that you are addicted to?
I'm going to try to ignore the condescending and harsh comment you left for both the poster and me and I'm going to rephrase your question so it's not quite so, well, mean. I think you're asking what makes Chipotle better than other restaurants in the way they slaughter their animals. Obviously all animals that are consumed are killed- I'm not trying to claim they aren't. The reason I like Chipotle better is not in the way they kill their animals, but in the way they raise them:
"...This mission soon found Chipotle being the first national restaurant chain to serve free-range pork, obtained from Niman Ranch. “These animals are not confined in stressful ‘factories.’ They live outdoors or in deeply bedded pens, so they are free to run, roam, root and socialize. They are not given hormones or antibiotics. Consequently the pork they produce has a natural, moist, delicious flavor.” Other naturally-raised meats followed, such as chicken and beef. Their lead on free range meat has garnered the endorsement of famed ethicist, Peter Singer and the US Animal Welfare Institute.
They also provide a range of vegetarian dishes and use a vegetable-based rennet in their cheeses. There always seems to be an Achilles Heel, and in this case, unions would like Chipotle to extend their manifesto to include "Work With Dignity", so farm workers in tomato fields might earn a fair wage."
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/05/chipotle_burrit.php
Oh, and I'm not addicted to cows and chicken- in fact I'm not eating much right now since I'm in recovery for an eating disorder. Think before you post such judgmental things.
`lacey
There are no beautiful surfaces without terrible depth...
i meant the phrase legal action as in actually doing something to get laws passed-do you think the people that have that capability are going to listen to a bunch of people running around naked? i know they mean good, but that is not the way things get done. they need to start petitions and hold civil protest where people are fully dressed. and they need to stop having hipocrits protest for them...when janice dickinson was still a runway model she wore fur countless times and not once protested it. i realize that she could have changed her opinion since then, but her whole attitude for her models is to do whatever the designer/photographer wants you to do. if one of her models said during a photoshoot that they didn't want to wear a certain thing, she would be mad(or kick them out of her agency).
All great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds-Albert Einstein
Hey Lacey - eating & being responsible for the murder of highly intelligent social animals such as pigs is a pretty serious "eating disorder" / "personality disorder"!
I understand the amount of passion you have about this issue I really do, but what you are saying is extremely hurtful. Vegetarianism and veganism are great things, but making those who do not believe exactly the way you do feel absolutely terrible and making them feel like they have a "personality disorder" does not help your cause. Reducing someone to tears because you have told them that they have a personality disorder is probably the lowest thing I have seen on this site in a while.
`lacey
There are no beautiful surfaces without terrible depth...
Meghan - I hope that you achieve great results - there is plenty of work to be done - "accentuate the positive" -
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/875003.html
Excerpt -
"Pigs indeed do eat like pigs - they eat everything and in huge quantities. This gluttony leads to obesity, illness, harm to their joints, which have difficulty carrying their weight, and even to sores on their bellies that drag along the ground. A great deal is written on the Web sites of pig breeders about the need for routines for meals in the morning and the evening, so that the pig will not search for food all day. "
Hi Lacey - making you cry was not my intention - these blog's are fully public - the PETA people must also feel bad about what has been written about them / about their motivations - when I was a kid I lived in a farming area - pigs cry & panic when they are treated badly / when they are lined up to be slaughtered -
Obviously it was not your intention. You cannot come on here and make personal attacks though. It's not fair to claim I have a personality disorder or a personality defect just because we have different viewpoints and lead different lifestyles. You're not going to see things the way I do and I'm not going to see things the way you do. I can fully accept this, but we as people must learn to be peaceful to each other and learn that communication that is not fettered with personal attacks is always the most effect communcation.
`lacey
There are no beautiful surfaces without terrible depth...
Pot-bellied pig saves owner's life by lying in front of a car
Saturday, October 10, 1998
It was just like those "Lassie" episodes where Timmy would injure himself in the wilderness and the ever-loyal, super-intelligent collie would run to town, bark for help and lead rescuers to her master.
Jo Ann Altsman attributes her Vietnamese Pot Belly Pig, Lu Lu with saving her life last month. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)
OK, it was almost like that.
Except that Jo Ann Altsman of Beaver Falls didn't twist her ankle, but had a heart attack.
And it wasn't in the wilderness but in the bedroom of her vacation trailer on Presque Isle.
And the pet that ran -- er, waddled -- for help was a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig named LuLu.
When you think about it, LuLu's real-life feat the morning of Aug. 4 was much more amazing than any of Lassie's fictional rescues because she can't bark. That didn't matter. Smart pig that she is, Lulu did the next best thing.
She laid down in front of a car on the road outside the trailer and then led a disbelieving motorist to Altsman, whose ordeal lasted 45 minutes.
Had 15 more minutes elapsed, doctors told her, she likely would have died.
"Pigs are very, very smart," Altsman, 57, said yesterday. She is recuperating from heart surgery she underwent Sept. 15. "They're a lot smarter than dogs."
Take that, Lassie!
And you, too, Bear. That's Altsman's American Eskimo dog who did nothing but bark at her after she collapsed and tried to summon help by breaking a bedroom window. Altsman's husband, Jack, was fishing on Lake Erie at the time.
"I was yelling 'Somebody help me. Please help me. Call an ambulance,"' recalled Altsman, who had had another heart attack 18 months earlier.
Enter Lulu
"She looked at my head. She made sounds like she was crying," said Altsman, who then imitated the sound -- quite indescribable -- of a crying Vietnamese potbellied pig.
"You know, they cry big fat tears," she noted.
But the porker pulled herself together, and headed outside through the doggy/piggy door and into the fenced-in yard. Never before had Lulu left the confines of the yard -- except for a leash walk -- but this was no ordinary day. She somehow pushed open the gate and walked into the road.
There, Lulu gave new meaning to the phrase "hogging the road." Witnesses later told Altsman that Lulu waited until a car approached and then walked onto the road and laid down in front of it. Several times she returned to Altsman only to leave again and try to get help.
One man stopped but later said he was so unsure of what the creature on the road was that he was afraid to get out.
"She's not very attractive," Altsman allowed.
But another motorist stopped for the prone pig and got out. Lulu knew just what to do. She led the man to the house and the rescue.
"I heard a man hollering through the door, 'Lady, your pig's in distress,"' Altsman said. "I said, 'I'm in distress, too. Please call an ambulance."
The man, whose name Altsman never learned, did just that and medics quickly arrived. But when the pig tried to get into the ambulance with Altsman, medics gently let Lulu know she had done enough for one day.
Later, it was discovered that Lulu had cut her rather pronounced stomach on the obviously too-small doggy/piggy door.
"My husband keeps enlarging it but she keeps enlarging, too," Altsman said of Lulu, who turned 1 on July 4.
Lulu was purchased in Edinboro in August 1997 by Jack Altsman as a 40th-birthday present for the couple's daughter, Jackie, of Fombell, Beaver County. Jackie, however, went on a five-day whale-watching trip to New England and asked her parents to baby-sit Lulu
Jackie really didn't want the pig, Altsman said. "She came back on Aug. 18 and kept putting off (picking up Lulu), saying, 'Next weekend, next weekend.' You know how kids are."
The Altsmans became attached to the porcine house pet, even as it exploded from 4 pounds to 150. And counting.
And how did Altsman thank Lulu?
"She got a jelly doughnut," said Altsman. She then made a sloshing type noise that Lulu apparently makes when she devours pastry.
Somehow, Lassie no longer came to mind.
By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19981010pig2.asp
Your words - ".....but we as people must learn to be peaceful to each other and learn that communication that is not fettered with personal attacks is always the most effect communcation." - Lacey I am looking at this from the perspective of the pig that you last munched on in "Chipotle" - causing him / her to be tortured & murdered is a pretty strong "personal attack" - in your profile you mention your affection for other animals - why not add pigs to your list? - "be peaceful" to pigs!
Honestly I have considered trying to be a vegetarian(and I hate telling this to other people because I don't like telling people stuff until i'm 110% positive I'm going to do it). Right now though, I'm really not allowed to choose what I eat and I know it's hard to understand when you're not in the position. Once I get back up into a triple-digit weight that me and my nutritionist and therapist are happy with I I will seriously consider my options. Until then, and for lack of a better word, I am being a little bit force fed. Don't take this as an excuse it's just a reason for the present.
`lacey
There are no beautiful surfaces without terrible depth...
Ms. Lacey - maybe it is time to lose this line / file it away somewhere! - "There are no beautiful surfaces without terrible depth..." - with the input of fresh, natural foods / pure liquids & supportive friends our bodies & minds can become healthy / strong / happy.