Reading previous posts on this blog you would think the good folks at PeTA are running out of feet in which to shoot themselves:

First they’re artfully demolished by comedians (see PeTA = hypocritical bull***t, say Penn & Teller), second they get done for snuffing disingenuously ‘rescued’ cats and dogs (see Latest on PeTA killings and PeTA - animal killers), and finally their good buddy Jerry Vlasak – former spokesperson for PeTA-funded Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) – told the United States Senate he believes that assassinating scientific researchers is ‘morally justifiable’ (see this 27 October 2005 San Francisco Chronicle article for news on the Senate hearing and this 1 August 2004 Observer article for background on the PeTA/PCRM connection).  PeTA may protest they’ve ‘distanced’ themselves from Vlasak, but evidently not far enough to remove his endorsements from their web sites – visit the PeTA India site for an example.

So.  Only one foot left – and that’s if you’re a cat or dog.

But just in case you are a cat or a dog, let’s not forget that PeTA has more ways to show you their love than the ol’ hypodermic hello.  As the former dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health pointed out in a recent article, PeTA’s opposition to any and all animal research harms animals as well as humans.  Animals – including pets, upon whose owners PeTA depends for its multimillion-dollar yearly donations – live longer and longer because they don’t die of distemper, rabies, or scads of other diseases that wouldn’t have been eradicated without animal research.  If PeTA had their way, however, these animal-life-saving discoveries would never have been made, and research that may offer further medical benefits to animals would stop today.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if PeTA made clear their ultimate goals.  You know, if the Great and Powerful PeTA showed Mr or Ms Companion-Animal-Owning Contributor the man behind the curtain?  Oh, wait – that can’t happen in PeTA’s Land of Oz . . . because Toto died of heartworm years ago.

Seriously, with friends like PeTA our pets don’t need enemies.  And one certainly doesn’t envy PeTA their enemies, which, it now becomes clear, include the FBI.  And are PeTA really pets’ best and most responsible representatives?  After all PeTA’s travails, including recent ‘staff attrition’ caused by a wave of animal/eco-arson arrests in the US, they’re left with a Youth Outreach Coordinator who has legally changed his name to KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.  One hopes he’ll be too busy applying for a new driver’s licence to reach out to too many youth . . .