Wild about PETA

(In response to Wednesday’s column by Hal Cohen, “PETA, actions speak louder than words”)

It was interesting to read Mr. Cohen’s piece, but in his efforts to discredit our organization’s work to reduce cruelty to animals, he makes a number of misleading and unsubstantiated claims.

For example, in response to our recent World of Warcraft “battle” against virtual seal slaughterers, the author suggests that this is not a good use of our time or resources. Respectfully, I disagree. As a result of organizing this event in the world’s most popular online game, we drew thousands of visitors to our Web site, many of whom also learned about the egregious cruelty inflicted upon seals when bludgeoned to death for their pelts.

The point I think Cohen is missing is that PETA’s purpose is to stop animal suffering, and we use all available opportunities to reach millions of people with powerful messages. We have found that people do pay more attention to our more provocative actions, and we consider the public’s attention to be extremely important.

Sometimes this requires tactics — like naked marches and colorful ad campaigns — that some people find outrageous or even “rude,” but part of our job is to grab people’s attention and even shock them in order to initiate discussion, debate, questioning of the status quo and, of course, action. The current situation is critical for billions of animals, and our goal is to make the public think about the issues.

Thankfully, as a result of efforts by PETA and other animal-protection organizations, it’s easier than ever for each of us to choose
animal-friendly products in our daily lives, such as the veggie burger at lunch, or the faux-fur jacket instead of the rabbit (or seal) pelt. 

Ryan Huling
College campaign coordinator, peta2.com