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| Fifth Column |
| Arafat gets asinine plea from PETA on intefadeh |
| 2003-02-07 |
| Yeah, PETA knows what's important... Every so often, I violate my own policy against giving PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- the publicity it desperately desires and doesn't deserve. I do this whenever the Norfolk-based animal rights group does something so astonishing, it simply can't be ignored. This is one of those times. But our story doesn't begin in Norfolk. It begins in Israel. On Jan. 26, a bomb exploded on the road between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion. As terror attacks go, this one was minor. Most of us didn't hear about it because, with the exception of one bus passenger treated for shock, no one was injured. Thank God. Palestinian terrorists delivered the bomb to its destination by donkey. They strapped explosives and a remote device to the animal and detonated the bomb by cell phone as an Israeli bus passed by. The donkey, of course, was killed. You know where this is going, don't you? That's right. PETA, the group that never before expressed concern about the carnage in Israel, is suddenly outraged. All because a donkey died. Never mind that, according to the Israeli embassy, which keeps track of such grim statistics, 729 Israelis have perished in terrorist attacks since September 2000. It took the death of a donkey for PETA to find its voice. Leave the animals out of it, they cry. Determined to make Hampton Roads look like a breeding ground for wackos to the rest of the world, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk this week fired off a fax to Yasser Arafat. She began the letter with a polite salutation: ``Your Excellency.'' I can think of lots of titles for Arafat. Excellency isn't among them. But I digress. ``. . . We have received many calls and letters from people shocked at the bombing . . . in which a live donkey, laden with explosives, was intentionally blown up. All nations behave abominably in many ways when they are fighting their enemies, and animals are always caught in the crossfire. The U.S. Army abandoned thousands of loyal service dogs in Vietnam. (Odd. No mention of our dead soldiers, MIAs, POWs or even loyal South Vietnamese allies who were left behind, but again, I digress.) ``Al-Qaeda and the British government have both used animals in hideously cruel biological weaponry tests.'' Brace yourselves. It gets worse. ``We watched on television as stray cats in your own compound fled as best they could from Israeli bulldozers'' Fleeing cats! PETA confronts the horror of war. ``Animals claim no nation. They are in perpetual involuntary servitude to all humankind, and, although they pose no threat and own no weapons, human beings always win the undeclared war against them. . . . If you have the opportunity,'' Newkirk beseeched Arafat, ``will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of this conflict?'' In other words, Newkirk seems to be begging the Palestinians not to stop the slaughter, but rather to find a different delivery system for their bombs. If Yasshole doesn't have enough problems. Now he's got some lunatic bitch screaming about cats and donkeys.Can't you find some other way to blow up the Jews? Appalling. Perhaps Ms. Newkirk would prefer that the Palestinians used suicide bombers instead of burros. Oh, that's right, they usually do. Lisa Lange, PETA's vice president of communications, told me yesterday that Newkirk's letter was written after their offices had been bombarded with calls from PETA members who had learned of the donkey bomb. Proving that there are lots of people in this country with lots of time on their hands... Lange said it's PETA's philosophy that human cruelty often begins with animal cruelty. The Washington Post this week asked Ms. Newkirk if she had ``considered asking Arafat to persuade those who listen to him to stop blowing up people as well'' as animals. Her response should be required reading for all would-be members of PETA: ``It's not my business to inject myself into human wars,'' Newkirk told the Post. Spoken like the pompous morally superior douchebag that you are... How does one respond to such moral ambiguity? How about a body count of human bodies? In January 2003 -- the month in which the donkey died -- 21 Israelis and eight foreign nationals were killed by terrorists in Israel, and 127 others were injured. Yet PETA weeps for the ass. Assholes weeping for asses. Radio talk show host Tony Macrini got it right when he remarked recently that ``PETA'' was an acronym for ``People Embarrassing the Tidewater Area.'' One can only hope that Newkirk left off her Norfolk return address on that asinine letter to Arafat. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #7 If you're against cruelty to animals, the ASPCA does the job. If you're thinking more in terms of |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-02-07 20:25:06 |
| #6 I used to support PETA. I see nothing wrong with demanding that people acknowledge animals feel pain and that cruelty against them is wrong. And, a vegetarian diet is good for you and great for the planet (though I confess I had chicken for dinner). But I stopped supporting them when it became clear that, like the Sierra Club, they had been taken over by folks who had lost site of their mission and sanity. What a shame, the animals could use advocates instead of assholes. |
| Posted by: becky 2003-02-07 19:06:37 |
| #5 Geeez, Wilbur...what if they switch to horses now that they've pissed off PETA? |
| Posted by: Mr. Ed 2003-02-07 13:14:05 |
| #4 Bodyguard --- we have a branch of PETA here in Alaska (People Eating Tasty Animals). In fact, they have bumper stickers. We also have a few donkeys, but we give them a wide berth, being HAZMAT nowadays and all........... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-02-07 12:37:36 |
| #3 I'm a member of an offshoot group of PETA: Our mission statement is to find poor, defenceless animals, hunt them down, kill them, disassemble them, cook a good-sized portion of them, saving the rest for later in the freezer, and eat their Medium-rare remains. PEOPLE ENJOYING TASTY ANIMALS. |
| Posted by: Bodyguard 2003-02-07 11:33:43 |
| #2 In a little noticed press release, Frances the Mule weighed in on this issue here. Mouse over the photo for the ALT description. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-02-07 09:55:40 |
| #1 IMHO, PETA's destruction of animal laboratories constitutes a crime against humanity. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-02-07 09:27:40 |