In response to Taylor Hammons’ atrocious November 11 article, “PETA Organization Filled with Hypocrisy, Terror,” this poorly researched column looks as though it was pulled straight from the Center for Consumer Freedom website that group USA Today said should be called FatForProfit.com. This group works as a front for the meat industry and other animal exploiters who kill millions of animals every year‚ not out of compassion but out of greed. They, no doubt, are upset that PETA’s Glass Walls exhibit showed thousands of LSU students the cruelty that animals face when killed for food. Mr. Hammons should know better than to print everything he reads on the Internet as fact.
The fact is that PETA took in more than 11,000 dogs and cats in 2011, spaying and neutering all of them at low to no cost. Careless consumers who buy or breed animals instead of adopting them from shelters cause the overpopulation crisis, but PETA is proud to be a “shelter of last resort,” where animals who have no place to go or who are unwanted or suffering are welcomed with love and open arms. If LSU students like Mr. Hammons are upset about the euthanasia of animals, the real target of their frustration should be the local pet store and puppy mill, not animal advocates who are doing their best to clean up the mess.
Last week‚ PETA’s Glass Walls exhibit was popular at LSU in part because students were shocked to learn that in today’s industrialized meat and dairy industries, chickens and turkeys have their throats cut while they are still conscious, piglets have their tails and testicles cut off without being given any painkillers, fish are suffocated or cut open while they are still alive on the decks of fishing boats, and calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of birth.
Thankfully, there is a lot that students at LSU can do to help animals! Simply adopting a more humane, healthier vegan diet is the greatest thing that someone can do for animals. Interested students should visit peta2.com to check out our lifesaving work and receive a free vegetarian/vegan starter kit.
