PETA To Launch Porn Site For Animal Rights

(Reuters) - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, no stranger to attention-grabbing campaigns featuring nude women, plans to launch a pornography website in the name of animal rights.

The nonprofit organization, whose controversial campaigns draw criticism from women's rights groups, said it hopes to raise awareness of veganism through a mix of pornography and graphic footage of animal suffering.

"We're hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn't anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site," said Lindsay Rajt, PETA's associate director of campaigns.

PETA has been accused of campaigning for animal rights at the cost of exploiting women. A Facebook group, Real Women Against PETA, was launched after the organization paid for a billboard showing an obese woman with the message: "Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber. Go Vegetarian."

Another critical Facebook group is called, "Vegans (and Vegetarians) Against PETA."

"PETA is extremely disingenuous," said Jennifer Pozner, executive director of the New York-based advocacy group Women In Media & News. "They have consistently used active sexism as their marketing strategy to garner attention. Their use of sexism has gotten more extreme and more degrading.

"This may be in their minds the only thing left at their disposal to lower the bar," she said.

PETA has filed paperwork to launch its pornography site when the controversial new .xxx domain becomes active in early December.

While many nonprofits and corporations are scrambling to protect their website names from being hijacked by a pornographer slapping on a .xxx domain, PETA is embracing the new domain as just another way to conduct business.

"We try to use every outlet that we can to speak up for animals," Rajt said. "We anticipated that this new triple-X domain name would be a hot topic and we immediately decided to use it and take advantage of it to try to promote the animal rights message."

Jill Dolan, director of the program in gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, was critical of the PETA campaigns.

"Exploiting porn to get people's juices going seems lame; exploiting pornographic images only of women to make their point is retrograde and misogynist," Dolan said in an email. "Come on, PETA. Don't be Neanderthals."

Rajt denied that PETA has been insensitive to women.

"Our demonstrators, the models, all chose to participate in our campaigns... It's not a very feminist thing to do to turn to women and tell them whether or not they can use their voices, their bodies to express their voice."

Visitors to the X-rated site will initially be presented with pornographic content as well as images from PETA's salacious ads and campaigns, Rajt said. Those images will be followed by pictures and video shot undercover of the mistreatment of animals. The site will also include links to vegetarian and vegan -- using no animal products -- starter kits as well as recipes.

PETA's ad campaigns have featured adult film stars Sasha Grey, Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson. In 2008, the organization's YouTube account was temporarily shut down after showing racy videos of celebrities and others posing nude.

"When people first visit the site, it will be very enticing and once they go just a little bit deeper, that's when they'll be confronted with images that we hope will make them stop and think and get them talking and hopefully encourage them to make a lifestyle change to a plant-based diet," Rajt said.

Source;  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/18/us-pornography-peta-idUSTRE78H1IR20110918

Norfolk SPCA Begins Rehabilitating Beagles Rescued From Lab

NORFOLK - 31 dogs were rescued from the Professional Laboratory and Research Services lab in Gates County and taken to the Norfolk SPCA in the hopes that they will all be eventually adopted.

Norfolk SPCA spokesperson, Michelle Williams says the dogs need a lot of work.

She says, "They really don't know what's going to happen to them. One of the biggest issues is going to be potty training because they don't know what outside is and they don't know where they're suppose to go to the bathroom. They're just used to going and standing in it basically."


It's unclear to Michelle what abuse these dogs were subjected to at the lab, or if any. But Williams has to assume that there was some abuse based on the undercover video from PETA that shows workers at the lab violently kicking the dogs and spraying them with hoses.

Since the video was released, the lab decided to stop their research operations and the USDA has begun a formal investigation. Yet, even though the Norfolk SPCA was allowed to rescue 31 dogs, no one from the non-profit group was allowed to go inside to see the conditions.

Michelle says, "Nobody was allowed to go in, even in the main building. Only a couple of people were allowed to go in and sign paperwork but that was it."

In fact, NewsChannel 3 went undercover with the Norfolk SPCA and the lab didn't want any of the animal rescue groups on their property. All of the vans and SPCA volunteers were forced to wait in a dirt parking lot across the street.

Everyone with the rescue groups were told by lab officials that they weren't allowed to have cameras, cell phones, or any contact with media near the lab. If they broke the rules, no dogs would be released.

"I understand that they had some sort of rogue employees and it wasn't the whole facility but at that point, it wasn't about them. It wasn't about the media because that video from PETA is already out there. It's about the animals and doing what's best for them," Michelle says.

Helping these dogs is what the SPCA's focus is now as they work to rehabilitate the dogs in order to find them all homes

Two-year-old Ambriel is one of the Beagles rescued from the lab last week. She refuses to bark but the way she trembles in the company of people speaks volumes.

It will take a lot of reassurance for Ambriel to trust people again. She's getting an exam and shots today, but what's most important to the folks at the Norfolk SPCA is her mental health.

Michelle says, "To me, she's saying she's petrified. She's scared to death."

Beagles are notoriously noisy hound dogs. But something happened to these beagles that gave Michelle the creeps when she drove them away from the lab where they lived.

"It was an eerie drive back knowing you had 19 beagles together in a truck and not a sound the whole time," Michelle says.

Now the SPCA is committed to spending their time helping Ambriel and the others learn that there is nothing to fear. She's hoping that soon they'll learn that it is okay to love and that it is okay to play. Volunteer, Elsie Powell spent the weekend petting and playing with the dogs, hoping to give them their spirit back.

"A lot of petting, a lot of rubbing, a lot of brushing and a lot of kissing," is what Elsie says they need.

In a matter of days, Ambriel has gone from scared dog, to playful, tail-wagging dog. The healing has begun.

"Her spirit has been kind of broken and we're going to take the time she needs to get her spirit back for her to run and play and learn how to be a dog," Michelle says. "She's happy. She's sweet. You can see the smile on her face. She's coming around very quickly. She has a great chance at a wonderful life."

All of the rescued dogs at the Norfolk SPCA have to be spayed or neutered before they will be adopted out. If you're interested in one of these dogs, you can come in and get your first peek at the animals starting Friday.
www.wtkr.com

PETA Protest At NASA Today

By Ted Shockley
Staff Writer

WALLOPS — Three volunteers from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wearing cardboard masks caged themselves in front of a NASA Wallops Flight Facility sign Wednesday to protest a radiation experiment on squirrel monkeys.

Two other PETA representatives held protest signs along the Chincoteague Road site as some driving by pointed, stared straight ahead or took photos of a rare Eastern Shore appearance by the Norfolk-based international animal-rights group.

“People are totally surprised that NASA is still radiating monkeys when they could be testing humans who have been to space,” said David Shirk, a PETA campaigner.

Ashley Edwards, a Washington D.C.-based NASA spokeswoman, said none of the monkeys are at Wallops and they won’t be harmed.

They will be housed at a national laboratory in New York where they will receive a dosage of heavy ion radiation equal to what would be received by an astronaut on a trip to Mars, she said.

The proposed study would exceed federal safety guidelines and the effect on the monkeys’ central nervous system will be studied over a four-year period.

“We would not test on primates unless we felt it was absolutely necessary to do so,” said Edwards.

Afterward, they will be cared for and live out the rest of their natural lives. “They’re not going to be sick,” she said.

There were scattered similar protests across the country.

At the Wallops intersection, the PETA representatives caused a stir, arriving in a yellow van painted with criticism of McDonald’s restaurants, calling the chain “McCruelty.”

The van temporarily parked in a handicap-reserved space at Ocean Deli while organizers set up foldable animal cages across the street from a Royal Farms convenience store. They later moved the van.

Three climbed into cages, later banging against the sides and impersonating the animals.

Their goal, Shirk said, was “urging NASA to use more modern methods instead of experimenting on animals.”

One man in a red Dodge pickup truck rolled down his window to heckle the group.

“Hey, I like animals. They taste great next to the potatoes,” he shouted.

Shirk acknowledged that some make similar statements. But more, he said, feel differently.

“Most people are compassionate and recognize animal cruelty,” he said.

www.delmarvanow.com


I rode over that way this afternoon but was too late. PETA had already packed up their cages and had left the area. I was going to ask one of them about the more "modern ways of experimenting". Just what is that?

PETA Wants Robotic Groundhog

Animal-rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wrote a Jan. 21 letter to organizers of the annual Groundhog Day spectacle in Punxsutawney, PA, demanding that the live groundhog used each year on Feb. 2 be replaced by a robotic version, USA Today reported Wednesday.

The paper showed a letter written by Gemma Vaughan, a PETA "Animals in Entertainment specialist," to Bill Deeley, president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, in which Vaughan appeals to him to "make the compassionate decision to use an animatronic Phil and retire the live groundhogs who are used for Groundhog Day activities to a sanctuary."

Vaughan goes on to say that the groundhogs "become stressed when they are exposed to large, screaming crowds; flashing lights from perhaps hundreds of cameras; and human handling."

In response, Deeley told the Associated Press that Phil is kept in a climate-controlled environment, is inspected annually by the state Department of Agriculture and is "being treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania."

http://www.foxnews.com/

That's telling them, Mr. Deeley! And he's right! Phil is the most celebrated groundhog of today and has been for many years. PETA, if you want to do something for your "ethnical treatment of animals" why don't you spend some money on making donations to the SPCA's across America? If PETA people had more than a pea for a brain they would know that the public would not be attracted to this event year after year if groundhogs were being abused! Give normal people some credit. PETA, the people will let you know when animals are being abused. But good luck getting your robotic groundhog.