While catching up on my bloglines subscriptions tonight (or trying to catch up as I still have 1261 articles unread), I read an interesting opinion article at Modestly Yours titled My PETA Pet Peeve. This was even more particularly interesting because I recently had a question posed to me regarding this same subject on 43Things. Upon reading the article however, and its subsequent comments, I felt there were a lot of false implications being made. And of course, I had to put my two shiny pennies in:

There are several implications within this post and its subsequent comments that I feel need to be addressed.

First, there seems to be an excessive amount of dislike for PETA, and perhaps rightly so. PETA has perpetrated the mass slaughter of homeless animals and has also used excessive and often inappropriate tactics against people they feel violate animal ethics. For such reasons as these, I, as a animal-welfare advocate and vegetarian, do NOT actively “support” PETA, as I am sure you will find is the case for a majority of animal-welfare/rights activists. It is important than not to conflate the one with the other.

Second, there seems to be some implied correlation being made between nudity and immorality. While I agree that many times nudity is used in an unethical way (i.e. it is not within an appropriate context) there are also occasions when nudity can be quite effective. In this campaign “Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur”, nudity is an effective means of symbolism, correlating skin with fur, and compelling the viewer to identify with the vulnerability of animals. Alicia Silverstone’s advertisement is actually very tastefully done. Yes she is nude. It’s natural! It’s the point! How much of this assumed sexuality then is assigned because of her gender? Is there a way in which her nudity could have been depicted that would have been more appropriate? Or is nudity the issue? If so, than the issue is bigger than PETA. It is an issue with history. It is an issue with art. It is an issue with the human body.

Lastly, there are several parallels being made between killing animals and abortion. I have to agree with M. Landers – these are two entirely different issues. I agree that to value an animal’s life and not that of a human’s is irrational. But I also find it irrational that someone can value the “life” of a fetus and not recognize the life of an independently living and breathing animal. Nonetheless, as M. Landers puts it so eloquently, “To value the life of an animal and to disagree that a fetus constitutes a full human life is another matter entirely.”

Additionally, in response to Grace’s accusation that “They would rather rescue a bunch of lab rats, than ever see a cure for cancer or AIDS” I would like to quote C.S. Lewis: “Vivisection can only be defended by showing it to be right that one species should suffer in order that another species be happier … If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.”

Other relevant quotes:

Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research. – George Bernard Shaw

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy. – Plutarch

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men. – Alice Walker

Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they’re only animals. – Theodor Adorno

Additionally, there was one particular comment (partially qtd. in italics) made regarding Alicia Silverstone’s article that I felt was completely off-base:

Not only does this sound like an infomercial, but it still doesn’t explain why she took her clothes off. If the best things about her going vegan were her nails and her skin, couldn’t we have just seen a shot of her skinny arm holding a boca burger?

To reduce Alicia’s comments to a narrow clip and biased quip is a complete misrepresentation. Alicia stated the physical benefits she experienced being vegan and went on to say: “I feel physically and spiritually better than I could have ever imagined knowing that I am doing everything I can to reduce animal suffering with simple lifestyle choices like being vegan, never wearing any products made from animals (like wool and leather), and buying only from companies that NEVER test their products or ingredients on animals.”

To criticize Alicia’s methods of politicization and then manipulate the context seems hypocritical.