PETA: How Not to Make a Case for Animal Rights

In 2005, Vogue editor Anna Wintour was pelted with a pie thrown by a PETA protestor at Paris Fashion Week. (AP/Guardian.co.uk)
We were disheartened to see the news that PETA’s website for kids now hosts a video game in which budding activists can throw rotten tomatoes at people in fur coats. The game’s introduction even says that game players can find tomatoes in real-life produce aisles, with the directive: “No mink stole or raccoon wrap is safe from a pulpy projectile that’s gone to seed.”
A blogger for the Dallas Morning News writes:
In real life, of course, this is assault, and it’s illegal. And I wonder how ethical it is to teach kids to assault other people and destroy property just because those people don’t happen to share the same views as Peta members do about animals. What would Peta say if, for example, Rush Limbaugh urged tea partiers (or their children) to run around throwing tomatoes at anyone they believe is acting too liberal, like lettuce-wearing members of Peta?
And where does Peta drawn the line? I wear a leather belt and leather shoes. Does that mean I’m a tomato target too?
It’s disappointing to see that a prominent group would advocate threatening the personal safety and property of people with opposing views, only to say that animals deserve better treatment — and directing this contradictory message at kids, no less. There are better (and more legal) ways to make the point.

![[flourish]](http://ethicalstyle.com/wp-content/themes/es/images/topFlourish.png)










![[flourish]](http://ethicalstyle.com/wp-content/themes/es/images/botFlourish.png)
