 Ingrid Newkirk with her friend, Lady. IMAGE: courtesy of PETA |
Ingrid Newkirk is quick with a quote or to light up some folks.
As co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 1980, Newkirk has had a lot of practice at both. Newkirk and PETA, which claims 2 million-plus members, have no problem making people uncomfortable in their uncompromising pursuit of rights for every animal—be it a chicken, cow or mouse.
There’s PETA’s in-your-face: a “McCruelty” campaign that uses a photo of a slaughtered cow’s head. And there’s the silly: urging Ben & Jerry’s to use human breast’s milk instead of cow milk in its ice cream.
Newkirk is in Portland on Wednesday, Nov. 19, to discuss her latest book, One Can Make a Difference: How Simple Actions Can Change the World (Adams Press, 256 pages, $16.95). It’s a collection of essays by famous—and not-so-famous—people that includes the Dalai Lama, Martina Navratilova, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Kevin Bacon.
Newkirk, 59, spoke with WW last week by telephone in a native English accent that’s so disarming it almost makes you forget how much she and PETA can piss people off.
WW: McDonald’s last week reported same-store sales were up 8.2 percent, in part because of its Southern Style chicken sandwich. When you read that, what do you think about the progress of the animal-rights movement?
Ingrid Newkirk: They [McDonald’s] are opening so many outlets in China. But they’re closing outlets in the U.S. The number of vegetarians is also going up.... And we’re working with supermarket chains and places like Burger King to actually make reforms. In Canada, for example, unlike the KFCs here, they have started a faux chicken sandwich that is selling well.
Those seem like incremental reforms. If the suffering among animals is so great, why not take more extreme steps?
There are militants out there, and we’re not among them. But our views are very radical for this society. We just choose to do it through public education and persuasion, sometimes making idiots of ourselves. Our philosophy is you’ve got to persuade the person at the bus stop.
But when PETA does stunts like advocating that a convicted killer in Oregon only get vegetarian meals in prison or that the Green Bay Packers change their team name because of its meat-industry history, doesn’t that guy at the bus stop say, “It’s just those PETA whack jobs again”?
You can dismiss us as those whack jobs if you like. But come to our website to see our video on Ben and Jerry’s, which was a silly thing. But people learn on the website about the dairy industry or the fur farms.... We don’t care if people make fun of us. We’d rather they didn’t. But we have to do it.
Did you really tell The New Yorker you and PETA were a press sluts?
(Laughs) How else do you reach people? You have to do whatever it takes to try to get people to talk about you and your serious issue.
No campaign you regret?
No. I’m a great subscriber to Chrissie Hynde’s perspective that when you’re working for a social cause, the danger isn’t in going far enough or feeling embarrassed or that it’s in bad taste. You’ve got to really push the envelope. Animals are in desperate trouble in the fur farms, in the laboratories.
How do you see your movement’s history compared to the abolitionist movement?
It’s so strikingly similar when you read books about that time, the arguments made against emancipation, slavery. And similarly with the women’s movement. There were newspapers who said women could never go to medical school because they’d faint at the sight of blood. We faced the same arguments based on the deep desire not to change the status quo or from abysmal ignorance. People thought black men couldn’t feel pain the way white men could; they thought black mothers had no real maternal feeling the way white mothers did.
Don’t African-Americans resent being compared to a cow, pig or a horse?
Some do. But Alice Walker doesn’t. She says a woman isn’t put here for a man, a black for a white, an animal for man. We’ve got very powerful supporters like Russell Simmons; the Reverend Al did an anti-KFC video. But people feel because they have supremacist ideas themselves, that we debase them when we compare them to animals. That’s the same as white people felt lower because they were compared to what they felt was a lesser or lower race.
What advice do you give people who are working with you and may get discouraged?
(Laughs) Drink heavily.
I give that general advice around here sometimes. But is there any more specific advice you give?
Look back and see how far we’ve come. And that will encourage you.
On your blog, somebody asked “what kind of abuse has the most pressing urgency above all others?” And you answered “pest control” for animals such as raccoons, beavers, mice, birds and insects. So what should I do if I see a rat in my house or have an ant infestation?
There is something you can put out that makes it so ants won’t come back. It’s the difference between stomping on an anthill and walking around it. With rats, everybody despises rats because they’ll spread disease. Of course, what do they spread but human filth. And they’re mammals like dogs, so they feel pain. If you have to do something with them, get a [humane] trap and cork up the areas that are letting them in. Why give them a gut-wrenching poison, why stuff their faces in glue. You ought to see a little mother mouse or mother rat. They’re like any other living being. I call them squirrels without bushy tails.
Do you have an animal companion?
I don’t have any animals, I travel too much, but I’m the world’s best dog-sitter when I’m home. Also people’s children.
Do you have a favorite essay in your book?
I love them all and I have some reserved for the sequel because I couldn’t cram them all in. But I think the one by Lily Mazahery—an essay on Iranian women who are stoned to death or buried alive for being in the company of a man or even a boy. Or for being suspected of flirting or even being killed for being raped. She’s helping them enormously from her regular job in Washington, D.C. Instead of just going about her daily work, she has carved a lifeline for these women and literally can save their lives. There are people in there like Dana Hork who just started to collect spare change from her stadium cup in her dorm room. And now she has a national organization doing the same thing.… My mother always said it doesn’t matter who suffers, it’s that they suffer. If there is one thread, it’s that every single person in the book is kind. Kindness is a virtue.
GO: Newkirk will speak at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, 7:30 pm Wednesday, Nov. 17. Free.
Despite a couple online rumors, PETA’s caseworkers have never been convicted of cruelty to animals, and they tirelessly rescue homeless animals from environmental dangers, as well as cruelty and neglect (www.HelpingAnimals.com/about_cap.asp). They crawl through sewers, poke through junkyards, climb trees, and dodge traffic in order to reach animals in danger. During floods and storms, they are out saving lives at all hours. PETA even pulled many staff members from their normal jobs in their office to rush to New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina left countless animals without homes, food, or water! While some of the healthy, adoptable homeless animals PETA rescue are fostered in homes (often their own) or taken directly to local shelters to await adoption, the reality is that thousands of animals are euthanized every day across America for lack of good homes. This is sad, but it is the reality at most shelters as the alternative is to keep animals suffering by the millions every single day. Don’t you agree that a peaceful death is better than suffering indefinitely?
Since PETA hasn’t been set up as a traditional shelter, most of the animals PETA receive are so physically and/or psychologically abused that euthanasia is definitely the most compassionate choice (to learn more, please see PETA’s fact sheet at www.PETA.org/feat-overpopulation_crisis.asp). PETA provide free euthanasia services for local residents who have very sick or critically injured animals but can’t afford to take them to a veterinarian. For example, PETA’s caseworkers were able to gain custody of a dog (she was locked to a 15 pound chain!) who was starved. PETA had to carry her into the emergency clinic because she could barely walk. On the doctor’s advice, PETA gave her food and water in a comfortable room and monitored her progress overnight but, by the next morning, she couldn’t keep the food down, so they rushed her again to see a veterinarian. He recommended euthanasia due to the severity of her condition; she was in a lot of pain and faced an agonizing, lingering death otherwise. The most humane option for her was a peaceful and dignified release from her suffering. Would you want to keep this poor animal alive with no end to her pain in sight? Of course not! PETA pursued criminal charges against those responsible for her condition, leading to their convictions for cruelty to animals, though, and you can read more about this at www.HelpingAnimals.com/f-asiasstory.asp.
However, the best way to prevent suffering for many of these animals is to spay and neuter them, and that’s why PETA’s mobile SNIP (Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please) clinic offers low-cost and free alterations and other procedures to low-income neighborhoods (http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/about_snip.asp) . Since every animal purchased from a pet store or breeder means that another homeless animal must die, adopting an animal from a shelter or rescue group is the only responsible way to bring a furry friend into your life (http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/ga_petstore.asp).
To learn more about what PETA is doing for companion animals and how you can help, please see the following Web sites:
· Save homeless animals: http://www.HelpingAnimals.com/ga_spay.asp
· More ways to help dogs and cats: http://www.HelpingAnimals.com
Animal abusers are terrified of the strides that PETA is making, and they are trying every trick in the book to squelch our right to tell people the truth. It is a measure of PETA's effectiveness that they are feeling so threatened by PETA achievements, and it only inspires PETA to work even harder for animals. PETA will always say what they think and vigorously defend animals and the defenders of animals.
PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT THIS VIDEO, You're sure to appreciate PETA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAPO4xiyniI
PETA is an activist organization working to educate the public about the horrors of animal suffering through totally “peaceful” means; PETA doesn't engage in activities in which anyone, human or other-than-human, is injured. ‘Some’ animal rights activists have broken inanimate objects such as stereotaxic devices (the metal contraptions that hold an animal’s head in place with screws into the skull) and decapitators and have burned empty buildings in which animals were tortured and killed. Some raids have provided proof of horrific cruelty that would not have been discovered or believed otherwise. They have resulted in criminal charges against laboratories and experimenters for violations of state and federal animal protection laws and, in some cases, have shut down abusive labs for good.
While these activists and PETA have very different approaches, PETA will certainly not condemn them for carrying out illegal actions in which no living being is harmed. They are acting on their overwhelming feelings of compassion when faced with evidence of violent acts being carried out behind closed doors—acts that, though more vicious and cruel than any we might inflict on our worst enemies during times of war, are nonetheless often very legal when carried out on animals in labs. Since current regulations are almost non-existent, and those that do exist often go unenforced, these actions are sometimes the only way hideous cruelties have been exposed and ended. On a number of occasions, activist break-ins have served to initiate investigations that expose violations of law on the part of the animal abusers that would otherwise have gone unnoticed and/or unchecked. PETA works very hard to stop cruelty to animals through pamphlets, billboards, letters, ads, articles, peaceful demonstrations, humane education in schools, and colorful campaigns.
What PETA do it's money is always legal and open to scrutiny. If any one of the PETA staff members has been arrested you can count on the fact it was probably for sitting down in a peaceful protest of animal suffering, in the time-honored tradition of Cesar Chavez, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. The $1,500 that PETA gave to the Earth Liberation Front press office a few years ago was to help with "legal bills" for a good animal protectionist whom PETA felt was being harassed unfairly for speaking his mind about animal abuse and who to this day has never been charged with anything!
PETA believes in the right to legal counsel, and that is what PETA have provided to humane people on a few occasions. One example is the case of 60-year-old school teacher Roger Troen, who took in some rescued rabbits who had been dropped on his doorstep one night and who was later charged with accepting stolen property when it was discovered that the rabbits had been taken from the University of Oregon. PETA turned that trial on its head, exposing the university’s hideously cruel practices, as well as the deaths of countless primates there. In the end, the judge said that he was ashamed to call the University of Oregon his alma mater.
Ok, first off, I personally am against MADD, simply because they work through misinformation of our youth, and because if you read their materials, you'll see that their underlying goal is not just a decrease in drunk drivers, but flat-out prohibition. And seriously, "try not to hurl when you read about them?" Apparently your stomach is faaaaar more sensitive then mine is (maybe mine is a bit stronger due to eating meat).
Second of all, just because these things are being said by a lobbying group doesn't negate the fact that these things are true. Nowhere in your response did I see you refute anything said in the previous message. I've read quite a bit about PETA's actions (as well as watching the PETA episode of "Penn and Teller: Bulshit!"), and every point that was made in the first message is backed up by PETA's own public records.
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"While some of the healthy, adoptable homeless animals PETA rescue are fostered in homes (often their own) or taken directly to local shelters to await adoption, the reality is that thousands of animals are euthanized every day across America for lack of good homes."
Between 1998 and 2005, PETA's adoption rate was approx. 17%, while their euthanization rate was 80%. The is nearly the inverse of other shelters around the country (especially Humane Society shelters, where the adoption rate is between 70-80%)
In a 2005 column in the San Francisco Chronicle, PETA’s director of the Domestic Animals Issues stated that PETA began euthanizing animals in some rural North Carolina shelters by injection after it found that the shelters were killing unwanted animals with rifles and dilapidated gas chambers, both of which they claim are inhumane ways to kill animals. Officials from both counties said they were under the impression that the animals would be euthanized ONLY if a home could not be found for them, and after being fully evaluated by a veterinarian (whereas PETA was euthanizing simply in response to how the other shelters operated). Both counties suspended their agreements with PETA after the incident.
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"PETA even pulled many staff members from their normal jobs in their office to rush to New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina left countless animals without homes, food, or water!"
Wow! It's great to hear that all these people dropped what they were doing, headed down to New Orleans to save the animals instead of, you know, helping the millions of PEOPLE that were affected by Katrina (since anyone with a working TV knew that those people needed a great deal of help). This is the core issue of why I can't stand groups like PETA; they put their love and care of animals over feelings for their fellow humans. They're the kind of people who'll step over a starving homeless person in order to throw paint on someone wearing fur. My favorite incident was when the director of PETA asked Yasser Arafat to spare animals when conducting suicide bombings (no mention of innocent humans being spared, of course). Groups like PETA are the reason that in Oregon, it's easier to prosecute someone who abuses a pet than it is someone who abuses their own child.
If someone has to kick the dog to keep from beating their own kid, more power to them (certainly not the best option on the table, but I'm just saying). In that same vein, if we have to cut open a bunch of monkeys in order to cure horrific human diseases, hand me a scalpel.
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"If any one of the PETA staff members has been arrested you can count on the fact it was probably for sitting down in a peaceful protest of animal suffering, in the time-honored tradition of Cesar Chavez, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr."
First off, how dare you compare yourselves to people who worked until their deaths to protect the lives and rights of their fellow humans when you refuse to do the same. Second, there are numerous occasions in just the last few years when PETA members (usually acting under their capacity as PETA members) have been arrested for offenses not related to "civil disobedience":
- Two PETA employees, Adria Joy Hinkle, and Andrew Benjamin Cook, were arrested in June 2005, for animal cruelty in the disposing of dead animals in a shopping center's dumpster. The animals had been killed by PETA because they gave up trying to find a proper home for these animals to be placed.
- On August 12, 2004, Billy Prusinowski, a 19-year-old college student (and literal card-carrying PETA member) was arrested on second-degree assault charges in Syracuse, NY. Police say Billy punched a fellow teenager in the face so hard that he needed to see an eye surgeon. Police Captain Tom Winn said that this "vicious assault" was motivated by the victim's family business. The victim's father, you see, owns a fur store (so much for peaceful protest, eh?).
- PETA members Beth Edwards, 26, and Andrea Florence Benoit, 25, have been charged with grand larceny and petit larceny, for stealing a hunting dog reportedly found wandering along the side of the road in rural Virginia, and removing a radio tracking collar he wore. The dog was found in an area where there are no leash laws, and reportedly belonged to a local animal control officer.
- PETA activist Charlie McKenzie, 24, was arrested on June 20 for throwing a pie in the face of Smithfield Foods Europe president Raoul Baxter (I guess by your standards, that would be "peaceful"; it's just lucky that Baxter didn't have any food allergies).
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"The $1,500 that PETA gave to the Earth Liberation Front press office a few years ago was to help with "legal bills" for a good animal protectionist whom PETA felt was being harassed unfairly for speaking his mind about animal abuse and who to this day has never been charged with anything!"
Well, PETA did say they donated that money to the ELF for a "specific purpose". Despite your "legal bills" assumption, over the years, PETA has given no less than 8 different explanations as to what that specific purpose was, but law enforcement leaders have noted that since the Earth Liberation Front is a criminal enterprise, it has absolutely no legal “programs” of any kind.
PETA payouts to radicals willing to carry out crimes (and cause tens of millions of dollars in damages) include:
- $5,000 to Josh Harper, convicted of assaulting police and firing on Native Americans on a whale hunt by throwing smoke bombs, shooting flares, and spraying their faces with chemical fire extinguishers.
- $2,000 to Dave Wilson, convicted of firebombing a fur cooperative.
- $7,500 to Fran Trutt, convicted of attempted murder of a medical executive.
- $45,200 to Rodney Coronado, convicted of burning a research laboratory in Michigan State.
- $27,000 for the legal defense of Roger Troen, who was arrested for taking part in an October 1986 burglary and arson at the University of Oregon.
All of these monies were paid out of tax-exempt funds, the same pot of money constantly enlarged by donations from an unsuspecting general public.
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"From observation I would say that people may possibly be divided into two general groups; those who, to use one of the terms of the jargon of psychology, identify themselves with, that is, place themselves in the position of, animals, and those who identify themselves with human beings. I believe, after experience and observation, that those people who identify themselves with animals, that is, the almost professional lovers of dogs, and other beasts, are capable of greater cruelty to human beings than those who do not identify themselves readily with animals."
- Ernest Hemingway
Animals are not ours to eat.
Animals are not ours to wear.
Animals are not ours to experiment on.
Animals are not ours to use for entertainment.
Animals are not ours to abuse in any way.