PETA poll!

[jpgray]

Let's have no ridiculous factionalism or brow-beating from the spear-carriers on either side, if you don't mind. I hope this poll will show that most people have a middle-ground view of PETA, but that the emotional reaction people have with the issue of animal rights, PETA's methods, etc., tends to radicalize everybody into insulting each other.


edit: There was some discussion about the third option being too specific, so I edited it to be a bit more general. If you support some (or all) of PETA's goals, but disagree with many or most of their methods, that's still the best option to choose. Hopefully this edit keeps the votes where they ought to be--if not, I can edit again.

[flvegan]

1. I support PETA. There are a few instances where I disagree with their methods

I might as well go first.

[Lyric]

2. I don't support PETA, or their methods.

Since one of their primary goals is to make meat-eating illegal, I can't support them. I believe in choice--even when one person's choice is abhorrent and immoral to someone else. My views on the pro-life movement are the same.

I do believe that there's a lot of work to be done in regard to animal welfare and humane treatment, but the legal abolition of eating meat is not something I would ever support--even if I choose to become a vegetarian or vegan myself.

[Deep13]

41. I really hate their opposition to medical research.

They spread false information about what is legitimate research.

[Squatch]

3. As a meat-eating hunter of Bambi...

well, I think my answer is self evident.

[SOteric]

4. I like them

with hummous and grilled vegetables.

Oh. Wait. Nevermind.

[KitchenWitch]

31. *snerk*

:spray:

[tjwmason]

5. As an omnivore I don't support their aims

But more importantly I think that their methods alienate many reasonable omnis who would be sympathetic to many points which they do support in regards to the treatment of animals.

[jpgray]

6. Nice to see you around these parts

:hi:

[jobycom]

7. I chose three, because I believe if they treated humans with the respect

they want people to treat animals with, they'd get someplace. They lost me with their Jesse Arbogast campaign, and have done nothing to overcome that image for me.

For those who don't remember, Jesse Arbogast was a young boy whose arm was severed by a shark near Pensacola. Within days of the attack, while Jesse was still in a Pensacola hospital fighting for his life, PETA rented a billboard near the beach with the slogan "Would you give your right arm to learn why sharks attack humans?" The billboard, IIRC, was never erected because the billboard company rejected it once they saw the design, but PETA's web site ran the banner, anyway.

If PETA wants humans to respect the rights and lives of other animals, they should begin by respecting humans. As it stands, to me, they do more harm than good.

[Kajsa]

12. I agree, Jobycom.

I have supported PETA in the past,
BUT

By posting that banner, they alienate a lot of us who
do support animal rights and protection laws.

The banner was insensitive to the suffering of a fellow human being
and very tasteless.

We all inhabit this earth together.
No one has more right to it than others.


I also chose #3.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

40. thats a very well thought out response

[JVS]

8. Don't give a flying fuck and won't be making any donations for $500, Alex

I've got to save the money for my veal and foie gras of the month club.

[ZombieNixon]

9. I don't necesarily support their goals...all of them, at least.

As oktoberain said, I don't support the illegalizing of eating meat, but I am very much in favor of humane treatment of animals and animal welfare. I do know that their tactics alienate many people like me who are sympathetic toward at least some of their agenda.

[WildEyedLiberal]

13. Agree... there should've been another option on the poll

I support SOME of the goals of PETA, but I think their methods are counterproductive and off-putting.

[jpgray]

15. I edited the option to accomodate both views

I would have added another option, but then people who had already voted might find that was their actual choice, etc.

[terrya]

10. The 3rd option

I have no other comment.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. I support some of their goals and some of their methods.

I dislike the reliance on silly stunts for PR. I applaud them for bringing to light issues like the efficacy of using animals for medical research when other methods could be used, and on the conditions in factory farming operations.

[kay1864]

14. Dammit, this is the LOUNGE!

You forgot "Where are the Pam Anderson pictures?"












and Poland!

[EstimatedProphet]

16. Isn't there room for a goofier poll than this?

[jpgray]

17. Just wait until I edit all the poll options to -silly- ones

Then my triumph over the Lounge will be complete.

[JVS]

18. YOU FUCKING RUINED THE INTEGRITY OF THE POLL!

AHHHHHRRRRGGGGGHHHHH. I AM SO FUCKING PISSED OFF AT YOU, AND THIS ISN'T JUST THE STEROIDS SCREAMING!

[ThomCat]

19. I support most of what PETA does.

[xchrom]

20. i support PETA -- and i eat meat.

[yewberry]

21. I support some of their work. I do find myself defending them, though,

because there really are a lot of mistaken beliefs and hyperbolic half-truths out there about them.


While I don't always agree with them or their methods, I don't think it makes sense to just let people keep lying about them. Here's what I mean: say PETA drums up PR about chaining dogs, and some communities pass laws that prohibit chaining. Someone posts a story on DU.

Response: PETA wants leashes to be illegal! They don't want me to walk my dog, the bastards! (note--this is an actual claim made by a DUer.) So, I defend PETA here, and suddenly I'm a PETA kook!!!

Response: Why should I listen to someone who is trying to make eating meat illegal? (Another common claim.) So, I defend PETA.

Response: Fuck them! My pets are important to me, and PETA is trying to take them away from me! Argh. So, again, I have to defend them.



You know what I mean?

[jpgray]

28. Yeah, it's tough to stay evenhanded when others don't bother with doing so

[yewberry]

36. I'd settle for 'honest.'

But that'd be a stretch for some folks, never mind 'civil.'

[InvisibleTouch]

22. I support a lot of their goals. Not all, but quite a few. n/t

[LeftyMom]

23. I think they're much too mainstream.

:)

[Dukkha]

24. I'm more of an ALF supporter

vivisectionists only deserve death and their labs burned to the ground.

[flvegan]

27. Death?

I don't know of any amendments to the ALF guidelines that advocate death.

Did I not get a memo that you did?

[LeftyMom]

30. The ALF is nonviolent.

Please don't spread misinformation, it gives people a horrible impression that politicians and the media have already done enough to manipulate and exploit.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

39. the labs from which medicine that cures humans beings should ofcourse be shutdown.

yay intelligence!!!!


:sarcasm: :eyes:

[stuntcat]

25. I've been to a chicken plant.. & IT WAS A PARTY :D

The stacks and lines of battery cages piled up for days. And I watched what I could of the video about how meat's raised around the world, anyone who thinks animals are treated too well should see a minute of it. I've lost the link because it was so awful I wanted to forget it but I can't forget it anyway. Search for it if you can watch.
On top of that's the mass extinction we're causing.. but I've made it onto a couple DU'ers shitlists just by telling my feeling on this stuff, I'm sure I'll be sorry for typing this paragraph, it just truly disappoints me what people think is "OK".
I don't really stand behind PETA but I am glad there are groups of People trying to help animals.. I won't lie and act like they don't have little souls in them.

Sorry to get so heavy, I know lounge isn't the place but this is where people have bothered springing at me for my animal love, so.. party on, really :headbang:

[flvegan]

26. I once went to a battery cage party

I helped steal 250 battery hens left to die. We called it an open rescue, but it was a party nonetheless. You shoulda seen the blonde bombshell I partnered with that night. Mrrrooowwrrrrr...

(partnered does not = nudity in any way)

[MedleyMisty]

29. I don't get choosing your principles and values

based on the behavior of other people.

I really don't care what other people who agree with me do, because I reasoned out my beliefs myself and stick to them for my own reasons. If you can be turned off an idea by the behavior of others, you never really believed in that idea in the first place.

So - I guess I mostly agree with PETA (I guess not on the outlawing meat eating altogether thing) and I don't care about their methods as long as they're not physically hurting living beings.

I suppose I'm somewhere between the middle and the extreme on this issue. I think that it's okay for humans to use products from other species, just not in the way we do right now and not ever in any sort of way for vanity. And PETA has no effect on that opinion one way or the other.

[Robeson]

32. From your result, thus far, it appears that those who support PETA in one....

...form or the other, out-number those who don't by 60 votes to 33. Those are results I can live with.

[jpgray]

34. Or, 60% of DUers are not wholly approving or disapproving

Which unfortunately is not often reflected in the threads on the subject.

[Robeson]

35. I'm just going off the numbers of this specific poll....

...which says by a 60 to 33 margin, that DU'ers support some or all of PETA's goals, with obvious misgivings towards the approach PETA may use.

[jpgray]

37. One could also say the largest group of DUers identifies with the two most negative options

But polls are horrible to use in this way. The questions can come under fire as leading or for bias, the results can be interpreted in extremely subjective ways (we just did that three times), and in general a fog of statistics tends to be used as a club to shut people up with. I'd say this poll just proves that people respond in such and such a way to this poll. :P

[ashling]

33. I support a nice fresh

chicken salad on my Pits ... or maybe salmon

[La Lioness Priyanka]

38. i agree with some of their aims. i think their methods are silly.