The BrewHaHa Continues: Moms and Milk Versus PeTA-philes and Beer

By FCUSA Executive Director Teresa Platt

IN AN OUTRAGEOUS ATTEMPT to link wearing a milk moustache with animal cruelty, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) has registered another dubious strike in its continuing anti-dairy cow campaign by promoting beer as a "healthier" alternative to milk. Timed to hit college campuses just before the annual Spring Break, a traditional time of fun, frolic, excess and way too much drunk driving, PeTA cutely asked, "Got beer?"

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) volleyed back. Hard. Patti Eichhorn, chairwoman of the MADD board, stated, "Frankly, we are appalled by PETA's 'Got Beer?' campaign."(1)

PeTA promised to pull the pro-beer ads and instead use the 1,500 college students recruited by its "Got beer?" campaign to "post up 'Missing' ads, modeled after the 'Missing' ads on milk cartons and featuring a veal calf raised for veal."(2)

Has anyone contacted John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted and father of abducted and murdered Adam Walsh? Walsh helped establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which pioneered the use of milk cartons to find lost children.(3)

PeTA has decided if it's good enough for lost and abducted children, like Adam Walsh, it should be good enough for Bossy the Cow.

That's even more appalling than asking people to switch from milk to beer.

Mad Moms

PeTA topped off the insult with a $500 check to MADD and promised to add a link to the MADD site from the PeTA site where the pro-beer campaign continued to run.

But it's not so easy to get one past a mad Mom. MADD sent back PeTA's donation with a letter denying PeTA a link to MADD's site, and expressing anger that the "irresponsible" pro-beer campaign was still up on PeTA's website.(4)

PeTA sent a scathing letter back.(5) "MADD got more exposure in two days than it has had in two years." So what's the big deal? wondered PeTA.

Exposure at Any Cost

For PeTA, exposure is the goal, no matter how it gets it. And this particular BrewHaHa has generated a million dollars' worth of free publicity.

PeTA campaigns are typically high on hype, low on content, and completely over-the-top. Outrageous statements and stunts are the only way it can catch the attention of serious news writers, but it works! Year in, year out, PeTA grabs miles of column inches in the nation's press, promoting its agenda to "liberate" animals from human control.

We have witnessed PeTA's attack on the cowboys with its "meat causes impotence" campaign. Dr. Ruth weighed in on that one, condemning PeTA, but in so doing generating yet more coverage for PeTA.

We've seen continuing battles between PeTA-philes and Christians over the "Jesus was a vegetarian" campaign,(6) a campaign which denigrates the Christian belief that man is the only animal with an eternal soul.

We've watched PeTA insult African-Americans by comparing circus elephants to African slaves.

And we'll never forget PeTA president Ingrid Newkirk equating the killing of chickens for dinner with the horrors of the Holocaust! Or Newkirk's famous quote, "Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it."

Each campaign got miles of print and hours of airtime, and lured impressionable kids, eager to save the Earth and baby animals, into following one of the slickest marketing groups ever given non-profit status.(7)

PeTA continues to promote its pro-plant agenda, avoiding the troubles buried in its own backyard. Since less than 3% of the Earth's surface (about 10% of the land base) can support crop production, we couldn't possibly feed and clothe 6 billion people on a vegan lifestyle. And there are piles of studies showing plant-based diets, without supplements, are often nutrient deficient, especially among the young who commonly stack up calories without enough protein.(7)

But what does PeTA care if we all eat high-calorie, nutrient-deficient junk food? Word count without content is PeTA's stock in trade. Exposure at any cost.

Thank goodness the Moms at MADD know where to draw the line. Thanks, Mom.

NOTES:

(1) MADD ruffled by spoof attacking milk by Paul Bourgeois, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mar. 15, 2000.
(2) See PeTA's promise at www.milksucks.com/biglet1.gif
(3) The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has worked on 66,350 cases, helped recover 47,284 children, and raised its recovery rate from 60% in the 1980s to 93% today.
(4) MADD's rebuffing PeTA is at www.milksucks.com/biglet2.gif
(5) PeTA's angry reply is at www.milksucks.com/biglet3.gif
(6) See Jesus Was An Omnivore, FCUSA commentary responding to PeTA's "Jesus Was A Vegetarian" campaign; Nov. 30, 1999.
(7) See A Peta-esque Conversation, FCUSA commentary, Nov. 3, 1999, and Jesus Was An Omnivore, FCUSA commentary, Nov. 30, 1999. Also visit "Breeds of Livestock" which clearly explains the role of animal agriculture in feeding the world at www.ansi.okstate.edu/BREEDS

See also:

In Their Own Words Unforgettable quotes from the mouths of PeTA.

For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 272-2467/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com. See also Teresa's blog and Facebook.

To take a cyber-tour of a fur farm, visit FCUSA's Fur on Film.

© 1998-2010 Fur Commission USA

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