Whistling Dixie – Chicks Will Not Strip for PeTA
FUR COMMISSION USA PRESS RELEASE, SEPTEMBER 12, 2000
Whistling Dixie – Chicks Will Not Strip for PeTA
By Teresa Platt, FCUSA Executive Director
DURING AUGUST, New York Post gossip columnist Neal Travis reported that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) had enlisted the country gal band, the Dixie Chicks, to strip for PeTA against fur, one of many types of animal hides!(1)
The Dixie Chicks, who posed this year cradling a calf for a “Got Milk?” ad, worked their way up to fame and fortune singing at county fairs featuring Pork Queens, 4-H, horses, leather saddles and boots, corrals full of cowboys, cowgirls and little buckaroos.
If the PeTA plan wins out, to abolish all human interaction with any other animal on the planet, all animal-based natural fibers will be taboo, roping calves will be outlawed and absolutely no little piggies will go to market. PeTA recommends hemp shirts, pleather pants, plastic shoes, tofu burgers, beans and lots of lettuce. Goodbye, cows! Bye-bye, Babe! Adios, cowboys! Sayonara to wildlife habitat and Wide Open Spaces – let’s plow the range under for potatoes and soybeans! Hello, hemp shirts, plastic and synthetic clothing!
The Truth Uncovered
A few days after the NY Post printed this cautionary tale of country singers mutating into naked vegans, a reporter from the Roanoke Times & World News in Illinois questioned the story and contacted the publicity firm for the gals, uncovering the truth. “The Dixie Chicks do not support PETA,” said Maura Mooney of Front Page Publicity, the group’s Nashville-based public relations firm. How the rumor got started is, well speculation, so we won’t repeat the theories here. However, we can say that it was confirmed by the Roanoke Times that, “The Dixie Chicks aren’t doing such an ad.”(2)
So, the Dixie Chicks will be keeping their suede vests, leather chaps and cowboy boots on, thank you very much.
So what is to be learned from all this? When dealing with summertime rumors, reporters should determine whether it’s real or just someone “Whistling Dixie.” How? Simply bypass the rear end of the horse and go directly to the horse’s mouth. The Dixie Chicks, sure as shootin’, know which end that is.
NOTES:
(1) “‘Sex’ follows the PeTA principle”, New York Post, Aug. 10, 2000.
(2) “E-mail blasting Dixie Chicks hits false note”, Roanoke Times & World News, Aug. 15, 2000.
(3) Learn more about the Dixie Chicks at http://dixiechicks.launch.yahoo.com
See also:
In Their Own Words : Some of the more outlandish quotes from the mouths of PeTA
