My OperaPETA
Monday, December 14, 2009 6:03:17 PM
PETA is an animal rights organization. It rejects speciesism, and the idea that animals may be regarded as property. It therefore opposes the use of animals in any form: in animal testing, as food, entertainment, clothing, furniture, decoration,[5] companionship for people, seeing eye dogs for the blind, or as working in any form such as shepherding sheep.[6] PETA would like for all animals to be completely free from dependency on humans to survive.[7]
In PETA's 2004 annual review, Newkirk stated: "Everyone eats, so we have done our best not only to reform the worst abuses in factory farming and slaughterhouses, but to promote a compassionate vegan diet ... We have also revolutionized the way some companies do business, getting them to stop selling fur, boycott Australian merino wool, and abandon painful animal-poisoning tests in favor of sophisticated non-animal methods. We have shown how to prevent flooding without destroying beavers' homes and how to prevent birds from entering "big box" stores without using cruel glue traps. In the past year alone, former circus and zoo elephants were sent to sanctuaries, hog-dog rodeos were banned, and cruel companies were fined. We also educated millions of kids about animal rights through our teacher network and education programs."[8] Regarding PETA's controversial campaigns, Newkirk has said: "The fact is we are the biggest group because we succeed in getting attention. ... The fact is we may be doing all sorts of things on a campaign but the one thing that gets attention is the outrageous thing. It simply goes to prove to us each time, that that is the thing that's going to work; and so we won't shirk from doing that facet — in addition to all the other things we do that you never hear about because no one cares."[9]
History
Further information: Silver Spring monkeys
PETA distributed photographs of the Silver Spring monkeys with the caption, "This is vivisection. Don't let anyone tell you different."[10]Founded in 1980, PETA first came to public attention in 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case.[11] Alex Pacheco, PETA's co-founder with Ingrid Newkirk, conducted an undercover investigation inside a primate research laboratory at the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The researcher, Dr. Edward Taub, had cut sensory ganglia that supplied nerves to the monkeys' fingers, hands, arms, and legs, a process called "deafferentation", so that they could not feel them; with some, he deafferented their entire spinal column.[12] He then used restraint, electric shock, and withholding of food and water to force the monkeys to use the deafferented parts of their bodies.[13] The aim was to determine whether the monkeys could be forced to use the limbs, and whether this had an effect on the structure of their brains. The research led in part to the development of the concept of neuroplasticity and a new physical therapy for stroke victims called constraint-induced movement therapy.[14]
Alec Baldwin with president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk, at a PETA event for filmmaker Donny Moss in New York CityPacheco visited the laboratory at night and took photographs that showed the monkeys were living in "filthy conditions", according to the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research's ILAR Journal.[15] He turned his evidence over to the police, who raided the lab and arrested Taub. Taub was convicted of six counts of animal cruelty, the first such conviction in the U.S. of a research scientist, although it was later overturned on appeal. Some scientists, including Nobel Prize winner David Hubel, criticized Pacheco's actions, and accused PETA of fabricating evidence.[16] The ensuing controversy, and the battle over custody of some of the monkeys, lasted ten years and triggered an amendment in 1985 to the Animal Welfare Act to ensure that researchers do not cause unnecessary suffering to laboratory animals.[17][18] It became the first animal-testing case to be argued before the United States Supreme Court, which rejected PETA's application for custody.[11] The case transformed PETA from what Newkirk called "five people in a basement" into a national movement able and willing to use undercover methods, the courts, and the media to achieve its aims.[19]
In PETA's 2004 annual review, Newkirk stated: "Everyone eats, so we have done our best not only to reform the worst abuses in factory farming and slaughterhouses, but to promote a compassionate vegan diet ... We have also revolutionized the way some companies do business, getting them to stop selling fur, boycott Australian merino wool, and abandon painful animal-poisoning tests in favor of sophisticated non-animal methods. We have shown how to prevent flooding without destroying beavers' homes and how to prevent birds from entering "big box" stores without using cruel glue traps. In the past year alone, former circus and zoo elephants were sent to sanctuaries, hog-dog rodeos were banned, and cruel companies were fined. We also educated millions of kids about animal rights through our teacher network and education programs."[8] Regarding PETA's controversial campaigns, Newkirk has said: "The fact is we are the biggest group because we succeed in getting attention. ... The fact is we may be doing all sorts of things on a campaign but the one thing that gets attention is the outrageous thing. It simply goes to prove to us each time, that that is the thing that's going to work; and so we won't shirk from doing that facet — in addition to all the other things we do that you never hear about because no one cares."[9]
History
Further information: Silver Spring monkeys
PETA distributed photographs of the Silver Spring monkeys with the caption, "This is vivisection. Don't let anyone tell you different."[10]Founded in 1980, PETA first came to public attention in 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case.[11] Alex Pacheco, PETA's co-founder with Ingrid Newkirk, conducted an undercover investigation inside a primate research laboratory at the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The researcher, Dr. Edward Taub, had cut sensory ganglia that supplied nerves to the monkeys' fingers, hands, arms, and legs, a process called "deafferentation", so that they could not feel them; with some, he deafferented their entire spinal column.[12] He then used restraint, electric shock, and withholding of food and water to force the monkeys to use the deafferented parts of their bodies.[13] The aim was to determine whether the monkeys could be forced to use the limbs, and whether this had an effect on the structure of their brains. The research led in part to the development of the concept of neuroplasticity and a new physical therapy for stroke victims called constraint-induced movement therapy.[14]
Alec Baldwin with president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk, at a PETA event for filmmaker Donny Moss in New York CityPacheco visited the laboratory at night and took photographs that showed the monkeys were living in "filthy conditions", according to the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research's ILAR Journal.[15] He turned his evidence over to the police, who raided the lab and arrested Taub. Taub was convicted of six counts of animal cruelty, the first such conviction in the U.S. of a research scientist, although it was later overturned on appeal. Some scientists, including Nobel Prize winner David Hubel, criticized Pacheco's actions, and accused PETA of fabricating evidence.[16] The ensuing controversy, and the battle over custody of some of the monkeys, lasted ten years and triggered an amendment in 1985 to the Animal Welfare Act to ensure that researchers do not cause unnecessary suffering to laboratory animals.[17][18] It became the first animal-testing case to be argued before the United States Supreme Court, which rejected PETA's application for custody.[11] The case transformed PETA from what Newkirk called "five people in a basement" into a national movement able and willing to use undercover methods, the courts, and the media to achieve its aims.[19]
