Six years ago, on March 15th, we celebrated our first-ever Eat a Tasty Animal for PETA Day, in response to the offensive “Holocaust on Your Plate” ad campaign by PETA.
If you haven’t heard by now, PETA has started yet another offensive ad campaign. This one really reaches bottom—they are using Holocaust terminology, quotes, and pictures to liken the “slaughter” of animals to the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis.
I’ve already received a letter from a child of Holocaust survivors who is, of course, extraordinarily offended. But here’s the thing: PETA is known for this kind of outrageous publicity stunt—and that’s what it is, an outrageous publicity stunt—and while I am also offended and outraged, there is absolutely nothing we can do that will make PETA change their ad campaign. I’m sure they knew exactly what they were doing, have a plan in mind, and, if they withdraw the campaign, will do it according to their deadlines and their decisions.
So let’s make up our own outrageous publicity stunt. Let’s designate Saturday, March 15th, as International Eat an Animal for PETA Day. Everybody set the date on your calendar, and either go out and enjoy a great steak, or cook one at home. Or cook up some chicken or fish or anything else that PETA wouldn’t want you to eat. And let’s let PETA know how their ad campaign has affected us.
Now, Germany’s highest court has agreed with us. It’s official: PETA runs offensive ad campaigns.
Germany’s highest court has ruled that a PETA ad campaign comparing animal slaughterhouses to the Holocaust is an offense against human dignity.
The 2003 campaign used eight, 60-square-foot (5.6-sq. meter) panels depicting images of factory farms next to Jewish concentration camp inmates and the slogan “Holocaust on your plate.”
The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe on Thursday ruled that the ad campaign was not protected under freedom of speech laws.
PETA issued a statement that sounds awfully familiar to me:
“‘Holocaust on Your Plate’ was the idea of a Jewish PETA member, was funded by a Jewish PETA member, and is supported by people who believe that the original Holocaust was an atrocity that never would have happened if members of society had realized that discrimination based on any difference between living beings is supremacism.
And here’s why it sounded so familiar: Because PETA is still lying about the ad campaign. Six years ago, they made it seem like Isaac Bashevis Singer, who had been dead for eight years, was behind the campaign.
The concept of our campaign originated with Nobel Prize-winning Yiddish author and vegetarian Isaac Bashevis Singer, who said, “In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis; for [them], it is an eternal Treblinka.” As you may know, Singer fled Europe as the Nazis were coming into power and lost most of his family in the Holocaust. He became a vegetarian as a result of what he lived through and what he saw. He spoke out in favor of vegetarianism until his death in 1991. His argument was that it doesn’t matter who the victims are-we must speak out against all atrocities and cruelties and help to stop them.
PETA also lied to get the rights or outright stole copyrighted Holocaust photos used in the campaign.
The Holocaust Council was doubly angered because it was the primary source of the Holocaust images used in the campaign. The PETA Web site offers a glimpse of the display; at the end, it said “Holocaust photos courtesy of USHMM.â€
But Museum officials say they never gave permission for its images to be used in such a display. PETA’s use of them “improperly and incorrectly implies that the Museum, a federal government establishment, endorses PETA’s project,†the Council’s lawyer wrote.
On Tuesday, the animal rights group responded, insisting that use of the photographs is “consistent with the Museum’s mission statement,†and claimed that an anonymous Jewish philanthropist funds the project.
The group also said it “requested, received and paid for the use of the photographsâ€â€” a claim Museum officials vehemently deny.
Arthur Berger, communications director for the Museum, said that a representative of the group sought the materials without indicating his PETA connection or how the material would be used.
“It was clearly a misrepresentation, at minimum, of what [the photographs] would be used for, he said. “There was no indication it would be used in a comparison with animals. Once we learned of this obscene connection, we sent a cease and desist letter.â€
Six years later, PETA is still lying. Well, at least they’re consistent.
Long live EATAPETA Day.
I was listening to a DC area classic rock station this morning and the DJ went after PETA. He called them an “extremist” organization. Then he went through some of Ingrid Newkirk’s will and concluded, “She must be a blast at parties.”
I figured DJ’s, if political, would tend to be more fashionable (i.e. liberal), but he really ripped into PETA and Newkirk.
You would have enjoyed it.