Only Choice
PETA’s Only Choice
by Rob English
It’s nine AM on a perfect, sunny, autumn day in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and three beautiful, young women are adjusting their “costumes” for the big event. Already, a crowd of onlookers, a television crew, and print reporters are set up on the site waiting for 10 AM when the three nearly-naked women and three nearly-naked, handsome young men will parade in front of a fur store carrying a banner that reads “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur.” The crowd applauds, and agrees that such demonstrations by PETA activists can be a bit outrageous – or even downright silly.
Why does PETA do demos half naked, or in pig and rabbit costumes? Why do they hang banners over busy highways? Why be outrageous and expose themselves to arrest and ridicule?
Here’s why:
Imagine calling the police after seeing animals abused in atrocious ways, only to be told, “We’re sorry, but what you see is legal.” Imagine calling the media, only to be told, “We sympathize, but that’s old news. Call us when something fresh and newsworthy happens.” If only you could get the word out! That’s when you reach for the bikini and the banner. You get the word out. That night you see your message on the tv news. The next day radio stations and print media are calling you, asking you “What was behind your demonstration?” And the word gets out.
In the case of fur demonstrations, this headline actually appeared on the website of The Humane Society of the United States: The number of US mink fur farms plummets as consumers reject cruelty (https://www.humanesociety.org/blog/us-mink-fur-farm-numbers-fall#:~:text=Fur%20production%20in%20the%20U.S.,mink%20farms%20in%20the%20country.), reporting that from 2017 t0 2022 the number of mink killed for their fur dropped from 3.3 million to only 1.3 million.
Did PETA’s Virginia ‘naked’ demo accomplish that? Not alone, but it certainly caused a city of people to think about things!
Rob English is a member of People for Animal Rights, a grassroots organization in Central New York,
Contact People for Animal Rights
PO Box # 401,
Cleveland, NY 13042
peopleforanimalrightsofcny@gmail.com
https://parcny.org/
