News
I've seen PETA try to do some pretty outlandish things, all in the name of helping animals. Some things are unreasonable, backward thinking, and even terroristic at times. It surprises me it has two million members and continues to grow.
With all the “Swine Flu” scares going around now, PETA is using it to try to convince states such as IL and UT to stop creating new factory farms. I quote from their website “going vegetarian is the best action that any individual can take to prevent animalborne diseases”. They want the US government to stop factory farming completely.
Other things they have done include asking sports teams to drop live animal mascots, and companies with ads featuring animals, to scrap them and vow to PETA never to use animals again.
This is the article that triggered my post, it has to do with the band, The Pet Shop Boys. PETA Europe sent a letter requesting the name change because of the cruelty it alleges takes place in the pet trade. They would like the new band name to be “Rescue Shelter Boys”. This change will "encourage your millions of fans to consider giving a home to an abandoned or unwanted animal from an animal shelter".
So, if I have this straight, PETA is against using animals for meat, clothing, experimenting on, entertainment or abusing in any way, but they are OK with owning them as pets? They have even argued with landlords for equal-opportunity when it comes to allowing them to live there. Can someone help me out with this? This is containing animals, for a person's own enjoyment. They could be running wild and free like an animal should be.
UGH! Their views and logic are so skewed at times, it frustrates me just to read things like this.
On January 31st, I will be doing a Polar Bear Plunge as a fundraiser for Special Olympics. I will be jumping into White Bear Lake along with a bunch of friends from the “Hip Chicks” meetup group. We almost have the largest team, for which we would win an award. Costumes are encouraged, and we have decided to wear prom/bridesmaid dresses with big hair and bright blue eyeshadow. My hair is too short to make “big” but I will definitely be doing the eyeshadow.
I made a goal for myself for $200. Some family, a Plurk friend, and a Twitter friend made this possible! I actually made $205! Everyone thinks I am crazy, Husband thinks I will get sick, so instead of donating, we will save the money for co-pays for the doctor visits. LOL It is a bit crazy, but it is a once in a lifetime experience and besides, it's for charity. If anyone else would like to donate some money to the cause, my personal Special Olympics website is here. I of course will have someone taking photos and making a video of our group making the jump, and will upload it to YouTube so all can see the craziness!
We are having a fundraiser as well. For every margarita sold between 7:00 and 9:00, the bar will donate $3.00 to this cause. Everyone is welcome, and we are trying to fill up the bar as jammed packed as possible to earn some serious cash.
It will be held on Wednesday Jan 21st at Bar Abilene. The address is 1300 Lagoon Ave in Minneapolis. The phone number there is 612-825-2525.
The plunge is on Saturday January 31st, from 12-3:00 near the White Bear Lake VFW, 4496 Lake Ave. S. It is just off of Hwy 61.
We hope you can make it!
The following story I found posted at http://www.ketv.com
(my comments below)
PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Milk
VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.
"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says.
PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.
"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."
In a statement Ben and Jerry's said, "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child."
Read PETA's letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield:
September 23, 2008
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Cofounders
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.
Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Greenfield,
On behalf of PETA and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I'd like to bring your attention to an innovative new idea from Switzerland that would bring a unique twist to Ben and Jerry's.
Storchen restaurant is set to unveil a menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent breast milk procured from human donors who are paid in exchange for their milk. If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits.
Using cow's milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health. Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease-America's number one cause of death.
Animals will also benefit from the switch to breast milk. Like all mammals, cows only produce milk during and after pregnancy, so to be able to constantly milk them, cows are forcefully impregnated every nine months. After several years of living in filthy conditions and being forced to produce 10 times more milk than they would naturally, their exhausted bodies are turned into hamburgers or ground up for soup.
And of course, the veal industry could not survive without the dairy industry. Because male calves can't produce milk, dairy farmers take them from their mothers immediately after birth and sell them to veal farms, where they endure 14 to 17 weeks of torment chained inside a crate so small that they can't even turn around.
The breast is best! Won't you give cows and their babies a break and our health a boost by switching from cow's milk to breast milk in Ben and Jerry's ice cream? Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President
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ICK, GROSS, Gag me with a spoon! There has to be a way to tell PETA that their ideas tend to be fantastical, unrealistic and ignorant of the general population's beliefs and values. Besides that, no one would buy and consume human milk products in any quatities to make it cost effective. I also need to add that this "hardship" that would be taken away from cows would only be placed on humans. Breastfeeding mothers would have to produce more milk at a time when their bodies are already taxed from childbirth and producing enough milk for their child. In my observations, PETA is always quick to "help" animals and remove unnecessary hardship at the expense of human hardship, physical and financial. This fact will keep PETA from becoming a respected group, on top of their extreme and sometimes terroristic actions.
I reported that Brett Favre had joined the MN Vikings, only to find out now that the NY Jets now call him a team mate. The photo I found must have been altered to change to colors of the jersey; does anyone know of a time that Brett may have put on the Vikings purple and gold?
Sports Illustrated has the details of the trade and and more. Minnesota was briefly mentioned in the article, but nothing to do with a possible trade.
Get Ready!
New Kids on the Block, one of the original boy bands, is coming to Mall of America! They will be signing autographs and performing, all set up by Best Buy, a new addition to the mall, it is part of their grand opening. The boys will be there this Friday, 8/8/08. I read over the RULES for getting an autograph, and boy there are a lot, and they are strict. I have summarized them here:
- Only if you pre-order the new CD ($9.99), starting at 10:00am, you will get a laminate poster and the first how-many-of-them will get a special bracelet. You need the bracelet if you want an autograph. You are limited to four bracelettes, but not for laminates.
- There will be someone monitoring the line, and you can only stand in line if you have the bracelet, (or under 12, I guess for now 30-something fans with kids) and there appears to be no tampering.
- You MUST stay in a single file line.
- To save your space, you must be in line, only leaving for bathroom breaks and short trips for food, but one in your party must stay behind, in line. If you do leave, you go to the back of the line.
- NKOTB will not sign memorabilia, and no personalization is allowed, and no photos.
You can start lining up at 4am on Friday morning, doors open at 5am. They start selling the CDs at 10. If you get there too early, you are told to go away. I'd hate to have that job, getting to work probably by 3am, it would be a full seven hours of babysitting until they open the doors for sales. The performance/signing doesn't start until 5:30pm
Wow!
I have to go buy my hairspray and find some safety pins for my pant legs. I also need to warm up my voice so I don't get too hoarse screaming all that time while in line.
Brett now a Viking? Here is a pic in the new uniform. Didn't he retire already? Like twice? Are the Wisconsin-ites going to call him on it? Call him a traitor? We here in MN have always been in a rivalry with the Packers, I'm sure there are a lot of people here not happy about this either.
Invergrove Police Report:
Disorderly conduct: Police responded about 12:20 a.m. June 9 to a complaint of loud music coming from a home in the 7300 block of Clay Avenue East. Police could hear the music more than a block away. Police asked the 54-year-old homeowner why the music was so loud. He said he had turned it up to annoy his neighbors, who constantly call the police on him for noise complaints. Police cited him on suspicion of disorderly conduct.
For those of you with sensitive stomachs, you may not want to continue this story to the “continued” section. It involves descriptions and photos of a dead animal. Yes this is morbid, but I felt strongly enough to want to photograph and then publish my findings.
