Is PETA as good as people think?

It has become increasingly popular for one to be a vegetarian in today's world. The most popular animal rights group is PETA. PETA actually only has (roughly) 750,000 members, not really as large as people seem to think. Why do people think they're the largest organization out there? They're constantly pulling some sort of stunt to garner media attention. There are hundreds of celebrities that are members of PETA. Seeing them in the media all the time will lead the general public to believe they are bigger than they really are. But is PETA as influential as people like to think? Do they really do as much good as people imagine? Should we be giving PETA credit for the amount of media coverage that has been devoted to animal rights lately?

A lot of people like PETA. But these people apparently don't know anything about the horrors that PETA actually is. In 2010 alone, PETA took in 2,345 animals. Out of this number, transferring 63 and only adopting 44 of these pets. What happened to the other 2,200? They were put down. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? Right. Maybe this was just a one time fluke, maybe they were just suffering from the economic troubles that the rest of the country was facing. Maybe in years prior, they didn't end up putting down 93.8% of the animals they received. Let's look at their records for 2004, they accepted 2,655 animals that year. They only transferred one animal to a different shelter and adopted 361 of them. The other 2,278 (85.8%) were put down. For a detailed look at these records, click HERE

Well, their main goal is raising awareness, you might say. They are doing that, aren't they? They're just trying to provide equality to all living creatures, right? Well, everyone except women. PETA constantly uses scantily clad women and sexist tactics in order to prove their point. A simple google search for any PETA ad will bring you hundreds of images of scantily clad, white, attractive, thin women. You might not think much of it at first. But then you might notice that women are degraded in almost every advertisement that PETA uses in order to make their point. They are naked, nearly naked, in cages, covered in blood, beaten... PETA uses women in their advertising campaigns as no more than the way they look. Yes, sex sells, but women are more than "meat". The simple fact that PETA gives little to no respect to the women in their own publicity stunts is enough reason for any woman to be disgusted with them.

They are constantly trying to gain media attention for television commercials they know have no chance of being run but they try to submit them to a national broadcasting company (anyone remember the fiasco over NBC refusing to air their commercial for the Super Bowl in 2009?). They know there is no chance of this type of commercial being shown to the public on national television, but they submit it just so it can be rejected and they get the opportunity to criticize said company for not allowing it to be aired. PETA was up in arms about the fact that the following commercial was not aired during the 2009 Super Bowl, but really, would you want to see this with children in the room?

And take this picture for example:

PETA had women wrapped in plastic, almost completely naked, and covered in fake blood. These protesters were made to look like meat you would find in a supermarket (only a LOT bloodier). The stickers attached to these human meat dishes read, "Billions of animals are abused and violently killed because you eat meat. Get Help visit GoVeg.com". I get the point they're trying to make, but to me, this is just an extremely sexist and disgusting display. It shows nothing more than an organization trying to get media attention. And really, "Get help"? Like eating meat is some sort of disease or addiction people suffer from. And what does this protest succeed in doing? Nothing. People that agree with PETA thought of it as art, those that don't found it disgusting. This is using the "sex sells" motto to the extreme.

As a vegetarian, I find almost everything about PETA horrifying. I am all for actually trying to make changes in the communities we live in. I believe in protecting innocent animals from the cruelty that they are faced with every day. I think the meat industry has becoming absolutely disgusting and I'm glad people are finally trying to make a change in it. I do not believe in degrading women into nothing more than an object and setting feminism back in the process. I also think the idea of converting someone to be a vegetarian is wrong. You do what you want, eat what you want, but if you ask me why, I will give you my opinion and my reasons to why I don't eat meat. I wont try to convert you (seriously, PETA calls vegetarians and vegans "converts", how cult-like is that?!).

Unless you're one of those antifun vegans. Then I might try to convert you.