It seems the folks at PETA have no limits to which they'll go to promote a vegan diet to the population at large. Their latest propoganda - the above poster "advertisement" in Britian - which says that feeding children meat is child abuse.
As reported by the BBC, even with 67 complaints about the poster, directed to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the advertisement is allowed to remain prominently displayed throughout the country. The ASA did not feel the poster trivialized child abuse, was misleading, or had the potential to harm children if parents removed meat from their child's diet.
In their defense, PETA argued that "[i]t believed it was acceptable to say giving youngsters food that some scientific research stated was more harmful than a vegetarian diet was "tantamount to abuse."
What do you think?
Posts
Every once in a while PETA says something worthwhile, think I remember five years ago an article about improving slaughterhouse conditions. But I am a person of low expectations about PETA. I think most reasonable people would find the ad objectionable. And needlessly putting down overweight children.
ReplyDeleteThe treatment of food animals, even if it is cruel etc etc is a different issue to the promotion of veganism on grounds of health.
ReplyDeleteI'd support anything that treated animals better, but firmly believe that meat eating is right for humans.
Neil
It seems only apropos that in this photo of an (apparently) very overweight child, the only thing we can see him eating is a 100% vegetarian sesame seed bun.
ReplyDeleteIf what they want us to think is that feeding a child big fluffy buns is going to make him downright FAT, they found the perfect photo for it.
If they want us to think that feeding a child meat is somehow abusive, they're going to have to do a lot better than this.
PETA is insane, but they have every right to use that as an ad campaign.
ReplyDeleteright . Do you remember these MC promotion, how these kids were? Well go now to MIKI "D"
ReplyDeleteI just don't understand why they are so insistent on trying to force their beliefs on others!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm on several low carb message boards, and at least once a year some vegan arrives to educate us about the dangers of eating meat, the horrible practices of the slaughter houses, etc. I have never gone to a vegan board, and know no one that has....so why do they insist on visiting a board that is obviously going to be pro meat?
Personally I cannot believe meat is dangerous or bad for us. I also believe that we were meant to eat animals. I believe in fact that if you can only afford 1 thing, make it meat!!!
I DO agree that the practices in the slaughter houses are horrendous....but there is little the average person can do about it. Spend their money lobbying the government to improve the way animals are treated and stop peddling lies.
And yea, I agree...IF there is any "child abuse" going in it's pushing grains and fake foods into our kids. AND restricting fat!!! Fat is needed for children. They MUST have it to develop their brains!!!
PETA is insane, but they have every right to use that as an ad campaign.
ReplyDeleteTo me it seems like shouting fire in a crowded theater when there is no fire. There are legal standards and definitions of child abuse - criminal penalties for those who commit child abuse - and this type of sensationalistic poster/ad is nothing more shock advertising.
Personally I think the fact that one cannot be charged with child abuse for including meat in their child's diet should have been weighed in the decision. As many of the complaints contended - the ad trivializes child abuse and I have to agree....eating meat isn't criminal in the UK, nor is feeding a child meat, therefore the advertisement reeks of propoganda because it is without any legal standing.
I mean, can you imagine the idiot who is going to call child protective services, and waste their time, reporting the abuse of their neighbor's child because the kid was eating some chicken?
Sadly we're seeing more and more of this type of "child abuse" rallying in the media - overweight kids parents are child abusers; feeding kids a cookie or candy is child abuse; and now, apparently, feeding the child a nutrient-rich food - meat - is child abuse.
Where does it end?
I think PETA are nothing but a bunch of morally bankrupt individuals who will use anything to discredit any life style that doesn't advocate at least a vegetarian life style. Child abuse is not feeding a child meat indeed it is exactly the opposite. One could very well argue that feeding them wheat, sugar, soy, staples of a vegan diet, is child abuse!! Animals are food for each other & us or should lions become vegans too because the way they kill animals is horrible?? There are better ways of promoting better behaviour towards children than a half baked advert promoting their own negative slant on meat eating, which is all this is it has very little to do with creating a better world for children.In fact there is research suggesting that a lack of good natural fat in the diet including saturated fats actually creates violence & depression in the population, two of the very things that put children in danger anyway!
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I have come to hate about the English language, as practiced in the “good o’l” US of A” today, is the relentless perversion of it. It is also, frustratingly, one of it’s greatest strengths. Child Abuse, true criminal Child Abuse, is one of the worst expressions of human behavior. I would argue that DEPRIVING children of animal foods is “child abuse”. I do not, however, argue that depriving them of their PARRENTS, is the solution. The government sponsored “child abuse” industry, however, makes that their ultimate weapon. This makes the use of politically charged phrases in the context of how parents feed their children, perverse.
ReplyDeleteI do not, however, argue that depriving them of their PARRENTS, is the solution. The government sponsored “child abuse” industry, however, makes that their ultimate weapon. This makes the use of politically charged phrases in the context of how parents feed their children, perverse.
ReplyDeleteI agree!
PETA, my version, People Eating Tasty Animals!!
ReplyDeleteThere is a chapter at the Local Uni. most of them need a bath, and a look like they are malnourished. I was getting lunch the other day when a young "lady" was ordering and talking to her freind about the virtues of veganism, her lunch was a soy milk-shake and french fries. Its just so hard to take those people seriously,
How PETA convinces otherwise sane vegans to support them is beyond me. They're a bunch of nutbags. I support the idea of improving animal welfare, and I can even understand the spiritual beliefs behind veganism (even though I don't share them), but fer cryin' out loud, PETA, get your heads on straight!
ReplyDeleteThey could accomplish so much if they'd stop behaving like extremist psychopaths and meet omnivores half way. Newsflash: meat eating isn't going away and "total animal liberation" is silly.
I agree with Kristine...they really make themselves look silly. They could do so much for their agenda of animal welfare by being, oh, I don't know, rational? Reasonable? Not trivializing child abuse for the sake of a shocker ad campaign? Not using extremist tactics just to grab media attention?
ReplyDeleteWith crazy stunts like this, PETA has forged a reputation for itself as insane, with the consequence that the majority of the population cannot take them seriously.
Kate at The Steaks Are High
This campaign is not new.
ReplyDeleteI actually saw this very advertisement by PETA, exact same photo and same caption, on a huge billboard in Hartford, CT near where I work several years back, probably 2001 or 2002, well prior to my starting low-carb.
Ironic how the picture actually shows no meat and only a big fluffy white bun, huh?
-David
Let me see what is the problem with this:
ReplyDeleteKids are FAT as hell these days
Kids eat ten times as much meat as they need.
Soccer moms want their kids to continue eating meat.
The problem is with the soccer moms. They have a problem with the poster, because it doesn't show their little pugsley as the winner in the student of the month. Instead pugsley is a fat pig, and you are what you eat.
Let me see what is the problem with this:
ReplyDeleteKids are FAT as hell these days
Kids eat ten times as much meat as they need.
Soccer moms want their kids to continue eating meat......
If I take the previous as an example of a well reasoned and rational approach of a typical PETA supporter. Further conversation is futile.