As much as I dislike PETA and how it's set the animal rights movement way back, I have to applaud DB for doing something like this. It's enough to make him my favorite Whedonverse actor!

Cabus | July 17, 08:25 CET

Cabus, I don't know much about PETA. How have they set the animal rights movement back?

electricspacegirl | July 17, 08:40 CET

Aww, isn't that sweet. *Ptttbbbbttthhhhh* :p

He probably took 5 minutes out of his day and they made a big hoo-hah out of it.

Sorry guys, DB isn't my favorite person these days.

(No insult meant to you though, RavenU)

Willowy | July 17, 09:18 CET

None taken Willowy - I just like dogs. :)

RavenU | July 17, 10:12 CET

electricspacegirl, PETA can and often does go way, way over the top...I remember seeing a poster at a DC Metro station that contained a PETA press release or statement to the effect that even if lab research on rats could result in a cure for AIDS, PETA would oppose it. PETA president Ingrid Newkirk has also likened chicken farms to Auschwitz. Tends to turn people off, you know?

Willowy, down on DB *and* dogs??

(RavenU--I like--no, love--dogs, too, especially our two rescue mutts.)

Chris inVirginia | July 17, 18:49 CET

Er... don't recall saying anything about dogs...

Willowy | July 17, 19:06 CET

Cabus, I don't know much about PETA. How have they set the animal rights movement back?

By being basically publicity whores. Now and then they do come up with intelligent campaigns, but mainly they'll do anything to get them in the media. Exhibit A: PETA urges the town of Hamburg to change its name to Veggieburg. Exhibit B: PETA releases hundreds of caged minks into the wild, except, oops, it wasn't their natural habitat and thus they upset the ecological balance of that area.

After being in the media so much with their wacky antics, it gives people the impression that this is all there is to the movement, and in some cases even reenforces people's beliefs that animal rights activists are just a bunch of vegan drugged hippies.

Cabus | July 17, 19:47 CET

Then there was the time a bunch of them dressed up in furry animal costumes and gave leaflets to little kids about how their moms had killed bunnies for their fur coats...

weds | July 17, 20:10 CET

electricspacegirl, PETA can and often does go way, way over the top...I remember seeing a poster at a DC Metro station that contained a PETA press release or statement to the effect that even if lab research on rats could result in a cure for AIDS, PETA would oppose it. PETA president Ingrid Newkirk has also likened chicken farms to Auschwitz. Tends to turn people off, you know?

Yeah, that's out of line. I don't want animals to be tortured, not at all, but I also look at life as survival of the fittest in some ways. I think the debate on whether we should experiment on animals if it could cure AIDs is very hard for me to answer.

Speaking of animal experiments, I had a friend whose ex-husband was a scientist for Oregon Health and Sciences University and he experimented on monkeys. She said the research lab is something she got used to. She told me stories that made me want to run up the hill to OHSU, sneak into the lab, and set all the monkeys free. Yikes.

[ edited by electricspacegirl on 2004-07-17 18:17 ]

electricspacegirl | July 17, 20:15 CET

I'm not a fan of the PETA.
A girl I know brings her pet goats to the State Fair to exhibit, but she has problems with PETA people walking right up and unlocking their cages and some fanatic telling her to let them go free. This is a stupid thing to do because a) she raised them from babies, so they just wander around for ten feet before coming back to her, and b) if the goats were to escape, the fairgrounds is in the middle of a city

I'm for animal rights and everything, but I cant be for an organization that doesn't care enough about the animals to use common sense.

And Hamburg to Veggieburg? if that isn't the stupidest...*mutter mutter*

redtenko | July 17, 22:47 CET

I love dogs too! Especially with ketchup! ; )

Rogue Slayer | July 17, 22:47 CET

It always amazes me. I mean, imagine beforehand how far you have to go to lose sympathy in the basically kind and noble cause of animal rights.

But they manage it.....

Ahh fanaticism in any form is always a bad thing.

EdDantes | July 17, 22:55 CET

I'm going to have to agree with what many have said here, and maybe a little step beyond. One of the marks of how far we have come is that we try to show kindness to less advanced and less capable creatures. When this trait becomes pathological (imo) you get people who place the lives of these creatures above the lives of human beings. To me that is a pathology, no two ways about it.

zeitgeist | July 18, 01:03 CET

I applaud what he's doing, but I don't think he (or PETA) is right to say you should never chain your dog. My dog, for example, is chained in my backyard. He hates being indoors because he's huge and very furry and he gets too hot (he ends up sprawled on the kitchen floor panting and looking unhappy), and he has to be chained because if left loose in the fence, he jumps over or digs out. I take him walking for an hour a day, he has nice shade from trees and a well-built doghouse, I give him plenty of water, and he's a happy dog overall. I'd hate to have some random person walk by, see him chained and report me for neglecting my dog just because they think chains are evil.

Cranberry | July 18, 01:49 CET

Sorry, zeitgeist, I have to disagree with you. Animal rights supporters do not place the lives of animals above the lives of human beings. They give them equal weight and believe that all life is interconnected and should be shown respect. Caring about the lives of animals, when there are billions of animals on the planet living in suffering and pain, is not mutually exclusive of caring about the suffering and pain of humans. To my mind, that is a *more* caring way of living, not a pathological one.

Wendy | July 18, 01:51 CET

Sorry, Willowy...but: Why down on DB now?

Chris inVirginia | July 18, 21:25 CET

Wendy: While in general animal rights supporters (including me) stand with you, PETA has stated more than once that they DO place the lives of animals over the lives and well-being of humans.

There is good evidence that PETA itself euthanizes over half the animals they "rescue" from shelters that put animals to sleep, after endangering lives all around to storm the places and get the animals out.

As a person whose own life has been saved by medicine that came from animal testing and is made from cattle parts (heparin, if you care), while I love and respect animals, no cow is worth more than me. The people who run PETA say that the cows are worth more - even though some of them have taken advantage of the same medical technology to save their own lives. They justify it by saying that they have to live in order to continue the fight for the animals. I say they're fanatics and hypocrites.

zencat | July 18, 21:32 CET

Cranberry - "I don't think he (or PETA) is right to say you should never chain your dog. My dog, for example, is chained in my backyard."

I don't think they mean the normal chaining the dog in the backyard so they can get some fresh air or chaining the dog because of leash laws. I think they mean for owners who get a dog and the dog spends most of it's time chained outdoors away from people. You obviously love and adore your dog and give him lots of attention. But there are people who get a dog and once the novelty of puppyhood wears off the dog is stuck outside by itself most of the time in all sorts of weather and is pretty much neglected. I have a dog who I adore and my entire family spoils rotten and he is the center of our family but he isn't allowed to run loose and is always on a leash when outside. But I have family members who first thing in the morning, chain their dogs outside and leave them there all day until it's nighttime where they are then allowed to come in where they are then confined to a small room without any human interaction. When you go over there the dogs are obviously lonely and keep looking towards where all the people are wanting attention. And when someone, usually a guest, goes over to see them, they are so excited to get some attention because they never get any. That's just sad to me.

As for Peta, they just over do it on so many levels that, if anything, people tend to ignore them most of the time because of their outlandish behavior. Like throwing red paint (or maybe real blood, can't remember) on people who are wearing furs. They've even done that to people wearing fake furs too thinking they were real.

We live in a society where food is readily available at anytime, 24 hours a day. If we lived in a society where you had to struggle to find food, these same people wouldn't hesitate to capture and kill some animal because they were hungry. Yes, there are some abuses out there when it comes to humane treatment of animals who are specifically for the food supply but in most cases, these animals are killed in a humane way.

Firefly Flanatic | July 18, 23:34 CET

Because, Lizard, of his unabashed glee at the end of his series, and his insensitivity to those of us in mourning.

And don't start calling me a DB basher. If he's "perfectly entitled" to those feelings, then I'm "perfectly entitled" to be ticked off about it.

Willowy | July 19, 04:38 CET

PETA wanted the Green Bay Packers (my team) to drop the "Packers" moniker because they think it,"Promotes violence against animals".
They wanted the team to be renamed the "Pickers" or the Green Bay "Six-Packers" in reference to Wisconsin's brewing industry.
While I don't believe animals should be mistreated, PETA goes to the wild extreme in many areas.

[ edited by Tracy on 2004-07-19 21:35 ]

Tracy | July 19, 23:30 CET