IAMA Senior employee of PETA UK - Today is my last day, there is no love lost - ask me anything

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I speak the truth! I am just a really pissed off soon-to-be-ex-PETA staff member

Thank you for doing this AMA!

Well, guaranteed no-one else was going to do it

Just how insane are some of the hardcore PETA members?

PETA members, or PETA staff?

Both. Just talk about insane hardcore people.

[deleted]

So you support crazy stunts or do you think it makes your organization look ridiculous? Do you agree with the ethos of the UK PETA?

Here's the killer.. We are a separate organisation to PETA US, but we still have to advocate the messaging whether it's PETA UK that does something others deem crazy, or PETA US/Asia/Netherlands/France etc..

PETA US are THE craziest - they're responsible for the naked ads, the renaming things, downright offensive videos.

Until 5pm today I have to say "I support PETA in everything they do" after that, not so much - though I'm not going to go on a PETA hating spree..

There's a guy who sits opposite that saved 4,000,000 animals from painful animal tests in 2008 - he's a policy guy - and truth be known probably the voice of reason that's holding the UK office together, now that's the work I joined PETA for - sadly, all our good work is drowned out by the more crazy stunts, and as I mentioned above, we're alienating ourselves

I have to say "I support PETA in everything they do" after that, not so much

Live a little on the edge! At 4:45, you mention that you don't like PETA using [name.color] for their slogans in [campaign.name]. So, you're no longer 100% loyal.

You think they would take the time out of those last 15 minutes to fire you?

Haha, I've been paid, cleared my work laptop of private files, it would only be a bonus if they frogmarched me out!

PETA has forbid the word frogmarch as it conjures up the memories of forcing frogs to march on their hind legs.

Evil fuckers making frogs march, much better to have toadtrot instead

I logged in ready to start flaming you due to my intense dislike and previous conflicts with PETA US, but you seem to be a reasonable dedicated individual. I had no idea about global distinctions within the organization either.

Well, honestly, what are people supposed to think when all you see online is PETA KILL ANIMALS RAAAAGHHH.. no, we're here to save animals, but it's so fucked up in the upper management that bad business decisions are made - plus I'm English, so naturally a gent :)

PETA has done some pretty smart PR stunts.

If I were a conspiracy theorist I might suspect this AMA is an official PETA campaign to make them seem less crazy.

It's really not, I swear on my cat

working in PETA sounds like being in the absurd real life version of game of thrones

I swear, 70 staff have come and gone in the UK alone in my 6 1/2 years, so you're more right than you think

I call him Uncle Robert.

Bwahahaha - I swear if you're his nephew I need to meet you, he.is.a.character

Both would be interesting. Is there a big difference in attitude in the two groups?

Here's the cycle of things:

• Person is a meat eater
• Person watches PETA video
• Person goes vegetarian
• PETA emails them stuff
• Person goes vegan
• They find out what dicks PETA are and they hate PETA

The amount of vegans that hate PETA is insane, yet 95% of the people I speak to turned vegan through PETA videos.

The attitude of PETA is then - oh well, let's try and get into the papers and reach more people. The attitude of the people is - why don't you use your messaging for serious issues instead of naked/sexist/questionable/frivolous/trivial things

Very interesting - I'm also a vegan, though not through the efforts of PETA, and have a strong dislike for what PETA does/doesn't do. It's a shame really, I feel like they're hurting the cause as the public may associate their dislike for PETA with a dislike of the issues.

Oh well, hope things change soon and the money gets pumped into real action.

*Edited in a word

This, exactly!

Day to day it's a mixture of absolute craziness, and solid progress for animals - sadly it's true that in order to make the papers you have to be outlandish/sexy/naked/kooky, and I think they do that well - but I really don't know how the public perceive that - Joe Bloggs meat eater seeing a naked woman advocating not eating foie gras isn't going to go "bloody 'ell I should stop eating foie gras" he's just going to ogle the naked chick

but I really don't know how the public perceive that

In the US, PETA is generally considered to be a bunch of lunatics supported by a bunch of morons. (Because only a moron would support an organization so obviously composed of lunatics.) They run ads that say the most batshit crazy things - like that it's better to give small children beer than milk - and they immediately lose respect of anyone paying attention. (Note: if you give your small child beer in the US and get caught, you go to jail and maybe never see your kid again. So it's a pretty fucking stupid thing for them to advertise.)

Also anyone who has actually paid attention to them in the US learns fast that they operate an animal shelter which has the highest kill rate of any shelter in the entire nation. If fluffy gets taken to the PETA shelter, fluffy is doomed. How can we believe anything at all said by an organization that says it's interested in the well being of animals but mercilessly and efficiently slaughters them on a daily basis?

Yeah I'm part of the meetings where they decide "Let's say to drink beer instead of milk, it's healthier - someone get me a tagline!" in their own minds they see the animal products as the devil and everything else as lesser. Plus "Don't drink milk it's harmful" vs "Drink beer not milk" - they're not wanting you to drink beer, but it makes you think "well fuck that's insane" so you read more and that's when they hope to convert you, by reading more

The actual effect, however, is to make most people think "fuck, these people are crazy, I want nothing to do with them" and then they carefully avoid PETA and don't believe anything PETA says.

Well, and they get told this, and they see the comments on social networks, and they receive the letters, but they still get a lot of new people to the cause, so in their eyes the end justifies the means

Is Joe Bloggs like the US Equivalent of John Doe or Joe Schmo? Very interesting. I thought Joe Bloggs was a real person for a second.

Joe Bloggs the UK equivalent, yes!

Wow you nailed that on the head. I was a vegetarian for 10 years, went vegan for 2. (I did watch those videos) During the vegan period I have never met so many up-their-own-ass, pompous, nippleprick douche bags in my entire life. ITS ALL THEY FUCKING TALK ABOUT. And talk about intolerant if you don't follow their lifestyle choice.

However, I don't know if its just people in PETA that act like this. I ran into this type at a lot of Alterna-Vegggie-Vegan restaurants, shops,ect. Its bad enough I'm paying for this $10 bland-ass, I'm going to be still hungry, yet farting my brains out meal in a 1/2 hour. But, I have to listen to some stinky dude with white guy dreads, talk about how he's now totally "raw" and chastising his friend for not doing the same for my entire meal.

I've turned 2 people vegan in my life - that wasn't through preaching, they asked questions, I answered - they went back to meat eventually after they dumped me ahahaha... fucking women!

But preaching of any kind is not going to convert - you only have to go to r/atheism to see that

I find it funny that I familiarize with your point. I dislike PETA for many reasons, but seeing their videos is what made me give up eating animals. Since I was always skeptical of their motives, I looked up factory farm footage from other sources to see if it was true. However, PETA's huge investment in PR/advertisement is what planted the seed in my head.

Yeah, they attract enough donors to their cause that they don't mind if you find out info from them and go to other orgs for a follow up - PETA's messaging is pretty dumbed down, whereas other orgs use more important language to get their goals across

This is going to sound stupid, but what are the different 'types' of vegan-ism? Vegan, vegetarian, etc. I hear all these different terms. What do they all mean?

Vegan - no animal products, no wearing of animal products, no substances, chemicals that have been tested etc.. Vegetarian - eats anything but meat Fruitarian - crazy fuckers that only eat what fell from the tree naturally Pescetarian - veg but eats fish

Both, I'm sure there are crazies on both sides

Well, there's crazies who support any charity, usually because it's older people that donate, and older people go crazy more so than younger people..

Over in the US it's a whole different kettle of sea kittens, people there are very extreme - both in their pro, or anti-peta messaging.

how much work do you have with PETA in the states?

We're like a mini-me of them, so everything is moderated by them, by the lawyers, by the bosses, edited text to make sure it's consistent across the board..

Our campaigns are not chosen by UK staff, they're chosen by US staff.. So I guess the answer is that I work heavily with PETA US, by proxy..

why do PETA shelters have such a high euthanization rate, compared to other non corporate shelters?

Will PETA ever become a no kill shelter advocate? Why or why not?

Even I think there's something fishy going on there, but the truth is I have no idea, this is without a doubt the most common question asked by supporters and non-supporters alike. It's troubled me from day 1, because there's absolutely no transparency, just spin..

PETA hates 'no kill' - they think killing an animal is much better than "keeping it in a tiny cage" - now, my opinion is, if a dog or cat has to be put down because there's no other choice, go for it - I'd ask the same of my own life in that situation.. but I've never seen in the flesh an animal they've put down - I've been there twice for training and sat in an office, not the 'shelter'

But let me make an important point, regardless of the truth of their euth stats.. The Centre for Consumer Freedom, a front for Phillip Morris, the meat industry, et al, are also very good at circulating the PETAKIllsAnimals.com site, they have money and power, they also have a vested interest in taking PETA down, so anything you see with the word CCF, Centre for Consumer Freedom on it, I'd take with a pinch of salt

Thank you for pointing out CCF I cringe whenever someone links petakillsanimals in an argument because of who runs that site

For every PETA there's a CCF!

but I've never seen in the flesh an animal they've put down - I've been there twice for training and sat in an office, not the 'shelter'

"And here we are killing animals. This is a part of our regular tour. You have to pay extra to see where we dump the bodies."

You really think they are just going to voluntarily show off their slaughter house?

Yes, exactly my point, it's all behind closed doors to staff who aren't directly involved and so while I have my opinions, I can't tell you either way

If you were the boss of PETA UK, what would you like to happen?

Sever ties with PETA US, rebrand completely - there'd be a loss of earnings in the short term but long term benefits would outweigh that.

PETA Germany do this, I laugh because the only reason they get away with doing what they want is because they speak German and no-one in PETA US do!

I would re-hire all the excellent campaigners, online, fundraisers, and other staff that were either sacked, made redundant, or forced to leave through PETA's bat shit craziness - some of these people were way ahead of PETA.

Stop funneling money into useless demonstrations that don't make a shit of difference. Re-open the education department that got sidelined, I think teaching kids to respect animals - whether they go animal rights or not later in life, will at least stop some of the nastiest cruelty cases I see day in day out..

Focus more on online than offline marketing - who reads a newspaper and changes their opinion - especially if it's some naked chick protesting KFC.. The biggest and best charities in the UK/worldwide don't give a shit about press, they know that online methods work way better, and cheaper

I live in the town where KFC started, the only still privately owned KFC in existence. The Colonel's house is still just behind it. They make some damn tasty chicken.

I remember from my childhood!

Statistically, PETA in the US ends up killing roughly 85% (likely more) of the animals they "save".

How do you feel knowing that a large majority of the animals that are saved end up dead anyways? How do you feel knowing the 'non-profit' company pulled in a cool $34 million in profits in 2009? Do you honestly believe that PETA, at this point in time, is actually trying to save animals? Why doesn't PETA use 'no kill' facilities?

PETA report from their Norfolk facility in 2011. The Norfolk facility is their headquarters for those that do not know.

2050 animals are "saved". 1965 are euthanized. 28 animals are adopted, while 11 are reclaimed by their owner.

Related article: Here. Quote from article.

When I contacted PETA for a comment on these numbers, Amanda Schinke, a spokesperson for the organization, sent a thoughtful and detailed response. In it she explained how "euthanasia is a product of love for animals who have no one to love them."

$34 million in profit. While healthy puppies and kittens are killed because their facilities cannot sustain them.

Here is your answer, from someone who is not privy to all information..

• We're told that the animals are of bad condition - true or not, I don't know, hard to tell from the UK, and if it is as sinister as it's made out to be then it certainly wouldn't be bandied about no?
• For some reason they do release the figures of the euthanisation numbers each year - people seem to think this is a hidden stat..
• Re: $34m - dude, they're a huge organisation with like 450 workers in the US, that's not an unrealistic amount of income, and it's not 'profit' if they're a not for profit

You can call this a marketing ploy, but it's not, I couldn't give a flying fuck about PETA, in 34 minutes I'm off to the pub! Woop

Former PETA US staff here. Many (though not all) of the animals PETA euthanizes are in bad condition. All of the animals PETA euthanizes are surrendered voluntarily to PETA staff. The shelters in and around Norfolk, VA, where PETA is based, are perpetually overcrowded and would likely kill the animals themselves (on the taxpayer's dime) if PETA were to turn them over. Still, PETA isn't an animal shelter and they've never claimed to be, and they don't make much of an attempt to find homes for the animals surrendered to them. There is (or at least there was) a pervasive attitude at PETA that animals are better off dead than languishing in shelters or foster homes. I have never shared this view but I have never had a problem with any of the decisions I've seen PETA staff make when it comes to dealing with animals in their care. I have seen several animals euthanized at PETA—the process couldn't be more compassionate.

PETA does the dirty work that nobody else wants to do. They go into rural areas and identify animals who are being mistreated/neglected (chained in a yard for days at a time, confined to a small concrete pad behind a chain-link fence 24/7, etc.). They ask the owners' permission to take the animals away. If the owner says yes, the animals are euthanized. If the owner says no, PETA brings them a hand-made doghouse and straw so the animal can be a bit more comfortable. Having witnessed the outcomes of both, if you ask me, the former is more humane. The numbers look bad because, unlike an animal shelter, PETA actively seeks animals who are injured, unsocialized, or otherwise undesirable.

The people who run these programs at PETA are some of the most compassionate and dedicated people I've ever met. This is thankless, depressing, awful work. I've helped build and load doghouses in the heat of summer, bag and deliver straw to suffering animals in hopeless conditions in the dead of winter, and seen despicable people do unspeakable things to animals right in front of me. And I didn't even work in that department.

Some people have a problem with euthanasia under any circumstances. Other people think PETA should spend more of their money trying to find homes for these animals before they're euthanized. I think anyone who actually gives a shit about animals should stop talking shit about other animal advocates and focus their energy on improving the lives of animals however they can. Seriously, people. PETA isn't causing any more suffering than the shelter in your community. If you want to save a cute little dog or cat from being euthanized, go volunteer at your local shelter and foster animals. PETA isn't the problem.

And on that note, BreakingGood (MG), this is some unprofessional, attention-whoring shite if you ask me.

Hi, look, I'm not coming from a knowledgeable standpoint here.. in the UK we were never told about the issues PETA US faces with the euth issue.. we were given a link to share and that's it.

I'm not karma whoring, I genuinely wanted people to see from a UK PETA perspective. I'm sorry you feel that way burner_qq but this is the reality - don't expect us to advocate the killing of animals without explaining - in detail - the whole side of it.

I really don't have a problem with euthanasia, but let's face it - PETA US have a mark on their record with regards to it, something not just PETA staff ask themselves, but PETA supporters. There's a reason I didn't say yay or nay to the euth position that PETA US faces - because there's no transparency - no-one says to PETA UK "hey dudes we had to euth these animals because of X" it's a continual problem, you know it's a problem, you say the company line, people aren't happy with the company line and you don't expand..

So excuse me for coming to this with an uneducated point of view, but - let's be fair - if this was out in the open, then not only me, but the thousands of others who raise this question wouldn't feel in the dark about it and would be able to rationalise this.

So burner_qq - please, I emplore you, point out the other areas I've misjudged this, after 7 years (nearly) because I think I've got a very good grip on the matter

Hang on, sorry, I've been replying to posts and refreshing, yours may have been missed.. answering as best I can now

have you got your resignation letter as proof? what are your reasons for leaving?

I don't actually.. as it was two months ago, and by email - their email deletes sent items greater than 3 weeks old, I guess I could email a moderator from my work account..

What are my reasons? How long do you have?

• They are fantastically bad at retaining staff, the focus is always on fresh 'meat' pardon the pun, rather than keeping existing staff happy - always overworking them and playing on heart strings to keep you from raising objections.
• Their sole focus is to get column inches, that's what it boils down to, yeah they have spay and neuter programs (Stateside) and other initiatives, but everything is geared towards "how much mileage can we get out of this" - in the UK we are only a small office of about 14, we don't have programs or initiatives, we're just PR for animals
• There is no praise, only criticism
• The forward planning is nonexistent
• Everything is done over email, including reprimands, it's very impersonal and it's a quiet office with very low morale at the moment
• The management are trained to be arseholes to the staff, and are extremely rude.
• They're frivolous with money
• They alienate themselves, and think they are above other organisations due to their name and reputation
• The final nail in the coffin for me, came after I handed in my notice: By choosing to do a print ad with Britain's Got Talent winners Ashleigh and Pudsey (A pedigree dog, parents are breeders, animals in entertainment) that flies against two of their slogans "Animals are not ours to use for entertainment" and "Boycott breeders" - hypocrisy at its finest

Lets get some other kind of proof in here. Seems like there isnt any yet..

Let me know how, I'll do it! Should I PM the mods?

Yes, there is a link in the side bar on the right. They can verify it anonymously and will just make a "This has been verified by the moderators" post.

I'm on it!

The final nail in the coffin for me, came after I handed in my notice: By choosing to do a [1] print ad with Britain's Got Talent winners Ashleigh and Pudsey (A pedigree dog, parents are breeders, animals in entertainment) that flies against two of their slogans "Animals are not ours to use for entertainment" and "Boycott breeders" - hypocrisy at its finest

I assume it's not worth pointing such things out to them, or do you not even have a channel to the people who make the decisions for such campaigns (based on what you said about stateside control)?

But either way, that is pretty horrible considering the strength with which others doing the same thing are condemned by many within the organisation. I wonder if the person who pitched that idea would eat a burger if it would "help the cause."

This sparked a huge outrage in the office, myself and another two colleagues raised objections to the boss, sadly it came from her boss, and the boss above her, there's no-one to complain to because the hierarchy here is so crazy - my boss is essentially a puppet/clone of the two above her..

I thought about a union, someone tried that once, she got made redundant - scary coincidence

Isn't that illegal in the UK? I mean to be fired for joining/attempting to join a union?

Weeeelll, likely, but they probably used some other excuse

What specific things do you agree with, that PETA does?

There's quite a lot - educating on bullfighting, I find bloodsports to be so unnecessary and barbaric, action alerts targeting companies that do extremely nasty things, unnecessary things - I guess a lot from a welfare point of view (if you're going to kill an animal, don't stub cigarettes out on him, don't punch and beat him..)

I agree a lot with finding alternatives to animal testing - there's a lot of amazing non-animal methods available now that companies should be adopting but they still stick with animal tests..

I agree with educating in compassion towards animals - eat them or not, don't stomp on them, thrown them in bins, abuse or neglect them..

Could you elaborate on the non-animal methods you mentioned? From discussion I've had with people in research medicine, it seems that in most cases that animal testing is still unavoidable. They don't like it, but it's the only way they can see of saving millions of human lives.

Absolutely, it'll be a long time before every single test is replicable in computer models, it's not an easy task and it will take years and years - I'm no scientist, I'm a website manager, I can't elaborate I'm sorry

As it is, all medicine in the UK has to be tested on animals by law - regardless of non-animal methods available

If I may, I think that one of the reasons that that law is in place in UK is that you just can't fully replicate what happens in a human. You can take all of your data available, analyze it incredibly well, and when you actually give a drug or something to an animal/person, it just does shit you never expected. There are too many variables that we just don't have a grasp of to accurately model.

In any case, I just wanted to say kudos on the AMA. I totally disagree with several of your opinions, but I really appreciate you laying them out in thoughtful, precise terms. It's been a joy reading.

I'm a content manager, I'm very good at my job, but I'm no scientist, if there's ever a chance that my colleague will do an AMA from a science perspective I'll push him, but it's doubtful..

Do you personally believe animals shouldn't be kept as domesticated pets?

Oh hell no! And, while we're at it, I certainly don't think cats should be kept indoors and fed on a vegan diet.. dogs can live quite well on a vegan diet.

I have a cat myself - the previous owner (40 year old ex-PETA employee) died of an asthma attack and left two cats to me and another employee.. I love her very much, not only because the previous owner was a good friend, but she has cattitude, fuck yeah!!

Here's what I find concerning though:

PETA say no breeders - so there'll come a day when no-one breeds any animals, and they also spay and neuter, so no chance for animals to breed.. the end goal for PETA is no domesticated animals In essence.

PETA employees though, doing a quick count in the office, pretty much all have animals

Thanks for the reply. I am very much against intentional breeding (for a multitude of reasons, another long winded post for another day) but i try to remain optimistic that cats and dogs would find a way to get their freak on regardless of how careful their owners were.

Also, glad to hear you're leaving this organization, you seem way to intelligent and level headed for it.

As I sit here, there are 5 out of 7 people in the office way too intelligent and level headed for it :)

That's truly sad, when the entity of the organisation itself outweighs even a mainly sane employee base. I can't begin to imagine how frustrating that must be for you guys, and I wish you all the best in moving forward and doing things on your own terms.

And that's why I'm leaving, I thought to take this higher before finding out it would have been fruitless!

I couldn't imagine working for peta. I just do not have that kind of gut.

You do know your website probably attracts more sadistic fucks than people that care about animals right?

I'm SO desensitised to things now, I've watched nearly all our videos, we've been sent some real nasty shit.. To the point where A Serbian Film isn't that hardcore anymore..

People who contact us saying they're in tears after watching a video, I was like that before, 10 years ago, but jesus, it would take me strangling a dolphin I think to raise some emotion out of me

Do you think that PETA actually accomplishes anything worthwhile these days? I ask because they seem to alternate between revealing things that people should now (such as their videos) and well then acting like children at other times.

In 6 1/2 years I've been party to many victories that PETA has a hand in..

• Bullfighting banned in Catalonia
• Seal fur imports into the EU
• Selfridges dropping foie gras (also getting wimbledon, lords cricket, RSC, many other organisations to refuse to stock it)
• Monkeys stopped from being transported from Europe to America for experimentation
• A lot more than my frazzled mind can think of now (there's a victories section on the UK site, if you care enough)

But, PETA will claim a victory out of something if they've sent a letter to someone, who's a target of another campaigning group, that's stopped doing X nasty things to animals.. So, not overly worthwhile these days, but they're good at spreading information wide.

What is the most overboard reaction to something trivial you have seen PETA partake in?

If you mean what was the most overboard reaction from PETA to something trivial:

Every.Single.Day we have a morning news meeting, each staff member reads a publication and sends news stories to the press guy, he then rounds up the stories and at 10am we discuss what we can jump on with PETA messaging. Just last week Cherie Blair drove sheep across London Bridge for some widows fund, that sparked a 15 minute conversation about what we should do to stop it.. meanwhile in factory farms...

If you mean what was the most overboard reaction from the public to something trivial that PETA did:

Sea Kittens I think - everyone who knows PETA knows how bat shit insane they are, but also at times quite clever - rebranding fish to sea kittens was never going to happen, but because it was such a batshit insane idea, people propogated the campaign all over the place, got heavy media coverage and did the job.. But people still thought PETA were serious..

I couldn't for the life of me find a good way to phrase that question. I've always wondered why PETA isn't more active in factory farming. It seems like an organization with that much media pull would make waves if it published a factual, yet interesting and stylized report on factory farm conditions (like Food, Inc.). Either the knowledge of bad farming practices would spread wider, or the industry heads would make an attempt to buy PETA off, (or use their politicians), creating even more frenzy.

Well the honest answer is, they like to have their fingers in too many (vegan) pies at once - so for factory farming, they'd rather say "go vegan" like it's going to end it just like that, whilst not using so many resources (limited in the UK with our small budget) and actually doing any work.

There's lots of big groups in the UK/Europe like CIWF who do a great job - very detailed work on the factory farming campaign, if it's not 'sexy' 'fun' 'pressworthy' then generally PETA won't touch it.

Do you think animals shouldn't be used in medical or biological research?

My opinion is that some of the usage of animals in science is unnecessary (undergraduate/high school dissection labs for instance), but it would be impossible to replace all animals in research. For example, it would be impossible to release any new drug without animal testing - even if you got around the legal requirements for safety testing, we don't know enough biology to say that a particular chemical is safe in humans, let alone that it works as a drug. Isn't an objection to the use of any animals inherently unethical?

Also a good question - I know that until non-animal methods fully replace animal testing, it's going to happen - and you'd better believe that if I need drugs that have been tested on animals, or my family, I'm going to take them to make me better..

I have an issue with the people that say "if you don't believe in animal testing, don't take drugs" because if you're ill, you're absolutely going to take your life as priority - and these drugs have been tested on whether you like it or not.

Do I think animals shouldn't be used? I think they shouldn't where there are alternatives available

how often do you crave meat?

I like the smell of bacon sandwiches, who doesn't? The smell is engineered perfectly to make you want it! It's been 11 years without though, it's not a big thing any more, at first it was outrage at the meat industry, now indifference I just don't have a part in it.

My house mate is an environMentalist, he supports direct action and crazy stunts. I think it hurts the cause more than anything because it passes off anyone who gives a fuck about the environment as a crazy, do you think some animal rights activists do the same?

Direct action is a very negative, yet sometimes very powerful tool - making companies fear for their safety will often bring about change. Sadly it also fuels the fire for ALL activists to be branded terrorists..

Animal rights activists are extreme sometimes, to the point where they will take on another animal rights person for wearing leather, or not doing something they think is important to do - PETA are quite good at making sure the message is seen as just crazy enough, we hate it when we have loud mouthed activists turn up to demonstrations shouting hate speech because it dilutes our own messaging..

Say I donate $100 to PETA right now. Where does my money go?

Some will go into fundraising to make more money, some to marketing to get attention, the majority actually goes on doing good things, there's a minimum spent on operations/admin

Was this serious?

Now their games are genius, because they create them in the US they can parody everything right down to the characters - in the UK we can't, it SUCKS..

So, when a new game is due out, they parody it, a few days before the genuine launches they release it, it's searchable, the games sites pick it up (they have contacts who they pitch it to) and the rest is done through people up in arms over a game!

They don't really care, by playing you enter your details and they market to you..

Do you support the actions of organizations like the Animal Liberation Front, or people like Rodney Coronado?

Me, no, PETA, not openly, but they won't condone them either

How much does upper management make there?

I know over here some PETA folks make a ton of money.

You'd be surprised - upper management don't make a lot of money in salary (looks better on paper), so they write books, and make their money that way

Do you guys really want to make owning dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, and other "regular" house pets illegal? Also, how does PETA feel about service animals for people with disabilities?

PETA's line on service animals is NOOOOO EVIL FUCKS My line, not so much!

And no, PETA doesn't want owning animals illegal - like I said above, 90% of staff have animals

Man, that is dumb (with regard to service animals.) A service dog lives a much more active and fulfilling life, and are usually just as well-loved, as a house pet.

Their stance is based on the "He/She's bred for a purpose"

I would assume the problem is that they're bred at all, right? Not that it's for a purpose, that seems silly. "Oh no, this dog will have a meaningful life."

Up until last week I would have said the same, yet they promote an animal (by dressing him up as a lion for an ad) that won the biggest entertainment show in the UK, who was bred very specifically for entertainment.. They're losing sight of their objectives

Thanks so much for posting this, OP (assuming you're still here). My ex was a supporter of Peta in the 80s/90s, as well as WWF, and others. She took in sick, stray, and homeless animals whenever and wherever it was necessary and I massively respect her for it.

I've also known some pretty militant animal rights proponents - if they weren't in the ALF I'd be surprised - and I respect a lot of what they stand for. You really only have to see one or two animal testing videos or farm animal welfare videos to get on board with much of what they espouse. Loving animals helps.

Personally, much of Peta makes me sad. Their behavior and tactics are just stupid and alienating. That said I don't always know where the truth lies in regard to them so I reserve judgment and continue to support much of their effort. However misguided Peta is I believe they deserve some respect and a little less knee-jerking. Not everyone can or will do exactly what you want and when and how you'd like it done.

Then again, it's up to every individual to decide their own values vs. BS threshold and to act accordingly. The problem as I see it is that too many people use Peta's inanity as a springboard to either do nothing at all or worse speak out against animal welfare because, you know, Peta.

Please don't do this, people. I'm far from an activist myself, but please try harder to understand the consequences of inaction in regards to animal welfare. Stand up for it whenever you can. Try to change minds. Speak up. Take anti-peta propaganda (or any propaganda) at face value until you actually know the truth. The end game for these propagandists is free reign to mistreat animals as well as people whenever necessary to line their own pockets.

And most importantly maybe, try to convince Peta to be less stupid. There is good to be had there, it just suffers from some stupendously bad decision-making and a lack of understanding of how actual humans perceive them.

Sorry for the rant. Went on longer than I'd intended.

TLDR: Peta is mostly dumb but not completely useless.

Wow, of all the comments here today, I value and connect with this the most..

I'm 100% serious when I say I've seen some very traumatising videos - people may choose to think they're staged but when you work in this business day in day out you can tell..

There is a lot of nasty shit that happens in this world, people can choose to believe or not believe, shit still happens and it's good that they make up their own mind, but bad when they think that AR groups are out to make this stuff up like it doesn't happen - trust - it does..

Your statement makes sense, but sadly it will fall on deaf ears, PETA will continue to do what the hell it pleases, though perhaps maybe there is a hope - I'd love to see that happen.. from experience it's like pissing in the wind, but it would be awesome if PETA turned from the c*** it is today into something that would make positive changes for animals without fucking up their core audiences.

Thank you for taking the time to make that comment and also making me rethink my "PETA are arseholes" mindset

What is the normal response of a PETA member when asked about the benefits we've gotten from animal testing? Would you at any time place the well being of an animal over that of a human? And how do you think an average PETA member would answer?

whoa that's a hard question - I was never media trained in the soundbytes the campaigners are taught to reel off to press, I'm in online and can take my time to respond..

Normal response: Antiquated, has halted medical progress Average PETA member: Antiquated, has halted medical progress

As a vegan, I have before joked about PETA being a secret representative of the Butcher's Union which secretly trolls the world trying to get people to hate vegetarians and vegans.

No question here. Glad you're leaving, good luck in new ventures.

If I wake up one day to this as front page news, I will not be surprised