PETA Fights against Farms



PETA Fights against Farms

Introduction

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), based in Norfolk, Virginia, were founded as a nonprofit organization in 1980 by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco for waging a campaign for the total elimination of animal “exploitation” worldwide. By its twenty-fifth year PETA was boasting 1.6 million members and operating on an annual budget of $29 million. The group views any use of animals for consumer products, medical and scientific needs, and entertainment as a selfish manipulation of the animal kingdom by human beings (Guillermo, 1993). PETA's core philosophy calls for the elimination of human-centered thinking, and the group considers any measures to meet those ends valid. It also opposes the use of helper animals, such as Seeing Eye dogs and helper monkeys, as “speciesist” representations of a human-centric worldview. PETA promotes the health benefits of a vegan diet, offers free speakers and educational programming, funds other educational organizations, stages boycotts and protest campaigns, and accepts animals from those unable to care for them as an alternative to Humane Society shelters (Phelps, 2007).

History

After PETA was founded in 1980, the organization acquired a year later in the course of the affair of the Silver Spring monkeys' public attention. Alex Pacheco, the one next to Ingrid Newkirk, the co-founders, covert investigations conducted at the Laboratory of Primate Research at the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring in Maryland. Edward Traub, lead researcher, examined the feedback of severed nerves in the limbs of 17 monkeys in order to then electric shocks applied to thus creating physical constraints of the intact limb. Pacheco visited at night, the Institute and took photos, which showed that the monkeys to the ILAR Journal of the Institute for Animal Research, according to the "disgusting conditions" lived. In his evidence, he turned to the police; the lab then carried out a raid and arrested Traub (Phelps, 2007).

Traub was later convicted of six counts of animal cruelty, which was the first conviction of a researcher in the United States. The judgment was set aside later. This case, to prepare it lasted ten years, led in 1985 to adopt a law on animal protection and was the first case of animal experiments, in which before the Supreme Court of the United States discussed was that the request by PETA refused to accept the liability for some of these monkeys. Instead, the monkeys remained in the National Institutes of Health, which funded research had Traub. The case defined as PETA activist group that uses undercover investigation, the judiciary and the media to express their views (Roleff & Hurley, 1999).

Overview

PETA spends 40 percent of its income on advertising and promotion, inspiring both critical acclaim and derision with its message. Its headline-grabbing multimedia campaigns are targeted at all ages and have been supported by celebrities such as Paul McCartney, Dick Gregory, Al Sharpton, and Cornel West. One effort compared the treatment of livestock on farms to the abuse of American slaves and concentration camp ...