Pressespiegel:
Erneute PeTA-Steilvorlage für die Tierausbeuter

The Virginian-Pilot
© February 6, 2003

Every so often, I violate my own policy against giving PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- the publicity it desperately desires and doesn't deserve.
I do this whenever the Norfolk-based animal rights group does something so astonishing, it simply can't be ignored.

This is one of those times.

But our story doesn't begin in Norfolk. It begins in Israel.

On Jan. 26, a bomb exploded on the road between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion.

As terror attacks go, this one was minor. Most of us didn't hear about it because, with the exception of one bus passenger treated for shock, no one was injured.

Thank God.

Palestinian terrorists delivered the bomb to its destination by donkey. They strapped explosives and a remote device to the animal and detonated the bomb by cell phone as an Israeli bus passed by.

The donkey, of course, was killed.

You know where this is going, don't you?

That's right. PETA, the group that never before expressed concern about the carnage in Israel, is suddenly outraged.

All because a donkey died.

Never mind that, according to the Israeli embassy, which keeps track of such grim statistics, 729 Israelis have perished in terrorist attacks since September 2000.

It took the death of a donkey for PETA to find its voice.

Leave the animals out of it, they cry.

Determined to make Hampton Roads look like a breeding ground for wackos to the rest of the world, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk this week fired off a fax to Yasser Arafat.

She began the letter with a polite salutation: ``Your Excellency.''

I can think of lots of titles for Arafat. Excellency isn't among them.

But I digress.

``. . . We have received many calls and letters from people shocked at the bombing . . . in which a live donkey, laden with explosives, was intentionally blown up.

``All nations behave abominably in many ways when they are fighting their enemies, and animals are always caught in the crossfire. The U.S. Army abandoned thousands of loyal service dogs in Vietnam. (Odd. No mention of our dead soldiers, MIAs, POWs or even loyal South Vietnamese allies who were left behind, but again, I digress.)

``Al-Qaeda and the British government have both used animals in hideously cruel biological weaponry tests.''

Brace yourselves. It gets worse.

``We watched on television as stray cats in your own compound fled as best they could from Israeli bulldozers''

Fleeing cats! PETA confronts the horror of war.

``Animals claim no nation. They are in perpetual involuntary servitude to all humankind, and, although they pose no threat and own no weapons, human beings always win the undeclared war against them. . . .

``If you have the opportunity,'' Newkirk beseeched Arafat, ``will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of this conflict?'' In other words, Newkirk seems to be begging the Palestinians not to stop the slaughter, but rather to find a different delivery system for their bombs.

Appalling.

Perhaps Ms. Newkirk would prefer that the Palestinians used suicide bombers instead of burros. Oh, that's right, they usually do.

Lisa Lange, PETA's vice president of communications, told me yesterday that Newkirk's letter was written after their offices had been bombarded with calls from PETA members who had learned of the donkey bomb.

Lange said it's PETA's philosophy that human cruelty often begins with animal cruelty.

The Washington Post this week asked Ms. Newkirk if she had ``considered asking Arafat to persuade those who listen to him to stop blowing up people as well'' as animals.

Her response should be required reading for all would-be members of PETA:

``It's not my business to inject myself into human wars,'' Newkirk told the Post.

How does one respond to such moral ambiguity?


How about a body count of human bodies?

In January 2003 -- the month in which the donkey died -- 21 Israelis and eight foreign nationals were killed by terrorists in Israel, and 127 others were injured.

Yet PETA weeps for the ass.

Radio talk show host Tony Macrini got it right when he remarked recently that ``PETA'' was an acronym for ``People Embarrassing the Tidewater Area.''

One can only hope that Newkirk left off her Norfolk return address on that asinine letter to Arafat.

Reach Kerry at 446-2306 or at kerry.dougherty@att.net

http://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/op0206dou.html

February 21, 2003 - Los Angeles Daily News -

For decades I have looked on as animal-rights activists crusaded against veal, against rigid confinement for poultry and against medical research conducted on myriad living things that don't happen to be human.

I have watched them splatter paint on mink-wearing matrons.

And I have seen these passionate souls chain themselves to department store entryways in hopes of saving sables and seals and chinchillas everywhere.

But today it is too much. Today, in wartime, the whale-lovers and chimp-saviors have crossed over into the territory of blatant bad taste.

It started with a letter from Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, to Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Authority chairman (always photographed in olive drab sans even fur collar).

Simply put, Newkirk's note called attention to a Jerusalem terror bombing last month in which explosives were concealed on a donkey. Some Palestinian thug hit a detonator, charges went off and the donkey was blown to pieces. There were no human casualties.

'We have received many calls and letters from people shocked at the bombing,' PETA's leader wrote Arafat. 'If you have the opportunity, will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of the conflict?'

Obviously, for the price of the same stamp, Newkirk could also have asked Arafat to use his influence to leave humans 'out of the conflict.' But, no, the subject was donkeys - and even PLO cats left in Arafat's compound to dodge Israeli bulldozers.

All this to save four-legged noncombatants when so-called Palestinian martyrs - teenagers and young adults who pack their bodies with dynamite - are the real animals of the Middle East.

Truly, Newkirk's letter throws mud on the graves of so many innocent Israeli parents and children whose lives were taken by bloodthirsty fanatics. Further, PETA's moralizer-in-chief pelted decency in the face when asked to persuade Arafat to help stop the bombing of civilians.

'It's not my business,' Newkirk was quoted as saying, 'to inject myself into human wars.'

So that's it. Her brief on behalf of suffering and death stops with donkeys. Or cats. Maybe camels slain by stray shrapnel. No satirist - not Mort Sahl or Bill Maher or Richard Pryor - could come close to such callous conceit. It is tantamount to a contractors association bemoaning the wreckage of buildings and ignoring the bodies inside.

There is, however, more. Call it adding insult to injury or horrible judgment. When it comes to war, some in our animal-rights crowd just can't stop themselves. They see unjustified threats to creatures protecting U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf. They see the Pentagon placing sea lions in potentially fatal jeopardy.

The animals in question are trained to protect warships from enemy divers, frogmen who would place explosives on hulls. The sea lions swim silently and swiftly. They restrain enemies and deploy warning markers. We are lucky to have them.

A PETA official would like them cashiered from the service.

'What we have a problem with is anyone intentionally putting these animals in harm's way and knowing they could suffer and possibly die in the process,' said Stephanie Boyles, a PETA wildlife biologist.

In truth, what Boyles may have a problem with is the price of saving American servicemen from burning to death. Or being maimed. Or watching helplessly as shipmates are blown overboard.

Regrettably, this isn't a story about humane methods of catching tuna. Or whether calves should be free to roam green pastures. I wish it were. It is a story about what happens when otherwise intelligent, compassionate people make terrible decisions about what really matters in an uncertain and dangerous world.

The case for chinchillas is a lot easier to make.

(C) 2003 Los Angeles Daily News.

By KEN MORAN

February 16, 2003 -- JUST when you thought you heard it all, the animal rights folks keep coming up with something even more bizarre.
A recent story in the Jewish World Review printed a fax from Ingrid Newkirk, the head of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), that was sent to Yasser Arafat about the use of a donkey to deliver an explosive device that killed the donkey somewhere in Israel.

"If you have the opportunity," Newkirk faxed to Arafat, "will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of this conflict?"

In other words, Newkirk seems to be begging Palestinians not to stop the slaughter, but rather to find a different delivery system for their bombs, reported Kerry Dougherty for the Review.

According to Dougherty, PETA, the group that never before expressed concern about the carnage in Israel, suddenly is outraged. Never mind that, according to the Israeli embassy, which keeps track of such grim statistics, 729 Israelis have perished in terrorist attacks since September 2000.

It took the death of a donkey for PETA to find its voice.

The Washington Post asked Ms. Newkirk if she had "considered asking Arafat to persuade those who listen to him to stop blowing up people as well" as animals.

Her response should be required reading for all would-be members of PETA: "It's not my business to inject myself into human wars," Newkirk told The Post.

How can anyone in their right mind even listen to what people like this have to say, let alone join their organizations?

http://www.nypost.com/sports/outdoors/69182.htm

Birmingham News

Outdoors Columnist Mike Bolton

02/16/03

Ispend many hours each year investigating tips sent in by readers. I frequently go in search of possible state record bass or deer. I check into reports of people who believe they have caught piranha and inventors who are sure they have a gadget that will revolutionize hunting or fishing.

While tips about state record bass, state record deer and piranha rarely pan out, weird tips such as people who have a deer that lives in their house and coon dogs that can climb a tree do turn out to be the real thing.

I had one of those odd tips from a reader this past week that seemed too unbelievable. Amazingly, it was true.

On Jan. 26, members of the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, the violent branch of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party, placed a donkey beside the road between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion. The donkey was outfitted with saddlebags laden with explosives. When an Israeli bus passed, the bomb was detonated with a cell phone. Fortunately, no one on the bus was killed. The only fatality was the donkey.

That wasn't fortunate at all, say the animal rights wackos known as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Angry members contacted the headquarters and demanded action. In response, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk fired off a letter to Arafat demanding that animals not be used in terrorist attacks.

Stop and think about that for a second.

Since 2000, 729 Israelis have died in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks, the Israeli embassy says. It took a dead donkey for some Americans to become concerned enough to take action.

Here is a portion of PETA's letter, which begins with the salutation, "Your Excellency."

"We have received many calls and letters from people shocked at the bombing in which a live donkey, laden with explosives, was intentionally blown up.

"All nations behave abominably in many ways when they are fighting their enemies, and animals are always caught in the crossfire. The U.S. Army abandoned thousands of loyal service dogs in Vietnam." (Seems like I remember many young Americans dying there, too.)

"Al-Qaeda and the British government have both used animals in hideously cruel biological weaponry tests.

"If you have the opportunity, will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of this conflict?"

Newkirk was interviewed by The Washington Post this past week and she was proud of her actions. A Post reporter asked if she had considered asking Arafat to help put a stop to the practice of blowing up human beings. Her response was priceless.

"It's not my business to inject myself into human wars," Newkirk said.

More than 720 people, many of whom were teenagers and kids, have died in these senseless acts of terrorism in just a little more than two years. PETA members are more concerned over the death of a single ass.

I suppose it is human nature to be more concerned about your own kind.

Der Spiegel 8/2003, Seite 52 schreibt dazu:

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Tierschutz: Armer Esel

Das Fax war adressiert an Jassir Arafat, es ging nach Ramallah (West Bank). Es begann mit "Exzellenz", und es erzählte von einem armen Esel, den militante Palästinenser Ende Januar in der Nähe von Bethlehem mit Sprengstoff beladen und in die Luft gesprengt hatten, als ein israelischer Bus vorbeifuhr. Das Fax endete mit einem Appell: "Tiere haben keine Nationalität. Für sie gilt keine Genfer Konvention und kein Friedensabkommen. Würden Sie bitte dazu aufrufen, die Tiere aus diesem Konflikt rauszuhalten?" Unterzeichner: "Mit Friedenswünschen, Ihre Peta". Die Tierschutzorganisation ("People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"), die einst mit nackten Supermodels Pelzträger anklagte, erklärt ihren Vorstoß so: Der Esel sei als "unfreiwilliger Selbstmordattentäter missbraucht worden, keiner hatte ihn gefragt", sagt Jürgen Faulmann von Peta-Deutschland. Und: "An Arafat wird immer dann appelliert, wenn Menschen zu Schaden kommen, für Tiere wird er nicht verantwortlich gemacht." Bei dem Attentat war lediglich der Esel gestorben, der Bus hatte rechtzeitig gebremst. Den Protestbrief hätte Peta nach Faulmanns Worten aber sogar dann abgeschickt, wenn auch Menschen zu Schaden gekommen wären.
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