The Trouble with PETA

Ingrid Newkirk wants to shock us into awareness of animal suffering by demanding in her will that her corpse be treated as if it were an animal’s.  This strategy, like so much of PETA’s strategy, is a bit misguided.  Take it away, Ken:

PETA’s public relations strategy depends upon the premise that if people knew how badly animals are treated behind closed doors so that we might eat well and wear leather and go to the circus and so on, we would rise up and become Cirque-du-Soleil-appreciating vegans in shitty plastic shoes. But PETA lacks a sense of proportion — it seems willfully indifferent to the fact that humanity already routinely shrugs off far worse suffering inflicted upon people.

Ken goes on to offer some sage advice for PETA to be more effective.