Chicken Slaughter in School?
My "vegan is murder" piece stimulated a lot of interest. One correspondent alerted me to a controversy in Canandaigua, N.Y. Apparently, the Canandaigua Academy's “chicken project” has, in the past, had a class of students each year raising chickens and then slaughtering them for a meal, the idea being to see where food comes from. Needless to say, PETA went ballistic and pressured the academy to cancel the project. From the story:
Lindsay Rajt, manager of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said Friday that Erdle sent an e-mail to the organization saying that school officials "recognize the concern" and had discontinued the project, which had been part of a high school ecology class for the past three years. "In no way were we trying to create a controversy," wrote Erdle in the e-mail provided by PETA. "This is a project adopted from a 4-H project that we have done for years."Needless to say, PETA had not accurately reported what was really going on when it sought to ignite the wrath of the animal rights world down onto the school:
Animal-rights activists from across the country, including PETA members, lobbied school leaders to end the project. School district spokesman Andy Thomas said the district has received as many as 50 letters from activists. "I think Lynne's feeling is, 'Enough is enough,'" Thomas said. "We think it's a great class, but sometimes a controversy makes it not worth it to pound on through."But that's what PETA does; demagogue and pander for publicity.
Thomas added, "Their opposition to the program, to me, is somewhat shortsighted--there’s a chance that some of the kids that go through this program will consider vegetarianism much more seriously."
Thomas expressed frustrations with how the program--aimed at giving students a close-look at the true cost of today's diet--has been portrayed by PETA and another group, United Poultry Concerns. In announcing the school's decision, PETA issued a press release Friday that said, "School Had Been Holding Mass Decapitations of Birds in Classroom."
Given that this is an elective class, my main concern would be to ensure that the chickens were slaughtered humanely. That is not a job for amateurs. But I think the school should be given points for breaking free from the usual stifling political correctness so often seen in schools today about animals.
My correspondent, who lives in the area, tells me the deal is not yet done. The program was suspended pending review, not finally terminated. "Many people reacted bitterly to this 'cave in,'" he reports. "The animal rights people called this a victory, but now it looks like the program may be reinstated."
If I find out more, I will let you all know.
Labels: Education about Animals. PETA.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:13 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
I don't understand why people have to cave in to PETA's demands. Do they actually have that much of a hold on the world?
By the way, I find it amusing how PETA creates videos like 'Meet Your Meat' under the belief that people might become vegetarians/vegans if they actually saw what happens to the animal before it ends up on a plate. I guess this PETA organization needs to stop being hypocrites.
Maybe PETA should show videos of their employees picking up animals from shelters, euthanizing them, and throwing the bodies in trash bins.
I'm not a Ted Nugent fan, but I saw his "reality" show once and he had a bunch of college-age kids kill and clean and butcher their own chickens. Several of them immediately swore off meat. Until they got hungry.
So, kudos to Ted for the reality check, and kudos to the kids for sucking it up and joining reality.
I think the class WILL turn some of its students into vegetarians. If each person had to slaughter animals for his/her meat, there would be fewer meat-eaters. Not none, of course, because many people do kill for food. But the numbers would be different.
Bmmg:Perhaps. But only because most of us are sheltered from the reality of animal slaughter. If we were exposed to it on an ongoing basis, I think that would not be true.
But if you are right, PETA should support the class--again assuming the chickens are cared for properly during the school year and slaughtered according to properly humane standards.
It may be that PETA knows full well that this will cause some students to be vegetarians in later life.
But to them (thinking that birds are people too), this is like being asked to allow the death of an innocent man in order to save more lives down the track (for instance, letting a doctor kill somebody on the street to take his organs to give five life-saving transplants). It's still something that most people would not allow. PETA may be deluding themselves about the status of animals, but they are not necessarily short-sighted about the class.
Maybe PETA should show videos of their employees picking up animals from shelters, euthanizing them, and throwing the bodies in trash bins.
Yes PETA the viscous animal killers, taking the animals that no one will take and putting them down instead of letting them rot in cages for the remainder of their existence.
If your so high on your moral horse then how are you one of those people who fails to realize that euthanising animals is a need, based on the fact the pet population has outgrown the human demand. How many shelter animals do you keep?
You're disingenuous portrayal of PETA euthanasia practice is good for a laugh, and shows how far off base you are.
Then again you never did have a logical response to the fact that it takes 10 times as much feed from crops to fatten up a cow therefore killing 10 times as many field animals than eating the vegetables themselves.
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