Criminal #33 PETA "...Seawhatnow?"

So, PETA has always been a sort of hit and miss situation with me. I've always been against animal testing (except, as stated in my Covergirl post, where it might be medically relevant. *Note, 'medically' and not 'cosmetically') but to me, PETA just takes it to extremes.

Just a quick point here, if this should ever become well known and someone goes on some PETA database somewhere and says "Hey, Kathleen! Your name is on it!" Yes, yes it is. You know why? Because they were giving away free stickers and I wanted some goddamned mail.

Antifur? Okay, yes, in a day and age where the fake thing is so readily available and, let's face it, probably no worse than the real thing. Leather? Meh, personally I'm not into it, but others are, and that's cool. Plenty of cultures are based off of the harmony between man and animal. Being Canadian, I grew up learning all about the Native American traditions, the sort of respect they held for the environment and the animals they hunted. In my own opinion that's good, that's the circle of life, big deal!

I could even put up with "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" campaign that seemed to show up in every magazine I bothered to glance through. Then, once more, good ol' AdFreak brought something to my attention:

I'm sorry, what? Kittens of the Sea? Have you ever even seen a kitten? Or a fish for that matter? I might be mistaken but I'm pretty sure there are a few differences between them, one being a fish is a freaking fish, dude! Kittens are mammals. MAMMALS.

Kittens of the Sea, dear god! There is one thing to be said about posting provocative ads that will allow a person to form their own educated guess. There's something else to be said about calling fish freaking kittens of the goddamned sea, evoking an image of, I don't know what, some kind of cutesie furry fish with pointy ears and whiskers.

And you know why they did it? Because kids eat that shit up. Kids are impressionable. Kids think fish are cute. Kids think kittens are cute (alternate ideas for the campaign were puppies of the river and ponies of the pond). Kids will see ads like that, with it's tastefully minimalistic amount of words and think "I can't eat a kitten! I can't eat a fishy!" Next thing you know mom is sending thousands of unused tins of tuna to the foodbank because the children won't eat it.

No, what PETA has done here is manipulative beyond words. Aiming for impressionable children is morally reprehensible as far as I'm concerned. Let a child make an educated choice when they are older, when they can understand the consequences of having meat-free diets, when they realize they'll be taking supplements for the rest of their lives and eating what can only be described as a crap-load of legumes. Children won't understand those consequences. They aren't wired to 'get it'.

Now the following, despite their sexual nature, are still better representations of PETA's anti-animal-demise message:

The irony in this being that Paris Hilton would go naked for a quarter inch of a Klondike Bar.