PETA to Kids: Would You ‘Eat Your Dog’ For Thanksgiving?
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Credit: PETA
PETA, the animal rights organization that thrives on over-the-top controversial ad campaigns, is now inviting children to consider that eating a turkey on Thanksgiving is the same as dining on your dog.
The bizarre Thanksgiving ad, which was released Monday, features a Jack Russell terrier’s head photoshopped onto a turkey’s body and says, “KIDS: If you wouldn’t eat your dog, why eat a turkey? GO VEGAN.”
“Turkeys may not be as familiar to us as dogs or cats but they have the same ability to suffer and that’s something people inately understand, especially kids,” said PETA’s manager of campaigns Ashely Byrne. “There are a lot of kids out there who don’t want to see a dead bird as the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner.”
PETA plans to erect numerous billboards of this ad near public schools in major cities in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Florida, New Mexico, Utah and Tennessee, to “spark a dialogue between kids and their parents,” according to Byrne. However, PETA is still negotiating with local advertising companies in various cities.
The organization launched the campaign, Byrne said, to raise awareness that much like man’s best friend, turkeys are also animals that are sensitive to pain.
“It doesn’t make sense to call dogs our friends and turkeys our food,” Byrne said.
In addition to the billboards, PETA also suggests turkey substitutes for a traditional bird, including the soy-based Tofurkey, as well as other soy-based recipes on their website.
This isn’t the first time PETA has used the Thanksgiving holiday as a soap box for turkey cruelty.
In 2009, the organization released an ad called “Grace,” which featured a little girl leading her family in prayer over their Thanksgiving meal and then suddenly launching into a graphic description of how turkeys are slaughtered as her family shifts uncomfortably in their chairs.
PETA had hoped to air the spot during NBC’s broadcast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that year, but the network declined, saying the ad “does not meet NBC Universal standards.”
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I wonder how many kids will have to seek medical help for being dramatised after the see the commercial.
Posted by: Lizzie | November 15, 2011, 10:06 am 10:06 am
Even though I’m a vegan, I disagree with many of PETA’s “shock” tactics. However, in this instance, they are entirely correct in raising the question. There is not a lot of real difference, morally/ethically speaking, between eating any animal that isn’t a family pet and eating the family pet. But most folks prefer to keep their heads, and their kids’ heads, in the sand.
Posted by: nodrog | November 15, 2011, 10:11 am 10:11 am
You have every right to be a vegan, but I have the same right to be a carnivore. Peta wants everyone to be a vegan, sorry I don’t like tofu.
Posted by: Lizzie | November 15, 2011, 10:45 am 10:45 am
I am a Vegan and agree that children should decide for themselves if they want to eat meat or not however SOY is NOT a better alternative and PETA should not be encouraging kids to eat it. PETA needs to educate themselves on the dangers of soy especially in young children. I know first hand how harmful it is!
Posted by: Tess | November 15, 2011, 11:01 am 11:01 am
Everyone should have the freedom to eat what they choose. Peta wants to control everyone. They are constantly “in your face”. You don’t see meat eaters forcing them to change. Go away haters.
Posted by: Suki | November 15, 2011, 11:03 am 11:03 am
Dear PETA,
Please just GO AWAY ! You and your biases are NOT wanted !
Posted by: northrivers | November 15, 2011, 11:19 am 11:19 am
In some cultures eating dog is perfectly acceptable.
Posted by: snewsom2997 | November 15, 2011, 11:27 am 11:27 am
I’m a first-gen American Asian. Don’t show this ad to my dad because he would eat a dog.
Oh, and I’m allergic to soy – it messes with my thyroid. Does PETA manufacture any nut-based turkey? A nuturkey? If I could eat tofu 24/7 I would. I love tofu. I love soy-based products. But I can’t. So I’ll stick with chicken for Thanksgiving. MMM ROTISERRIE.
Posted by: omnivore | November 15, 2011, 11:58 am 11:58 am
PETA is stupid. They are trying to shove their philosophies and beliefs on us, the same way that religious nuts try to proselytize their religion on us. And we aren’t having either of them.
Posted by: Bo Edwards | November 15, 2011, 12:05 pm 12:05 pm
As the owner of a Jack Russell, I take offense to this ad. PETA needs to make their statements clear and understandable, not childish and tramatizing. I know there are horrible things being done to “pets” in this country and do my best to take care of all mine. PETA should be on an educational campaign to make sure kids know how to take care of pets – wether that be a Jack Russell, a pig, a bird, or whatever!
Posted by: Michele | November 15, 2011, 12:13 pm 12:13 pm
PETA is a radical, extreme, sickening excuse for people who loathe themselves and others to “defend” animals. It is not the animals that matter to them, so much. The animals are a platform to vent hatred toward the human race, which they despise. They spew the most repellant and venomous garbage, now even to children! We are a country of meat eaters. Well, let’s see…so are most countries in the world. PETA has no place in our decent and humane culture and country. There are deviants who harm animals – and the outcry is always deafening! If there is a cause to take up; why not the cause of abused children? Why not apply their energies and intellects to a truly worthwhile cause that will end up being effective?? PETA was the butt of a joke in the last episode of a TV show we watch. Need I say more? If their tactics fell on deaf ears and turned head – they would fold up and go away. Please, ignore PETA or protest if you see their ads. Just my 2 cents…Kris
Posted by: K. Malloy | November 15, 2011, 12:50 pm 12:50 pm
PETA is a radical, extreme, sickening excuse for people who loathe themselves and others to “defend” animals. It is not the animals that matter to them, so much. The animals are a platform to vent hatred toward the human race, which they despise. They spew the most repellant and venomous garbage, now even to children! We are a country of meat eaters. Well, let’s see…so are most countries in the world. PETA has no place in our decent and humane culture and country. There are deviants who harm animals – and the outcry is always deafening! If there is a cause to take up; why not the cause of abused children? Why not apply their energies and intellects to a truly worthwhile cause that will end up being effective?? PETA was the butt of a joke in the last episode of a TV show we watch. Need I say more? If their tactics fell on deaf ears and turned head – they would fold up and go away. Please, ignore PETA or protest if you see their ads. Just my 2 cents…:)
Posted by: Kris Malloy | November 15, 2011, 12:53 pm 12:53 pm
I think it horrible that Peta is targeting childred, as if they had any say what’s being served for Thanksgiving dinner. And sorry; yes, there is a big difference in eating a turkey and eating a dog, at least in our culture. I’m aware in some countries it’s quite acceptable to eat dog or cat or horse. That’s fine – called the food chain. Our animal companions have become family to us, so of course it’s disgusting to think of them on the dinner table, while the turkey is a unknown entity bought at the supermarket. Can we perhaps improve how chickens and turkeys are raised and handled before going to the slaughterhouse? Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up eating poultry (or any other animal). PETA needs to get over themselves and be more realistic. I don’t mind them advocating veganism (is that a word?), but scare tactics like this just show them for the extremists that they are.
Posted by: Carin Sweerman | November 15, 2011, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
I plan on eating Turkey and then giving my dog some as well! Then, I’m going to go to the circus and watch the elephants!
Posted by: Carol | November 15, 2011, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
I can’t believe how many people are so threatened that this organization is asking a simple question. Why is it so unthinkable to ask why we deem it okay to eat some animals but not others. Children tend to intuitively know that it’s not right. I am vegetarian and don’t love PETA’s campaigns usually and I also don’t eat soy (it certainly rivals meat in terms of being bad for your health). I don’t understand how PETA having this campaign up is any more in your children’s faces than the millions of ads for sugar, McDonald’s and other crap food they see every time they turn around. I see anything that helps people give up the Standard American Diet, which is killing you and your kids, as a beneficial message.
Posted by: Kate | November 15, 2011, 7:00 pm 7:00 pm
PETA is brilliant. Children still have compassion and can influence what their families eat. Children should learn while they are young to think about what they are eating and the impact of their choices. When I was young, my mother would often point to calves and say “Look at the baby hamburger”. It made me think about my food choices and I became a vegetarian at age 10. I’ve been a vegan for over 20 years now and am grateful that I figured it out as a child.
Posted by: Nancy | November 15, 2011, 8:24 pm 8:24 pm
PETA is stupid. Screw them.
Posted by: Vlad | November 15, 2011, 9:06 pm 9:06 pm
Wow
I would have to ask if they mean broiled or barbequed … but it’s a moot point … I no longer have a dog, and I’m not hungry …
Posted by: Pat | November 15, 2011, 11:17 pm 11:17 pm
This is Just Wrong, i was All for PETA until now. Turkey is healthy, if you want to target food, Target fast food chains which are getting KIDS fat n unhealthy !!
Posted by: Freddy | November 16, 2011, 11:33 am 11:33 am
Stop peta from killing animals. the SPFKA. I told my children while they grew up that peta was communist. Now I tell my grandchildren that they are evil and that they want to feast on people like in solent green. J/K God made animals to use as we saw fit. Or how about this truth the peta vice president uses animal tested insulin. But we shouldn’t? When will they learn. Stop killing animals. They play a very important spot in our earth. When peta stops taking money for themselves.
When peta finds 100% homes for all the animals I will give up my worldly goods. Mery Christmas.
Posted by: Marilyn | November 16, 2011, 3:06 pm 3:06 pm
PETA is the worst excuse for an animal rights group. Last year at their Virginia facility, they took in over 3000 pets that people turned over to them. They euthanized 93% of them. They kill animals over and over again. Why doesn’t ABC News report on that fact?
Posted by: Faye | November 16, 2011, 5:20 pm 5:20 pm
Oh my. I see a lot of people offended by this… why is that?
Posted by: Inês | November 18, 2011, 12:21 pm 12:21 pm
BS!!! People Eating Tasty Animals.PETA.
Posted by: Allen | November 18, 2011, 1:06 pm 1:06 pm
Hypocrites and a bunch of demonic monsters! They want us to preserve animals rights when they are killing them too, and then turn around and openly support the killing of babies (planned murderhood). Not surprising, seeing that a lot of them are a bunch of crybaby females who claim misogyny and hate men. They use nudity and other methods to shock people then we wonder why our kids are so screwed up! No Peta, I don’t support you and your stupid ideals. I’ll keep eating meat, thank you very much!
Posted by: Billy | November 20, 2011, 8:10 am 8:10 am
Peta is a bunch of terrorist supporting fanatics THEY SUCK!!!!!
Posted by: llovelace | November 20, 2011, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
The more I see this ad the angrier I get…first off PETA shouldn’t of targeted kids…2nd off what do u think of when you thin of Thanksgiving? TURKEY….TURKEY is just part of the Thanksgiving tradition
Posted by: Adrienne Owen | November 23, 2011, 11:29 pm 11:29 pm