Over the last few weeks, we’ve had several items about PETA spokesbabes calling for kindness to animals and then strutting around with various items made from animal hide. There was Leona Lewis, PETA’s “Sexiest Vegetarian,” and her leather handbag; Jenna Jameson, who wants you to avoid eating chicken legs, showing off her own chicken legs in a pair of leather heels; and anti-fur activist Pamela Anderson auctioning off her Dodge Viper to raise money for PETA, apparently forgetting that the seats are made of… well, take a wild guess.
A familiar refrain has arisen among some of our fine commenters: “Um, haven’t you guys ever heard of pleather?” Well, how about this one, smarties?
(Image courtesy of the Purse Page)
The freakin’ suitcase she’s lugging around there is actually something called a Hermès HAC purse, which is made in France and costs about 10 grand. It’s roomy enough to keep a month’s supply of Botox on hand at all times, it wipes clean with a damp cloth (in case Tommy or whoever gets any… stuff on it), and it is absolutely, positively, 100% leather.
These intellectual giants tell us that fur is bad and having a nice steak or some chicken wings once in a while is the worst thing anybody could ever do, but for some reason they think leather is okay. Why is that?
The hypocrisy never ends, does it?
Why urge people to waste the rest of the animal by not eating it when you are carrying around its hide, or wearing it? Seems pretty stupid to me.
Relax. The rich and famous and celebutards have their own exclusive “Leather Offset” program.
For every skin job donated by a cow, said ‘tards pay for another bovine to be artificially inseminated in some third world s*** hole.
Though Tommy Lee liked to play a hands on role in that process — if ya catch ma drift!
I think I will start a Leather Offset company if Al Gore hasn’t already secured all the right.
If you really want to understand the hypocrisy, check this website:
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
I know dick-all about fashion, but those boots look awfully suede-y to me. Any shoe enthusiasts out there care to chime in?
Maybe they are pleather boots! The same kind of skank wear worn by and accessorizing Jenna Jameson.
Pleather? Again, rich international celebrities wearing knock offs in public? Puh-leeeeeezzze.
The boots are not leather the purse is(Pam Anderson Photo)Kurt Vile
PETA must be out of spokeswhores.
AMEN christina x!
Not to defend this particular disgusting spokeswhore in any way, but there IS a big difference between fur and leather.
Fur animals are killed (often very painfully, such as by anal electrocution, so as to avoid harming their beautiful pelts in any way) only for their skin. But people actually eat the damned cows, and incidentally there is a widespread move towards more humane (read: fast, less painful) methods of execution for meat animals.
I don’t see it as hypocritical for someone to object to killing animals purely for vanity and decoration, and yet be willing to wear the skins of animals which are *already* being killed for food. Of course there are plenty of vegans who are unwilling to do so. Certainly can’t accuse them of being hypocrites, though perhaps they are being wastefully extreme. Might as well do something with the cowhide.
Refusing to wear fur for moral reasons is not hypocritical even for carnivores. By choosing to eat dead animals, they’re not contributing to the mistreatment and torture of animals whose other parts are simply thrown away. By wearing leather, they make a more efficient use of the animal “resource”.
Now, if a “lady” who chooses to wear a stole (or anyone, for that matter) is actually willing to eat Minkburgers for months on end, I’ll be really really impressed.
I ate Minkburgers for months on end once. My abs were ripped.
But Grisu,PETA abhors the use of leather as clothing.
If you’re going to talk the PETA talk, you need to walk the walk.
And that means giving up the Hermes leather bags.
Your point is well taken Grisu, but as flirt says, with PETA, leather is unacceptable. In fact, any animal products, even if they save human lives, are unacceptable (unless you are their cult leader, Ingrid Whatsherface who is insulin dependent despite the animal products necessary to produce it). PETA goes beyond what the normal person can reconcile in their lives, like eating meat and not wearing fur. So, if they have a spokesperson walking around with a leather bag, then it is absolutely hypocritical.
I realize that many of you who say “better to use the hide than let it go to waste” mean well, but the reality is a little more complicated. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau from compassionatecooks.com has an excellent recent podcast on the subject, for those of you who want to know more about it. A summary of the episode “Leather: Not an Innocent By-Product” is below, and you can find the podcast on this page:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/VegetarianFoodForThought
Summary: When confronted by the ethical considerations of leather, many people exclaim that it is a mere by-product of the meat industry and is thus absolved of culpability. The truth is quite different. Far from the altruistic industry this perception implies, the leather industry is inherently linked with the meat industry, providing the latter with much-needed profits and incentive to survive. In addition to the abuse that takes place in the slaughter industry, the leather industry is also responsible for the suffering and death of animals targeted specifically for their skins. Add to that the huge amount of energy and toxins necessary to turn once-living skins into preserved hides, and you’ve got an industry that doesn’t come out looking good after all.
So yes, I agree with those of you who say you cannot be a PETA supporter and parade around with leather bags, no matter how rich or famous you are.
Oh, and Mr. Sleepyhead, consider your source, please. The “Peta Kills Animals” website is maintained by the Center for Consumer Freedom, the same people who think there is no obesity problem in this country, who think smoking in restaurants and drunk driving is best left up to the individual, who aren’t so sure that high mercury levels in fish are really all that problematic, etc. You get the idea. At least swearing off leather doesn’t endanger anyone’s health, which is more than we can say for the agenda this group pushes.
Let’s also not forget, Chronic, that PETA also does not want blind people to use guide dogs. Better I guess that they use white canes and fall into traffic.
True, flirt, because human life means nothing to the PETA activist. Neither do dogs given how many they kill a year.
An, the statistics provided on petakillsanimals.com are verified by PETA. They are public record. Check up on it. It’s all there. PETA does kill animals and disposes of them in unsanitary ways.
I agree An, you have to consider the source. So are you saying the peta kills animals site is false? Because if it isn’t then what difference does it make who’s saying it? You can’t dismiss everything they say just cuz you don’t like some of what they say.
An, just because it’s from the CCF, doesn’t mean it’s not true. How exactly is reproducing certified court documents on their site, and documenting PETA’s BS misleading? The most damning evidence against them is straight out of the court case, where they ADMITTED what they did.
And stop being dramatic, the CCF is exactly what people should have been expecting for a long time. So, it’s alright for people to just put out junk science and slander corporations, including ‘physicians groups’ made up of less than 5% actual doctors, but it’s not alright for corporations to fund their own groups to fire back? For crying out loud, what do you think PETA is!? It’s an advocacy group, just like the Center for Consumer Freedom. What, they’re somehow more holy because they claim to be helping animals?
What about their b.s. propaganda about puss in milk? Or handing out cards to children showing mothers with blood all over them holding dead rabbits claiming ‘Your Mommy Kills Animals’. Or all the junk science out there claiming that vegetarian diets are healthier for you, even when nearly every qualified physician and nutritionist will tell you that a varied diet including meat is the most healthy? That’s more of a danger than advocating a person’s right to smoke in a bar or restaurant, or ::gasp:: let the owner choose?
See, I divide every solution into two camps: the fascist camp, and the free market camp. Free market says you let people choose, and it will work itself out. Fascist camp steps in and ruins it for everyone because it believes you’re too stupid to make up your own mind. See, a free market solution would have been to say ‘if smoking really is this bad, then people will want to go to non-smoking restaurants. But people who want to smoke can still go to smoking establishments.’ Instead, you get the fascist b.s. answer: ‘hey, smoking is a perfectly legal behavior that we make a fortune taxing, but we’re going to act like we hate it by making smokers a pariah that have to stand outside in the snow despite the fact that after 50 years, no one has ever proven occasional exposure causes cancer, or forced anyone to go into a restaurant where people were smoking at the point of a gun.’
America: the land where personal responsibility went to die.
For the person that said leather comes from dead animals is wrong. That is NOT always the case!
And Pam Anderson is a joke. She is a has been who is doing whatever it takes to stay in the limelight. She doesn’t care about animals - just good press or any kind of press!
And PETA is just sad! There are other more deserving animal protection groups out there who are over shadowed by PETA!
Yeah!
Wait. What?
Thank you, Scott, for that enlightening essay about fascism vs. free market solutions. I did not call the site misleading, I merely asked Mr. Sleepyhead to consider his source. CCF has just as much an agenda as PETA does (and similar tactics to get their point across, from what I can tell, some facts, some not so much, a lot of hyperbole), so to use one of these organizations’ statements to attack the other seems a bit, well, hypocritical to me.
I am a vegan and dislike Peta for the reason that they use hypocrites to spread their message. Of course people aren’t going to take them seriously and listen if they do that. Humane Society of the US is a much better organization. As far as the Peta kills animals site, I think they kill that many just because they take so many in. Is it better to let the stray animals live outside and starve to death, possibly be killed by an owner that wants them no more(shot, drowned, beaten), or be euthanized? I don’t have that answer but I think they think its best to euthanize them given the other options. Also people should realize how many dogs and cats that are put in shelters all around the country (not just Peta’s) get killed.
Scott F. I completely agree. Just had to say that your post is right on the money.
Kelly, PETA’s shelters had a 90% kill rate - while ASPCA has a 70% adoption rate. More than half of the animals euthanized by them have to be due to health issues. The ASPCA’s budget is less than 1/3rd that of PETA’s, and yet they save the vast majority of their animals and adopt them out. That’s my whole point. It’s not that I’m not for animal welfare, but supporting PETA is ridiculous when there are so many more moderate organizations out there that frankly, are doing far more for animals.
Um. HSUS is not a better organization than PETA; in fact, they have much the same goals and are one of PETA’s major financial supporters. HSUS operates no shelters. They took money to rehabilitate Michael Vick’s poor dogs while testifying in court that all the dogs be euthanized.
And here’s another irony: PETA is reportedly giving Michael Vick lessons in responsible dog ownership while he’s in prison (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3046273). Guess they’re teaching him how to kill his dogs humanely???
PETA would rather kill an animal than have them become a companion animal anyway. That they operate shelters at all is mind boggling, and given their kill rate, it is easy to see their agenda. Kill the animals to “save them” from people that might degrade them by making them play fetch. Honestly, I don’t think those whack jobs should be allowed anywhere near an animal.
“Pleather” huh? So, even if Pam’s ugly purse IS fake, she’d rather use non-renewable and non-biodegradeable petrochemicals for her crappy accessories than replaceable, replaceable cows?
Then again, silicone ain’t renewable, either.
I do not agree with everything the CCF says, but they’re right about some things. Yes, the so-called obesity epidemic IS a scam. “Ideal” body mass is unattainable for people of certain genetic makeups. The “epidemic” was created by the diet, fashion and cosmetic surgery industries to make us hate our bodies more, and it’s not new, look at ads from the 1900s and 1920s and you’ll see miracle diet products sold there, too. All that’s new is the language in which it’s framed. We are preoccupied with health vs. illness nowadays, so they pathologize our body type to make us want to change it.
There are a lot of fat people, and there is definitely a link between poverty and fatness. But it’s absolutely wrong to blame consumers for making bad food choices when the food industry makes smart choices so difficult. Lousy nutrition among the poor is the fault of grocery stores who refuse to put locations in poor neighborhoods because the profit margin would be too low, and it is the fault of fast-food outlets for targeting minorities in their ad campaigns and charging twice as much for a salad as for a burger. There’s a lot more at work here than “people are fat because they eat too much and are lazy”.
And yes, the CCF is right - factually - about PeTA. The stats about PeTA’s kill record were public knowledge way before the PeTA Kills Animals site was around. They aren’t ashamed of their behavior, they think they are doing the right thing, so they have never made any attempts to hide the bloody truth. Nor do they operate shelters of any kind, or claim to operate shelters. Animals unlucky enough to be rounded up by PeTA operatives are typically killed, using illegally obtained barbituates administered by unlicensed practitioners, before the deathmobile even leaves the scene.
I dont like PETA, but I dont like THIS site or THAT http://www.petakillsanimals.com/ site either. Why the need to make a blog, a site, about what can be said in passing? It raises some questions.
Boycott this s***.
I’m just guessing, but I think people put up websites like Peta Kills Animals because if you just told someone in passing that “PETA kills animals” there’s no way in hell they’d believe you. It’s just too counter-intuitive — like saying Al Gore is destroying the planet. Or Rush Limbaugh was a pill-popper. Without some sort of documentation or proof, people just think you belong in the tinfoil hat brigade.
Oversneer, even when you hand them all the proof they need, they still don’t believe it half the time, or say something as mind bogglingly strange as ano did.
HEY! Leave us tinfoil hat people out of this! Crap now they’ll know where I am! Thank you very much. Who could be knocking on my door now? “Ron Paul? I thought you were- GAAAHHHH!”
*door slams shut*
Not to get off track here, but CM mentioned earlier that insulin requires animal product to be produced. Actually, the most commonly dispensed insulins are those of the recombinant DNA technology type (i.e. Novolin/Novolog, Humulin/Humalog). These were developed because bovine and/or porcine derived medication produced anaphylactic reactions in some patients. Also, less side effects were associated with the newer insulins… Not to mention, they were good for religious folk who can’t use porcine (Muslims/Jews) or bovine (Hindus?) products in any way, shape or form. In fact, the animal-derived insulins are pretty much obsolete (err… I could be wrong about this). Not sure if this was refuted in previous posts. Also, I used to think along the same lines of Grisu, but An opened my eyes. That’s why I like this site; I actually learn something new, and the audience is definitely a heck of a lot more sophistamicated than your average Perez Hilton (where I learned about this site…gasp!) reader.
And then I read NYB’s comments on the Paris Hilton post and stand corrected.
Well…. they can’t ALL be winners.
And regarding your insulin comment — you’re right on. But even Novolin and Humulin had to go through animal-tox studies before getting FDA approval. The PETA-types would like to ignore that, but it’s still a fact of life.
And animal-derived insulins are still dispensed widely, but they’re certainly on the way out.
To the individual who posted that maybe PETA kills animals because they are sick or overpopulated, the same argument can be made for hunting and trapping of animals in the wild. when left on their own, many wild animal populations often expand to unsafe levels, which results in disease and suffering, not to mention more of them being run over on highways. Hunters and trappers (yes, fur trappers) do more for animal control than what most of these urban-dwelling PETA kids understand. Further, the hypocrisy in Hollywood is absurd. I’ve seen Hollywood starlets who pubicly decry the wearing of fur, but have no problem running around in Gucci alligator skin or lizard skin or snakeskin loafers, bags, belts, etc. What, only cute furry animals have rights? It’s alright to use reptile skins for luxury products but it’s wrong to use rodents to make coats to keep people warm? Even more, how many of these people are adamantly pro-choice, which adds to the hypocrisy. These boneheads get upset over someone wearing a rodent-pelt but think it’s perfectly fine to suck the brain out of an unborn infant. And, if a woman has a right to do whatever she wants with her body, then why doesn’t she have the right to wear fur or leather or eat meat? I won’t wait for an answer that makes sense; there isn’t one. And, finally, no leather does not always come as a by-product of the meat industry. One of the most popular leathers on the market is kidskin (used extensively in women’s shoes in particular), which comes from young goats. How many people in this country have eaten a goat-burger in the last year? I hazard to guess there are not a lot of people in most of the western world who eat goat; yet, they wear their skins unknowingly on a daily basis. Stop buying PETA’s one-sided arguments, which have been proven to be fraudulent in a court of law. Learn all sides of an issue before issuing blanket proclamations which are rooted in nothing more than pure emotional drivel wrapped around a socialist, anti-capitalist left wing agenda.
Er… Um… Emotional drivel? Isn’t that what the religious right, pro-life agenda is? Big government is bad! Except for when they should tell homos not to marry and force schools to provide abstinence only education but then also deny pregnant teen girls the right to an abortion! But hey-keep your government has no right to tell me what to do, because I’m not a homo or a teenager or a woman who was raped and doesn’t wish to carry out the pregnancy.
Emotional drivel. hah, sorry I think that’s kind of a crock.
Here’s the thing that bothers me about Pammie..if she is so pro peta, why does she have huge sacks of silicone in her chest? Has no one mentioned to her what lab animals go through in the testing of silicone implants? No less than absolute torture. So yeah, Pammie is a big hypocrite with big, fake, *animal tested* worse-than-any-cow-or-chicken-goes-through boobs.
she’s been wearing ugg boots for as long as i can remember…she wears them all the time…recently, though, she was quoted on peta’s website, saying that “i never realized they were skins before, i’ll never wear them again” and urging everybody to “wear juicy couture ir stella mccartney boots” instead. stella mccartney boots…u know…those that retail for roughly a 1000 dollars a pair…i can’t imagine what average person couldn’t afford those…