Apparently, PETA isn’t too happy that Michael Vick is getting out of jail soon, and might be out there throwing a pigskin again in front of people eating hot dogs and wearing fur hats and wool sweaters. Sucks to be them.
So the animal rights group has withdrawn their offer to help the former Falcons QB rehab his image by letting him star in an anti-dogfighting PSA. And they want him to have a brain scan before he plays football again — just to make sure he’s not a psychopath.
But this part of the reporting from PETA’s hometown got my attention:
PETA had actually been working on a deal to use Vick in a public service campaign to fight animal cruelty. In exchange, Vick’s lawyers wanted some assurance that PETA would support Vick’s efforts to return to the NFL; PETA administrators refuse to play ball.
Daphna Nachminovitch, with PETA said, “We’re not interested in being part of a cynical ploy that’s nothing but public relations.”
Citing a recent government report that listed several instances where Vick was personally involved in the cruelty and killing of dogs, PETA wants Vick to undergo extensive psychological testing.
If PETA’s own head honchos would undergo the brain scan first, maybe we’d have something to talk about, right? Didn’t they kill about eleventy-billion more dogs than Michael Vick?
And excuse me? Cynical PR ploys make up pages 1 through infinity of PETA’s annual report.
None of which makes Michal Vick a swell guy, of course. But it’s kinda hard to pick a winner in this fight.
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Huh.
Hard to tell who’s more cynical here.
I’ll just go back to laughing about PETA’s latest campaign to start calling fish “sea kittens”, because then they’ll be too cute to eat.
Whatever. Anyone want a filet-o-sea kitten?
flirt – I would totally eat filet-o-sea kitten…sea kitten in a can would awesome!
I think that getting Vick to be a spokeperson on Cruelty to animals is like asking OJ to be a spokesperson on domestic violence. I still say hang Vick by his toenails and let the dogs have at him. It is better than he deserves.
Well, we know that Vick is a heartless piece of regurgitated dog crap, so the brain scan wouldn’t offer us much. However, I agree, all PETArds should be forced to take brain scans, especially when accusing others of being part of a cynical ploy when they’ve built their entire existence upon that.
Maybe in the PSA, Vick was going to strangle some unwanted dogs along with PETA volunteers and dump the bodies in the trash.
I remember when they had a “town hall” meeting on ESPN, and the crowd booed when someone suggested that Vick didn’t get punished so harshly, simply because of his race. Apparently a white athelete would be treated differently. Except that a white athelete didn’t commit this crime, so where is the precedent?
America is so twisted.
By the way, the quote in this article was priceless. There are tons of examples that show the opposite is true, littered throughout this site.
apologies for my misspelling of the word “athlete.” Guess that I could have checked before I posted.
Previously, you might think “Sure that naked celebrity in the PeTA ad still wears leather or eats KFC, but at least PeTA as an organization is still working hard to encourage humane treatment of animals.”
This PeTA/Vick controversy makes it clear that the ONLY thing PeTA is working towards is generating controversial buzz to further PeTA name recognition.
PeTA doesn’t give a damn about animals. PeTA is only looking out for PeTA.
They are the Nicole Ritchie of the animal welfare world.
In a way, PeTA is like Tom Cruise . . . they’re famous for these wacked out, goofy-beyond-excuse beliefs and dogma, and they now have this risk of if they stop being crazy, they stop being famous. Not that I think this keeps any of them up at night.
Pot, meet kettle.
FYI, even The Economist has something to say about PeTA’s ’sea kittens’ campaign:
http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/greenview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13005499&fsrc=nwl
Interesting that PeTA is using worries about mercury levels in fish to scare parents into submission…maybe they should use Jeremy Piven as a spokesman.
MC Mom, given that Piven and PETA are about as credible as each other, I think that they would be a great match.
Exactly, Chronic!
“Hey, scuzzy, useless attention whore – meet same.”