Last year Michael Vick was in talks to become a spokesman for PETA, until Deceiver.com All-Star Ingrid Newkirk decided he needed to undergo a psych eval to prove he’s not crazier than she is. Vick was reinstated into the NFL today, and guess who’s trying to figure out how to capitalize on it?
According to the New York Times:
Ingrid Newkirk was the first person who came to mind Monday when N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell announced Michael Vick’s transition plan for reinstatement.
Newkirk is the tenacious president and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Her sprawling organization, which is capable and quite willing to create havoc, will set the tone for the reception Vick receives if he signs with a team.
Now that Goodell has announced his soft re-entry plan for Vick — conditional reinstatement and possible full reinstatement no later than Week 6 based on progress he makes — will Newkirk unleash a firestorm against the N.F.L. with legions of pickets?
During a conversation on Monday, Newkirk seemed undecided on what course of action she would take.
“We’re not encouraging it,” Newkirk said when asked about PETA’s plans to picket. “We’re not in a picketing mood.”
Then in an about-face she said: “We may, I can’t really say. There are so many strong sentiments. It’s on the table, but we’re not encouraging it.”
Wonder why she can’t make up her mind? (Besides the fact that she lost it long ago.) Maybe it’s because when it comes to being kind to animals, PETA’s track record is nothing to bark about. They’ve killed tens of thousands of household pets over the years, and a few years ago two of their employees were caught dumping dead pets into a dumpster behind a Piggly Wiggly grocery in North Carolina. The two were found guilty of littering for throwing away the euthanized animals, but somehow weren’t punished for actually, y’know, killing them. After taking them from shelters with the promise that PETA would find them homes. Weird, huh?
From the Raleigh News & Observer’s account of the last day of the trial on February 2, 2007:
After a two-week trial that caused a sensation in rural northeastern North Carolina, a jury acquitted Andrew B. Cook and Adria J. Hinkle of eight counts of animal cruelty. Cook and Hinkle work for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, based in Norfolk, Va. Hinkle also was found not guilty of three felony counts of lying to get cats from a veterinarian’s office.
But they were found guilty of throwing euthanized animals into a Dumpster behind a Piggly Wiggly grocery. The PETA employees said the dead animals had begun to smell during the ride back to Norfolk…
In closing arguments Friday, prosecutor Valerie Asbell painted Hinkle as a liar who gushed over kittens and puppies, promised to find them homes and then gave them lethal injections beside secluded country roads.
Cook, both sides agreed, was a new PETA employee just helping Hinkle for the day.
Employees of an Ahoskie veterinarian testified that Hinkle had asked whether a mother cat and two kittens had names, and promised everyone in the office, including a 9-year-old girl, that she would find them homes. She euthanized them a few minutes after leaving the office.
A Bertie County animal control officer testified that Hinkle said she would have “no problem” finding homes for two dalmatians named Annie and Toby. The dogs were dead before they left the shelter’s parking lot.
The same officer said he handed over his own dog, a terrier named Happy, because he had had trouble housebreaking it. Hinkle sent him a picture of the dog in a garden, standing in front of a house but didn’t mention that the dog had been euthanized upon arriving at PETA headquarters.
“They go out and say, ‘Oh, we helped all these animals,’” said Asbell, who is the district attorney for Hertford, Bertie and Northampton counties. “They sure aren’t out telling folks they’re killing healthy ones … because that doesn’t go along with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.”
What Michael Vick did was unconscionable. But what PETA does is even worse, because they hide behind their pose of “ethical” treatment. How dare they condemn a guy who’s killed a fraction of the number of animals they have?
Maybe you should just shut up for once, Ingrid. If that’s even possible.
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Reading those trial details disgusts me. And I am APPALLED that they are based in Virginia. I think we need to amend our constitution to kick PETA out of the state.
Obama complaining in 2004 about Bush pushing legislation through too quickly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOnYnIDX0Eg
I’m pretty sure that PETA is pretty small here in Texas.
We’re meat-eaters with guns.
lol irish! oh and simon, do you know how the 2 PeTA “employees” got the ’stuff’ for the lethal injections? is it in the van (or whatever they were driving in?) and why do they get to do it? isn’t that illegal to put an animal down unless you’re a vet? maybe that’s just here in california, i know the laws are different from state to state. michael vick is a monster and so are those two kids (i really shouldn’t say kids because i don’t know how old they are) who were found not guilty. not guilty my ass.
and since when is PeTA not in a “picketing mood?” i mean really..
I will respect PETA when they throw paint on bikers in leather like they do socialites in fur. Okay I will never respect them but I would love to see them picket a bike show.
Jenn,
I never thought of that. I would love to see them throw paint on a group of Mongols or Angels. Now that would be a site for sore eyes.
My 12 year old just said something very profound. “PETA is like a school yard bully. They are not the strongest in the yard, but to make everyone feel like they are the strongest they pick on the “weeker” kids who would not retaliate.”
Out of the mouths of babes…
As much as a creep Vick is, he served his time. Picketing him or the team he plays for just makes PETA look like asses (not that it ever stopped them before). Besides, I’m sure there’s others in the NFL who did what he did or worse. Ray Caruth (sp?) anyone?
If Vick comes back to the NFL and make millions then that would be setting a *great* example to kids out there. Hey, kill a few dogs and you still get to make lots of money. Go get them Tiger!
Agreed re: bikers. I’d love to see ‘em come hit the Pagans with some paint, etc…
Realistically, do they think they’d do one iota of good picketing the team that Vick gets on? The average NFL fan likely is pretty devoted to their meat products (seriously- Steelers play? Kielbasa’s in the pan). And they already think that Vick’s a dink for what he did. A dink that paid for what he did, and shouldn’t be allowed within 400 feet of a stuffed dog, but paid nonetheless.
That being said- Bring on the picketing- I’d love to see those Vegan twits get down on the field with a couple of linebackers as part of the pre-game show. THAT would be far more entertaining than watching Boomer prattle on…
@AAW: True. But you can say the same for PETA. Still famous, still rubbing elbows with famous people…
yeah, but I bet Vick has more hero worshipers than PETA. At least to 12 year olds.
My roommate has two rescue puppies. One that he found as a baby, almost for dead under a truck. My parents have a 6-year old who was originally found in the ghettos of the town where my mother works. So, with experience of knowing, having and caring for 3 rescue dogs, it sickens me to think of something as horrid as what PETA does to animals. I nearly burst into tears reading this article about them promising a little girl to take care of a kitten.
PETA and Vick are no different. They both disgust me
I’m with Meg here. Call me a baby, but it makes me tear up a bit to think of PETA doing that to my dog. In my opinion PETA has crossed the line from annoying over-civilized liberals into evil territory. Even if those two represent only a fraction of PETA, you know they got the orders/drugs somewhere.
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! This makes me want to vomit. We have to jump through flaming hoops of white phosphorus every single freekin time we take a dal from a municipal shelter.
Seriously, at my local, they know me and I still have to fill out forms in triplicate, including which foster home I intend to use AND THEY CHECK TO MAKE SURE I DELIVERED SAID ANIMAL!!! Additionally, the adoption facilitator (the foster home) is required to provide proof that the final placement adheres to the guidlines used at the origination shelter AND THEY RUN THEIR OWN EXIT CHECK WITH THE RECIPIENT.
No way in hell could I get away with offing dogs in the parking lot.
It’s all according to who you are.
PETA gets its way because they scream the loudest AND the longest. So most agencies roll over, pardon the pun, just to get them the hell off their backs. THAT’S why they get away with what they do. No one with enough gumption wants to take them on because it is seen as politically incorrect by certain sectors of the population. PETA has no problem with making asshats of themselves, getting louder and louder, threatening legislation/lawsuits..til people get tired of hearing their squawking and cave in simply to shut them the hell up and make them go the hell away.
Industrial strength duct tape applied liberally over their mouths would work wonderfully. I suggest someone secretly hire Hell’s Angels to do the deed. Then, tape them all together and throw them in the nice kitty cat cage in the tiger section of the nearest zoo so the animals can have what is known as an “enrichment feeding”.
LOL. “If you’re not a PETA member, you’re a racist”
The fact that they call themselves a liberal organization makes me want to scream.
The lines of what’s liberal and conservative are so blurred to me, I’m about done with political party affiliations with certain organizations.
Meg, that’s exactly why I don’t donate to charitable organizations that have political arms, and am a card-carrying member of absolutely no political party.
I donate to http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org and nothing else. Gives the money to people who defend our freedom on a daily basis. They need to be taken care of, not our politicians.
PETA loves animals like NARAL loves babies.