I think I dislike Sea World more than PETA, but it’s a close call. It’s like trying to decide between Donald Trump and Scott Walker.
I recall a anti-medical-research protest display in Oxford years ago where they (PETA, not Seaworld) hilariously displayed an obviously fake photo of a rabbit with an RS232 port stuck to a shaved patch on its skin. Then they burnt down my college’s boathouse. I haven’t been a fan since then (not that I ever was).
I think many members are well-intentioned but I think they could achive far more with a more sophisticated and nuanced approach that didn’t just turn-off the majority of people.
SeaWorld: Jerks to animals.
PETA: Jerks to animals.
They deserve each other. I wouldn’t be surprised to find they were basically consisting entirely of members from each other’s companies, like in The Departed.
Never really had an opinion about Sea World. But even if they’re as odious as reputed, they gave PETA a headache, and as a philosophy, “fuck PETA” has never steered me wrong.
So what did this alleged SeaWorld employee discover? That PETA is more interested in promoting PETA than making any genuine change? At worst that would be news to people who joined PETA with good intentions.
I thought the boathouse fires (there were two attacks, in 1999 and 2005, on separate boathouses) were SHAC or the ALF not PETA.
Animal rights groups routinely try to infiltrate organizations involved in using animals in order to spy on them. Turnabout is fair play.
Exactly what I was going to say.
You could be right. The 2005 attack is the one I was talking about.
The 2005 boathouse fire in Oxford was claimed by the Oxford Arson Association. Groups like SHAC, ALF, OAA are less real groups than labels that activists use to attribute acts of violence to.
PETA folks have repeatedly stated their support for violence, however. PETA’s Dan Mathews, for example, lauded spree killer Andrew Cunanan for murdering Gianni Versace (PETA had long protested against Versace’s use of fur in his fashion designs).
Ingrid Newkirk has said she wished she had “the guts” to join the folks setting fire to animal businesses and labs, and PETA has generally characterized as unrealistic other activists who want the movement to follow the US civil rights model of nonviolence.
The interesting thing about the Seaworld infilitration is how awful most of these corporate efforts are. The spy gave the same address used by a Seaworld security official…really? Whatever else you think of it, at least PETA’s infiltrators generally aren’t quite that stupid.
[quote=“AlexG55, post:7, topic:61738”]
ALF not PETA.
[/quote] ALF is PETA. PETA funds ALF and there is crossover between their staff.
So many animal welfare organizations (including legit ones, not just whackjob presswhores like PETA) are paranoid that they are under surveillance, and that “they” are out to get them, that this just will feed the paranoia.
Why would Seaworld do this? To gain info about PETA people? To change their minds?
Assholes being assholes to assholes?
Considering PETA (and related organizations) are notorious for trying to infiltrate as well, maybe the SeaWorld infiltrator was trying to dig out their own moles? Or in general just trying to keep tabs on whatever shenanigans PETA had planned next, with regards to SeaWorld.
That’s my guess—making sure the local PETA chapter wasn’t planning a Free Willy.
As I’ve said elsewhere, this is like the Hell’s Angels complaining about being infiltrated by the Maffia.
Peta aims to “disrupt” Seaworld’s activities. Seaworld has an interest in seeing that this disruption is kept to a minimum.
Granted, there are reasons for people to hate on PETA. But when it comes to abusing large and highly sophisticated animals for our entertainment, they have a point. Orcas are social and roam for hundreds or thousands of miles in the wild. Seaworld confines them in pools that would be the equivalent of a jail cell to one of us. The result is about what you would expect. The creatures often show signs of mental illness, becoming aggressive and repeatedly battering themselves.
Don’t take my word for it. Read the account of someone who spent years “training” them for Seaworld. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150329-orca-blackfish-seaworld-dolphins-killer-whales-ngbooktalk/
When the PETA folks were getting arrested, how did this one guy end up without an arrest record? Did head of security for SeaWorld call the head of Pasadena police and say “catch and release, please, he’s a brother”?
Lieutenant Mark Goodman, a spokesman for the Pasadena police,
said he couldn’t find a record of a Paul McComb being arrested. He
also didn’t have a record of a Thomas Jones close to McComb’s age.
