SLIDE 1. My speech today is about PETA. I love animals, as you can see... but I'm not an activist, nor am I a vegan. I've heard a lot about PETA over the years, most of it bad, so I wanted to evaluate them for myself. PETA is a major animal rights group. PETA stands for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals." Their slogan is: Animals are Not Ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment or abuse in any way... SLIDE 2. They claim to be "the largest animal rights organization in the world, with more than 6.5 million members and supporters." They focus on "the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in laboratories, in the food industry, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry." They "also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of rodents, birds, and other animals who are often considered “pests” as well as cruelty to domesticated animals." They "work through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns." They have a very good multimedia website, which relies on many photos and videos, as well as text. PLAY VIDEO SLIDE 3. You can become a member for only $16 a year, Your gift will strengthen their lifesaving work for animals in the food industry, in circuses, in laboratories, and anywhere else that they're mistreated. An annual donation of $16 or more "entitles you to many member benefits. Members receive a free year's subscription to their lively magazine, PETA Global, which is packed full of the latest news, delicious vegetarian recipes, and easy tips on how to stop animal suffering in your own community." PETA is an American organization, "based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president." It's "A nonprofit corporation with nearly 400 employees." It was "Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco. The organization first caught the public's attention in the summer of 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, a widely publicized dispute about experiments conducted on 17 macaque monkeys inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case lasted 10 years, involved the only police raid on an animal laboratory in the United States, triggered an amendment in 1985 to the Animal Welfare Act, and established PETA as an internationally known organization." SLIDE 4. Here are some highlights of animal conditions that have improved because of PETA's efforts in the last 38 years: Their demonstration against chicken slaughter at Arrow Live Poultry in DC caused the plant to be closed. Their undercover investigation exposing the suffering of the Silver Spring monkeys in a Maryland research facility caused the first police raid on a laboratory. Another undercover investigation resulted in the first conviction of an experimenter for animal abuse and the first withdrawal of federal research funds because of cruelty to animals. They filed the first-ever lawsuit to become the guardian of animals used in experiments. In 1983, they got a U.S. Department of Defense underground “wound lab” shut down and achieved a permanent ban on shooting dogs and cats in military wound laboratories. They closed down a Texas slaughterhouse operation in which 30,000 horses were trucked in and left to starve in frozen fields without shelter. After they publicized the gross mistreatment of animals at City of Hope in California, the government suspended more than $1 million of the laboratory’s federal funding. As a result of their campaign, the SEMA research laboratory in Maryland stopped confining chimpanzees to isolation chambers. They stopped a plan by Cedars-Sinai, California’s largest hospital, to ship stray dogs from Mexico to California for experiments. SLIDE 5. In 1988, they conducted a year-long undercover investigation at Biosearch, a cosmetics and household product testing laboratory, uncovering more than 100 violations of federal and state anti-cruelty laws. They persuaded Avon, Benetton, Mary Kay, Amway, Kenner, Mattel, and Hasbro to stop testing on animals. However, many of them have started testing on animals again in order to sell their products to China. All car-crash tests on animals stopped worldwide following their hard-hitting campaign against General Motors’ use of live pigs and ferrets in crash tests. Their efforts have caused most major designers to stop using real fur. They succeeded in getting Taiwan to pass its first-ever law against cruelty to animals after the group rescued countless dogs from being beaten, starved, electrocuted, and drowned in Taiwan’s pounds. They have had many successful PR campaigns against animal cruelty, many using celebrities. Their efforts convinced McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King to improve the lives of their farmed animals and stop cruel practices. They have rescued thousands of animals. Their efforts have resulted in zoos, Seaworld and circuses using more human methods. Protests against Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus contributed to its demise. They are usually the first ones to save animals during a hurricane, heat wave or other natural disaster. SLIDE 6. PETA has gotten in trouble many times. PETA is against animal research, even if the research can help humans and cure diseases. To many, that's a major flaw. Because PETA is an aggressive organization, there are many complaints about its methods. They acknowledge that their "actions are colorful and controversial," in order to get the word out about animal rights. Here's another major flaw. They've been criticized for euthanizing MANY dogs and cats. They claim that these are dogs that are injured and can't be saved, but it's a very high rate. Their adoption rate (where they sterilize and find homes for pets) is very low. Many criticize them for euthanizing perfectly adoptable pets. To make matters worse, some PETA employees were accused of stealing pets and killing them (charges were dropped). PETA's actions resulted in the No Kill Movement. PLAY VIDEO #2 Celebrities and supermodels have posed naked for the group's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign—some men, but mostly women—triggering criticism from some feminist animal rights advocates. In 2003, they were criticized for their ad campaign that compared animals being slaughtered to Holocaust victims. In 2005, they were criticized by the NAACP for their "Are Animals The New Slaves?" campaign. They also had some ads that compared eating meat to serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer. They've had many controversial ads. Some animal rights activists think that PETA doesn't go far enough to change animal rights. They think "PETA is not radical enough—law professor Gary Francione lists the group among what he calls "the new welfarists," arguing that its work with industries to achieve reform, which continues in the tradition of Henry Spira, makes it an animal welfare group, not an animal rights group. Peta Co-Founder Newkirk told Salon in 2001 that PETA works toward the ideal but tries in the meantime to provide carrot-and-stick incentives." In December, 2018, PETA tried to get people to change the words they use that describe animals in a negative light. They wanted to rid the English language of idioms they found offensive and compared it to “racist, homophobic or ableist language.” They posted a list of allegedly offending phrases with PETA’s preferred alternatives as well as flash cards to be used in educating school children in the use of “animal friendly language” GO TO LINK In February, PETA was in hot water again... Google celebrated the late Steve Irwin's life with a cartoon. PETA took to Twitter to say that he was not that great of a conservationist, and he should have left the animals alone. Twitter was not happy about PETA's comments. PLAY VIDEO #1 SLIDE 7. Philanthropedia is a web site that rates various philanthropic companies. They give PETA a pretty good rating. They say, "A very controversial organization, PETA is known for bringing into public view the plight of animals of many different kinds. They have brought many issues to the front of people's consciousness about inhumane treatment of animals even though many experts find their marketing and communication tactics a bit extreme at times." The site's summary of expert opinion on the organization's strengths is as follows: "PETA is highly visible, consistent, and well organized. According to experts, they are very tightly focused on their mission and they are able to generate media attention to the cause." Several other experts have said that PETA is always in the forefront of animal rights. SLIDE #8 Here is my research. Thank you.