Putting People First / August 1, 1994 ===================================== Washington Report FROM THE TRENCHES by Kathleen Marquardt Chairman, Putting People First ...A weekly opinion column about the struggle against "animal rights" and eco-extremists. Copyright@1994 Putting People First Permission to reproduce this column is freely granted on the condition that credit is given to Putting People First. Putting People First is a nonprofit organization of citizens who believe in western civilization; that we need to return to common sense in man's relationship with his fellow man; and that public policy should be based on science and rationality, not emotionalism. Putting People First PO Box 1707 Helena, Montana 59624 (406) 442-5700 Fax (406) 449-0942 ===================================================================== USA TODAY SINGS PAeAN TO PeTA In Wednesday,July 27, USA TODAY, is a piece by Ann Oldenburg titled "Tactics get results and raise hackles." It is a long piece with photos -- one of PeTA's leader of international campaigns, Dan Matthews, with two "slaves" (PeTA's term for pets), another showing PeTAphiles breaking the law, and a third of five women naked behind a cloth banner. Oldenburg's piece, while it includes quotes from those who have been targets of PeTA's illegal and asinine behavior, is mostly admiring mush. Oldenburg calls PeTA the "advocacy darling of the moment," and goes on to gush that the "employees are all hip, vegetarian or vegan, and passionate." Charles Manson and Adolph Hitler were both passionate people, too (and early animal rights advocates, to boot). I have sent the following letter to USA TODAY. It is not too late to express your feelings on this. And when you see other pieces like this one, please write to the editor and let him or her know that there are lots of us who still believe in a morality that is not relative. If you cannot get a copy of Wednesday's paper, call our office and we will fax you a copy of the offensive story. - USA TODAY 1000 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, Virginia 22229 Editor: If PeTA and Dan Matthews are the "animals' best friends," the animals better run for cover. PETA, is decidedly not good for animals. PeTA's only pretense of providing directly for animals is the Aspen Hill Pet Sanctuary where they kill animals they do not want. More to the point of Ann Oldenburg's July 27 issue is the question of moral outrage. Here is a reporter with foreknowledge of an illegal act ("PeTA plans to slosh human urine over the walls of the firm's Lancaster Avenue headquarters"), not only writing about it in your paper but presenting it as if it were something to be proud of. Where is your moral outrage? If Wyeth-Ayerst, which is the target of PeTA's latest temper tantrum, were to do the same to PeTA's building, I am certain that your paper and the rest of the country would be yelling bloody murder. So why is it that when a bunch of overgrown delinquents do it, you write about it as if it were something you would want your children out doing? Here is Dan Matthews who goes out in public wearing a carrot costume and your reporter writes as if what he is saying is logical, not the off-the-wall blathering of the zealot he is. Someone there needs a reality check -- immediately. Ms.Oldenburg coos, "PeTA is the advocacy darling of the moment." Only to those with no moral compass. Only to those who would rather see our dogs wiped off the face of the earth (Matthews' boss Ingrid Newkirk has said that "Pet ownership is an absolute abysmal situation brought about by human population," and a PETA white paper said, "The cat, like the dog, must disappear... W should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist." How many of your readers are dog lovers and cat fanciers? And these are the "animals' best friends? Not unless the world is upsidedown. When good is bad and right is wrong, then PeTA is the animals' best friend -- but not until then and certainly not now. Those PeTAphiles who have saved up their urine to throw on someone elses property first need to go to jail for illegal activities, then they need to get a life. Over-grown brats throwing urine, running around naked, making asses of themselves are not things you should be flaunting in your newspaper. If you report on their asinine activities, it should be with ridicule, not reverence. Maybe your reporters should be tested for maturity before you hire them. Sincerely, Kathleen Marquardt, Chairman