Posted on 12/05/2003 6:03:23 AM PST by NYer
(East Providence-AP) -- A billboard sign urging people to go vegetarian that shows the Virgin Mary cradling a chicken carcass is coming down.
The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PEE-Tah) paid three-thousand dollars to rent the billboard off Interstate 195 for a month. The sign was put up a week ago.
Some religious leaders have complained it's offensive and the sign has been defaced with spray paint.
The company that owns the billboard says the sign will be taken down over the next few days and P-E-T-A will get part if its payment back.
Robert Murray, co-owner of Massachusetts-based Murray Outdoor Communications, doesn't want the company in the middle of debate over the sign.
Murray says he sees no problem with the sign.
P-E-T-A spokesman Bruce Friedrich said the group is disappointed but plans to put it on billboards in other cities around the country.
Oh good grief
They're trying to equate the Son of God and a chicken.
No Peace on Earth
The Christmas season, normally a tranquil time in which Catholics gather to celebrate the birth of Christ, has become the stage for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to attack the Blessed Mother.
PETAs onslaught began with a Providence, Rhode Island billboard that depicts a traditional image of the Blessed Virgin holding a dead chicken with a caption reading: Go vegetarian, its an Immaculate Conception. The group is planning to continue their campaign by putting similar billboards in cities across the nation. (The billboard can be seen on PETAs website at: PETA )
According to a PETA press release the group decided to launch its campaign in Rhode Island because it is the most Catholic state in the union. I find PETAs decision to offend the Blessed Virgin in the nations most Catholic state extremely offensive, said TFP Web Editor John Horvat II. In light of this American Catholics must react, that is why the TFP is activating our network of activists to protest this blasphemy.
The TFP email campaign will be directed against PETA as well as Murray Outdoor Communications that rented the billboard space to PETA.
Mr. Horvat chose December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception, to launch the e-protest. Since this blasphemy is directed against the Blessed Virgin and specifically against the Immaculate Conception, I can think of no better way to honor Our Lady than to stand up for her on her feast.
Others are troubled that the proponents of blasphemy are capitalizing on Christmas, traditionally a time of peace. Peace is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as the tranquility of order, said James Miller of TFP Student Action. Therefore order is a prerequisite for peace. Until order is reestablished on earth, I guess we will see no peace on earth, even during Christmastime.
Help stand up for peace on earth. There are four ways you can help:
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Catholic League--PETA RIPS OFF CATHOLIC ICONOGRAPHY
The Roman Catholic bishop of Providence, R.I., said a new animal-rights ad featuring the Virgin Mary holding a dead chicken is ``disturbing'' and asked that it be removed from a downtown billboard.
The ad, sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), features the phrase ``Go Vegetarian. It's an Immaculate Conception.'' A cross is drawn inside the ``o'' in ``Go.''
``This use of one of the most sacred images of the Christian faith trivializes not only the mother of Jesus but also the very cause PETA strives to advance,'' Bishop Robert Mulvee said in a statement.
Catholics will celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in which they believe the mother of Jesus was conceived without sin, on Monday.
``It is my fervent hope that they will abandon the use of this offensive campaign and show as much sensitivity to the faith of millions as they do to the plight of animals,'' Mulvee said.
PETA director Bruce Friedrich, a Catholic, said the ad debuted in Providence because the state has the nation's highest percentage of Catholics. The ad will also appear in a half-dozen other cities before Christmas.
Friedrich, who has also come under fire for past campaigns that linked animal slaughter with the Holocaust, said what is really offensive is the ``horrific abuse'' of animals on commercial farms.
``For those of us who are Roman Catholic, Mary embodies compassion,'' he said. ``In the world, there is no more ungodly, un-Christian, immoral sacrilegious practice than what is done to animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses.''
The billboard has already been vandalized, with the word ``shame'' spray-painted in the bottom left corner, according to the Providence Journal. Friedrich said the billboard would be repaired and not be removed.
``It's gross, to be quite frank with you,'' Providence Mayor Rolland Grant told the newspaper. ``I find it totally offensive.''
PETA billboard in Rhode Island draws criticism from Catholics
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Vegetarianism: An Immaculate Conception
Showing the Madonna cradling a chicken in her arms with the tagline Go VegetarianIts an Immaculate Conception, a new PETA billboarddesigned to steer viewers to GoVeg.comis popping up across North America.
The ad calls vegetarianism, the best diet for human health, the environment, and animals, an immaculate conception.
Click here to view the billboard.
PETA can be contacted by postal mail, voice phone, fax, or e-mail.
PETA
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
Tel.: 757-622-PETA (7382)
Fax: 757-622-0457
E-Mail PETA at info@peta.org
PETAs Media Department
757-622-7382, extension 1608
If you are from the media, please e-mail us at MediaInfo@peta.org.
Please include the following in your e-mail message:
PEOPLE EATING TASTY ANIMALS
I love animals, they taste delicious!
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.
best when served with fava beans and a nice chianti...
PETA bring religious connotations to their campaign is simply laughable.How about religion using animal metaphors?
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. (Mt 23:37): )
A rooster crowed after Peter had denied Jesus three times.
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