PETA attacks white males in to save animals

TownHall.com ^ | 1/20/03 | Kathleen Parker

[kattracks]

Just when you thought the white male could stoop no lower, PETA tells us that white men don't care about animal cruelty.

No, this isn't a joke, though I thought it was when a postcard from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) making such a claim crossed my desk a few days ago. Here's how the PETA assault on white males begins: "If the idea of animals' being castrated without anesthetics on factory farms isn't at all unsettling to you, chances are you're a man and you're white."

The purpose of the card ostensibly is to tout a PETA-sponsored Zogby International poll that examined the eating habits of Americans, all geared at guessing how much longer we have to endure America's meat-eating ways before we advance to national vegetarianism.

My guess is that would be about the same time Saddam Hussein and George Bush butterfly kiss, but PETA is optimistic. If only we could get rid of those white males.

Curious to take a look at the hard data, I called the PETA number listed on the postcard. The fellow who answered the phone sounded like he'd just completed about four centuries of yoga and was about to evolve into a higher life form. By his voice he also sounded like One of Them.

"You sound like you might be a white male," I said.

"Yes, unfortunately I am," he sighed. I could sense his blood sugar plummeting.

"Oh, come on," I said, cheerfully. "White guys have done some good stuff."

"Well, yeah," he wearily conceded. "A couple of things."

I figured he was thinking about the Magna Carta and the Emancipation Proclamation. Or possibly the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence? But I didn't press. He seemed in a hurry to get off the phone, a tendency I've noted among white males. Could he be sneaking jerky on the side, I wondered?

Following the link he provided, I found that the poll, conducted last May, confirms that white males are less likely than Hispanics and African-Americans, the other groups surveyed, to stop eating meat even knowing some of the details of factory farming. Pigs are castrated without anesthesia for instance, according to the survey.

Also, white males were less likely than the others to endorse excise taxes on meat to help pay health-care costs associated with diseases that PETA claims are related to eating meat -heart attacks, cancer, high blood pressure and strokes.

There could be dozens of explanations for these attitudes, including the possibility that some people aren't going to quit eating meat for any reason. Nor are they going to endorse more taxes for spurious claims. Could some of the white males have known that the health problems listed may be caused by a variety of other factors (obesity, heredity, environmental exposures) and not necessarily by meat-eating?

PETA's extrapolation that white men don't care about painful animal castration based on their unwillingness to give up pork chops, however, requires a leap of white-male hatred that borders on personality disorder.

Here's PETA's spin on the white man's carnivorous ways: "Could it be because white men are raised on `sports' such as fishing and rodeo? Or taught to `appreciate' the outdoors with a rifle in their hands? Do they feel like they're betraying Dad if they don't give their sons hot dogs at ballgames or that they won't grow `hair on their chests' without a slab of meat on their dinner plate?

"On the other hand, could it be that people who themselves sometimes feel disenfranchised and oppressed might, for that very reason, be sympathetic to the plight of animals?"

Could it be that meat deprivation makes one a little hostile? Deranged? I confess to being an evangelical animal lover who can take or leave most meat. But. PETA's self-righteous zealotry disguised as virtue makes me want to wear fur coats and gnaw on puppy bones while driving an SUV filled with right-wing Boy Scouts.

The culturally approved assault on white males, meanwhile, has become tedious, boring and probably ineffective. If the idea of white males being figuratively castrated by high-strung fanatics isn't at all unsettling to you, chances are you need to eat more red meat.

©2003 Tribune Media Services

Contact Kathleen Parker | Read her biography

[Support Free Republic]

---

Somewhere...there is another young liberal couple just waiting for THEIR chance. Support Free Republic and dash their hopes!
	Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[DBtoo]

What a bunch of crap!! PETA gives a bad name to people who love animals. I can't believe they are slamming white men as being most cruel to animals, as this is very untrue. This may be shockingly un-PC, but among men, white men are the MOST caring of animals. Go to any country in the world and observe the behavior of men towards their animals, and you will find this to be true. I know, I know... white males are only suppose to be very bad humans, never good.

I would like to know, just how long is this white-bashing going to go on? If all white people were to commit mass suicide (as too many would seem to relish) would the world really be a more peaceful place? I don't think so.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

You make a good point. Of all the six major continents, Europe, North America, and Australia [I would guess] are more inclined to have organizations like PETA. They are actually being racist against the very group that made their organization possible. Of course, it's a cultural matter, not a racial matter, an effort to exploit ignorance and prejudice. It's the CULTURE in North America that enables people to be concious of animals' suffering. Whether one is Asian, African, European, or Native American in origin isn't the point. A couple generations later, any one of them could have children who don't want animals to suffer.

I believe animals should receive anesthesia before being castrated. I'm no member of PETA-- I imagine I will eat meat the rest of my life, but give me a choice, I would prefer to do business with people who are kind to their animals, so long as the cost is not significantly higher. 10% more cost would be more than reasonable to me.

However, the enviro-wackos most likely would spout out half baked conspiracy theories about the dangers of the anesthesia. "Causes cancer, brain tumors, genetic deformities..." bla bla bla.

[Calico Cat]

"You sound like you might be a white male," I said.

"Yes, unfortunately I am," he sighed.

--Here's a guy who's been p-whipped by the best of them. Poor guy. Maybe someday he'll reclaim his lost masculinity, but I wouldn't hold my breath. He'll be cringing and apologizing to his last days, and still wondering why women don't respect him.

[stlrocket]

An article of interest - a few things that PETA doesn't talk much about.

PETA'S NAKED BLONDE PROTESTER - KAYLA - WAS BORN KEVIN! SHE IS/WAS A GUY!

[OXENinFLA]

I just caught a show on Cattle ranching last week.

They showed the whole process.

They pin the calves down, brand them, put a hormone shot in the ear, and cut their nuts off w/ a HUGE pair of pliers. The calf get up a runs of.

[dtel]

We do it a bit different.
We run 'em through a squeeze chute and have the vet do them.
She cuts the sac and removes the testes individually.
There is no anesthesia used in the process.
What surprised me is the calf doesn't even bawl.
I damn sure would.
For the record, we don't use any hormones or steroids in our animals.

[visualops]

The research I did indicates that the animals(calves) essentially don't feel pain during castration or neutering up to about 9 months. There may be some mild discomfort or soreness after the procedure, which increases with age. After 9 mos, anesthesia may be required. I don't know what the law is in the US.

[dtel]

From what I understand, there are very few anesthetics that work on cows.

I have pinged our resident vet for clarification.

[Iowa Granny]

The only group of people who get more trashing than white males, are Christian Smokers.

PETA followers would do well to have a 'Male Pantie Check'. When they honestly report on the percentage of circumcised male children they have in their families,,, then I'll talk business with them.

For the record, when pigs are 'cut' within the first week of life, they don't show any pain symptoms. However, I can testify from experience, cooking those tiny little oysters can be a hassle. The larger ones are much easier to handle in the kitchen.

[dtel]

Granny, if you are anything like my granny was, you have more testosterone coursing through your veins than half of the men in this country.
It is appalling to see the difference from just 25 years ago, much less 50 or more.

[tom h]

As for white males who feel bad because they're white, do y'all remember the one about the UC Santa Cruz professor who went to a diversity seminar 10 years ago, and rose the microphone and tearfully confessed his sins (to a grim-looking jury comprised of the usual concoction of diversity faces) and then proceeded to apologize for and indict the rest of white males in America.

None of this is new. So, don't get too upset about it. Liberals are a dying breed and PETA's positions are not worth losing sleep over.

[OperationFreedom]

ping for the latest PETA crapola

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I believe animals should receive anesthesia before being castrated. I'm no member of PETA-- I imagine I will eat meat the rest of my life, but give me a choice, I would prefer to do business with people who are kind to their animals, so long as the cost is not significantly higher. 10% more cost would be more than reasonable to me.

There's not a ranch in the country that gives anesthesia before "cutting" their calves in the spring. Several times when I was young I helped friends in west Texas castrate 40-100 young bulls over a weekend. Never seemed to be a great deal of pain involved.

[vetvetdoug]

We use local anesthesia using Lidocaine 2% or Carbocaine2%. For perineal anesthesia we use a spinal block and for abdominal surgery use Lidocaine ring block and a sedative, xylazine. Facial surgery using a Petersen block and there are a myriad of others depending upon the location of the surgery. For dehorning and castration we ask the owner whether anesthesia is wanted which costs more. So far, no takers. Ironically, my large animal helpers are black. PETA is just looking to stir up a stink. Screw em....

[dtel]

Thanks for the info.

[dtel]

Thanks Doc.

[squibs]

We used an "elasterator" a small rubberband on the
scrotom. It pinches the testicles off in just a few
days. The bulls (just a few weeks old) never showed
any discomfort. They didn't even know anything happened to them.