To Love or Hate Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk: animal rights activist, author, and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
I was very excited a few days ago when I noticed a documentary on HBO about Ingrid Newkirk. She is someone that grabbed my attention a few years back. Yet the more I came to know of her, the more puzzled I became. I hoped this documentary might help shed some light on her work as an animal activist and the co-founder of PETA.
That it did … and even more so than I could have thought. It’s not like anything described in the documentary was new. They portrayed Ingrid as a passionate animal rights activist, a media whore, and an extremist. Many people think Ingrid is absolutely nuts. I do think she creates this “buzz” for herself. At one point in the documentary she says that she wants her flesh carved up after she dies to be barbecued (like that of an animal), her skin made into a wallet or handbag, and one eye to be delivered to a high powered government official to remind him that PETA will always be watching.
Now that may sound crazy but I truly feel that whatever Ingrid wants to do with her body when she’s dead is her issue. What I have a problem with are her tactics to uncover animal cruelty in factory farms. She has a whole team of people that land jobs as factory farm workers. Their job – as an animal rights activist – is to act like a factory farm worker would and to document cruelty while there. This means that these undercover PETA workers kill thousands of animals! In the documentary HBO interviewed two men who killed literally thousands of turkeys in a Butterball factory to get just two hours of video footage which was a bit disturbing but rather blurry and ineffective.
I feel that people working towards the compassionate treatment of animals are generally doing a good thing. Yet after watching this biography, I could not help thinking that the means absolutely do not justify the means. How can an animal rights activist literally kill thousands of animals just to get some video footage? I think in the end, the footage didn’t have a large effect in passing legislation anyway. Other organizations seem to find a way to get footage without slaughtering animals.
I was also really puzzled by Ingrid’s continued discussion that some animals need to die. At one point they show her “rescuing” a pit bull off a chain only to put it to sleep. I have participated in dog rescue for many years and I think they could have saved the dog. It had tick fever and needed a blood transfusion … all of which can be treated by compassionate vets. Yet, Ingrid chose to put the dog to sleep. Why? Was it too much of an inconvenience to help this dog? Was it too expensive? Would it be too hard to find a home for a pit bull? None of these questions were answered and Ingrid felt justified in her decision. I, on the other hand, was greatly puzzled by it.
To me the definition of an animal rights activist is someone who works day in and day out for the welfare of all animals. Whether they be dogs or cows or chickens, a true animal rights activist would not bring harm to any animal in order to achieve some strange personal goal that has little effect for the animals or on people. I am so troubled by this documentary, I’m just not sure how any person that truly wants compassion for animals could support PETA.
I say this with a cautious heart because I am grateful to PETA in may ways. I attended a conference several years ago and it was my first exposure to veganism and animal suffering on a large scale. I am thankful for PETA bringing the animal’s plight to my attention. However I am apalled at their tactics at gathering the information to pursuade people to choose this lifestyle. How can one say to themselves, “I’m goign to go kill 2,000 turkeys today, so that people will stop eating them.” That is just absurd!
I feel like PETA gives animal rights activism a bad name and sets the whole cause light years back. No matter what they do to call attention to animal cruelty, it ends up looking like a publicity stunt that usually just makes people laugh. Their obsession with media exposure just turns people off because they just label it as extremism.
I am Vice-President of Cruelty Investigations for PETA. Please allow me to respond to your concerns. By far the most difficult—and admirable—job that any animal rights advocate can do is to document the suffering, abuse and neglect of animals so the people responsible can be held accountable and so that it can be stopped. If it weren’t for the selfless, brave people who go undercover on factory farms and in slaughterhouses (and laboratories, fur farms, circuses, puppy mills, and so on), no one would know how animals suffer in these places, and people would continue contributing to the suffering of animals by eating them. You are incorrect when you say that PETA’s investigator who worked undercover at Butterball killed turkeys – he did not. But the routine abuses and horrific suffering he captured on film have shown countless people how turkeys suffer before they end up on their kitchen tables and has turned people vegetarian. Two of our recent undercover investigations—one at an Iowa pig breeding farm that supplies Hormel and the other at a West Virginia turkey factory farm—resulted not only in valuable public outreach, but in multiple criminal charges, some felonies. This is history in the making and none of it would happen if we all just sat around and felt sad about animal suffering instead of doing something about it – the animals need action, change, and all the help they can get.
It is also heart wrenching for our caring staffers who must provide suffering dogs and cats and those for whom no good homes can be found with a painless death. Many of the animals we receive are broken beings for whom euthanasia is, without a doubt, the most humane option—including the suffering dog shown in the documentary.
Even if we could provide veterinary treatment for each one of the thousands of unwanted animals we receive every year, PETA still faces the same dilemma as all open-door shelters: There simply aren’t enough good homes for every cat and dog. Forcing these animals to live in cages indefinitely is neither feasible nor humane. One need only to go down to their local shelter to get a dose of reality – no one wants to see the end of euthanasia of healthy animals more than the people who hold the syringe. Pointing the finger is much, much easier than doing the dirty work.
That’s why PETA works tirelessly to reach the day when there is a loving home for every animal through educational campaigns, by sterilizing animals in our mobile spay/neuter clinics—which do hundreds of free surgeries for the poor and are the only programs around that have door-to-door transportation services for animals who’d otherwise be allowed to bring more animals into a world bursting at the seams with homeless ones—and by subsidizing spay/neuter surgeries at private veterinarians’ offices. But until people spay and neuter and stop buying animals from breeders and pet stores, euthanasia will remain a tragic consequence of the cat and dog overpopulation crisis. Please, help us change that. To learn more, visit PETA.org and http://www.HelpingAnimals.com.
Daphna – I really appreciate your comment. I am always up for an open, honest, multi-dimensional debate. I stand corrected on the comment about investigators killing turkeys in the Butterball investigation. From my understanding the investigator’s role was to put turkeys into shackles on their way to slaughter. While the investigator perhaps did not slit their throats, it does not matter to me. I believe they still participated in the process. My questioning is in whether that mean justified the end. Even though the footage has inspired some people to become vegetarian, I don’t believe the shackling of turkeys was justified to achieve that result. However I hear your point and I think we agree to disagree on this.
I think your comment also suggests that I am only advocating for animal rights with my fingers typing on my keyboard. While this is one way in which I aim to help educate people about the state of animal suffering on our planet, I also physically work in dog rescue and as of today will be working with the HSUS to lobby on behalf of humane legislation in Arizona. I have been to the pound. I have pulled animals from shelters and the streets to give them a new chance at life. I know that many organizations see “killing” as the only acceptable means of dealing with the overpopulation of animals. To that I suggest you read “Redemption” by Nathan Winograd for an alternate perspective on the problem. Animals that have passed through our rescue’s hands have never been forced to live out their lives in cages despite our no-kill philosophy. That is not the only option. But I do agree that spay/neuter is the solution to the issue of more supply than demand.
From the years I have spent participating in animal rights, I know that organizations have different philosophies. There are many ways to achieve a better livelihood and respect for all sentient beings. In the end, while I don’t agree with all of PETA’s tactics, I thank you for your efforts. I know in the bigger picture we are all working towards the same goal.
I always support the cause of PETA.””,
my friends and i are all members of PETA, we love to protect animals:””
i would love to be a member of PETA, i love to protect animals rights-*: