I have a confession to make. When I was nine, I misrepresented myself
to a United States congressman and profited from it.
I should preface this by explaining that in those days I was the odd
kid talking to the trees at the edge of the playground. I was what polite adults would call "bookish" and what not so polite classmates would call "weird."
I was so weird, in fact, that I conducted extended club meetings with fictional characters in the cabin of my father's boat drydocked in the driveway.
So weird, in fact, that these meetings were conducted in strict accordance with Robert's Rules of Order, with me serving not only as parliamentarian but also keeping elaborate minutes as recording secretary.
So weird that these minutes sometimes had to be amended when a fictional member of the group refused to approve them as read.
The mission of the club was hardly an original one. I co-opted a few
tenets from the SPCA, the Humane Society, and the Animal Assistance
League. (PETA was founded a few years later.) The name of the club
was pinched from the efforts at the time to bring home prisoners of
the conflict in Viet Nam. In this case, however, POW stood for
"protect our wildlife." Members of the club were characters from
books I'd read including a pair of children who had formed an "SPCR"
to protect a stray dog named Rachel. We were a like-minded group.
Aside from the occasional squabble over accuracy of the minutes, POW
meetings were uneventful until the club voted to announce our
existence in a letter to Congress demanding that Something Be Done to
further our mission. As president of the club, I wrote a heartfelt
letter about the plight of endangered animals, the horror of wearing
fur, and the need for more space in local pounds and animal shelters
on orange stationery with paisley Sock It To Me stickers. When my
brother saw the sealed envelope addressed to US CONGRESS, he
suggested that I add “ATTENTION: G. William Whitehurst” because he
thought our local representative might be sympathetic to my cause. My family knew the basic content of the letter, but not that I had
described the efforts of a group of imaginary children in an
imaginary club.
A package from Rep. Whitehurst arrived a few weeks later. In addition
to a letter praising the initiative and dedication of POW members,
Whitehurst included a book from the U. S. Department of the Interior
about endangered species in America.
By this time, I had joined a real junior garden club with nonfictional members. The package came on the day members of the junior garden club were turning in scrapbooks to be judged in a statewide competition.
Terrified that my family would discover that the letter praised my make-believe group, I hid it in my scrapbook, "Endangered Species in Virginia," and took it with me to the meeting.
You can guess the rest. I forgot to take the letter out of the
scrapbook when I turned it in. The letter praised the club without
naming it, and judges assumed I had scored a congressional
endorsement for the junior garden club. I won big-- a state award and a scholarship to nature camp in Lynchburg that my mom didn't let me go to. I was so horrified that I wanted to hide in the cabin of the boat.
The shame of what I did has stayed with me ever since. Following a
nearly vegetarian diet (shrimp don’t have eyelashes) and taking in
stray cats doesn’t seem to ease my guilt.
A few years ago, I had the chance to confess to Dr. Whitehurst in our local newspaper. Rather than taking offense, Whitehurst gamely issued a pardon on some Congressional stationery he still had lying around.
In a letter attached, he said he understood my chagrin and that whenever he received undeserved credit for an accomplishment, he followed what he called "Whitehurst's Eleventh Amendment," which states, "When There Is Good News, Stand Close To It."
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L in the Southeast
rita shibr
A Simple Shutterbug
sarah brennan
Alysa Salzberg
Theresa Rice
Salon.com
Comments
Whitehurst is the consummate Southern gentleman. He still teaches poli sci at Old Dominion. I was blown away that he sent me that funny pardon with a letter telling me how amused he was by the story.
A pamphlet put out by Compassion Over Killing says raising animals for food is one of the leading causes of both pollution and resource depletion today.
According to a recent United Nations report, Livestock's Long Shadow, raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other animals for food causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks and other forms of transportation combined.
Researchers from the University of Chicago similarly concluded that a vegetarian diet is the most energy efficient, and the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by not eating animal products than by switching to a hybrid car.
"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."
---Union Nations' Food and Agriculture Association
Nearly 75% of the grain grown and 50% of the water consumed in the U.S. are used by the meat industry. (Audubon Society)
Over 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to grow grain for livestock. (Greenpeace)
It takes nearly one gallon of fossil fuel and 5,200 gallons of water to produce just one pound of conventionally fed beef. (Mother Jones)
Farmed animals produce an estimated 1.4 billion tons of fecal waste each year in the U.S. Much of this untreated waste pollutes the land and water.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) estimates that more than 10 million animals worldwide are saved per year due to changing public opinion about the use of animal fur and the increased use of faux fur and other substitutes.
"It's easy to get a killer look without killing anyone. Because of the cruelty in the fur industry, designers such as Stella McCartney, Marc Bouwer, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and Liz Claiborne have all chosen to create wonderful work without using animal fur."
---PETA (10/20/2010)
According to the Winter 2008 Animal Action Report, published by the National Anti-Vivisection Society, it's a sign of the times for animals:
Half of the 200 law schools in the U.S. currently offer animal law classes. 119 student animal law organizations have been established in U.S. law schools. The American Bar Association has established an Animal Law Committee as part of its Tort Trial Insurance Practice Section. And 16 state bar associations and 11 city and regional bar associations have Animal Law Committees
According to a survey by the Center for Food Integrity (CFI)—an organization that is supported by the Monsanto Company, United Egg Producers, and the National Pork Producers Council, among many others—consumers are twice as likely to trust PETA on issues related to animal welfare than to trust farm organizations.
PETA is also trusted more than animal veterinarians, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, university experts, and industry advocacy groups. Farm Futures, a publication dedicated to corporate agribusiness, shared the survey conclusions and also the CFI's recommendations for agribusiness.
Members of contemporary Christian Vegan Metal bands speak out:
Jared Warth, bass for blessthefall:
"I actually first heard about peta2 from working with [Cody] and Kolby [from the peta2 outreach crew]. I think that protecting animals is a big part of Christianity. Animal abuse is a big problem in the world today, especially in animal fighting and animal testing.
"I feel animals shouldn't be used for these things. God did not intend for it to be this way, and humans should not take advantage of God's gift. I feel that we are more of Christians in a band—rather than a 'Christian band'—that want to send a positive message to kids."
Patrick Meadows, guitar for Gwen Stacy:
"I first became aware of PETA while I was in high school. I remember going to the Warped Tour every summer and seeing their tents, though I never really put much thought into it until I went to college. We're definitely a faith-based band, for sure. We try very hard not to be pushy about it though. We're more about mutual respect and building relationships with people. To me, a big part of Christianity is love, and I don't stop at just loving people, I guess. The idea of factory farming has always disgusted me."
Joe Lengson, bass for MyChildren MyBride:
"I first heard about peta2 at, I think, Warped Tour in Pomona, California. I saw the tents and the people trying to get signatures and I signed up. They gave me the DVD and all the booklets. … Then I started meeting people, and they started sending me stuff. Over the years I became aware of animal rights and turned veg[etarian] and vegan for a while...animal testing and the fur issue.
"Maybe about two years ago, a friend of mine from PETA sent me a bunch of stuff when you guys were doing the 'Fur [Is] Dead' campaign. … I looked into it and I was like, 'That is so messed up.'
"There are so many other things you can wear that are just the same [as fur]. I ended up wearing [that Fur Is Dead shirt] for a whole tour on stage...[A]t least try out being a vegetarian—that even makes a difference. … Educate yourself about the topic and learn what to give a crap about."
Eric Gregson, guitar for Sleeping Giant:
"I've been vegan for about 12 years now. I became aware of PETA in the late '90s as a result of my passion to end animal cruelty...I would consider Sleeping Giant a Christian band.
"Along with Sleeping Giant, I also pastor a church in Redlands, California. As I have studied the Bible, the nature and character of God has become more apparent to me. In Genesis, we see that God created a perfect world, and in that world animals were not mistreated, abused, or used for human consumption.
"That being said, I believe that God cares about all of His creation (including animals), and it was never in His heart or will for them to be mistreated. Jesus died to regain what was lost in that perfect world. Christians have much to learn about the heart of God."
The number of animals killed for food in the United States is nearly 75 times larger than the number of animals killed in laboratories, 30 times larger than the number killed by hunters and trappers, and 500 times larger than the number of animals killed in animal pounds.
peta2 is now the largest youth movement of any social change organization in the world.
peta2 has 267,000 friends on MySpace and 91,000 Facebook fans.
A few years ago, PETA was the top-ranked charity when a poll asked teenagers what nonprofit group they would most want to work for. PETA won by more than a 2 to 1 margin over the second place finisher, The American Red Cross, with more votes than the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity combined.
I think we would have hung out if we'd known each other as kids; I had a few imaginary clubs of my own - though nothing like this!