In the first chapter of Genesis, verses 26 – 28, God clearly put mankind in charge of managing all wildlife He had created. Now, this does not give us any excuse to mismanage wildlife, or to abuse pets or domestic livestock. In fact, farmers, ranchers, and outdoor-sportsmen are the best conservationists on earth, because we all know that these animals represent our living and the continuation of our hunting, fishing and trapping. I say all this in preface to a list of some recent accomplishments and requests made by our well-intentioned but mislead brethren from the animals-rights activist group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.)
I realize common sense is a flower that doesn’t grow in everyone’s garden, but if common sense and factual information are used to make decisions and to form opinions rather than emotions alone, then there are some things that should not need said. For instance, PETA has convinced some pretty major corporations like Coca Cola, Jack Daniels, Wells Fargo and Alaska Airlines to name a few, to withdraw their sponsorship from what PETA calls the “deadly” Iditarod sled dog race. Now, anyone that knows anything about working dogs knows that sled dogs and livestock dogs literally live to work, and the worst thing you can do to working dogs is to deny them that lifestyle. And working dogs are treated by their owners better than many humans.
PETA has also advised that we stop calling each other “anti-animal” slurs like chicken, turkey, pig etc. as those words promote the “myth” that humans are superior (I think we dealt with that in the opening paragraph.) PETA says “Anti-animal slurs degrade animals by applying negative human traits to certain species. For instance, snakes are clever, have family relationships and prefer to associate with their relatives.” (I haven’t a clue what that statement has to do with anything.) Some PETA suggested replacement words are as follows; instead of chicken, say coward, instead of rat, say snitch, instead of snake, say jerk and so on and so forth. Drive-thru workers at fast food establishments will be really confused when you order coward nuggets and fries (just sayin’.)
If the above “anti-animal” slurs distress PETA people so much, one can only imagine how anguished they must get when certain phrases are used, such as “kill two birds with one stone,” “beat a dead horse,” “bring home the bacon,” “take the bull by the horns” and “more than one way to skin a cat.” I can literally feel their corks about to pop. Oh, they have suggested replacement phrases for all those I listed, but I’ll not use the space to print them as they make no sense.
Now it’s no surprise that PETA has a beef (ooops, better not use that term) with fur trapping and the fur industry in general, but now they say that “wool is just as cruel as fur.” PETA offers no explanation for this, so I can only presume it’s because wool has to be sheared from the sheep. Obviously, no PETA member has ever been a sheep shearer. I shore many sheep when I wore a younger man’s clothes, and trust me, the sheep ALWAYS gets the better end of the deal. And have you ever seen a sheep that has gone unshorn for most of its life? They become a filthy, disgusting walking matted mass of wool and are miserable.
And professional sports are not immune to scolding from PETA either. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the “bull pen” in Major League Baseball where pitchers warm up. PETA suggests it now be called the “arm barn” because the term bull pen “mocks misery of sensitive animals.” Now, I’ve heard bulls called many names, most not printable here, but sensitive was never among them.
In the National Football League there is a penalty for making a “horse-collar tackle,” where a player is grabbed and held by the back of their jersey and flung violently to the ground from behind. You guessed it…PETA says that term horse-collar tackle should cease to be used because it “makes light of using tight harnesses to exploit horses for labor” (I’ll wager there are few PETA members among the Amish.)
Well, there you have it, just a few of the most recently suggested corrections to our midwestern lifestyle from the group known as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or as we “unwoke” Midwesterners prefer to call them, People Eating Tasty Animals.) I can’t wait to see the blowback I get for using that term…Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!
Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].
