Was the Dalai Lama wrong to join with PETA to stop KFC?

[Karmadillo]

And what about Emmylou Harris, Paul McCartney, Jason Alexander, and Pamela Anderson. What could they have been thinking?

http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/dalailama.asp

KFC Abandons Plans to Enter Tibet

After receiving an appeal from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, KFC has abandoned plans to open its first restaurant in Tibet. The victory comes after international media coverage of His Holiness’ appeal, including this story from the BBC.

His Holiness is the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile and spiritual leader to the more than 350 million Buddhists worldwide. The Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, has long been known to speak out on social justice issues ranging from China’s occupation of Tibet to the problems associated with globalization. Now, His Holiness has lent his voice to the 750 million chickens raised and killed for KFC each year by writing a powerful appeal to KFC, asking the company to cancel its plans to expand its growing Chinese operation into his homeland of Tibet.

In his appeal, His Holiness writes, “On behalf of my friends at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), I am writing to ask that KFC abandon its plan to open restaurants in Tibet, because your corporation’s support for cruelty and mass slaughter violate Tibetan values … I have been particularly concerned with the sufferings of chickens for many years. It was the death of a chicken that finally strengthened my resolve to become vegetarian. … These days, when I see a row of plucked chickens hanging in a meat shop it hurts. I find it unacceptable that violence is the basis of some of our food habits. … It is therefore quite natural for me to support those who are currently protesting against the introduction of industrial food practices into Tibet that will perpetuate the suffering of huge numbers of chickens." Click here to read the entire letter.

The Dalai Lama wants KFC to stop slicing the beaks off baby birds without pain relief, stop breeding and drugging birds to grow so obese that their legs break and stop scalding millions of chickens to death in slaughterhouses every year. Click here for a complete explanation of PETA’s recommended changes for KFC.

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http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/EmmyLouHarris.asp

Emmylou Harris Steers Motorists Away From KFC

Motorists from coast to coast are getting some food for thought from Emmylou, who is urging them to boycott KFC as part of PETA's international campaign to pressure the restaurant chain to eliminate the cruelest practices in the intensive factory farms and slaughterhouses that supply it.

Chickens raised for KFC's restaurants are packed by the tens of thousands into extremely crowded sheds for their entire lives and are never able to do any of the things that come naturally to them. KFC routinely cuts the beaks off baby birds, it breeds and drugs chickens to grow so large, so quickly that the chickens actually become crippled under their own weight and can spend their entire lives in chronic pain. Because KFC refuses to heed the advice of the industry's most respected animal welfare experts, countless chickens have their throats slit and are dunked into tanks of scalding-hot water (for feather removal) while still completely conscious. When you see for yourself the ways in which these chickens are abused, you'll agree that these horrors must be stopped.

When Emmylou learned that millions of chickens are tortured in these horrible ways by KFC each year, she decided to join an ever-growing roster of high-profile PETA pals who are speaking up for these sensitive and intelligent animals. Sir Paul McCartney, Pamela Anderson, the Dalai Lama, and former KFC spokesperson Jason Alexander have all backed PETA's KFC boycott.

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[Modem Butterfly]

1. PETA doesn't have much credibility these days

[pie]

5. You are wrong wrong wrong

Do not discount PETA on the basis of
a few RW hit pieces circulating in the news.

PETA is kicking ass and taking names, as usual.
Someone must speak for the speechless.
PETA has an important mission and they do a damn good job:
"PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.

PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other 'pests,' and the abuse of backyard dogs."

[Modem Butterfly]

8. PETA causes animal suffering

Why on earth should anyone listen to them anymore?

[pie]

10. What you talkin' bout?

You are basing that 'opinion'
on one article put out there by
the likes of Tyson Foods to discredit
PETA. You owe it to yourself to look into
PETA. They do great work (I should know).

[chicagomd]

12. Hey pie,

Do you know anyone with Polio? I bet you don’t. Do you have any idea WHY that disease is almost non-existent in the US today? Let me help you out here: Animal testing. Same thing with small pox, but I digress…

How about diabetes? Do you know anyone living with this disease? I bet you do. In fact, a senior member of PETA suffers from this condition. Do you have any idea WHY they are alive? Insulin. You know where that insulin came from? You guessed it: Animal testing.

Getting people excited and motivated politically is fantastic and PETA does a great job of it, but to say “Someone must speak for the speechless” in todays society in reference to rabbits? Are you kidding me? How about the rape victims in Afghanistan, or the survivors of ethnic cleansing in various parts of Africa? Jesus, how about the thousands being detained by our own government, or the thousands our government has killed in the name of phantom WMDs? Humanity as a whole seems to have issues dealing with ITSELF humanly. Excuse the phrase, but there are bigger fish to fry.

But I am glad we have an organization 800,000 members strong doing its best to impede scientific advancement, protect the rights of chickens, and vilify people for killing mosquitoes.

[Karmadillo]

14. Here's a link to PETA's FAQ on animal testing. It even

addresses your concerns about polio.

http://www.peta.org/about/faq-viv.asp

“Isn’t animal testing responsible for every major medical advance?”

Medical historians have shown that improved nutrition and sanitation standards and other behavioral and environmental factors—rather than knowledge gained from animal experiments—are responsible for the decreasing number of deaths from common infectious diseases since 1900 and that medicine has had little to do with increased life expectancy. Many of the most important advances in the field of health care can be attributed to human studies, which have led to major medical breakthroughs, such as the development of anesthesia, the stethoscope, morphine, radium, penicillin, artificial respiration, x-rays, antiseptics, and CAT, MRI, and PET scans; the study of bacteriology and germ theory; the discovery of the link between cholesterol and heart disease and the link between smoking and cancer; and the isolation of the virus that causes AIDS. Animal testing played no role in these or many other important medical developments.

Visit StopAnimalTests.com to learn more about animal testing and its alternatives.

“But weren’t animals used to develop many of the important treatments that we use today, such as the polio vaccine?”

In fact, two separate bodies of work were done on polio: the in vitro work, which was awarded the Nobel Prize and did not involve animals, and the animal tests, in which a staggering number of animals were killed. Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg noted that for 40 years, experiments on monkeys who had been infected with polio generated “limited progress” toward a cure. The breakthrough came when scientists learned how to grow the virus from human and monkey cells

Certainly, some medical developments were the result of cruel animal tests, but that does not mean that the developments would not have been possible without animal testing or that the primitive techniques used in the 1800s are still valid today. It’s impossible to say where we would be if we had declined to experiment on animals because throughout medical history, very few resources have been devoted to non-animal research methods. In fact, because animal experiments frequently give misleading results with regard to human health, we’d probably be better off if we hadn’t relied on animal testing for so long.

Read more about the humane alternatives to animal testing.

“Don't scientists have a responsibility to use animals in order to find cures for human diseases?”

Educating people and encouraging them to avoid fat and cholesterol, quit smoking, reduce alcohol and other drug consumption, exercise regularly, and clean up the environment will save more human lives and prevent more human suffering than all the animal tests in the world. Animal tests are primitive, and modern technology and human clinical tests are much more effective and reliable.

Even if we had no alternative to using animals, which is not the case, animal testing would still be ethically unacceptable. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “You do not settle whether an experiment is justified or not by merely showing that it is of some use. The distinction is not between useful and useless experiments, but between barbarous and civilized behaviour.” After all, there are probably some medical problems that can only be cured by testing on unwilling humans, but we don’t conduct such tests because we recognize that it would be wrong to do so.

Watch footage from PETA’s groundbreaking investigation of a primate lab in Maryland.

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[chicagomd]

24. Response:

Forgive me if I am somewhat skeptical of information give out on a PETA FAQ. But here are some responses to the points you brought up. Let me say that I do not disagree with everything PETA stands for, but there is nothing respectable about fanaticism.


“Isn’t animal testing responsible for every major medical advance?”

-This is a worthless question. Of course EVERY medical advance is NOT a direct result of animal testing and experimentation, but a whole lot of them are. Yes, nutrition and sanitation have helped life expectancy greatly in the US. (That statement as nothing to do with medical advances, so I have no idea why it was put under that question. Mabye the webmaster did a poor "cut and paste" job.)



“But weren’t animals used to develop many of the important treatments that we use today, such as the polio vaccine?”

http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/polio.html

-Good information on the polio vaccination program and the research leading up to it at the link above. By PETAs own admission, "monkey cells" were critical in the development of this vaccine. I guess PETA's standards for research on animals varies depending on the outcome of the study.


“Don't scientists have a responsibility to use animals in order to find cures for human diseases?”

Educating people and encouraging them to avoid fat and cholesterol, quit smoking, reduce alcohol and other drug consumption, exercise regularly, and clean up the environment will save more human lives and prevent more human suffering than all the animal tests in the world. Animal tests are primitive..."

-OK, this is my favorite question/response in your entire reply. Animal models in research today are predominatly used to garner an understanding of how proteins, cells, DNA, etc. work. The majority of this research is not directly applicable to humans in its basic form. However, without the understanding which this research provides, advances in understanding human disease are next to impossible. You cannot learn how to fix something if you don't know how it works.

Animal tests are far from primitive, they occur in the most advanced laboratories around the world. If animals were truely useless and "primitive" as scientific subjects, then they would not be used. Money for research is very, very, tight these days. If something doesn't work well, it does not get funded, and goes away. Don't take my word for it, try actually having a conversation with one of the people who do this research.

The statement PETA makes talking about smoking, exercise, etc. is completely true, and it has NOTHING TO DO WITH ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION. Everyone knows that smoking, not exercising, and to much alcohol is bad for you. But if PETA believes that behavioral changes are all that is required to have a health, happy, world, then they should change their focus from protesting research institutions to an anti-smoking, healthy eating, exercising campaign. By their logic this would do more to protect animals from the evils of animal experiemtation better than anything else.

"Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt."
-Robertson Davies

[pie]

6. PETA has over 800,000 members!

With more real Dems per capita than the DLC!

[Karmadillo]

21. Looking at PETA's accomplishments over the past 20 or so years

suggests maybe the Dems could learn something from PETA about running an effective organization.

[JuniperLea]

2. I love animals...

However, until such a time as all the children of the world are clean, fed, educated and properly housed, I feel it's disgusting to spend so much time, money and energy on animals. When all our children are cared for properly, I'll join PETA, but not until that happens!

[shockra]

16. Which will never happen...

As long as rich nations depend largely on animal products for food, which is a point John Robbins makes as well as anyone in Diet for a New America.

[AlienGirl]

18. Do you really think it's a one-or-the-other thing?

Do you own pets? If you do, how do you justify spending money on food for them instead of food for your local food bank?

I'm not a PETA member either, but I think people have been duped into seeing compassion as a limited resource, of which there is only so much to go around. I don't agree--I think there's compassion enough for all.

Tucker

[Kraklen]

3. I hear the Dalai Lama's been going around killing dead dogs.

My neighbor said he raped her poodle. If I were PETA I wouldn't trust the guy.

[pie]

9. Yes, that is what he does. He also eats them alive!

Anyway, you cannot trust anyone who expresses an interest in saving
animals. It's too.... Democratic!

[Kraklen]

11. It's like my mom always taught me.

"Stay away from odd numbered incarnations of Buddhas of Compassion."

[JuniperLea]

13. feed the children first~!

then worry about the animals!

[Karmadillo]

19. I'm not sure you can separate the two.

http://www.jewishveg.com/schwartz/winars.html

<edit>

B. Why are you concerned about animals when there are so many problems facing people today?

1. As indicated above, one of the main causes for many human problems is our mistreatment of animals. A shift to vegetarianism is arguably the most important thing that a person can do for his or her health, for the environment, for billions of hungry people, and, of course for animals.

2. Vegetarianism is not only an important personal choice today, but it is increasingly a societal imperative. The production and consumption of animal products has very negative economic and ecological effects. In 1993, almost 1,700 of the world's scientists from 70 countries, including 104 Nobel laureates, signed a "World Scientists Warning to Humanity", which stated that "a great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated." A shift to vegetarianism is an essential one of the changes necessary to help steer our imperiled planet away from its present dangerous path.

3. Many of the problems facing people today are the result of lack of respect for others' lives. Concern for animals teaches respect for the sanctity of life. While one may strive for one's own betterment, it is not acceptable to cause suffering to others in the process.

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[livinginphotographs]

4. No.

n/t

[MisterP]

7. oo, Alexander

TWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIXXXXXXXX!!!

[Merope215]

15. Why would that be wrong?

Another PETA thread in GD. Man, I can hardly wait.

[MisterP]

17. because we must kill everything in our way, dont'cha know?

we're the master rac--species

[Merope215]

20. oh, that's right

I forgot. :eyes:

[Lerkfish]

22. how could the dalai lama be wrong?

he's making a decision that apparently he has the position to make. therefore its not a wrong decision, its just not a decisiont that makes KFC happy.
there is no moral imperative for KFC to make a profit in TIbet, is there?

I mean, if someone from another country wanted to serve dog, rat and cats as entrees, you can be sure we'd object and block that restaurant, even if such a restaurant were acceptable in their country, right?

no there's no "wrong" here.

[Tinoire]

23. Of course not. PETA Rocks!! n/t