Is PETA Protecting Animals Or Profiting From A Shakedown Game?
One of the real travesties of the civil rights movement was watching it be perverted by folks like Jesse Jackson. At some point the movement stopped being about equality and started being about using victimhood as a leverage to shake down deep pockets.
The modus operandi used by Jackson and his ilk is to target some big company that might not have the politically-prescribed level of racial diversity in its employment and then threaten that company with oh-so-public protests and denouncements unless certain palms are greased the right away.
This has been going on for decades, but now another organization (this one claiming to fight for species rights instead of civil rights) has taken up this same method. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the high-profile animal rights group that routinely makes headlines with their wacky protest antics and naked celebrity advertising, has taken to shaking down big business interests.
PETA has a $34 million annual budget, but where does all that money come from? Donations from citizens concerned about animal rights? Or corporate sponsorship won through threats and arm-twisting?
The group has established a “Business Friends” hierarchy for corporate sponsorship, including “custom programs” for big-money sponsors.
You have to wonder how many of PETA’s attacks on businesses such as pet food companies have started off with those company’s competitors starting a “custom program” with PETA?
Also, PETA is often selective in who it targets with its animal rights outrage. When PETA has attacked the Kentucky Derby, for instance, the group backed boycotts and attacks on many of the Derby’s sponsor. One major sponsor that wasn’t targeted, however, was Visa.
And who just happens to be a platinum-level PETA sponsor? Why, Visa of course.
Which begs the question: Is PETA really about protecting animals? Or are they a protection racket using the animal rights cause as a way to muscle donations out of deep pockets?
