PETA suffers from foot in mouth disease

by Denny Banister

With the terrible outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Europe, and the scare over mad cow disease, some American farmers are worried the problems could affect livestock here in the United States. They have faith in the protections provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), but farmers have no faith in the ethics of PETA.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, openly seeks a world of total vegetarians. That’s fine – they have a right to their opinions and beliefs. But these people who claim they want ethical treatment for animals apparently are willing to see the extinction of the animals they claim they want to protect in order to force you and me to become vegetarians. Bear with me while I explain.

PETA’s president, Ingrid Newkirk, was more than candid in her remarks when expressing her hope for a domestic outbreak of foot and mouth disease in America’s livestock. “It would wake up consumers,” she said. “I openly hope it comes here.

“It will bring economic harm only for those who profit from giving people heart attacks and giving animals a concentration camp-like existence,” Newkirk said. “It would be good for animals, good for human health and good for the environment.”

PETA suffers from foot in mouth disease, and some farmers feel paranoid – believing people with agendas like PETA not only favor the diseases coming to America, but would do anything they could to ensure it happens. In fact, some farmers believe if either disease does infect livestock in this country, it would be from sabotage since the USDA’s efforts to protect against an outbreak are so thorough.

Frankly, by objecting to PETA’s remarks and tactics, I am playing right into their hands. PETA does not really care how outrageous their remarks are if they succeed in getting attention for their cause, and by my criticism of their ethics, I am actually furthering their publicity.

But I question PETA’s so-called concern for ethical treatment of animals. Personally, I think PETA’s ethical concerns are merely a front – a means to a vegetarian end. If PETA really believes a vegan world would allow cattle, hogs, chickens and other livestock to live a longer life, they have not considered what would happen to these animals if farmers could no longer market them.

Do they think livestock would continue to be well fed and cared for? Do they think farmers would be able to spend their time as keepers of livestock? All the land now used for pasture, land too hilly to be plowed, would have to indeed be plowed to raise vegetables. Livestock would eventually become extinct as a result of starvation and disease. How’s that for ethics?

In reality, farmers would have to destroy their livestock since they would be unable to afford to feed or care for them – farmers will not watch their animals slowly starve to death or succumb to disease. The only cows, pigs and other livestock remaining would be in zoos.

Soil from the newly plowed, hilly pastureland would quickly erode into non-productive wasteland, no longer capable of raising vegetables or animals. This could result in worldwide human hunger. But at least people coming to see my emaciated body at the funeral home would be able to say, “He certainly looks ethical, doesn’t he?”

(Denny Banister of Jefferson City, Mo., is assistant director of information and public relations for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)