PETA for My.Kali
The New Dress Code!
"Once-upon a time, at an animal farm far, far away..." A Lettuce Lady Speaks Out
By Ashley Fruno
Not too long ago, during a sweltering day in Amman, I was helping a Jordanian woman with her clothing: a full-length gown made from real lettuce leaves. She struggled to hold the sign, which read, “Let Vegetarianism Grow on You”, but was otherwise fine. We were both excited. As a crowd of onlookers gathered around us and the flashes from reporters’ cameras started, I got the same looks I’ve received since I first started animal rights activism.
“Why are you doing this for animals?” these people seemed to be saying.
Animals Matter Too
Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather and going to circuses and zoos. Many of us bought our beloved “pets” at pet shops. We kept fish in tiny bowls and kept beautiful birds in cages. We wore wool and silk, ate shawarma and even fished. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. But thanks to the efforts of so many, including this brave Lettuce Lady, many people, including you, are now asking the question “Should animals have rights?”
Quite simply, the answer is “Yes!” Animals surely deserve to live their lives free from suffering and exploitation, just as we all deserve to. The philosopher Jeremy Bentham said that when deciding on a being’s rights, “The question is not ‘Can they reason?’ nor ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they suffer?’”
The capacity for suffering is not just another characteristic, like the capacity for language or higher mathematics. All animals have the ability to suffer in the same way and to the same degree that humans do. They feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness and love. Whenever we consider doing something that would interfere with their needs, we are morally obligated to take those needs into account.
(Pictures): 25th of July 2010, Lettuce covered women, and GAGA has nothing on Amina Tareq and red-head PETA organizer Ashley Fruno who had demonstrated for PETA at the 1st circle in Jabal Amman, calling for vegetarianism, carrying a sign that reads . ‘Let Vegetarianism Grow on You’ in both languages, Arabic and English.
"The police detained our Lettuce Lady, who only encouraged kindness by asking people to go vegetarian" Ashley said. |
Supporters of animal rights, like the Lettuce Lady in Amman, believe that all animals have inherent worth – a value completely separate from their usefulness to humans. We believe that every being – human and non-human alike – has a right to live free from pain and suffering, to be secure from violation and harm. Animal rights is not just a lofty ideal – it is a social movement that challenges society’s traditional view that all non-human animals exist solely for our use. Every animal values his or her life and fights to escape the knife. As an organization, PETA focuses on alleviating the horrible suffering inflicted on billions of animals every day, and this ethic underlies all our actions.
Only prejudice allows us to deny others the rights that we expect to have for ourselves. Whether it’s based on race, gender, sexual orientation or species, prejudice is morally unacceptable. If we believe that it is ugly and wrong to enslave humans, why do we enslave elephants – who, like us, mourn their dead and remember friends and relatives from years past – in zoos and circuses? If you wouldn’t eat a dog, why would you eat a goat? Dogs and goats have the same capacity to feel pain. It is prejudice based on species that allows us to think of one animal as a companion and the other as dinner.
Helping Animals, Helping Ourselves
PETA’s actions on behalf of animals tend to help humans as well. Our Lettuce Ladies, for instance, advocate a humane vegetarian diet that not only saves countless animals from abuse and slaughter each year but also protects humans against heart disease, cancer, strokes and many other debilitating conditions. Eliminating intensive factory farming would also save vast amounts of precious water and topsoil – resources that we are losing at an alarming rate to non-renewable activities such as breeding and raising animals for food.
Not every animal we are trying to help is imprisoned on a factory farm, of course. PETA also fights for animals who are tormented in laboratories, on fur farms and in circuses and zoos, among many other places. Life holds nothing but unrelieved misery for the abused and terrified cows, rabbits, foxes, elephants and other animals who are treated as nothing more than food, laboratory tools, curiosities to be gaped at or fashion accessories. Most people are unaware of the cruelty that these animals endure every day – it’s PETA’s job to make them aware.
Only prejudice allows us to deny others the rights that we expect to have for ourselves. Whether it’s based on race, gender, sexual orientation or species, prejudice is morally unacceptable. If we believe that it is ugly and wrong to enslave humans, why do we enslave elephants – who, like us, mourn their dead and remember friends and relatives from years past – in zoos and circuses? If you wouldn’t eat a dog, why would you eat a goat? Dogs and goats have the same capacity to feel pain. It is prejudice based on species that allows us to think of one animal as a companion and the other as dinner.
Helping Animals, Helping Ourselves
PETA’s actions on behalf of animals tend to help humans as well. Our Lettuce Ladies, for instance, advocate a humane vegetarian diet that not only saves countless animals from abuse and slaughter each year but also protects humans against heart disease, cancer, strokes and many other debilitating conditions. Eliminating intensive factory farming would also save vast amounts of precious water and topsoil – resources that we are losing at an alarming rate to non-renewable activities such as breeding and raising animals for food.
Not every animal we are trying to help is imprisoned on a factory farm, of course. PETA also fights for animals who are tormented in laboratories, on fur farms and in circuses and zoos, among many other places. Life holds nothing but unrelieved misery for the abused and terrified cows, rabbits, foxes, elephants and other animals who are treated as nothing more than food, laboratory tools, curiosities to be gaped at or fashion accessories. Most people are unaware of the cruelty that these animals endure every day – it’s PETA’s job to make them aware.
"We educate fur-wearers about the animals who languish for days in steel-jaw traps and about those who are confined to tiny, filthy wire cages on fur farms..."
And that’s exactly why many of us do what we can to draw attention to the suffering that animals endure – even if it means, say, hitting the streets of Amman wearing a dress made of lettuce leaves. By holding colorful protests, we capture people’s attention and show them that on factory farms, baby chicks are de-beaked with hot wires, sometimes losing parts of their tiny tongues to the painful procedure. We can take people inside laboratories and show them chimpanzees imprisoned for life in cages barely larger than their own bodies and rabbits with eyes oozing from oven cleaner and other household products.
(Pictures right) First; Khloe Kardashian unveiling her cover for PETA poster held on Melrose Avenue in L.A., CA –. Under; Eva Mendes unveiled her 'I'd Rather Go Naked... Than Wear Fur' poster for PETA at Corner of Robertson Blvd and Alden, Los Angeles.
We educate fur-wearers about the animals who languish for days in steel-jaw traps and about those who are confined to tiny, filthy wire cages on fur farms, their lives cut short by gassing, anal electrocution or neck-breaking.
And we expose the abuse that goes on behind the scenes at circuses, where animals are denied the opportunity to satisfy their basic needs to exercise, roam, socialize, forage and play and are hauled around the country in poorly ventilated trailers and boxcars for up to 50 weeks a year in all kinds of extreme weather conditions. We take people past the bright lights and glitter and show them that animals who would never ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls or jump through rings of fire of their own accord are “trained” with whips, tight collars, electric prods, bull-hooks and other tools to perform these frightening, uncomfortable acts.
In today’s world of virtually unlimited choices, continuing to exploit animals is simply unacceptable. We have the power to spare animals prolonged pain and suffering by making better choices about the food we eat, the things we buy and the activities we support. And in the meantime, you can count on seeing Lettuce Ladies and other colorful PETA supporters out on the streets, helping to spread the word.
(Pictures right) First; Khloe Kardashian unveiling her cover for PETA poster held on Melrose Avenue in L.A., CA –. Under; Eva Mendes unveiled her 'I'd Rather Go Naked... Than Wear Fur' poster for PETA at Corner of Robertson Blvd and Alden, Los Angeles.
We educate fur-wearers about the animals who languish for days in steel-jaw traps and about those who are confined to tiny, filthy wire cages on fur farms, their lives cut short by gassing, anal electrocution or neck-breaking.
And we expose the abuse that goes on behind the scenes at circuses, where animals are denied the opportunity to satisfy their basic needs to exercise, roam, socialize, forage and play and are hauled around the country in poorly ventilated trailers and boxcars for up to 50 weeks a year in all kinds of extreme weather conditions. We take people past the bright lights and glitter and show them that animals who would never ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls or jump through rings of fire of their own accord are “trained” with whips, tight collars, electric prods, bull-hooks and other tools to perform these frightening, uncomfortable acts.
In today’s world of virtually unlimited choices, continuing to exploit animals is simply unacceptable. We have the power to spare animals prolonged pain and suffering by making better choices about the food we eat, the things we buy and the activities we support. And in the meantime, you can count on seeing Lettuce Ladies and other colorful PETA supporters out on the streets, helping to spread the word.