Shame on you PETA. I have been a long time believer in your cause and think your ads with celebrities going naked instead of wearing fur is wonderful but this latest contest is tasteless, hateful, and illogical and undermines your cause by belittling another worthy cause.
Ok, fuck it. I’m not going to be diplomatic here – this really pisses me off. PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, launched a contest to win a vasectomy for National Infertility Awareness Week. Yeah, for NIAW.
In honor of National Infertility Awareness Week (April 24 to 30), PETA will give one free vasectomy to a man who has recently had his companion cat or dog neutered.
In honor? IN FUCKING HONOR? Are you kidding me?? What next? A free breast augmentation for Breast Cancer Awareness Week? I’m so disgusted I could just spit. Their explanation is,
Every year in the U.S., an estimated 6 to 8 million lost, abandoned, or unwanted dogs and cats enter animal shelters. The best way to combat the companion-animal overpopulation crisis is to have your cat or dog neutered. And with a global population of almost 7 billion humans, more of our species could use a (voluntary) snip too.
A good point about the out of control animal population. This is a worthy cause which is then muddied by the insulting dig that perhaps the infertile should just take a hint and help reduce the global population as well? So, they have decided to use the week dedicated to the disease of infertility, an illness that effects 1 in 8 couples in this country – which they suffer from involuntarily – to discuss the need to voluntarily sterilize humans and animals.
To add insult to injury they have issued an “apology” on their Facebook page:
We meant no offense to those who are struggling to conceive. Please know that there are many people who wish to be sterilized—it’s those people that we’re aiming to reach…We know that this offer might raise a few eyebrows, but it will also raise awareness by generating the kind of media coverage of the cat and dog overpopulation crisis that money could never buy.
How is it no one at PETA had second thoughts about this? So, there are people that wish to be sterilized? Must they be reached during the week designed to bring awareness to the disease of infertility?? I know that PETA prides itself on being over the top – normally I don’t mind that. A naked picture of Alicia Silverstone “raises eyebrows” too and might make a person think about fur in a different manner. However, this “shock campaign” does not depend on the degradation of a diseased minority. Is there no limit to the means they will use to “generate media coverage” for the cat and dog overpopulation?
Imagine if PETA had a contest to give away faux fried chicken for Black History Month. Would it generate media coverage? Hell yes. At whose expense?
PETA can think it is just creating “media” stir but what they are doing is mocking the pain – physical and emotional – of a real medical condition suffered by millions in the one week set aside to educate people about the condition. Their timing is intentionally antagonistic and cruel. I am personally hurt by the callousness of this “contest” during a week when I reflect on my years of infertility and my friends still under the dark cloud of the disease.
Additionally it undermines the worthy cause of reducing the pet population by shadowing it with their bad form. Bob Barker did much better with a simple statement.
I, for one, wash my hands of PETA. They will never receive another dollar from me. There are other organizations, like the Humane Society, that help animals through responsible spay/neuter programs without feeling the need to step on the innocent.
Join me in telling PETA President Ingrid Newkirk that infertility is not a joke and demand an apology for and immediate removal of the link between their campaign and National Infertility Awareness Week by signing this petition.
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