I agree the PETA folks who I once ran into in front of DICKS scared my kid and it almost came to blows. Though I agree and I try to eat as little meat as possible, their tactics are useless.

One more thing, it seems that the protesters you posted are Italians that seem to be protesting the kind of food that are fed to cows in Europe. I think is the same group from that French dude that was here during the WTO and they smashed a Mickey D's window. Whatever they are, they dont appear to be PETA.

They're holding PETA signs...

R u sure those are Peta signs? Ferma Sanguinosa corrida, I think means Stop the running of the bull. Maybe theyre italians protesting bulls running over people in Pamplona? Hell, I dont know. Thats not really cruel to the bulls. Unless corrida means bull fight, but I dont think so. Maybe it means something else in Italian. Italians arent known vegeterians, they eat pork like crazy.

Sarah, this is a great post, but c'mon.

Whenever some hippie-punk runaway looking dude comes up to you for some some gas money, and shows you his empty-gas can! Do you believe that's what the dollar you give him is for?

These folks look like fun partiers who enjoy a half-baked PC excuse to wear, or not-wear, something funky in public.

Seme,
I think you and Sarah are both right. If I remember that photo correctly (and I try to remember all pictures of naked Italians) it is the Italian branch of PETA protesting the running of the bulls.

Does nobody find it ironic that PETA members are holding a protest, and dragging along their enslaved canine?

It's only cruel if you make a hat out of them.

BC: Does nobody find it ironic that PETA members are holding a protest, and dragging along their enslaved canine?

I realize you're just trying to be snide, but let me give a serious answer anyway.

The whole idea of companion animals has been a serious topic of discussion in the animal rights/welfare movement. And I think there are a lot of activists who have pets and are still seriously torn about it.

The reality is that dogs and cats as species have already been domesticated. And it's not presumptuous to say that, if they're well taken care of, they're not suffering. Maybe the more damning observation is that, here are folks who believe that killing other creatures for food is wrong, and yet they have pets who eat other creatures.

Actually, I believe a lot of ethical vegetarians who have pets try to make them vegetarian too. Dogs -- I can see. They'll eat anything. Cats? Now that strikes me as wanting to have your virtue and eat it too. It also strikes me as cruelty to animals -- the animals being the cats. I've heard advocates for "feline vegetarianism" get very combative when anyone challenges their views.

As for the broader insinuation that animal rights/welfare activists are just a bunch of hypocrites… Well, the ones I know are almost to a person vegetarian, or even vegan. They really do walk the walk.

In fact, you'll probably find a heck of a lot more hypocrisy among grassroots activists in just about any other activist movement. For example, most of the grassroots transit activists I know are so (A) hypocritical and (B) nutty that, if you took their standards of behavior and belief and applied those to animal rights, it would be like having an animal rights group where most of the members were full-fledged meat-eaters. And not just that, but a good portion of the group would believe that pork is cruel but beef is okay, another good portion would believe that beef is cruel but pork is okay, and then they would spend all their time arguing about this difference.

Cressona,

I think you're right - most animal rights activists are not hypocrites. Rather, they are zealots, which in my opinion, is much worse.

I feel sorry for their cats, but even more so for their children, who are fed such crappy food, and who, like their parents, are isolated from all of the socializing that happens around eating. I sometimes wonder whether veganism is a cousin of anorexia. Thank God I wasn't born to vegan parents.

Sean:

Seriously? I'm not a vegetarian but I eat a lot of vegetarian food, and if it is well prepared (like any food) is far from "crappy." What an idiotic thing to say.

Cressona, you're right that those little dustmops are domesticated. In fact, they're a species fully dependent on human beings for survival. Not entirely unlike: Cattle, chickens and pigs.

On the other hand, I do hope little Scruffy there was rescued from the pound, and not purchased from a breeder. I'd hate to think Ms. Virtuous there was supporting the breeding of species for human dependence. (Yes. Snide. I find the arrogant inanity of most animal rights activists to be alternately hilarious and repulsive.)