PETA and Michael Vick

One of the things you can always count on PETA to be in entertaining, especially if you like your humor dark and your protesters naked.  Admittedly, they’re probably best known for stripping at KFC than making sense, but, hey, who can complain about a campaign I can only call “chicks for chickens.”  Which is why I find their recent snarkiness in the direction of Michael Vick troubling.  Now, don’t get me wrong — this isn’t going to turn into some defense of dog-fighting, Michael Vick or pit bulls.  But let me ask you a question — who would you rather leave your pet with?  I’ll give you a minute…

Ok… those of you who figured this one was a trick question, give yourself a gold star.

“According to public records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 2,124 pets last year and placed only seven in adoptive homes. Since 1998, a total of 21,339 dogs and cats have died at the hands of PETA workers.

Despite having a $32 million budget, PETA does not operate an adoption shelter. PETA employees make no discernible effort to find homes for the thousands of pets they kill every year. Last year, the Center for Consumer Freedom petitioned Virginia’s State Veterinarian to reclassify PETA as a slaughterhouse.”

This is the group that thinks that Michael Vick’s personal problems with the care and feeding of animals ought to require that he undergo a brain-scan prior to any potential reinstatement to football.  Glossing over the hypocrisy for the moment, do you *really* want to empower *anyone* to scan your brain and decide whether or not you’re fit to do you job, based on a picture and a view of neurology that barely qualifies as a theory?  From the PETA web-page, via the Fifth Down…

“Vick’s behavior seems to fit the American Psychiatric Association profile for anti-social personality disorder (APD). People with APD are commonly referred to as “psychopaths”. They are usually male, often charming, prone to lying and manipulation, and incapable of genuine remorse. They can also take pleasure in inflicting cruelty.

Before the NFL even considers the possibility of allowing Vick back into the League, where he will be in a position to influence many fans, including countless children, PETA wants the League to require him to undergo a brain scan, coupled with a structured, standardized test (e.g, the Psychopathy Checklist, approved by the American Psychiatric Association). If Vick emerges from these examinations without evidence of psychopathy, this may mean that he has the capacity to express true remorse. If he is a psychopath, the chances of recidivism are great and remorse is virtually impossible.”

Now, I personally think this is a long-shot, but, hey, there’s always the Raiders… but I digress.  What would you call a group that, despite their passionate pleas that animals be treated in a humane, “ethical” manner and routinely kills animals left in its care?  Frankly, I think they might just be psychopathic, if one can go about anthropomorphizing a whole organization.  To save the animal from degradation, they had to kill it.  I seem to recall that logic being uttered somewhere else.  Maybe before they get to kill their next puppy, the leadership of PETA should undergo a “brain scan”.