Pity poor PETA. In addition to opponents in law enforcement and the IRS (not to mention the Center for Consumer Freedom), sometimes activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have to contend with the wrath of actual consumers.
On Friday a PETA protest against milk in Scotland went sour when grammar school children in Aberdeen shouted “milk for the masses” and pelted PETA activists with cartons of milk. The Scotsman reports that about 100 kids surrounded PETA’s Sean Gifford and his cow-costumed partner, and “drenched them in milk for about ten minutes” before two female police officers arrived to rescue the animal-rights zealots.
PETA’s anti-dairy effort has had a run of similar bad press lately, all of it self-inflicted.
In a masthead editorial, The Ventura County Star noted that the Federal Trade Commission had flatly rejected a ridiculous PETA complaint against the California Milk Advisory Board.
A few weeks back, The New York Post noted with appropriate glee that Minnesota dairymen and their political cohorts braved pouring rain to protest PETA supporter Alec Baldwin’s appearance at a fundraiser for Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN). The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that as Baldwin arrived, protesters held signs reading “Baldwin and PETA — udderly ridiculous.” Internet news portal Newsmax.com called the signs “a clear reference to Baldwin’s efforts on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to outlaw milk.”
The Toledo Blade editorialized recently that while PETA’s campaigns might be “cutting-edge clever,” it’s still “difficult to cry crocodile tears for an outfit that writes checks to environmental radicals who burn down buildings, destroy property, fire-bomb businesses, and commit other violent acts.”
