Americans accustomed to hearing People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) describe vegetarianism as a moral imperative are sometimes shocked to learn about the group’s less-than-moral “black eyes” — advocating arson and funding domestic terrorists, for example. Now add an Education Manager (Jacqueline Domac, the employee tasked with outreach to children) who engaged in a long-term tryst with a 16-year-old high-school actor while she was his tutor.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2003 that Domac later sued the actor — Terminator 2 co-star Eddie Furlong — for a portion of his earnings, calling the relationship “quasi-spousal.” The story re-entered the headlines last year after it was censored from a newspaper written by students at Furlong’s old school. Furlong first acknowledged the live-in relationship on the television show “A Current Affair” in 1994 — when he was 16 and Domac was 30. Furlong’s aunt and legal guardian told the show’s host, Maury Povich: “I think there is manipulation there, because Eddie is so vulnerable.” The Montreal Gazette reported in 1996 that the pair were engaged to be married.
Domac complained in April that animal agriculture programs like Future Farmers of America “send a confusing and dangerous message to children.” Perhaps a teacher preying on a teenager without any apparent remorse poses a much bigger threat.
Visitors to our nation’s capitol are accustomed to the unusual, but lunchtime Washington sightseers today might stumble on something truly disturbing: a pair of activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) stripped to their underwear, making a public display of their animal attraction. PETA calls it the “make-out tour,” and its aim is to spread the myth that vegetarians enjoy a higher level of sexual performance. Baltimore tourists yesterday called it “an attention-getter.” But New Haven, CT residents last week had other words in mind. One store manager near PETA’s chosen rendezvous complained: “I don’t think this is funny! You got small kids walking around here!” Passersby weren’t impressed either. “They need to eat more pork!” called one audience member. “I eat pork and I can bounce better than that!” yelled another.
In 1993 the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow first aired a series of one-minute radio commentaries called “Just the Facts.” Eleven years later, the program is heard every day on hundreds of radio stations nationwide. Today’s offering, titled “PETA’s thrust into classrooms,” features the Center for Consumer Freedom. PETA activists, our spokesman says, “use obscene and violent messages to direct teens into a life of vandalism, burglary, and arson. PETA reaches more than two million kids each year, but most parents don’t even know that their children are being targeted.” To listen to this radio commentary, click here.
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that PETA is highlighting “101 perfectly legal things people can do to bring about a better life for animals.” Why make a distinction between legal and illegal activities? As the Times notes, “A sign of how diverse the animal rights community has become is the emergence of more militant groups that have vandalized homes and sabotaged labs that use animals for scientific tests.” While PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said her group “can’t provide support for illegal acts,” the facts tell another story. Supporting a broad array of terrorists is apparently PETA’s nod to diversity: the group has funded the legal defense of an animal-rights arsonist, made a significant cash donation to the terrorist Earth Liberation Front, and offered unwavering vocal support for the restaurant-bombing Animal Liberation Front.
Comedian Richard Pryor, already a public supporter of PETA’s anti-chicken campaign, has announced his endorsement of the violent animal rights group known as SHAC (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty) — including SHAC ringleader Kevin Jonas. Pryor and his wife are now using their celebrity to support the radical “crusade for animal liberation.” PETA, of course, shares the “total animal liberation” goal. For the uninitiated, that means no zoos, no pets, no meat, no dairy, no circuses — and no animal testing.
Finding a cure for Pryor’s own ailment, multiple sclerosis, is practically impossible without the use of animals in research. And there’s nothing funny about that.
