Washington, DC — Today the deceptively named Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an affiliate of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that masquerades as a mainstream health charity, congratulated airport restaurants for serving “healthy” meals. Consistent with PCRM’s animal-rights agenda, its annual survey awards points to restaurants solely on the basis of how many vegetarian entrees they make available. Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom called on PCRM to stop misleading holiday travelers by implying that all non-vegetarian fare is unhealthy.
When PCRM’s 2004 airport-food survey was released, The New York Times concluded: “[T]he physicians’ committee has a PETA link, and its food rankings reflect that agenda.” Also in 2004, PCRM was exposed in Newsweek as an animal rights group with connections to violent activism.
“This is just another page from PCRM’s well-worn animal rights playbook,” said David Martosko, the Center for Consumer Freedom’s Director of Research. “The only thing that’s changed is the group’s choice of spokesperson. Last year it was a former PETA activist who had previously bragged about stripping for animal rights. But PCRM’s ridiculous message — that vegetarian eating is the only healthy option — is just as absurd as it’s always been.”
PCRM has well-documented ties to the animal rights movement, including over $1.3 million in financing from PETA. PCRM president Neal Barnard doubles as PETA’s “medical advisor” and is the immediate past president of The PETA Foundation. But Barnard, a non-practicing psychiatrist, has medical credentials far out of step with most of this “physicians” committee’s members—95 percent of whom never graduated from medical school.
Martosko added: “Traveling during the holidays is tough enough without dodging PETA’s stealth dietary advice. I guess now we need to add animal-rights propaganda to the long list of airport headaches, along with lost luggage, security pat-downs, and canceled flights.”
To read “7 Things You Didn’t Know about the Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine,” visit www.PhysicianScam.com.
