IF YOU WERE A PIG, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL?
PETA Wants Hog Wrestling Outlawed At County Fairs; Streaking Already Banned
By Todd Wilkinson, 7-31-06
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It's county fair season across America and with it comes the broad assortment of wholesome traditions and midway carnival acts that spill over into every kind of possible entertainment sideshow. Rodeos, demo derbies, monster truck pulls, traveling serpent displays and, of course, fortune tellers and tarot card readers.
At the Teton County Fair in Jackson, Wyoming, fairgoers this season were waiting for a possible encore performance of an incident that left thousands of spectators stunned in 2005. During the evening demolition derby, a young streaker bolted across the arena grounds only to be jolted into submission by a law enforcement specialist unholstering a Tazer. Fearing the unclothed suspect, carrying a fire extinguisher, might cause harm (it was confirmed he had no other concealed weapon) the officer fired the stun gun and forever showed the family-oriented crowd how public displays of nudity can quickly get a guy into trouble. It is not known if the offender decided to make another curtain call.
Streaking itself has been a ritual practiced irregularly at the fair going back a few decades, though after last year's commotion, convicted practitioners faced a charge of misdemeanor child endangerment punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Suggesting that local police were getting way too up tight, attorney David DeFazio told a reporter for the local newspaper, the Jackson Hole News & Guide: "I just question whether a couple of streakers at a county fair in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is objectionable to accepted standards of decency."
However, this year another local crowd favorite—the hog chase/wrestling event—was greeted with a letter to the editor in the News & Guide from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, frowning upon the inherent indignity of the sport and encouraging the Teton County Fair Board to outlaw it. Despite the written protest, the show went on. Still, it caused one observer to existentially remark of PETA's call for a prohibition: "My God, is nothing sacred?" To which his sweetheart companion responded: "I have no problem with you greasing YOURSELF and then trying to escape from a bunch of liquored up grabby cowboys chasing you around the arena. In fact, I encourage you to do it, but do it naked."
Here is a copy of the letter sent to Teton County elected leaders from a representative of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It is unclear if the letter was directed only at this single hog wrestling event in Wyoming or if it is part of a larger campaign to outlaw greased pig events nationwide.
To the Teton County Commissioners,
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an international nonprofit organization with more than one million members and supporters dedicated to the protection of animals. We have received several complaints about a pig wrestling/greased pig contest scheduled to be held at this year's Teton County Fair. We kindly ask that you consider replacing this contest with one that does not harm animals and does not place humans at risk for injuries.
Greased animal chases are condemend by every reputable national animal protection organization, including the Humane Society of the United States. These events are specifically outlawed in both Minnesota and Rhode Island.
Being chased around and mishandled—whether intentional or not—by screaming participants is terrifying for piglets. Please take a moment to imagine how frightening it would be for a dog or a cat, for example, to be lathered in grease and have yelling, boisterous and excited people chase, grab and fall on her.
I have attached for your review statements from orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joseph J. DiBartolo and Dr. Nedim C. Buyukmihci, Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California-Davis. Please take a moment to review these comments. As you can see, both experts agree that the event is cruel and determine that the chasing and grabbing of pigs can result in serious injury to the animals as well as extreme fright.
Due to the violent nature of the event, it is not uncommon for the animals' legs to be broken, for human participants to be injured in the turmoil, or for the animals to panic and escape.
In fact, during a pig-roping contest in Salisbury, Maryland, a pig was strangled to the point of unconsciousness after being roped and then dragged to the finish line in front of spectators, many of them children.
In our violence-ridden society and schools, it is imperative that we teach compassion for other people and for animals and that we foster in children pride in and reverence for themselves and all those around them, human and nonhuman alike. Events like greased pig contexts send the dangerous message that public stunts based on ridicule are not only allowed, but are encouraged.
Surely, the Teton County Fair can provide myriad opportunities for people to enjoy themselves without having to rely on this cruel and dangerous contest. May we please hear that the Teton County Fair Board has made the compassionate decision against hosting a pig wrestling contest? Thank you in advance for your careful consideration.
Jackie Vergerio
Animals in Entertainment Specialist
Captive Animals & Entertainment Issues Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
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Comments
In 2003 PETA killed 85 percent of the animals it took in (in Virginia-PeTA's HQ). In contrast the nearby Virginia SPCA killed 27 percent. Yet PeTA is the wealthiest animal rights group in the world thanks to uninformed Hollywood celebrities.
Instead they spend their money NOT on animals but on media campaigns against meat, fur, and medicine.
Ingrid Newkirk- President of PeTA has admitted to killing thousands of animals to save them from abuse?? HUH?
Yet she leads attacks against those to raise animals for a purpose (such as food, or research). The kettle is black Newkirk!
Newkirk has also stated that the world would be a better place without people. She has also sterilized herself to avoid having a "purebred human baby" which to her is "nothing but vanity, human vanity."
The truth is that there is a big difference between animal welfare and animal rights. PeTA represents a strange self-loathing segment of the human population that actually doesn't know anything about animals, nor do they care to. The reality is that they are more anti-human than pro-animal.
It amazes me that an organization like this is taken so seriously.
Since you maintain all life is morally equivalent with equal rights, are you a breatharian?
You wrote, "...I know the way I live is best...one who takes another life without consequence..nor respect,doesnt deserve the life for whom they will consume..." Does your belief structure apply to all of Nature's carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores, or are you limiting your superiority to bipedals who eat flesh and vegetation? Do feathered raptors and quadrapeds get a break from such judgment? For the sake of discussion assume that humankind is an evolutionary animal. At what point in evolution, in your belief structure, is humankind no longer allowed to eat? What was the dividing line? Just curiosity on my part in attempting to understanding your point of view.
Comments of people being "in the closet" should probably be reflected on a little deeper, since whatever "proof" PeTA has of people "ripping off fur while (animals) are still alive" are staged, misrepresented, or out-and-out lied about. Anyone with a lick of knowledge about the fur industry or fur in general knows that skinning animals alive isn't worth the loss of money and risk of personal injury. This is, of course, ignoring the comment about mothers losing their babies, some of which don't raise their babies at all, and those that do don't share the kind of attachment human mothers do with human babies, because in the wild they'd lose many of their babies to natural causes like predation anyway.
Of course, PeTA is going to get up in arms about an event at a COUNTY FAIR, where animals are generally showed, judged, then sold for slaughter and eventually eaten, all by families who tend to raise other animals that don't make it to the fair. The comment about comparing the pig to a dog or cat is ridiculous, proving no point whatsoever, except to play on the emotional attachments we have on dogs and cats. PeTA likes to claim that pigs are smarter than dogs, so I find it funny they would compare them to creatures of "lesser" intelligence and brain-functioning, which is pretty much what they accuse meat-eating people of doing.
I also find it hysterical that they call the HSUS a reputable organization, when they're just as flaky as PeTA is. Considering the HSUS's anti-human, lie-infested, total animal liberation agenda, it's no surprise that they're good buddies.
I also like how they mention a completely UNRELATED event (pig-roping) in the letter, as though it proved their point somehow. They're quick to mention a roping event that supposedly happened in some other state, but where are the anecdotes and stories about the cruelties of greasing up hogs?
It's obvious to ANYONE who's even had the SLIGHTEST personal experience with pigs that they're tough as nails. Getting greased up and chased around by a bunch of slow-poke humans isn't going to hurt them any.
And for the record, Dr. Nedim C. Buyukmihci is the president of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights. Well, it's not like PeTA is well-known for using unbiased sources, or anything. I wonder why they're referring to a HUMAN surgeon in regards to pig welfare, too. Then again, I have to wonder why PeTA's PCRM is run by a PSYCHIATRIST.
Yeah, I've seen that video. That one from China, right? The one that has evidence of STAGING written all over it?
Funny thing is, PeTA didn't make that one, the Swiss Animal Protection Organization did, but that doesn't stop PeTA from eagerly distributing it like Halloween candy. And what's even funnier is that when asked to cough up the original, unedited footage, SAPO refused. Why? What do they have to hide? More importantly, if this is a common occurence in fur production, why did they have to go all the way to CHINA, to a single backwater marketplace, to find this footage? What about the ideosyncracies within the footage that anyone with a bit of logic and a tiny bit of fur knowledge would catch?
Or are we talking about the HSUS video of Karakul lamb pelt production? Which show not only a boatload of illogistics, but resulted in the equivalents of afidavits stating the HSUS asked the workers there to improperly kill a sheep, and that the video was staged.
But that's not even the (if you'll pardon) meat of my previous post, which I noticed you paid no mind to. PeTA is shooting itself in the foot here, as they often do. I'm glad to see the fair board ignored their pleas.
As an avid hunter and fisherman (PETA demonizes both pursuits) I should be unequivocably opposed to the organization. But what I mostly feel, when I read the occasional article about one of their inappropriate stands, is a regret at the missed opportunity.
There is enormous room for improvement in the way our culture treats its animals. The industrial, inhumane ways in which we raise most of our beef, chicken, and pork (for instance) should be a bruise on all our collective consciences. Rather than taking absurd stands against something as harmless as greased pig catching, PETA should be choosing its battles with an eye toward actually creating some kind of cultural good.
But, alas, PETA is a fundraising bureaucracy, and one whose primary consideration is to simply generate more funds. They know that by picketing fly-fishermen on a stream or by taking issue with rodeos or pig chasing they will attract a bit of press attention, which will in turn lead to higher revenues. They are very talented at being noticed. They are also making a very good living at being divisive and disruptive, creating discord. If they were truly acting in the best interests of animals, they would be working toward consensus, writing letters to the papers in Jackson asking for support on issues that truly matter, not criticizing the community for its pig chasing.
It is an enormous shame that the largest animal rights organization in the country is also one of the most illegitimate.