PETA brings its war to Jersey bus stops

PETA's latest tactic to get you to turn against your omnivore nature and go vegan has reached New Jersey bus stops, and some of these are right outside of the fast food restaurants they abhor. Signs have gone up coast to coast at bus stops imploring people to see animals as they see humans.

Some examples:

A picture of a chicken with the words "I'm ME, not meat. See the individual. Go vegan."

Another shows a cow or perhaps a pig with the words "I am you, only different. Go vegan."

I'm sure the McDonald's and KFC owners are super pleased that these signs are going up near their businesses. Although I have to say at least they're keeping it classy. Some past PETA ads have been downright graphic or insulting. Such as the one that ran in Spain preaching against bull fighting that showed a female model with spears coming out of her shredded, bloodied back. Or the billboard with a beach picture that read "Save the whales. Lose the blubber. Go vegetarian." There was a cartoon drawing of an overweight woman in the corner. Then there was the KFC that was subjected to a PETA protest in which they put scantily clad models playing dead in a plexiglass tub with the words "KFC scalds chicks to death." Or how about the street display in Germany showing concentration camp victims on one side and chickens in cages on the other with the words "To animals, all people are Nazis."

I have no issue with anyone who wants to eat one way and not another. If those who want to become a vegan have the right to do so then the rest of us certainly ought to have the right to be omnivores. Ultimately, PETA doesn't see it that way. PETA will talk a good game about simply educating the public. Yet they have been linked with criminal groups, some would call them terrorist groups, such as the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. The FBI wrote a report in 2001 summarizing various investigations into PETA's operations and concluded they provided "what can be considered at least tacit support for the ALF and its illegal activity" and that PETA had "financed or contributed to the legal defense funds of some animal rights extremists charged with crimes." In fact they gave $70,000 to convicted arsonist Rodney Coronado. He set fire to a Michigan State University research lab and confessed to at least half a dozen other arsons. It was a crime spree known as 'Operation Bite Back'.

So when you see one of these signs telling you you're just like a cow or a chicken, consider the source.