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PETA for One Welcomes Our New Cockroach Overlords[*]
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is bugged at an Illinois Six Flags amusement park that is offering "unlimited line-jumping privileges" to anyone who eats an live Madagascar hissing cockroach, which can grow up to three inches long:
A spokeswoman for the animal rights organization says the contest at the amusement park's FrightFest is "gratuitously cruel."...
Amusement park officials are defending their menu choice. Great America spokesman Jim Taylor says the bugs are nutritious, high in protein and fat free.
Whole thing here.
PETA's greatest line ever? "Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses."
[*]: Headline allusion alert here.
|9.25.06 @ 9:39AM|#
"A spokeswoman for the animal rights organization says the
contest at the amusement park's FrightFest is "gratuitously
cruel."
Well, yeah, but it's not like they MAKE them eat the
cockroaches.
|9.25.06 @ 9:59AM|#
Wholesale murder of cockroaches is just a day in the life of the average Floridian.
|9.25.06 @ 10:03AM|#
It's common courtesy to the other patrons, translating into good business sense. Would you rather be standing in front of or behind someone who had eaten such a meal?
|9.25.06 @ 10:18AM|#
When will the internet find someone bold enough to stand up to the relentless assault of these overlords?
|9.25.06 @ 10:24AM|#
The Penn & Teller Bullshit episode about PETA is one of my favorites, especially the part about how they euthanize more dogs than the MSPCA.
|9.25.06 @ 11:27AM|#
I'm trying to be helpful to PETA here.
Get a cute naked girl to strap a plastic hissing cockroach shell to
her back. Then she should walk around the entrance to Six
Flags.
|9.25.06 @ 11:54AM|#
Illinois Six Flags amusement park that is offering
"unlimited line-jumping privileges" to anyone who eats an live
Madagascar hissing cockroach, which can grow up to three inches
long
I would like to ask the obvious question here: What the fuck is
wrong with this 6 Flags "amusement" park? Since when has eating
cockroaches become "amusing"? And do people really want such a
company -- that decides that feeding its patrons filthy vermin is
amusing -- in charge of their entertainment? Are the unwashed
masses really that desperate for line-jumping privliges, or is this
a veiled insult to Six Flags' customers?
dhex|9.25.06 @ 12:12PM|#
"Since when has eating cockroaches become "amusing"?"
since i read that story linked above, actually.
i am terribly frightened of roller coasters, so i can only support
their eat a roach and jump the line policy in spirit.
|9.25.06 @ 12:16PM|#
'Will "A car in every garage and a Jew in every pot!" get you
elected?'
It worked in '32, and it can work again!
Ashish George|9.25.06 @ 12:37PM|#
"Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion
broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses."
PETA does a lot of silly things, and the Holocaust-on-your-plate
campaign was obviously a mistake. But if you interpret the above as
a lamentation of the fact that we are inconsistent in our concern
over genuine suffering in the world, I think PETA makes a fair
point.
If you guys have seen video of factory farms, you'll know that what
those chickens go through is quite horrific.
|9.25.06 @ 12:44PM|#
mmmm, smacky,
pssst. You have a little piece of cockroach stuck between your
teeth.
|9.25.06 @ 12:57PM|#
I thought PeTA was merely psychotically misanthropic until I
realized that they had active programs geared toward children at
all age levels.
You can check out some of their programs here
(http://www.teachkind.org/), where they have obviously put a lot of
time and money into evangelizing children with their anti-human
message.
PeTA is a threat that needs to be taken seriously.
|9.25.06 @ 1:14PM|#
Loundry:
Just like George Soros. They're probably flouridating our tap water
as we speak.
|9.25.06 @ 1:33PM|#
Heck, if I lived closer, I'd go specifically for the chance to
eat a hissing cockroach. The line-jumping is just a bonus.
Of course, I've had a long-standing desire to eat one (or a portion
thereof) of every non-poisonous animal on the planet - how else can
I be sure I'm really at the top of the food chain?
And now y'all know more about me than anyone ever really wanted
to.
|9.25.06 @ 1:40PM|#
Of course, I've had a long-standing desire to eat one (or a
portion thereof) of every non-poisonous animal on the planet - how
else can I be sure I'm really at the top of the food
chain?
I think feeding them to your pet sugar glider or hedgehog would be
an easier and more palatable indication that you are at the top of
the food chain. To each his own, I guess.
|9.25.06 @ 2:23PM|#
"Well, humans *are* the only species that steals the milk of
other species."
That's the most memorable line I've ever heard from a PETA spokeman
in an interview.
Priceless.
|9.25.06 @ 2:36PM|#
I live pretty close and haven't been there this year. Maybe I
should go and "take one for the team".
Then again, the lines aren't that bad...
|9.25.06 @ 3:56PM|#
PETA funnels money to the smelly hippies, anti-science neanderthals of ALF/ELF, who then destroy university buildings and threaten researchers' lives for experimenting on bacteria.
|9.25.06 @ 5:29PM|#
Thank you, Reason, because I never knew where the "I, for one..." line came from. Not all of us can be ironic libertarian hipsters, you know.
Ayn_Randian|9.25.06 @ 6:38PM|#
Sadly, I am not that double-secret ironic. I really didn't know where the "overlords" quote came from.
|9.25.06 @ 7:10PM|#
"Well, humans *are* the only species that steals the milk of
other species."
That's the most memorable line I've ever heard from a PETA
spokeman in an interview.
Priceless.
While that may be accurate if one means literally "milk," as in the
excretion of mammary glands, it is wrong figuratively speaking.
Ants not only enslave other insects, they collect "honeydew" from
aphids and other insects they raise like livestock.
Maybe the inhuman ants will be PETA's next target.
Those bastards ran a full page ad in my Chicago Sun-Times today
with a picture of a duck being force fed for foie gras. Damn, it
got me hungry!
|9.25.06 @ 7:17PM|#
Force-feeding is pretty barbaric. I have no problem with the dumb-ass ducks gorging themselves, but I definitely draw the line at force-feeding.
|9.25.06 @ 7:32PM|#
I think dhex would agree with me that it is simply impossible to be hip if one identifies themselves as "Ayn Randian".
|9.25.06 @ 7:56PM|#
andy,
I do not understand why anyone who eats meat has any problem with
foie gras. (I don't know if you eat meat or not, but assuming you
do...)
From Sonoma Foie
Gras:
A Day in the Life
Sonoma Foie Gras is committed to the highest standards of animal
welfare, and utilizes humane and modern techniques in the raising
and feeding of ducks. Ducks are never individually caged and are
allowed to free range for most of their lives.
The ducklings are received when they are one day old. They spend
the first 5 - 8 weeks in a barn, under heat lamps and on bedding of
wood shavings while they develop their feathers. They walk about
and have access to all natural feed and water. Once they have
enough feathering, they are brought out to the walnut orchards,
where they continue to roam free range for about two months. Here
again, they have access to all natural feed (no hormones or
antibiotics), water and shade.
During the final two weeks, they are housed in
temperature-controlled barns, where they are kept in groups of
about 12 ducks per pen measuring about 33 square feet. They are
tube fed twice per day by the same feeder, using a pre-measured
quantity of feed.
Natural Capacity
The first evidence of foie gras is found in ancient Egyptian
history, some 45 centuries ago. In the wild, ducks and geese gorge
themselves prior to migration in order to temporarily store fat in
their liver and skin, which they use for energy during their
migration. The managed feeding takes advantage of this ability by
placing food in the esophagus through a tube, using the duck's
physiological built-in capacity to transform the excess feed into
fat and store it in the liver.
Each feeding takes only a few seconds and the pressure applied has
been studied to be non-injurious to the duck. A tube is inserted
down the duck's esophagus which deposits food as it is drawn out of
the esophagus. Since ducks do not have a gag reflex, throat or
stomach, the food is not "crammed down the throat" or "pumped into
the stomach." Instead, the esophagus serves as a holding area for
the feed while it is digested. The duck's esophagus, as with any
waterfowl such as the blue heron, which is able to swallow large,
live fish, is expandable and pliable. For these reasons, the
feeding tube is not harmful to the animal, as proven by scientific
studies.
|9.26.06 @ 12:20AM|#
Maybe the inhuman ants will be PETA's next target.
Anyone remember that guy a few weeks ago who was counselling us not
even to step on ants? That was the funniest thread in a while (for
me anyway). As Bugs says, Whatta Maroon.
|9.26.06 @ 12:50AM|#
After a little thought (very little) I've concluded this is not
for real. First, they just wouldn't do it for liability reasons.
How do you ensure safety of each bug? Second, lines should not be
very long during the off-season. Third, its allegedly for a
halloweeen fest.
IF this were for real though, they couldn't have paid for this kind
of advertising. Way to go.
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