PETA SAVES THOUSANDS OF LIVES – direct from the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction dept.

[GeorgeMead]

Wanna Ride in My Mercedes with Genuine Cloth Seats? (http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050207/2005-02-07T153141Z_01_L07126904_RTRIDST_0_ODD-ODD-GERMANY-MERCEDES-DC.html)

Feb 7, 10:31 AM (ET)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Mercedes-Benz has agreed to offer "leather-free" versions of all its luxury cars to pacify an animal rights group that says thousands of cows are slaughtered each year for leather car seats and interiors.
After complaints from the German chapter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, DaimlerChrysler said its Mercedes subsidiary will offer fabric or synthetic leather as options. Daimler spokeswoman Ursula Mertzig-Stein said that far from wanting leather-free cars, "our customers ... are more likely to want even more leather at the premium end. But we'll make cars without leather on demand."
PETA officials, who had threatened protests at the carmaker's Stuttgart headquarters, said they were delighted.
"When you consider that the skins of four to 15 cows are needed for each car this means thousands of cows will be spared," said PETA researcher Edmund Haferbeck. "This is a huge victory for animal rights."
So what are they doing with the meat of those thousands of animals? Discarding it:q:

[Angeline]

lol these people are bonkers. The company just agreed that they will offer leather-free cars "on demand" and then went on to basically say it won't happen because typically the customers demands leather.

So this is an empty victory. Yet they call it a huge victory because someone at the PR level of a big car manufacturer placated them with an empty promise in order to shut them up.

LOL!

[Dodger]

Cows are not killed for the leather. The leather is a by-product of the meat industry. No cows will be saved.

[gotbeer]

A cow's hide is typically valued at about 5% of the value of the entire cow. Even if all leather demand vanished tomorrow, it would not significantly change the cattle industry, except maybe to make beef a little pricier.

The excess hides, as mostly protein, would most likely be ground up into chicken feed or domestic pet food.

Of course, I suppose we could experiment with making "beef rinds".

[Pogojo]

Cows are not killed for the leather. The leather is a by-product of the meat industry. No cows will be saved.

Yeah....thats the interesting part. I wonder how long it will take this group to realize that their efforts appear to be fruitless...

[Equinox]

My bet? Never ever.

[VickySail]

They can't seem to do ANYTHING right...
Peta Fur Coat Giveaway (http://www.freep.com/news/locway/peta9e_20041109.htm)

[Grimalkin]

A cow's hide is typically valued at about 5% of the value of the entire cow. Even if all leather demand vanished tomorrow, it would not significantly change the cattle industry, except maybe to make beef a little pricier.
Or... maybe leather would get a little cheaper? Mmmm...


Seriously though, I think the only thing that would reduce the demand for leather is if it got a lot more expensive. That's it.

[dane]

What's the point of a luxury car? Status! "Corinthian leather" ( :) )gone in favor of plebian cloth? Never! Hahahahahaha. Fur is still HUGE here, too. This "cloth-seat" issue is such PR silliness. Can't wait to tell DH; thanks for the laugh!

[gotbeer]

They can't seem to do ANYTHING right...
Peta Fur Coat Giveaway (http://www.freep.com/news/locway/peta9e_20041109.htm)Nice find, Vicky.

I doubt PETA was concerned for the homeless at all. Rather, they probably hoped that violence would break out, so that they could increase their publicity.

Also, the homeless are not exactly role models for the wealthy - if PETA can tarnish fur-wearing by associating it with poverty, then the fur industry itself would become unfashionable.

Manipulating the downtrodden for their own political gains - what a lovely bunch of coconuts those petards are.

[Nancy LC]

what a lovely bunch of coconuts those petards are.

LOL! I got stuck on that sentence for a bit and went a little to literal with the word petard which is, I believe, a form of bomb used long ago. Anyway, I scratched my noggin a bit and wondered how such an archaic word came to be used here and then I realized it was probably a combination of peta and retard.

Ok! Gotcha!

However...Petard can also mean "fart" so maybe you did mean that. :lol:

pe·tard Audio pronunciation of "petard" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (p-tärd)
n.

1. A small bell-shaped bomb used to breach a gate or wall.
2. A loud firecracker.


[French pétard, from Old French, from peter, to break wind, from pet, a breaking of wind, from Latin pditum, from neuter past participle of pdere, to break wind. See pezd- in Indo-European Roots.]

Word History: The French used pétard, “a loud discharge of intestinal gas,” for a kind of infernal engine for blasting through the gates of a city. “To be hoist by one's own petard,” a now proverbial phrase apparently originating with Shakespeare's Hamlet (around 1604) not long after the word entered English (around 1598), means “to blow oneself up with one's own bomb, be undone by one's own devices.” The French noun pet, “fart,” developed regularly from the Latin noun pditum, from the Indo-European root *pezd-, “fart.”

[gotbeer]

Nice research, Nancy!

Referring to "members of Peta" is a bit "clunky" at times, so perhaps "Petards" will gain traction as a moniker. I confess I was searching for a less than flattering play on "Peta", and a word that implies both aggression and a stink seemed like an appropriate choice.

The only downside was the unfortunate confluence with the term that is no longer considered proper to use for those with mental disabilities (with whom I have sympathy).

[Duparc]

The other side of the coin is that rearing animals apparently creates more life than that which would occur natuarally in the wild. Would this thought help to salve their conscience?

[VickySail]

Nope. We have no right to raise animals for food. By their standards, we should finish slaughtering the animals for food, then use the land for veggie growing.

We could all be acrylic-wearing petards after that, because wearing silk is abusing the rights of the silkworm, wearing wool is abusing the rights of the sheep, wearing mohair is abusing the rights of the mo... etc, ad nauseum.


Petards indeed. Good coinage! :lol:

[gotbeer]

As I understand it, the Petards concede that in their ideal world all domesticated animals would likely perish to the point of extinction. This includes cows, sheep, chickens, pigs, turkeys, most dogs and most housecats. Sheep would experience particularly bizarre deaths - their wool would grow so heavy that they would die from the weight of it.

Here is one ram after six years without being shorn:
http://www.happyscrappy.com/images/sheep.jpg

[Nancy LC]

Commericial Turkey's would go extinct in one generation. They can't mate without the help of artificial insemination because their breasts are so large, the males can't mount the females.

[Wyvrn]

But don't they do it do.... oh never mind. The MALE breasts.
Bizarre.

Wyv

[Nancy LC]

LOL! I can only imagine what you were thinking.

Yes, the MALE breasts!