The last two weeks of "Trading Spouses - meet Your new mommy" has featured a Northern California PETA activist/Vegan Barbara Gates as one of the contestants.

She was overbearing, rude, and possibly even a bit on the psychotic side during her week in a Lousiana Cajun home. Pretty much what WE would expect from a rabid Vegan with a mission.

You might find the Trading Spouses Message Board an interesting read.

I saw this show.. i thought it was great that she tried Allegator cuz it was a reptile and she didn't have as much "compassion" whether it lived.. funny... and then how disappointed her kids and husband were.. she even lied and said it was greasy and salty and disgusting.. but when she tried it and ate it.. she goes... "oh wow... it's good!! )

I agree, she was so snotty about her way of life too!! Unlike the Cajun mom who tried to respect the vegan way of eating since the kids were so sure that they would get into trouble if they ate meat!! Even her husband was missing burgers and such. She, the vegan mom, said that the Cajun mom was pretty much a "bad mother", then all she did was act like a witch to her kids and husband, while the Cajun mom was loving and had so much fun with her family...go figure, to each his own I guess....

Anyone noticed how she beat and strangled the little dog, because it urinated?!?! Talk about ethical treatment.

It was interesting how her family only socializes with other snotty Peta members, who kept shouting at the Cajun mom about killing animals, and when she asked them what they do to black widow spiders, they admitted they kill them!

It was hilarious

Wa'il

I think vegan mom was DEFINITELY on the psychotic side!!! She was really getting on my nerves.

And I was so proud of the little Cajun boy for sticking up in knowing how to make the word MONKEY plural!!!!

I don't have television. Hmm. Do they ever, like, uh, have sex with each others spouses or do they keep it clean. I haven't watched television in a long time. Not exactly sure how wild things may have gotten.

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?! Is the poor pup ok?

I'm not pet expert, but it looked traumatic, though some stern trainers may use similar methods. She was holding it by the neck to rub the face in the urine, and a few shakes, and strong slaps to the body.

The director or producer repeated that segment at the end, when they played her voice over, saying how much she beleives in "ethical treatment" of animals.

Wa'il

I was a vegetarian for 5 years, for ethical reasons, and I'd like point out that there are plenty of polite, friendly vegetarians and vegans out there, who are nowhere near as obnoxious as the California mom was! Most people would only know about my vegetarianism if I was ordering something strange at a restaurant or saying no thanks when they offered me something to eat-- same as my LC eating now. I would only explain why I ate a certain way if asked, and was NEVER evangelical about it. That woman was evil.

Absolutely.

The difference between PETA followers, and regular vegans/vegetarians, is that a vegetarian makes vegan eating a personal choice. PETA activists want to make it other's choice, as the only choice. You can see that in the way she turned a nice dinner party into a 2 hour viewing of a PETA "documentary" about slaughter houses, and kept berating anyone with a different view. I even felt she was a racist, in the way she referred to Cajuns as "backward" people, compared to her California crowd. To me, they appeared a lot more intelligent, respectful, tolerant, let alone fluently bilingual.

Another difference is that most people care for "animal welfare", including many animal activists. But PETA activists proclaim "animal rights" regardless of "animal welfare", which explains their abhorrent behaviour toward pets.

Wa'il

People are selected for 'reality' TV shows because they are obnoxious/irritating/neurotic/flamboyant/irrational etc. I would not expect them to be a typical representative of any group that they may belong to.

Okay so they are not having sex; they are beating pets. So television has gotten a lot worse than I thought. Don't you think it's awful though that people and animals were exploited in that manner.

What these reality TV shows must be doing is selecting people with emotional problems and allowing the drama to play itself out according to the mix of people they select. I can understand how it might be fascinating but isn't it all a little cruel? Both to people and animals.

I saw this one, too. This woman was a nut - see the way she was sobbing over the chickens?? It just cracked me up. I thought she was very rude to her children when they reunited at the end with her constantly snapping at them. She lectures them about not fussing over how the $$ was going to be divided and then she has a frickin' melt down because of how it was allotted I could tell her husband wanted to wring her damn neck, too. He was sure holding it in - I don't know if it was for the cameras or if he always takes that kind of abuse from her. She obviously rides roughshod over the whole family and they seem to be a little afraid of her.

I thought it was cool that she made the vegetarian food for the visitors but not cool that she lectured them about thier WOE (we've all heard enough of that to sympathise ) and the video was just way over the top. She also had no right to criticize the other family's parenting skills. The little boy seemed to be polite and respectful and intelligent to me.

There was another show, similar to Trading Spouses but I forget its name, where a veggie/hippie/enviro husband traded with a biker dude. The biker came off as a reasonable, caring, fun-loving man. The enviro nut acted like a little child and was totally obnoxious from start to end. To some extent, I'm sure these people are chosen to be controversial. But someone in the otherwise liberal media seems to be wanting to portray veggies in the worst possible light. Either that, or there are a lot of overly self-righteous people in the world, who believe that they are superior for practicing a particular way of living.

Maybe if Barb's husband drops her, she could hook up with this obnoxious guy and move to a commune far far away from me.

weird - I happened to see this one, too! I honestly don't watch that much TV

Definitely self-righteous, but I think that family really was wasteful but he could have been more positive and encouraging about it rather than so confrontational.

I love how the Earth Mom wore the leathers