Friday November 6, 2009, 4:59 pm
Today Rogers Elementary School, located in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, has joined the long list of schools targeted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, as the radical animal rights group complains about circus animals that have entertained children for centuries. In response, the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom is alerting Auburn Hills school officials about PETA’s broad attempts to convert children into animal “liberation” activists without the consent or guidance of parents.


PETA has targeted America’s kids with graphic comic books, age-specific websites, grotesque toys, schoolyard demonstrations, and e-mail alerts sent directly to these young children. The organization typically sidesteps parents and school authorities to lure young and impressionable students into radical activism.


David Martosko, Director of Research at the Center for Consumer Freedom, made the following statement regarding PETA’s tasteless campaign:



There’s nothing new about PETA’s band of lunatics wanting to make fools of themselves, but they should leave everyone’s children out of it. PETA is a multi-million dollar menace to children of all ages, and most parents don’t even know their kids are being targeted. The group’s campaigns often have violent or sexualized themes that are totally inappropriate for kids.


Parents shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that PETA is warm and fuzzy. It’s a band of radicals intent on doing away with all meat, dairy, circuses, zoos, aquariums, wool, leather, hunting and fishing. Worse yet, PETA even opposes the medical research that seeks to cure cancer.

For more information, or to read CCF’s comprehensive report “Your Kids, PETA’s Pawns,” visit www.ConsumerFreedom.com.

Friday November 6, 2009, 5:01 pm
Im not a fan of peta...they do some good things but come on little kids???

Big Gorilly Hugs

Saturday November 7, 2009, 12:00 am
The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit corporation run by lobbyist Richard Berman through his Washington, D.C.-based for-profit public relations company, Berman & Co. The Center for Consumer Freedom, formerly known as the Guest Choice Network, was set up by Berman with a $600,000 “donation” from tobacco company Philip Morris.

Berman arranges for large sums of corporate money to find its way into nonprofit societies of which he is the executive director. He then hires his own company as a consultant to these nonprofit groups. Of the millions of dollars “donated” by Philip Morris between the years 1995 and 1998, 49 percent to 79 percent went directly to Berman or Berman & Co.

Richard Berman is an influence peddler. He has worked out a scheme to funnel charitable donations from wealthy corporations into his own pocket. In exchange, he provides a flurry of disinformation, flawed studies, op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and trade-industry articles, as well as access to his high-level government contacts, who are servants of the industries he represents.

Berman’s name might sound familiar. In 1995, Berman and Norm Brinker, his former boss at Steak and Ale Restaurants, were identified as the special-interest lobbyists who donated the $25,000 that disgraced then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was hauled before the House Ethics Committee for influence-peddling over the money. Berman and Brinker were lobbying against raising the minimum wage.

Richard Berman is a spin doctor. For example, he has argued against a Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) initiative to lower the blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for drivers by claiming that the stricter limits would punish responsible social drinkers. He has claimed that U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warnings about salmonella-related food poisoning are just “whipping up fear over food.”

Here’s how an internal Philip Morris memo described Berman’s spin: “His proposed solution would broaden the focus of the ‘smoking issue,’ and expand into the bigger picture of over-regulation.” Smoking won’t kill you; over-regulation will.

Berman is “a one-man wrecking crew on important issues.” His approach has been described as “misleading” and “despicable.” Berman has been called “a tobacco company whore,” but he’s branched out since then.

Using “freedom of choice” as his battle cry, Berman has now taken on PETA and a number of other groups and organizations whose points of view could have an impact on the profits of his clients by waking consumers up. Berman’s Guest Choice Network has an “advisory panel” whose members in 1998 included officials representing companies ranging from Cargill Processed Meat Products and Outback Steakhouse to Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association and Sutter Home Winery. Berman’s clients are companies with vested interests in low employee wages; cheap, unhealthy restaurant-chain food, particularly meat; and tobacco, soft drink, and alcohol consumption—companies like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Armour Swift, and Philip Morris, whose product line includes Kraft Foods and everything from Marlboro cigarettes to Oscar Meyer wieners and which is a major shareholder in its former subsidiary Miller Brewing, now known as SABMiller.

PETA’s recent successes in gaining fast-food industry concessions for more humane conditions for farm animals have sent ripples of fear through the food and beverage service industry. About the same time that McDonald’s buckled to PETA’s demands, Richard Berman changed his front group’s name and stepped up his attacks.

The key to Berman’s aggressive strategy is, in his own words, “to shoot the messenger ... we’ve got to attack their credibility as spokespersons,”—an interesting remark from someone whose background and funding so severely challenge his own credibility.

Saturday November 7, 2009, 3:55 am
SOOOOOOOOOO Roseann

Are you denying that Peta is doing as alleged? That is THE POINT!

cowboss

Saturday November 7, 2009, 5:46 am
It is always possible to discredit the messenger, but that does not mean that PETA's methods are acceptable.

Just took a look at PETAKiDS.com and am thoroughly disgusted with the content aimed at children under 13. The images are graphic and the content is innacurate and aimed to aggressively push the PETA agenda based on glorifying people who endorse their mission and strongly admonishing people who do not. Their messages are strong and judgmental.

Parents need to be ever vigilent. There are all kinds of interests out there vying for the opportunity to instill their own morals, values, etc in our children in order to advance their own agendas. Teaching values, ethics, etc. is a job for parents, and not for outside interests, including PETA. If the PETAKiDS website had been available when my son was growing up I would have banned him from using it without a responsible adult present. Schools that allow outside interests like PETA to push their moral agendas without the consent of parents should be reprimanded.