“Save the whales, save the snails!” Comedian George Carlin had it right when he talked about the audacity and craziness of some to misplace priorities on where to put a helping hand when it comes to people and the planet. When it comes to organizations that ‘break from the norm’ the most, when balancing the value between people and animals, PETA has to be near the top of the list.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was founded in 1980. On the periphery, the organization seems somewhat benign, if not wholesome, in their stated mission of working to decrease the abuse of animals. If you dig a little deeper, you would find that the organization believes that animals should not only be saved from cruel experiments, but also from being used by man for clothing, or even to be eaten. It doesn’t take very long for a grounded individual to begin looking askew at this radical leftist organization, and why not? In reality, to endorse PETA, one has to take oneself several steps down the food chain.

We can see that humans are not so welcome in PETA’s view of things, with their continuous onslaught on free market organizations, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken. Despite the organization’s charges of cruelty to chickens by the KFC restaurant chain, their own organization statement that animals should not be consumed by humans brings thinking people to the simple fact that KFC will never be able to throw PETA ‘a bone’ they will accept. Despite this fact, PETA members go straight to the gutter to attempt to save potential chickens in distress. Like a deranged cult group, the young and impressionable (almost exclusively female) are recruited, stripped, and sent all but naked into the streets to decry the fate of a chicken, bird, rabbit, you name it. In what should enrage the feminist groups around the globe, PETA objectifies partially nude women in bondage-like ‘cage’ depictions that reduce women to nothing more than cheap sex objects. In other words, PETA attempts to swap one form of ‘meat’ with another form of the same. This activity is, in a word, shameful.

The depths that this organization will go to are potentially limitless. PETA recently admonished President Barack Obama for killing an annoying fly during a television interview. While this may be the toughest foe that President Obama actually takes on, PETA made it clear that the fly ranks as high as any creature under their protection from the abuse of man. To top off the lunacy, PETA sent the president a “capture and release” device for future fly encounters.

Groups such as PETA warrant more than the simple ‘eye-roll’ we often give radical leftist organizations. In my opinion, PETA’s bizarre equating of human and animal as being equal reflects not so much a love for the creatures of the planet, but an underlying hatred of humans. The fact that they actively denigrate their followers is only further proof of a twisted philosophy in action. Any group or organization that diminishes the worth and value of mankind, be it to certain religions, social groups, race-baiting groups, or even those cute little animals, should be a concern to everyone.