PETA Files Court Order Against The Huffington Post

By Amy Fernandez

For the past week, HSUS has grabbed most of our attention thanks to Congressional investigations into I.R.S. procedures. It seems to me that PETA is not going to miss this PR opportunity. On April 24 they announced their impending civil suit against Huffington Post bloggers. If you don’t follow this news site, they regularly report on PETA’s antics. It’s become a favorite topic of the site’s anonymous bloggers. On April 2, The Huff recounted the familiar story of PETA’s incredible euthanasia rate. Although it’s old news, it never fails to spark shock and outrage. Bloggers were unrelenting, posting almost 5000 comments and 240,000 Facebook likes.

Well…it appears to me that PETA’s feelings were hurt. They filed a court order demanding that The Huff reveal personal information so they can pursue defamation suits against every offending blogger. This sparked another round of blogging derision for several reasons. First, PETA’s euthanasia rates are public record. So, these statements hardly qualify as defamation. PETA sometimes runs quarter page ads urging people to “adopt shelter pets” most recently in the April 17 WSJ. That ad campaign is ironic, in my opinion, considering their claim that 80-90 percent of the animals they “rescue” are unadoptable. Although I’m no legal expert, I’m not sure that “defamation” can be applied to an entire organization. Most of all, the idea of individually suing 5000 bloggers is truly ludicrous. The defamation suits may turn out to be another silly publicity stunt. Stating an intention to do so should, in my opinion, outrage donors as a questionable use of funds meant to help animals in need. But it wouldn’t be the first time PETA invited negative publicity. After all, this is the group that dressed in KKK outfits and staged a Westminster protest next to kiosk adverts for Black History Month.

Even so, I believe they love emphasizing perceived examples of their persecution by “big government”. Shortly after the I.R.S. scandal broke, their website began detailing their ongoing harassment. “It doesn’t say a lot for our democratic process when Congress, at the behest of powerful industries, uses tactics worthy of the East German Stasi to harass and intimidate social-change advocates.” Those tactics included three audits. In my opinion, the fact that PETA was audited three times and retains non-profit status really suggests that something is off kilter at IRS.

Despite their April 17 boast of coming through “each IRS audit with a clean bill,” recent developments may cause them some concern. On May 27, The Times reported, “ the IRS is closely reviewing about 300 tax exempt groups that may have engaged in improper campaign activity in past years.” It’s pretty likely that this includes PETA’s cohort HSUS.

PETA’s blog also complained that their fearless leader, Ingrid Newkirk, is regularly subjected to airport searches. I’ll point out the obvious here. IRS, Customs, and TSA are completely different branches of government – and I doubt they compare notes on Ingrid Newkirk. If U.S. Customs officials have tagged Newkirk for extra scrutiny, I would hazard a guess, and this is only my opinion, that it’s due to PETA’s documented link to domestic terrorist groups.

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=23680

Posted by admin on May 31 2013. Filed under Breaking News, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.