Causecast

by ERICA LIEPMANN, Causecast Associate Editor

If you know anything about PETA, you know that controversy surrounds the organization. PETA is the best known and perhaps the most extreme animal rights group in the world. The controversy surrounding them runs the gamut from uproar over racy nude photos used to promote vegetarianism and anti-fur campaigns to their ADs banned from television airwaves to the organization’s use of in-your-face protest tactics (like the image on the left).

But are they terrorists? A report has come to light showing that the United States Department of Agriculture officially lists PETA as a terrorist organization.

Let’s take a look at the two sides of this debate:

Treehugger’s Response:

…industries that rely on factory farming (the bane of PETA, and one of their hot button issues) may have the lobbying muscle to get PETA listed as a terrorist threat for their benefit…We’ll have to see what develops as more information is revealed—as it stands, listing PETA as domestic terrorists seems be more threatening to the general right for citizens to protest than anything else.

A 2007 piece from Associated Content:

For decades, PETA has labored for the well being and rights of animals, with an ultimate goal of “total animal liberation.” Unfortunately for America, and the world, PETA has become something entirely un-American: a group dedicated to inflicting fear, terrorism, violence, and suffering upon humanity.

The article goes on to explain that PETA is believed to fund the Animal Liberation Front, an organization that has used vandalism to make its point.

The verdict’s out on this one, and it’s up to you to decide. There’s a lot of questions that remain unanswered:

Does PETA actually fund extremists that damage personal property and use scare tactics to speak out for animals?

Are big agriculture companies just using the government to help them keep the public in the dark about the horrors of factory farms?

If terrorist allegations are true, are extreme tactics ever okay in the name of the cause? Or are “terrorism” charges just a guise to keep activists from speaking out?

Photo by Arturo de Albornoz, flickr.