An Organization that Encourage/Support Vegetarianism

In this blog post, we will be discussing an organization that encourage or support vegetarianism. That organization is called PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). PETA is founded in March 1980, and its motto is "Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any way."

PETA encourages people to be vegetarians or vegan through 3 specific ways: 1) Discussing the benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet. 2) Celebrity involvement. 3) Undercover investigation of animal live transport and traditional religious slaughter.

Here is a picture of Maggie Q promoting a vegan diet change, an example of celebrity involvement with PETA:






PETA has faced criticism for various things. Generally speaking, PETA are aggressive with their media campaigns. Specifically speaking, PETA has been criticized by feminists for its Anti-Fur campaign, where supermodels and celebrities go nude for the "I'd rather be naked than wear fur" campaign. This action is very attention capturing. PETA even has its own comic and video games for the younger generations. PETA's video games has been criticized for copyright issues from the original game publishers. Another criticism for PETA is for the killings of sheltered animals. People who are against PETA think the euthanization of the sheltered animals is hypocritical animal cruelty. While in PETA's defense, they euthanized animals to put their animals out their misery in a humane fashion. So in other words, PETA isn't killing for business profit or entertainment, they are killing to end the suffering of the animals.

So in my opinion, I would say PETA is an organization that engages in positive peer pressuring. The pictures and videos that PETA use to get their message across are very graphic and shocking. PETA wants the audience to feel sympathy for the suffering of animals. An organization that encourages not smoking, protecting environment, providing education are examples of inducing positive behaviors. PETA wants people to become vegetarians or vegans, but the organization has faced various criticisms as well. However at the end of the day, it is all about what you believe in. Abortion, same-sex marriage, environmental issues, being a meat-eater or plant-eater; it's really all your own personal decisions that you should make.

References:
http://peta.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_for_the_Ethical_Treatment_of_Animals
http://www.peta.org/blog/euthanize/