[m_the0ry]

If I had a magic wand, I would wave it in such a way to get rid of animal cruelty and suffering.

That said, I have a few personal problems with PETA. First of all, almost all of their campaigns are overly sensationalist. I find it hard to believe that the only way to increase awareness about animal cruelty is to shove footage of cattle being slaughtered in our faces. Instead of ruining their own credibility like that, they could lobby to increase the cubic footage required for an egging hen, or press for subsidies of free range farming, or do a number of things. Animal cruelty is a serious subject and shockvertisement does nothing but undermine it and portray it as shallow.

Second, I think the folks at PETA should consider priorities. While I think the suffering of each turkey and alpaca is unfortunate, the world is being hurt far more by the decreasing trend of biodiversity. Biologists from think tanks around the globe are starting to speak up about how large scale fishing and sea dumping are killing off innumerable numbers of species of fish. Recently a chinese dolphin species went extinct, the first large vertebrate extinction in five decades.

Cruelty to animals can/will be stopped at some arbitrary point in the future. Extinction is something that cannot be reversed. It's permanent. Once the species is gone it's gone for good. I think the PETA folks really like animals, but I think they're stuck in a rut with their priorities and strategy all bungled up.