Macy’s Parade Afloat with PETA Controversies

Remember the good old days when the most controversial thing the Macy’s Parade organizers had to deal with was a drunk Santa and his detuned version of Jingle Bells? ((“A man’s gotta do something to keep warm…”)) Oh, for the good old days. Apparently the child-oriented joy and holiday spirit of the Macy’s Parade is now being completely swallowed up in a battle with, of all organizations, PETA.

And PETA doesn’t even have an issue with the animals who are in the parade. (Are there any? Aside from drunk Santa, that is…) The real animal actors in this charade of outrage are the silent sufferers—the captive orca whales and the cruelty-oppressed cattle of South Dakota.

To be fair, PETA didn’t enter this fray without being baited. This festivity-obscuring tempest in a fair trade teacup began because members of the South Dakota Cattle Association didn’t want noted PETA activist Joan Jett representing their great state. Jett, famous for her anthemic (and annoyingly contagious) “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll,” was slated to perform on South Dakota’s float with her Blackhearts after another act backed out. And now, because of the complaints from the Cattle Association, Jett has also backed out. Maybe PETA and the Cattle Association would be happy with a more neutral choice, like Animal Collective or something.

Anyway, after one of their own was snubbed, PETA struck back. But not against the South Dakota float. That would have been too obvious. Instead, they staged a protest against Sea World’s float. Because everyone in the universe knows that keeping orcas in captivity constitutes an unconscionable abuse of wildlife. Whether PETA’s protest against the Sea World float was a retaliation for Jett’s removal is unclear.

The whole thing strikes me as rather ridiculous. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is clearly, in itself, not vegan by any means. We’re talking about a holiday whose main celebratory feature is eating turkey. PETA may recommend its meat-flavored tofurkey as an alternative, but the point remains. I don’t know that removing a 27-foot sculpture of an aquatic carnivore will change the fundamental nature of a holiday celebrated by millions of meat-loving omnivores nationwide. And, honestly, what does this controversy even accomplish? Can’t we just allow the Parade to be a fun spectacle to whet our appetite for the holiday season? Why must everything in this country be a cause for divisive controversy?

40 responses

    • PETA has lobbied Obama to put a statue of a fish & maybe a deer on the Washington Mall! Lets see him not look like an a$$hole doing that!

  1. And immediately following the parade these same members are off to protest bans on late term abortions at clinics with doctors not qualified enough to have their names on registers at hospitals. Liberals and logic just can’t seem to connect on any level.

    • YOU REALLY ARE IGNORANT ON THESE ISSUES AREN’T YOU. SO YOU DON’T WANT ABORTIONS YET CRUELTY TO OTHERS OF THEIR OWN BODY’S ARE OKAY AS LONG AS YOU CLAIM IT TO BE LOGICAL. WOW THAT’S SOME POWERFUL ETHICS YOU HAVE THERE. HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH LIBERALS EITHER, FOR YOU ARE NOT RATIOANAL NOR LOGICAL TO PROMOTE CONTROL OVER MY BODY. WATCH ON YOUTUBE: ‘EARTHLINGS’ ANIMAL JUSTICE AND MAKE THE CONNECTION. YOU REALLY ARE OFF THE ISSUE YET ABOUT PROLONGED CRUELTY & SUFFERING. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky4RGYva90E

      • interesting.. that YOU… and this youtube film people seem to think that Pet store puppies comes from terrible puppy mills… that these poor dog are in CAGES… You think this is beyond TERRIBLE > Cages are BAD.. CagING up dogs is WRONG… then YOU TELL ME WHY PETS STORES CAN ONLY BUY FOR ‘USDA’ LIC BREEDERS. THAT ARE INSPECTED AND BREEDERS MUST GO BY THERE RULES… DOGS MUST BE IN CAGES …THERE FEET MUST NEVER TOUCH PEE, THEY CAN’T BE ON DIRT BECAUSE THEY MIGHT CHOKE ON A ROCK.. THEY MUST BE ABOVE GROUND IN CAGES… AND NOW now n ow NOW YOU GUYS HAVE PUSHED THE USDA TO HAVE A NEW RULE.. IF YOU SHIP A PUPPY YOU MUST BE USDA LIC… THAT MEANS ALSO NO DOGS IN OUR HOMES THEY CAN’T EVEN BE BORN IN OUR HOMES… NOW THEY MUST ALL GO INTO CAGES. PETA AND AR PEOPLE ARE TERRIBLE … YOU TALK OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF YOUR MOUTH….. AND LIE

  2. If any of you would care to read the BIBLE it says things like this will happen in the end times. People will lose natural affection. Brother will turn against brother, mother against daughter, etc. It says Christians will be hated and Jews even more so. These people are just players in GOD’s game and they don’t even know it.

  3. As usual liberals make jackasses of themselves. They act like children without reason but plenty of tantrums. They, like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood need to go away NOW! They offer nothing of value and plenty of ranting and raving that is old now so just shut up and go away. You have nothing of value to add to America except being crybabies. Take your pablum and go to sleep! The parade is ours, not yours. I agree with S. Dakota, not you and never have. God gave man dominion over the animals. The animals are NOT being mistreated or the would swim away at the first chance. You are so stupid and brainless and not Americans!

    • I ASSUME YOU DID NOT WATCH ‘BLACKFISH’ NOR HAVE YOU VISITED MANY SLAUGHTERHOUSES EITHER. IGNORANCE IS NEVER BLISS NOR ARE GREED MACHINES IN THE BLOODY HOLOCAUST ON ANIMALS. DOMINION OVER ANIMALS MEANS OVER YOU TOO?? YOU ARE ALSO AN ANIMAL. DOMINION IS JUST AN IDEAL CREATED BY FOOLS OVER 2000 YEARS AGO. EVOLVE ALREADY INTHE NAME OF COMPASSION & HIGHER ETHICS OF REALITY. JESUS WOULD NOT APPROVE OF THIS HOLOCAUST ON ANIMALS, FOR THERE IS NO LOVE, HOPE, PEACE, COMPASSION, JOY OR ETHICS IN THE OBJECTIFICATION OR OPPRESSION OF ANIMALS FOR ANY REASON. WE STRIVE TO EVOLVE IN THE NAME OF WISDOM. LEARN SOME HISTORY BEFORE 2000 YEARS AGO. HUMANS JUST DON’T “NEED” ANIMALS FOR PROTEIN. THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS NOT IN GREED YET TRUTH. SAD THAT THE MEAT INDUSTRIES ARE JUST GREED MACHINES WITHOUT TRUE ETHICS. http://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Shocking-Inhumane-Treatment-Industry/dp/1591024501

  4. I’m trying to figure out Joan Jett’s connection to South Dakota or its cattle association. According to Wikipedia she didn’t grow up in the state; does she perhaps own a cattle ranch in SD, or even a vacation home there?

    As for Sea World, I don’t have any problem with its having a float in the parade but I don’t see any particular connection. Maybe if the Sea World float featured oysters, which are sometimes used in stuffing … but an orca? I know it’s Sea World’s mascot and used as a logo, but after the publicized attacks on trainers by orcas at Sea World’s parks I think I’d consider using something else sea-related to represent the company.

  5. I am a member of PETA! I am a part of the “PEOPLE EATING TASTY ANIMALS” Chapter. PETA is just like all those other do-gooder type organizations. They may have started off well and served a good and useful purpose. Unfortunately they have carried their activities out to an obnoxious extreme, thus causing them to lose credibility with main stream America. They forget that it is Main Stream America that pays their bills and supports their programs.
    Robert Hayes Halfpenny

  6. PETA is just another organization (along with ELF, GreenPeace, SPLC, the asinine FFRF, and the Obama Administration) that we need to start standing up to en masse and publicly. They are establishing pseudo-law through threats (which are against the law), intimidation, and bullying techniques, and doing their damndest to cave in our society to suit their own perverse bean-sprout-and-tofu-eating Godless gay-bi-barstool-free-love dope-smoking ways – and they represent a combined total of about 0.3% of our society.

    Enough is enough.

      • It is called “hyperbole”, and it was far gentler than the hate frothing from the other side of the table. And also, you Starbucks sipping freaks wouldn’t know real conservation or animal husbandry if you saw it. Take a hike.

        • LOL……I DON’T DO STARBUCKS. WE DO KNOW ABOUT CONSERVATION AND IT’S NOT ON ANY LAND OF FACTORY FARMS NOR SLAUGHTERHOUSES. WE DO KNOW ABOUT ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND MY FRIEND HOWARD LYMAN DOES TOO. REAP WHAT YOU SOW. TIME TO EVOLVE. TO HELL WITH AG GAG TOO. YOU ARE ALSO A BIGOT. MEAT INDUSTRIES ARE JUST INTEREST GROUPS THAT MAKE REPS IN CONGRESS CORRUPT. NOT ABOUT HEALTH OR ETHICS YET JUST GREED MACHINES. USDA FOOD PLATE IS AWESOME!! TIME TO EVOLVE. GROW PLANTS THAT ARE NOT MONSANTO SEED AND STOP THIS BLOODY HOLOCAUST. GO VEGAN!!

          • NOT SURPRISED THAT IS ALL YOU CAN DO. OTHERS ARE LISTENING AND MAKING THE CONNECTION MORE & MORE. MAYBE IF YOU GET COLON CANCER FROM THE CORPSE YOU EAT YOU WILL NOT JUST YAWN . READ THE CHINA STUDY. FACTS ARE OUT. ALSO THE USDA FOOD PLATE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE MEAT ON IT FOR SOUND REASONS. IT SHOWS PROTEIN AND ALL THE HEALTHIEST MEANS OF PROTEIN IS FROM PLANTS. PEACE ON EARTH BEGINS WITH YOUR PLATE.

        • I am minded of legendary Indian conservationist, Billy Arjan Singh, who decried the ‘domestic cattle in whose company no wild animal can survive for long’ and am just now reading Lawrence Anthony’s ‘Elephant Whisperer’ in which he recounts that cattle herders in South Africa even put out a ’contract’ on him because they wanted his planned wildlife reserve for themselves. It is by no means an isolated case and across Africa, India and Brazil cattle raising interests are devastating the environment and standing in the way of conservation.

  7. The cattlemen association and the state of South Dakota payed $170,000.00 for Maceys to put there float in that parade, PETA payed zilch as usual, for maceys to put a performer on the South Dakota float that fights and openly supports the destruction of the main business in South Dakota Cattle and meat production was outrageous . Good for the cattlemen to object to a performer on their float that would have possibly given a performance against their liveyhood, I can not believe Maseys did not know their anti meat eating position before assigning them to that float if Maceys did not know they should have.

    • OH YES THE BLOOD MONEY. THAT DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE WHAT IT REPRESENTS. SAD HOW THE HOLOCAUST ON ANIMALS MEANS NOTHING TO THOSE THAT SUPPORT SLAUGHTER OF BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS. SLAVES WERE ALSO OBJECTIFIED FOR PROFIT TOO AND GREED & IGNORANCE CREATED THAT CRUELTY & ABUSE ALSO. HUMANS DO NOT NEED MEAT TO PROTEIN AND THE USDA FOOD PLATE REFLECTS THIS FACT. FACTORY FARMING IS HORRIFIC AND SLAUGHTERHOUSES HAVE SUBSTANDARDS YET THE PUBLIC IS CLUELESS. PLEASE DO YOUR HOMEWORK. ALSO READ THE BOOK: ‘THE CHINA STUDY’. EVER WONDER WHERE ALL THE BLOOD & CRAP GOES FROM SLAUGHTERHOUSES? EVER SEE HOW PIGS ARE RAISED IN FACTORY FARMS? YOU ARE JUST BRAINWASHED AND CLUELESS OF THIS BLOODY INDUSTRY. LEARN THE MAIN CAUSE OF COLON CANCER TOO. END THE SLAUGHTER END THEIR PAIN. A HIGH PERCENT OF ANIMALS SLAUGHERED ARE BUTCHERED ALIVE TOO. THERE ARE INTERVIEWS WITH THOSE THAT WORKED IN THESE HELL HOLES AND MOST DO NOT LAST LONG THAT TELL THE HORRORS OF ANIMALS BEING PUSHED THROUGH THE ASSEMBLY LINE AT SUCH A FAST RATE THAT MANY END UP SKINNED WHILE STILL CONSCIOUS. TRUE ETHICS KNOWS THAT THIS AN ABOMINATION. COMPASSION IS THE LIGHT OF LIFE.

  8. A NICE Parade you going to mess it up also? America and Americans being Sacrificed by the White House and the Corrupt Bunch running said PLACE Lets Cleanup America from HOMETOWN to THE WHITE HOUSE?All People in American Goverment Traitors to America Get them OUT OUT? Cant wait much LOnger TIMES AWASTIN>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  9. I think the point here is that we need to focus on the animals. The innocent animals who don’t have a voice or a choice. This is not the life they want to live. Sea World is torture for animals. We need to look at the core of the problem and why people can’t see that animals being abused and tortured is NOT acceptable, it’s ethical to consider animals and the pain and. Suffering we humans cause them.

  10. GAWD! I bet Seaworld paid this “journalist” to try to deflect from Seaworld’s prison camp. Joan Jett being snubbed is why PeTA is against the Orca balloon? Beyond stupid.

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