Cut class, not frogs

[Guest guest]

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' new Web site tutors teenage

animal-rights warriors how to resist dissection in biology class and myster=

y

meat in the cafeteria.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By Katharine Mieszkowski

 

Oct. 21, 2002 Ê|Ê It's a Web site that probably even the most autocratic of=

high

school principals wouldn't think to censor in the school library. But they'=

ll

wish they had when newly minted 15-year-old pleather-wearing, fact-sheet-

waving PETA activists start lecturing them on the horrors of amphibian

dissection.

 

The new People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals site for teens makes

fighting for animal rights into a game, awarding points to the members of i=

ts

" street team " for taking direct action. Order a few hundred " Cut class, not=

 

frogs " stickers, for 200 points. Plaster them all over your notebooks and

locker, and send PETA a picture of your sloganeering handiwork: 1,000

points.

 

 

Oh, and when the other kids in your class are butchering pickled green once=

-

hopping things, all in the name of learning, the site suggests spending the=

 

day at a nature preserve " observing frogs in the wild. " Try feeding this li=

ne to

your biology teacher when he asks why you skipped class: " You can learn

way more from living frogs than from cutting up their carcasses. "

 

On the site's message boards, kids swap fashion tips about vegan

skateboarding-shoe companies and how to get your school cafeteria to

serve vegetarian lunches.

 

" I've been a vegetarian for almost two weeks nowÊ… " brags one poster on the=

 

bulletin boards of the PETA2 Web site for kids. But her mom is still servin=

g

pork chops for dinner. " Is there any way I can make my parents believe that=

 

I'm doing this for me? " she laments. The other denizens suggest bringing

some PETA fact sheets about vegetarianism to the dinner table.

 

An interview with the grand-daddy of pop vegetarianism, Morrissey, Mr.

" Meat Is Murder " himself, reveals this inspiring gem about why he went

vegetarian more than 30 years ago: " If you love animals, obviously it doesn=

't

make sense to hurt them. " He says that there is no good argument for eating=

 

meat, including " It's tasty, " because " it's only tasty once you garnish it =

and

you put salt and pepper and you cook it and you have to do 300 things to it=

 

to disguise its true taste. If you put garnishes on a chair or fabric it wo=

uld

probably taste quite nice. "

 

Next time Mom serves up pork chops, just tell her you'd prefer a piece of t=

he

sofa with your ketchup, thanks.

 

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/10/21/peta/index.html?x