The Grumpy Vegan is first in line when it comes to using cynicism, facetiousness and absurdity to make a rhetorical point. Surely the world could never have enough of these qualities to counter the seemingly perennial and universal humbug.
But is there a difference when PETA does it? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. And like the applied art of determining the difference between real and pastiche religious artifacts, authenticity is frequently in the eye of the beholder.
Take, for example, PETA’s recent ethical cuisine award to British television presenter, Fergus Drennan, who is also known as The Roadkill Chef, and these two related press reports.
The Roadkill Chef – or Fergus Drennan, as he was christened — has finally received the culinary award his carrion cuisine deserves. No, not a Michelin star, although it cannot be long before inspectors visit the Kentish woodlands to forage for berries, mushrooms and assorted carcasses. The wild food collector, who only eats meat from animals he finds along roadways, has won the “Ethical Cuisine” gong from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “Roadkill is not factory farmed or pumped full of antibiotics,” Drennan says. Peta comments that it is “no more disgusting than consuming the decaying flesh of factory farmed animals who spent their short lives mired in their own waste and whose flesh could be riddled with deadly bacteria.” The charity adds: “If you must consume meat, the only ethical way to do it is to scrape it off the road.”
The Independent February 3, 2007
Are you eating at the moment? One hopes the meat is from an ethical source – as in scraped from a road. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals yesterday gave its first ethical cuisine award to Fergus Drennan, presenter of the BBC3 show The Roadkill Chef. Poorva Joshipura, director of Peta Europe, said: “Some people may think the idea of eating roadkill is gross, but it’s not any more disgusting than consuming the decaying flesh of factory-farmed animals who spent their short lives mired in their own waste and whose flesh could be riddled with deadly bacteria.” Well, quite. So badger crostinis at the next Peta meeting then.
The Guardian February 1, 2007
Yes, PETA operates under the slogan of “all publicity is good publicity.” And, yes, clearly the intent here is to shine the sarcastic spotlight on the irony of eating this but not eating that. But look more deeply at the message and how it gets played out. “So badger crostinis at the next Peta meeting then,” concludes The Guardian. Yes, this is clearly an ironic and a playful jab at PETA.
But this contentious media strategy also results in a negative side effect that speaks to the issue of PETA’s integrity. In other words, the authenticity of its message and the public’s perception of it as a credible organization. This is particularly important when PETA wants the media spotlight shone on its innovative undercover investigations into how animals are exploited and cruelly abused.
So, yes, well done PETA for these two paragraphs in the British press. Readers wouldn’t be thinking about animal rights otherwise, right? Further, readers are more likely to believe your next expose.
