Ingrid Newkirk, head of PETA, continues to amaze with her twisted sense of priorities. When some terrorists loaded a donkey with explosives in the Mideast and blew it up a few years ago in an attempt to murder scores of people, Newkirk sent a letter of protest to Yassar Arafat—about the death of the donkey. And now, with all of the human devastation and death from Katrina, she writes in her blog about the horror of the deaths of animals.
“Millions: that is a reasonable estimate of the number of animals who have perished in this hurricane and its aftermath. Consider the feral cat colonies, the terrestrial and arboreal and slow-moving wildlife like squirrels and opossums. People in boats report seeing the bodies of raccoons, pigs, chickens and foxes in the water. And then there are the animals who, by the thousands, were deliberately or simply unthinkingly abandoned.”
Not one word of sorrow for the thousands of people who were floating in the water. No empathy expressed for those who lost family members and homes.
It is wonderful that some cats and dogs were saved, as she writes about. And it is horrible to know a beloved pet died in the flood. And yes, planning ahead to evacuate is a good idea, including taking pets when doing so does not risk human lives. But the first priority in these situations must always be people.
I don’t believe that Newkirk understands this at all. To her a rat is a dog is a boy. Heck, she is still defending PETA’s equating of the lynching of blacks with the killing of cattle for food.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
