Found at the PEta (People for the Ethical treatment of animals" site:
Don't Wait Until It's Too Late. Talk to Your Loved Ones Today About "Going Veggie"
by Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk:
If you've read any anti-PETA articles, you may have read this quote
from me: "If experimenters could find a cure for my father by using
animals ... I would take no comfort in that." What is always
conveniently omitted are the words "which they will not."
They didn't. My father died this year.
Indianna:
That doesn't change in any way the meaning of the statement.
Newkirk:
All the monkeys who were given arterial plaques and
the dogs who were force-fed high-fat diets and all the rats and pigs
who had their organs sliced, diced and examined did not save him.
Indianna:
Booo-hoooo, I don't know who I'm supposed to cry over,
Ingrid's father or those poor tortured mistreated animals! Give me a
break. Human experimentation and research using computers didn't save him
either. So it goes. Despite what advances are made in the medical field,
when your number's up, your number's up. Everybody eventually dies. It's
not pleasant, but it's a fact of life. Whining about it isn't going to
bring him or those animals back. Did she really expect some magic cure to
suddenly jump out and make her father well just because animal research
goes on? She doesn't want people to think about all the medical advances
that have taken place over the past century and are continuing to be made.
Nor does she seem to want people to benefit from it or be grateful that
their lives as well as the lives of countless animals have been saved as a
result of all the medical advances. Like it or not, animal research was
and is a part of it.
Some snippage and Newkirk makes the outrageous judgment:
Newkirk:
This wonderful, clever and fearless adventurer, who surveyed the
sinking sands of the Little Rani of Kutch in India and took his boat
out in the roughest of Gulf Coast storms, didn't have to die the way
that he did. His death was preventable. His downfall was that he lived
dangerously at the table.
Indianna:
There you have it, she actually blames him for his own death,
and is only using it as a platform to convert people into becoming vegan.
That's low.
Newkirk boasts:
It has been almost 30 years since I stopped eating meat and dairy
products.
Indianna:
Well hip-hip-hurray. I'm happy for her. Yeah...couldn't care
less to be perfectly honest, she can eat whatever she likes.
Newkirk:
Back then, the plaques in my father's arteries were just
forming. Because I made the switch out of my feelings for animals, I
didn't push the health advantages of the diet. My father liked his
food too much--from calves' brains on toast to his cholesterol bomb,
the breakfast boiled egg-
Indianna:
Backing off on the food issue with him was probably the most
considerate thing she ever did in her life...and he only received that
consideration because he was a cherished family member; as cherished as a
fellow human can be to a radical AR extremist like that. As for the
eggs...(BOOM!) Help!! Exploding egg! Now we're all going to die of heart
disease! Get real...
Newkirk drivel continued:
-to be swayed away from his old-fashioned
hearty diet by my stories of mother cows mourning the loss of their
infants
Indianna:
Keyword, 'stories' I'll give the ARs this much, they are fabulous
'storytellers'. it's just too bad they use this talent as a weapon rather
than as a tool for enlightenment. and since when are baby cows called
'infants'? That's a term for a primate baby and a human child for crying
out loud.
All mother animals feel it when they're separated from their babies but hey, losing a calf to a killing humanely by people for food is a heck of an improvement to the scenario that would be in the wild...watching her calf getting torn apart with it's limbs getting bitten off and chewed up while still alive. But do the ARs care about that? No. It's only wrong, terrifying and cruel for animals to get eaten if humans are the predators.
Newkirk:
and tales of the fear you see in all animals' eyes at the
slaughterhouse.
Indianna:
Again, the keyword here is 'tale' and keep in mind, this is
the same person who sees keeping pets as an abysmal enslavement situation.
Like other ARs, she sees fear and cruelty where it doesn't even
exist.
Certainly the animals at the slaughterhouse don't experience anywhere near the same fear as they do when running from a pack of wild dogs or a pride of lions in Africa. A mother mouse experiences so much fear at the presence of a cat or some wild predator that she will kill and eat her pups. But ARism doesn't want you looking at that, they only want you to believe their tales and be down on people enough to support their goals of taking away our rights bit by bit. That's what it's really all about, folks.
Newkirk:
In later years, during my visits home, my parents
appeared to have made the switch to vegetarianism, thinking that I
would stop worrying and nagging.
Indianna:
Who wouldn't? They must've been absolutely sick to the back
teeth with her nagging, always on their case, trying to dictate what went
into their mouthes. Thank goodness none of my family are like that. What
a tyrant of a child! It's pretty pathetic when the parents have to hide
things out of fear of disapproval and extreme badgering from their kid.
Newkirk continues on:
But I found the can of
corned beef
tucked away behind the pickles and heard the "slip" in the tale of a
newly discovered restaurant that featured some meat dish.
Indianna:
And she probably looked in the fridge specifically to spy out
what they ate so she could give them heck. Those poor people.
Newkirk:
When my father came down with gout, the meat-eater's curse, the jig
was up.
Indianna:
Oh, please! Gout is a genetic condition that occurs primarily
in middle-aged to older men, and is associated with renal problems. There
is no specific cause for it, but diet can aggravate it. Meat protein,
alcohol, and rich, fatty foods will worsen the condition and may
contribute to onset. But to say that gout is the 'meat eater's curse' is
bosh, particularly since it rarely occurs in women, including those who
eat meat. So there goes that little piece of rhetoric.
Newkirk:
When he developed prostate trouble, I started in again,
sending books on nutrition, giving stern warnings, and e-mailing him
news articles on the link between heart disease, cancer, and stroke
and a meat- and milk-based diet.
Indianna:
In other words, the preaching and harassment started again,and
the sources were pseudo-science also known as junk science.
Newkirk
By the time the first stroke hit, I knew he wasn't listening.
Indianna:
Vegetarians can have strokes and heart attacks too. The reason
he didn't listen was probably to avoid the stress she caused him with her
constant badgering. Stress is certainly a major contributing factor in
these conditions if not the biggest one.
Newkirk went on to deliver a touching account of her father's worsening and death. and I am truly sorry that people die of heart attacks, stroke, cancer, or anything else that causes pain. But now take a look at what she says next. if this isn't ridiculous wishful thinking, I don't know what is.
Newkirk:
One day, I have no doubt, there will be wrongful death lawsuits
against the meat and dairy industries. Their alluring ads will be
replaced with court judgments against them and admissions that yes,
they realized long ago that meat and milk were addictive.
Indianna:
Addictive my foot. That's pure fantasy. if she wants to fight addiction,
why doesn't she put herself to better use working in detox and waging war
against the use of street drugs and abuses of perscription medicines?
Well...just look at the AR quotes,
particularly the anti-human sentiment. That should provide something in
the way of an answer.
Newkirk babbles on:
That fact is
borne out when you see people who acquire an early taste for meat and
milk and are somehow unable to break the habit, no matter what they
later come to know about its ill health consequences and the plight of
the animals exploited for its production.
Indianna:
Propaganda 101! The real weakness in not being able to control
what you eat is when you let someone like this coerce you into a diet that
isn't right for *you* just because *they* are against
your diet.
Besides problems with zinc and iron deficiency here's information from http://healingtools.tripod.com/metatypcht.html
_________________________________________________________________
Conditions that Vegetarians are prone to:
People with a Vegetarian Metabolism are prone to infections, yet they
are highly RESISTANT to Colds and Flu. They are also highly
SUSCEPTIBLE to Constipation, Diabetes, Ulcerative Colitis, Rheumatic
Arthritis, Hardening of the Arteries, and Cancer.
Conditions that Balanced Metabolizers are prone to: People with a Balanced Metabolism are SUSCEPTIBLE to ANY ailment and condition, since they fall in the MIDDLE of the other two groups. However, they usually are HEALTHIER, HARDIER people! If they do get ILL, they'll respond BETTER and QUICKER to good nutrition than people in the other two groups!
Conditions that Meat-Eaters are prone to:
People with a Meat-Eating Metabolism are SUSCEPTIBLE to such ailments
as Oily Hair, Dandruff, or Acne. They are also MORE likely than
average to have MORE serious conditions such as Osteo-Arthritis,
Ulcers, Mucous Colitis, SEVERE Headaches, Diarrhea, LOW Blood Sugar,
or even a tendecy towards a MASSIVE Heart Attack! If a person is a
Male, he is much MORE prone than the average Male to have sexual
problems such as premature ejaculation. If a person is a Female, she
is also MORE prone to be unable to gain FULL sexual satisfaction.
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-End of exerpt.
Which just goes to show that people get sick or stay healthy and they don't have to be vegan or meat eaters to do either.
Newkirk preaches on, and at first it almost looks good, like she actually cares about helping us to enjoy having our families around...until she gets to the real point of that warm fuzzy talk; going vegan.
Newkirk:
There is no point in waiting for a magic pill that never comes. Let's
enjoy our fathers for as long as we can by doing all we can to make
them vegans. You may get a dirty look or two, but so what? You might
just get to have their company for a few extra years.
Indianna:
You might get to alienate them too, and then even if they are
around for years it's not likely they'd enjoy a nagging, preachy zealot
always on their case telling them what to eat...and remember; this
movement doesn't just stop at food. That's only one part of the AR agenda.
AR believes zoos are cruel and wants to put an end to them as well. They
don't care that many people will never see these animals except in zoos, because they can't afford to travel all over the world and go to remote jungles like
Newkirk or so many celebrities nowadays who have embraced the Ar religion.
Here's another snippet from the PEta page.
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Purrs to Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the hosts of NPR's Car Talk, for
listing zoos as a pet peeve. In their book In Our Humble Opinion the
brothers declare, "You want to see a panda, go to China." Write them
at Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Sq., Cambridge, MA 02238.
Grrrs to "Jennifur" Lopez for wearing a skunk coat on
the cover of W magazine. Please remind Jennifer that fur stinks!
Write: Jennifer Lopez, c/o Benny Medina, Handprint Entertainment, 8436
W. Third St., Ste. 650, Los Angeles, CA 90048.
Purrs to model Riya Sen for trying to stop horse rides along the
burning hot beach in Bombay. Riya helped rescue a horse who had
collapsed and who later died. Please write letters to Bombay's Mayor
Harishwar Patil (B.M.P.C., Mahapalika Marg, Fort, Mumbai 400 001,
India), asking him to enforce the law and get horses off the beach.
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To sum it up, Newkirk's message was a very weak attempt at covering some of the calloused things she's said specifically against medical research involving animals. As usual, it is misguided, erronious rhetoric that is repleet with voluntary ignorance and attempts to play the emotional angle to the hilt. What I find most distasteful is the use of a family tragedy, her own father's death as a political tool for her agenda.
-Indianna