Post Punk Kitchen Forum

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/v ... s_my_last/

Today is a senior level employee of PETA's last day on the job. He did a Q&A on reddit, it was pretty interesting to see how he feels about the company. I think his views on the company are shared by many many vegans

and yes of course, there are some terrible comments, but there are some great questions in there too. It's Reddit, so it is 100% comments BTW (if you are not familliar with Reddit)

I, of course had to put my 2 cents in there. I expect 50% flames and some some quiet upvotes.

He seems to be answering questions right now if anyone is interested.

Some pretty interesting stuff there. Kind of reaffirms my belief that for the most part, the folks at PETA are good people. It's just the upper management that are waaay off their rockers.

This is really interesting, thanks for posting!

Yep, I thought it was interesting too...well his answers anyway. Had to ignore most of the rest.

I really hate how everyone assumes I am a member of PETA when they find out I am vegan. Instead of discussing animal rights or my diet or FOOD (my favorite thing to talk about) I huge portion of the conversation is about me distancing myself from PETA

which is a shame, they have done some really great stuff, but it is always buried under the craziness.

I do like PETA on facebook though. Whoever does their social media is pretty good. Post good recipes, and the AR stuff is (usually) not disturbing. And cute pictures of animals!

Thanks for posting! Kind of bummed that this person doesn't seem to know much? Like, you work for PETA, take some time to educate yourself about animal testing.

I know a lot of folks who work for PETA, they're all good people, I just think they're pretty misguided. It's sad because they work so hard and are so passionate, but they just don't accomplish much.

Interesting indeed.

Like or loathe PETA (& like most here I probably fall more into the latter category) I don't think this is true. As mentioned in this Q&A many folk do go vegetarian/vegan because of exposure to PETA campaigns; dare I say probably a damn site more than in response to the more intelligent tactics used by other groups.

Right, I'm not talking about PETA as a whole, there is no denying that they are good at what they do(though I think their impact is often over-exaggerated). I'm talking about the folks at PETA I know personally and their individual efforts as animal rights activists. These are the people who stand outside of KFC's wearing chicken costumes and leaflet every week. I know that is not effective activism, and their time could be spent in much more efficient and meaningful ways.

I thought leafletting was actually efficient and effective based on the effort that goes into it. Is that not true?

Yeah, I know a ton of people who went vegan or vegetarian because of PETA stuff. Even for me, I saw one of their "Meats Not Green" flyers 4 years ago and that's what made me start thinking about ditching meat.

I hate that, too. Vegan =/= PETA. On the upside, I've decided that whenever I hear or see "People Eating Tasty Animals" I'm going to donate $10 to Vegan Outreach. I have a feeling that if I want to keep a roof over my head, I'm probably really, really gonna have to stop reading the comments.

Yeah! I do believe leafleting can be an wonderful and accessible form of activism, especially if you're targeting the right demographics. I don't believe leafleting outside of fast food restaurants is effective at all, as studies have shown that people actively engaged in an unethical behavior are much less likely to be open minded when the issues are brought to their attention than people who say, are just about to or have just finished eating a bucket of fried chicken.

OK. I was thinking outside concerts and special events, which is what I'm more familiar with.

As a kid, we stopped going to the circus because of a leaflet that someone handed my mom outside of the circus as we were leaving. So it worked! well for one family. I would imagine if it worked for us, it would work for others.

On another note, although I am not a huge fan of PETA, I do like that they organize leafleting (is that a word?) outside of local circus'. I have never participated, but have seen it done locally, and I think it is nicely organized and not crazy people screaming at circus goers. I was planning on doing it this year, but Circus Vargas is now animal free! Awesomesauce.