A Condom With A Cause
Representatives with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), one dressed as a plush, smiling condom, demonstrated on Tuesday, handing out literature encouraging pet owners to spay and neuter their cats and dogs. Enlarge video
A group of German foreign exchange students react to the site of a giant, plush condom promoting the spaying and neutering of cats and dogs during a demonstration by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011 at the corner of Ninth and Massachusetts Streets. Jenna Cameron, Minneapolis, Minnesota, dressed in the condom suit, and Katie Arth, San Diego, California, back left, both PETA representatives, spent the lunch hour handing out literature about spaying and neutering as a stop on their tour of Kansas and Missouri.
Bob Barker never pitched spaying and neutering quite like this.
Two women, one dressed as a condom, took to Massachusetts Street at noon Tuesday to promote the virtues of having pets spayed or neutered.
“For people, preventing pregnancies is as easy as opening a condom. But the 8 million unwanted cats and dogs born every year can’t even open the wrapper,” said Katie Arth, a campaigner for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Jenna Cameron of Minneapolis, Minn., who was dressed as the condom, silently held a sign that read “Condoms won’t work. Fix your cat!”
Both women are on a weeklong trip promoting the cause, and will make stops in Wichita and Jefferson City, Mo.
According to PETA, spaying one female dog or cat can prevent hundreds of thousands of births during the next six or seven years. The group estimates between 6 million and 8 million dogs and cats enter animal shelters each year, and about half are euthanized.
Arth said spaying and neutering pets can help solve this problem.
“Spaying and neutering only costs about as much as dinner for two, and it can be done as young as 8 weeks,” Arth said.
On Massachusetts Street, public interest was mixed. Some people took fliers and offered support for the cause, but many told the women they had no pets or theirs were already fixed.
Arth advised people interested in learning more to visit Peta.org.
Comments
rtpayton 1 year, 7 months ago
Spaying one female dog or cat can prevent thousands of births during the next six or seven years. Really, that cat would be having over 140 babies a year.
acouch 1 year, 7 months ago
Thanks for the comment. I should have mentioned this, but PETA accounts for the babies those babies will eventually have, and on down the line through the generations.
jcstepmom28 1 year, 7 months ago
While I appreciate the spay/neuter message I can't help but think that this is a feel good way for PETA to get into the hearts of more people. I am truly suprised to hear that PETA supports spay/neuter, last I knew they were even against people owning animals.
jafs 1 year, 7 months ago
That's a good point.
I remember that as well - maybe they've changed their position a bit since then.
chootspa 1 year, 7 months ago
This. They've also been accused of euthanizing thousands of unwanted pets while leading people to believe the animals were actually going to a shelter.
jafs 1 year, 7 months ago
Any evidence of that?
Accusations aren't evidence.
ECM 1 year, 7 months ago
Actually there is lots of proof.
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/pressRelease_detail.cfm/r/258-peta-killed-95-percent-of-adoptable-pets-in-its-care-during-2008
This is one article but there have been many
jafs 1 year, 7 months ago
That is disturbing.
But, a couple of things - one, there is no evidence they led people to believe animals were going to a shelter there.
And, the euthanized animals were much lower as a percentage of animals received than non-euthanized ones.
The vast majority were reclaimed by their owners, and some were adopted.
Our local Humane Society euthanizes a disturbing number of cats, if they can't be adopted out - actually a much higher percentage than PETA.
Many humane societies do the same - they don't have enough space to keep unwanted animals indefinitely.
I'd need to see a little more about the euthanized animals at PETA - were they unadoptable, in critical medical condition, etc.?
It's hard for me to believe they just kill them for no reason.
jd 1 year, 7 months ago
Isn't that why they no longer call dogs and cats 'pets' but 'companion animals'?
gatekeeper 1 year, 7 months ago
Who cares if PETA is radical, blah blah blah. What they are doing right now (spay/neuter campaign) is a good thing. Focus on the story, not the group. Millions of animals are put down each year because so many people are ignorant and don't get their critters fixed. Yes, your dog would make cute puppies and your cat would make cute kittens if you bred them. Guess what? There are millions of cute dogs and cats in shelters now that need homes and many will be put to death. There is no excuse when you can go to the Humane Society of Kansas City and pay only $50 to get your pet fixed. If you aren't willing to be a responsible pet owner, don't get one!
ResQd 1 year, 7 months ago
I couldn't have said it better myself. You are 100% correct!
Mike_Gerhardt 1 year, 7 months ago
I must disagree with you. While spaying/neutering is important, this particular group has a long history of being fanatics, which iave close ties to animal rights domestic terrorist groups.
gatekeeper 1 year, 7 months ago
Sorry, but then you must be narrow minded and don't care about the message.
There are many groups I don't agree with a lot of the time. That doesn't mean that I can't agree with them when they do good things.
Your response is what is wrong with this nation. Taking care of problems takes a back seat because people/groups don't like each other. How about working together on issues you can agree with? This country would be in much better shape if we all did.
tomatogrower 1 year, 7 months ago
+1 for gatekeeper.
howie1 1 year, 7 months ago
PETA are my favorite... People Eating Tasty Animals... PETA
Ewok79 1 year, 7 months ago
Yes, now don't forget to spay & neuter your people. LOL
Yeoman2 1 year, 7 months ago
I think Hitler found a final solution to this problem.
Katara 1 year, 7 months ago
“For people, preventing pregnancies is as easy as opening a condom. But the 8 million unwanted cats and dogs born every year can’t even open the wrapper,” said Katie Arth, a campaigner for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That is not a true statement. Dogs and cats are very capable of opening a condom wrapper. It is the putting the condom on that is the part they can't do.
jafs 1 year, 7 months ago
:-)
Yeoman2 1 year, 7 months ago
I want to see one of these PETA people come over here and put a condom on my Maine Coon cat. I will videotape the carnage and sell it to the World's Meanest Cat video channel. Better check your life insurance and medical insurance before you come over.
Mike_Gerhardt 1 year, 7 months ago
Somehow, I feel that it would be a better idea to spay/neuter PETA members instead.
somedude20 1 year, 7 months ago
If my "best friend" cut off my junk, he/she would no longer be my best friend! I think de-junking animals is a good thing but why stop with that as I see many examples almost daily that some people should not reproduce either!
blindrabbit 1 year, 7 months ago
Surprised that the Family Research Council, the Catholic Church, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Sam Brownback, Phill Klein, Herr Kobach and the rest of the radical Right-to-Lifers are not protesting this contrived form of birth control. It's interfering with God's plan to overpopulate the world with unwanted pets; don't want to mess with mother nature!
fredthemechanic1213 1 year, 7 months ago
I'm surprised you haven't proposed opening an animal abortion clinic for people to bring their pets with unwanted baby animals to be born so they can be euthanized before birth.
verity 1 year, 7 months ago
I'll bet you could train a cat---I'm seeing pictures in my mind right now---oh, never mind.
RoeDapple 1 year, 7 months ago
atiopatioo (anonymous) says… "Now if they could direct their skills to the human overpopulation problem."
From this site . . . http://www.consumerfreedom.com/pressRelease_detail.cfm/r/258-peta-killed-95-percent-of-adoptable-pets-in-its-care-during-2008
"PETA killed 2,124 pets last year and placed only seven in adoptive homes. Since 1998, a total of 21,339 dogs and cats have died at the hands of PETA workers."
jafs 1 year, 7 months ago
That's a rather misleading statistic they quote.
If you look at the actual information in the paperwork, the vast majority of animals are not euthanized - they're reclaimed by their owners.
Our local humane society euthanizes about 1/2 of the cats they take in, which is a much higher percentage than the PETA numbers.
And, I'd very much like to know why the animals were killed, which isn't in that information.
jcstepmom28 1 year, 7 months ago
Ok Jafs, where is your evidence on our local HS euthing 1/2 the cats taken in?
jafs 1 year, 7 months ago
Call them - I did when Mike Wildgen was the interim director and he sent me the stats - he was surprised at them as well.
The percentages with dogs are a bit better - I'm not sure why.
We have been long-term supporters of LHS, and have our Give Back card set up to get the proceeds to them, adopted our current pet from them, etc. so we're not any sort of anti LHS folks at all.
consumer1 1 year, 7 months ago
Yeah !! and they paint pentagrams on their heads while wearing black robes. The high preistess kills the cats with a jagged edge dagger while standing in a candle lilt room, chanting, Ommna Fithachia, La Vince Lombardi. Then they drink their blood....
psycho_theclown 1 year, 7 months ago
I think we could leave the world a better place if PETA would just adopt the slogan," Nobody goes hungry tonight...thanks to PETA."
bgwmail 1 year, 7 months ago
Who cares what the message is, does anybody else think that a giant walking condom downtown is not appropriate? How do I explain this one to my young child?
jafs 1 year, 7 months ago
Any way you like.
You could just tell them that the organization is working to make sure that there aren't a lot of unwanted animals, which is a good thing.
Tell them it's a big balloon.
Or that you'll explain it when they get older.
Etc.
Did_I_say_that 1 year, 7 months ago
Isn't a condom kind of the opposite of spaying/neutering?
faceit 1 year, 7 months ago
"Mommy, do animals use condoms?" "Mommy, do they really understand birth control?" "Mommy, how do they put them on without opposable thumbs?" "Oh, you mean animals don't really use condoms?" "Then what's the purpose of a condom for a PETA campaign?" "Mommy, are the people at PETA stupid?"
consumer1 1 year, 7 months ago
This headline is not a reminder. "PETA members provide unusual reminder about importance of spaying and neutering pets" This headline simply states how PETA like many other similar minded organization, are just trying to shove their opinions down our throuts with theatrics. The want to tell everyone how to live their lives. A very popular thing to do in Lawrence ks. The few noisy trying to dictate to the masses.
imastinker 1 year, 7 months ago
Is this what you do if you're too ugly to be part of PETA's typical demostrations?
HardwoodGoat 1 year, 7 months ago
Blonde in the back.....Woot! Woot! Lemme holla at you!!
cletus26 1 year, 7 months ago
go peta! i really could care less about animals being put to death, due to overpopulation, but people ought to really make sure that their pets are fixed if they are not going to take care of the offspring.. I just hate seeing people standing out @ walmart w/ a van load of cats trying to give them away, because they can't take care of no more than one; should have got that nasty cat fixed. It vexes my spirit to read about folks giving away pets for free because they didn't want to get the pet fixed. then i hate seeing stray animals period.
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