Ramblings' Journal

PETA backs off of linking shackled blacks and animals

PETA, known for their controversial campaigns, has suspended a recent campaign where images of shacked black slaves were compared directly to those of shackled elephants and other animals.

"Animal Liberation," which includes 12 panels juxtaposing pictures of black people in chains with shackled elephants and other provocative images, had visited 17 cities before the Norfolk-based group put the tour on hold. The decision came within the past week.

PETA wrapped up the first leg of the tour in the District on Thursday.

"We're not continuing right now while we evaluate," said Dawn Carr, a PETA spokeswoman. "We're reviewing feedback we've received -- most of it overwhelmingly positive and some of it quite negative."

Suspended from a metal trellis, one cloth panel shows a black civil rights protester being beaten at a lunch counter beside a photo of a seal being bludgeoned. Another panel, titled "Hanging," shows a photo of a white mob surrounding two lynched blacks, their bodies hanging from tree limbs; a nearby picture shows a cow hanging in a slaughterhouse.

But controversy erupted last Monday, when the display stopped in New Haven, Conn.

"There was one man who began shouting that the exhibit was racist," Miss Carr said. "Then, there was a lot of shouting."

PETA tried to compare the suffering of Jews in the Holocaust to factory animals in 2003 and 2004, and caught similar flack.

Posted by mhking at August 15, 2005 01:33 PM | TrackBack