Somehow PETA is able to take any sort of event and spin it into a plea for kindness to animals. Michael Jackson’s death is no exception.
PETA is currently seeking the rights not to Jackson’s “Beat It” (an ode to kicking your meat habit?) or “Bad” (to educate about the horrors of animal torture?), but to “Ben,” one of Jackson’s lesser-known songs from 1972, about a boy and his pet rat.
In a release sent out last week, the organization states that the song by the recently deceased King of Pop, whose memorial is taking place today in Los Angeles, is a “moving testament to the power of empathy for animals” and believes “if more people could be inspired by his song to stop supporting … ineffective animal-testing industry, it would be a fitting and enduring tribute to this talented performer.”
Their hope is to end laboratory testing on rats.
They also believe that reminding people of the song will change misconceptions around the “eek”-inducing rodents. In the song – Jackson’s first chart topper as a solo artist – he sings to Ben the rat, “most people would turn you away. I don’t listen to a word they say. They don’t see you as I do. I wish they would try to.”
Not sure, though, just how inspiring the song really is — “Ben” is the theme song to a movie of the same name about telepathic rats that attempt to take over the world by killing people.
