The Center for Consumer Freedom has placed more than 800 advertisements on Metro trains throughout the Washington area in an attempt to convince riders that animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals is hypocritical.
The ads feature a hand holding a match to the red-ribbon symbol supporting AIDS research and a quote from PETA’s president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk, who told a newspaper, “Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it.”
“They put lab rats on the same level as sick children,” said center spokesman Andrew Porter.
PETA Spokeswoman Jen McClure said Newkirk’s comment is being twisted.
“She never said that,” McClure said of the quote, which originally appeared in a 1989 story in Vogue magazine.
Porter said the Center for Consumer Freedom, which is headquartered in the District, has been using the quote for years. It targeted this area because of the high number of local residents living with AIDS, Porter said.
“This, combined with the high concentration of opinion leaders, is obviously important,” Porter said. “Behind this veil of the cute and cuddly image is this group that’s very radical.”
Because PETA often targets D.C. with “its radical message,” Porter said, the center’s ad campaign is meant to fight them “on their turf.”
His organization, which is headed by beverage lobbyist Richard Berman and funded by the restaurant and food industries, runs a Web site, www.petakillsanimals.com.
Porter said Consumer Freedom does not lobby.
Porter called PETA hypocritical because of its euthanasia program. In 2005, two PETA workers in North Carolina were each charged with 31 felony counts of animal cruelty and eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals. The employees had been picking up the animals from a local shelter.
PETA has said it euthanizes animals when there is no other option.
“Until dog and cat overpopulation is brought under control through spaying and neutering, we must prevent the suffering of unwanted animals in the most responsible and humane way possible,” the PETA Web site says. “Euthanasia, performed properly, is often the most compassionate option.”
