Number One Bad Dad... Or Not

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are attention whores. I don't think that comes as any surprise to anyone who has seen some of their earlier stunts such as splashing fake bloods on fur coats or putting body-painted models in cages. And lest we forget, it is due to their actions in court that Brasstown's New Year's Eve Possum Drop was forbidden to use a live opossum.

Their latest attention getting scheme is to send Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) their "2012 Bad Dad Award". His offense? He took his daughter Liza on a successful father-daughter deer hunt over Thanksgiving. They said it is for "low caliber" parenting. For some reason I don't think they mean it as a commentary over Liza using her own Remington 700 in .243 Winchester as opposed to a .270 or .308.

In their letter to Ryan telling his of the award, PETA insinuates that parents who take their children hunting are creating future school shooting incidents.

November 28, 2012

The Honorable Paul Ryan United States House of Representatives

Dear Representative Ryan:

On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) more than 3 million members and supporters worldwide, including thousands in Wisconsin, I am writing to present you with PETA’s Bad Dad Award (your certificate is on the way). You deserve the award because, instead of teaching your young daughter respect for wildlife and encouraging her to embrace nonviolence, you gave her a gun and encouraged her to kill animals for fun.

You seem to have a desperate need to assert your old-fashioned idea of manhood, to wield power over those who can’t defend themselves, even to the point of stealing their very lives for nothing more than the perverse thrill of it. I imagine there must be a lot of people who are disappointed in your lack of empathy, not only for those who are unarmed in the face of the fancy weaponry that helps you do your dirty work but also more broadly. I suspect that while you love your daughter, you don’t understand that the love of one’s offspring is shared by other living beings, including deer, whose fawns become orphaned when they are killed. And given that your daughter was “practicing,” one wonders if she is already among the ranks of hunters responsible for allowing deer to flee wounded, only to die out of sight, slowly and in agony.

How appalling to use your influence to desensitize your child to the suffering of others. In fact, the young people who have opened fire on their schoolmates—including 16-year-old Andrew Golden who, along with an accomplice, killed five people at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark., and 17-year-old T.J. Lane, who killed three people at Chardon High School near Cleveland earlier this year, had first expressed their love of hunting animals. In light of this fact alone, it seems grossly irresponsible to encourage a child to kill for “fun.”

You can’t teach kids to be tough, if that was the purpose, by encouraging them to kill those who can’t defend themselves. Being a good dad means encouraging children to engage in safe, peaceful, and fun ways for them to enjoy nature, including canoeing, bird watching, biking, and hiking—even clearing the woods of hunters’ beer cans and other trash would be a blessing. While this letter is blunt, its point is to ask you to ponder the value of encouraging compassion in your daughter, as well as in your other children, by switching to humane family activities.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

I think it is an understatement to call these people bat-shit crazy. Their next stunt is put up billboards featuring talk show host Wendy Williams nude. I can't wait for what Joel McHale will do with that in the next episode of The Soup.

As for the award to Paul Ryan, I'm sure that it might get him a few more votes in his home district in Wisconsin from Democrats who hunt deer. I know he won't be losing any votes - or sleep - over it.