On the risk of being too crazy and detracting from your good cause: PETA can't seem to help itself!

It could be just me, but I don't think so.

Let's face it, everybody--indeed every organization--is in the business of "selling" an idea, fostering an image, or building a reputation which in the end explains why that person or that cause exists in the first place and what their reason for being is all about.  However, it appears that no one in the PETA organization--People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals--has figured this out.  

  Instead, these people have a particular knack for grabbing headlines and turning people off to what they stand for, i.e., the thoughtful and generous care of animals, domestic and wild.  The latest news sparked by PETA is a case in point--and makes one shake their head in amazement at how profoundly out-of-touch the institution of PETA really is.  

Let's not get carried away with the circus rhetoric.

A couple of weeks ago, a story was reported that went like this:  

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said they will continue to protest the city of Glendale's float, which features a depiction of a circus elephant, for the 2012 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade.

Animal activists are pointing to inhumane treatment of elephants in the circus. They say the name of the float, "Just Imagine the Music, Fun, and Freedom," presents a misleading idea of what circus animals endure.

"These chained and beaten animals enjoy no freedom and have no fun; theirs is a life of misery and torment. This is like changing the name of the slave novel 'Roots' to 'Fun and Freedom,'" said David Perle, a senior media coordinator for PETA, in an email.

Perle added that city officials are inviting "national embarrassment by cozying up to such a horrifically cruel industry."

Talk about wacky logic that turns the public off when such rhetoric is employed.  What the PETA proponents do with this focus on the American circus history of elephants is the equivalent of saying that saluting the domesticated dog is to be unacknowledged because Michael Vick and legions of others have placed a stain on the demonstration of appreciation, goodwill, and down-right affection toward canines by many other ordinary and well-meaning people!  

PETA's assertions are tantamount to their disparagement of any animal references because it is likely there is no specie--from bears to ferrets--which has, from the beginning of time, been treated impeccably by mankind.  

Wackiness never translates into anything very positive.

I say good for Glendale, CA, City Council for not buckling to a weirdly sanitized expectation of a public political correctness by PETA with respect to how people think about and have affection for elephants as a class of animals in our imaginary lives.  What I fail to appreciate is how a group of people who claim so sincerely and thoroughly to advance the plight of animals, seem at every turn to turn people off from considering their point of view as worthy of supporting--all for simply taking wacky positions which seem hostile and weirdly bizarre and convoluted.  

No one loves animals more than I do--and I am a proponent for their humane and thoughtful care; indeed, I'd value nothing more that to identify with others similarly inclined.  It seems, however, that the PETA people fail to "get" even the most rudimentary sense that public sentiment and commitment to any kind of action follows a worthy, reasoned, and compelling call-to-arms.  To the contrary, they seem more focused on turning ordinary people away from--as toward--something positive.  The elephant-float-in-the-2912-Rose-Parade "controversy" is just the last in a long series of such misguided efforts by them.  
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