March 1, 2005
PETA's Rhymin' And Stealin' Celebrity Endorsements
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has gone back to its sour old tune of exaggerating celebrity support for its radical animal rights agenda. Much in the same way it misrepresented backing from The Dalai Lama and NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, PETA recently dashed off a supposed letter of support from the Beastie Boys. But hold the phone: The group known for rapping about Brass Monkeys claims PETA used misleading tactics, including advanced forgery techniques, to leverage the band's name into an attack on KFC. Beastie Boy Adam Yauch told Israel Insider that while he was signing a petition supporting the humane treatment of animals, PETA deceived him about what they would actually do with his name:
A lady was walking around an airport in Australia asking people to sign something. When she approached me I thought (and I assume that Adam and Mike did as well) that it was a petition that she was getting as many signatures on as she could.
But Yauch was misled, saying "I thought that my name would appear in conjunction with thousands of others." More damningly, Yauch noted that the animal rights group all but forged his support for their position:
By the look of the letter that PETA sent out ... they must have scanned our signatures, photo shopped them neatly in order and then added our names typed in, so that it would look like we drafted and sent the letter ourselves.
