Finding zany news about People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is often like shooting fish in a barrel. “Feeling a little low on cash?” wrote PETA in a recent email recruiting activists to protest Ringling Bros. Circus in Chicago, “PETA’s here to help.” According to the Chicago Sun-Times, PETA is so hard up for true believers that it is now paying people — to the tune of ten dollars a pop — to protest for the self-appointed “complete press sluts.“
And yesterday Rome’s city council gutted common sense when it caved to pressure from PETA and banned goldfish bowls. The council swallowed the PETA piranhas’ propaganda hook, line, and sinker — citing trauma to animals about as smart as … goldfish. To paraphrase feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem (who was, herself, paraphrasing someone else): Rome’s animal lovers need this ban like a fish needs a bicycle. And we’re left asking, doesn’t Rome have bigger fish to fry?
