The White House’s decision to ignore one question on bestiality is generating plenty of others. After Jay Carney’s Monday press conference, the President has started feeling the heat from his own base. It seems People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) doesn’t take too kindly to an administration that green lights animal cruelty. And while it’s not every day that FRC finds itself on the front lines with PETA, their involvement can only lend more legitimacy to the problem. In a letter to Jay Carney, PETA says its offices have been inundated with calls “from Americans who are angry that this ban has been repealed.” And while the press corps may have snickered, PETA says the issue “is no laughing matter.”
“In watching last night’s news briefing, we were upset to note that you flippantly addressed the recently approved repeal of the military ban on bestiality,” President Ingrid Newkirk writes. “As we outlined in the attached letter sent yesterday to the Secretary of Defense, animal abuse does not affect animals only–it is also a matter of public safety, as people who abuse animals very often go on to abuse human beings.”
After two weeks of media silence, PETA’s outrage is already pulling in the mainstream press, like Politico. Hopefully, the attention will not only validate the concern over the repeal, but ratchet up the pressure on Hill leaders to stop it. Either way, PETA’s objections give us an even better chance of stripping the language out of the Defense bill in conference. “Millions of Americans are upset that animals no longer have even minimal protections under the [Uniform Code of Military Justice],” Newkirk argues. “We hope that the public outcry against this inadvertent lapse will inspire the military to take action to make sure that it will be able to fully and appropriately serve and protect all Americans–human and nonhuman alike.” As unlikely as our alliance may be, the irony, obviously, is that there are stranger bedfellows in this bill. Let’s hope that PETA can help us shed some light on the legislation’s dark side. http://www.frc.org/index.cfm?f=WU11L05