Images of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals :: Essays Papers

Images of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals It all makes good sense so long as animals exist. Humans are not so different from nonhuman animals, yet through a vast array of often mutually supporting structures of domination – from food to fashion and psychology to war, â€Å"the suffering that we inflict on nonhuman beings can be extreme, and the numbers involved are gigantic†[1]. From this, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) branches out. A next step, a necessary path, a biological outgrowth or a wandering extension of a moral â€Å"circle† of consideration of nonhuman animals. The slogan: â€Å"Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment†[2]. But more than a slogan to march to, the pithy philosophy also guides, unifies, and activates the media presence that makes up the fundamental faces of PETA. PETA is also other than a cadre for animal revolution, â€Å"we are complete press sluts†[3]. For animals, the revolution will be televised vigo rously. Whereas this struggle might be understood as the instrumental use of media to effect an outside end for real world concerns (more TV makes less animals die), how PETA’s images have worked can be understood on an alternate screen of anti-aliased renders and widescreen projection. A programming of simulation, nature, and animal. PETA’s internet enabled zoo of images, photos for every block of words and text for every block of pixels, both addresses and symbiotically supports the habitat and survival of the animals they hope to strategically aid. For, while ‘the cause’ would be served as well by the sudden disappearance of animal cruelty, what is advocated is precisely inclusive and referential of itself. These animals, whose kind is to be saved, live inside of html formatted rectangles in Photoshop blended subtlety and complexity. It all makes sense so long as animals exist, and the premise is hard to deny. Animals have been, as PETA is no doubt aware, consistently and progressively devastated, impacted, displaced, conquered, enslaved, caught, captured, killed, boxed in and eliminated. The activist may tell you that this process is by no means inevitable or necessary and must be ended now. But the images sear a different mark: animals, as we once knew them, may have already passed through their disappearance, ascension, and resurrection. Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s director of vegan outreach, has said of meat eating, â€Å"feeding plants to animals then eating the animals is like filtering water through a sewer then drinking it†[4].