The animal-rights group is known for its brazen activism, but its latest ad crosses a remarkable line:
No mother should have to go through any of this. pic.twitter.com/DjbWQcFTX3
— PETA (@peta) November 2, 2016
The ad is deliberately shot and scripted to mimic a PSA featuring sexual assault victims, with women describing how “one man held me down” and “they got me pregnant.” But it’s revealed, at the end, to be about the artificial insemination of cows instead of the rape of women.
PETA suggests that women who have been raped are just like cows. This is such a steaming pile of shit that they should be shut down. https://t.co/jw9Mv3jYVl
— Heidi N Moore (@moorehn) November 3, 2016
Animal rights are important, and it’s valid for vegans and vegetarians to ask meat-eaters to consider the moral ramifications of their diet. It is possible to do that, however, without conflating human traumas with the artificial insemination of animals. There is no real comparison between sexual assault and the production of meat. By asserting otherwise, PETA has demeaned assault survivors and reduced them to the status of animals. Survivors are used to that feeling. That’s how abuse, not activism, works.