PETA | Discovery Institute

two macaques in close proximity to each other against a background of green vegetation, AI, wild nature monkeys

^{Wesley J. Smith
March 12, 2025
Human Exceptionalism

5}

PETA Sues NIH for Violating Its “First Amendment Right” to Talk to Monkeys

_{Wesley J. Smith
March 12, 2025
Human Exceptionalism

5}

PETA is suing the NIH and the National Institute of Mental Health, claiming that the agency's refusal to allow them to receive closed-circuit monitoring of research monkeys and communicate directly with them violates the animal rights fanatics' First and Fifth Amendment rights. The irrationality begins in the complaint's first and second paragraphs when the complaint alleges PETA has a right to receive communications from "fellow primates" that are "willing speakers." Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
April 10, 2007
Human Exceptionalism

7}

Podcasts

_{Wesley J. Smith
April 10, 2007
Human Exceptionalism

7}

Brave New Bioethics Brave New Bioethics is a series of podcasts recorded by Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith exploring the many policies and proposals in bioethics, bioscience, and animal liberation that threaten the belief that human life has worth merely and simply because it is human. Episodes are listed below. Cloning Double Talk Hospice Association Refuses to Denounce Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
August 4, 2005
Human Exceptionalism

2}

Liberation Theology

_{Wesley J. Smith
August 4, 2005
Human Exceptionalism

2}

Animal-rights and animal-liberation advocacy has, over the years, become a radical and subversive enterprise. To see this phenomenon at work, one need look no further than the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the movement’s leading advocacy group. PETA’s latest campaign blitz, the “Animal Liberation Project” (ALP), is a case in point, blending moral relativism with extremist rhetoric.

It comes on the heels of PETA’s pro-vegetarian “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign, which claimed that the worst crimes of the Shoah were morally equivalent to eating meat and wearing leather; that one set off a firestorm of criticism and condemnation from Jewish groups and the media. It took two years, but PETA leader Ingrid Newkirk finally issued a non-apology apology for the indefensible comparison.

But, of course, defend she did; PETA hadn’t changed its mind about the campaign’s essential message. Enter ALP, which again asserts a moral equivalency between using animals and some of history’s worst crimes. ALP’s overarching theme is: “We are all animals.” While this is biologically true, PETA isn’t merely stating a scientific fact. Rather, by the statement PETA means that humans and animals are moral equals. Hence, everything we do with and to animals should be judged morally as if the same things were being done to people.

The Most Tasteless PR Campaign Ever

_{Wesley J. Smith
March 10, 2003
Human Exceptionalism

6}

PEOPLE for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has finally and unequivocally come off the rails. Attempting to convince us to become vegetarians, the anti-human advocacy group has mounted a new public relations campaign asserting that the eating of meat is the equivalent of the torture and slaughter of Jews by the Nazis.This odious message isn’t insinuated subtly between the lines. Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
October 28, 2002
Human Exceptionalism

9}

Man and Beast

_{Wesley J. Smith
October 28, 2002
Human Exceptionalism

9}

AMERICANS LOVE ANIMALS. We coo over and coddle our cats and dogs as if they were children. We paste “Save the Whales” bumper stickers on our cars. We groan in empathetic sadness if a squirrel darts into the road in front of a car. We flock to national parks to catch fleeting glimpses of bears, elk, and antelope. We anthropomorphize Read More ›

^{Wesley J. Smith
October 2, 2002
Human Exceptionalism

7}

Terrorists, Too

_{Wesley J. Smith
October 2, 2002
Human Exceptionalism

7}

When many people think of “animal rights,” they may picture trendy celebrities posing in nude photographs to combat the fur industry. Or perhaps, they will roll their eyes and smile when they hear that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) reported the California Milk Advisory Board to the FCC for false advertising because its television ads claim Read More ›