PETA demonstrators protest in front of the Statehouse in Providence, R.I. They placed themselves in containers resembling supermarket meat trays, meant to compare eating meat with cannibalism. WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

PETA PASSION: Norfolk-based animal-rights group's attention-getting antics are a lightning rod for critics

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Members of PETA go to extreme lengths to draw attention to animal rights—even if it enrages some humans

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Date published: 7/2/2005

By MICHAEL ZITZ

NORFOLK--At the risk of causing Frank Perdue to spin in his grave, here's an observation spun off from one of his old TV ads:

It takes a tough person to save a tender chicken.

And it takes a thick skin to work for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Norfolk-based group with a global reach that is celebrating its silver anniversary.

In observance of the anniversary, the group is giving away toy race cars bearing the words, "Driving you crazy for 25 years."

PETA's primary message is as basic as one of the stickers it distributes--a cartoon of a baby chick next to the words, "I am not a nugget."

But it's possible that the only organization more frequently targeted for vilification is al-Qaida.

Take on the beef, dairy, chicken, slaughterhouse and meat-packing industries, go after corporate restaurant chains, and they're going to bite back, and bite hard.

Critics have called PETA weird, radical and vulgar.

And many Americans have a mental caricature of PETA people as antisocial oddballs who can't relate to other human beings.

But during a recent visit, PETA headquarters appeared odd only in that it was unusually pleasant and friendly.

PETA's bright, airy quarters on the waterfront in Norfolk are a vegan, "animal-product-free" zone.

Dogs and cats who have become office pets roam the building and nap at the feet of workers.

Employees aren't allowed to eat animal food products in the building or to wear leather shoes or belts to work. They wear "pleather," an artificial leather substitute.

Workers are not required to be vegetarians, but most are, said Colleen O'Brien, the organization's 29-year-old manager of communications.

While volunteering at a Washington state zoo as a teen, O'Brien began to think differently about eating meat, and her increasing sensitivity to animals led her to work for PETA.

She said those who portray PETA as misanthropic and as putting animal rights before people's welfare are simply wrong.

"It's not a choice," she said. "You don't have to either be kind to human beings or be kind to animals. You can be both."

Date published: 7/2/2005