Gary Bogue Columns on PETA and Unhappy Cows

[Guest guest]

Gary Bogue is a columnist for the Contra Costa Times.

He gets letters from all over the country, so I guess

he's read on the internet as well as in our local

paper. I've copied the PETA-related excerpts from two

columns and links in case you want to read the

non-PETA parts.

 

Dianne

 

Posted on Fri, May. 03, 2002

GARY BOGUE

 

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/living/columnists/gary_bogue/3188995.htm

 

Unhappy cows, 'ratbots' and the military, oh my

 

Was the cow that jumped over the moon really bionic?

-- Tut The Cat Bogue, " Warm Milk & Urban Myths "

 

SAD COWS, ROBORATS

 

Tuesday, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

wanted the Federal Trade Commission to charge

California's dairy industry with false advertising.

 

PETA says happy cows in recent humorous TV ads for the

California Milk Advisory Board ( " Great cheese comes

from happy cows. Happy cows come from California. " )

are just computer graphics and don't depict actual

conditions for the cows.

 

They say most cows are kept on dirt lots and manure

piles, shot full of hormones to increase their milk

and die young.

 

PETA does some pretty silly things to try to grab our

attention (getting models to take off their clothes

for animals, etc.) and some newspapers took advantage

of this latest sad-cow caper to poke fun at them.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of what PETA says about dairy

cows is true, but this got lost or ignored in a flurry

of

equally silly editorials.

 

Then Thursday, comes a frightening Frankensteinian

story of electrodes implanted in rats' brains to

create little living controllable robot rodents.

 

Many news reports I read extolled the virtues of the

research, saying the " ratbots " might one day be

used to find victims in buildings after an earthquake.

 

I'm afraid I had trouble getting past the tiny

paragraph about some of the research being " funded in

part by the United States military. "

 

Another scary thought.

 

Maybe they'll use this new mind-control technique to

make California's sad dairy cows smile again at

the two new 6,000-cow mega-dairies coming soon to

nearby Solano County.

 

You can almost smell all that happy manure.

 

 

Posted on Sun, May. 05, 2002

GARY BOGUE

 

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/living/columnists/gary_bogue/3201920.htm

 

 

SAD COW RESPONSE

 

Here are a couple of responses from my Friday column

about PETA, sad dairy cows, the California Milk

Advisory Board's " great cheese " ads and mind control

research on rats.

 

You have to admit that's kind of an interesting mix.

 

Please don't kill the messenger!)

 

• PETA is sick, sick, sick! They are the very ones who

tried to get people to stop eating chicken and beef

and pork because it was cruel to kill animals for

food. They are against hunters and fishermen.

 

Not only are the ads entertaining, they get their

point across for cheese.

 

If the media did not give them so much press, their

efforts might die out. (Robert E. Craciun, cyberspace)

 

• God bless PETA for taking up the cause of mistreated

dairy cows!

 

The dairy industry has really GOT MILK? on its face on

this one! (Sandy O., Dublin)

 

 

Gary's here Tuesday-Friday & Sunday. Questions,

comments to Gary, c/o Times, P.O. Box 5088, Walnut

Creek, CA 94596-0087; 925-977-8582; see old columns at

www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/columnists/; e-mail

garybug.

 

 

 

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