People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals, perhaps wishing to avoid an actual crowd (like those lined up at Franklin Barbecue), have the following demonstration planned for tomorrow at noon, in front of Lambert’s on West 2nd Street :
Hoping to inspire residents to realize that a corpse is a corpse—whether fish, fowl, or even Frank!—PETA protesters will “cook” a nearly naked PETA member on a grill in Austin tomorrow. PETA’s point? That all animals are made of flesh, bone, and blood, just as humans are, and that eating meat entails eating the corpse of an animal who was an individual with feelings, a family, and a distinct personality.
“We are challenging people to really think about what meat is,” says PETA campaigner Lauren Stroyeck. “Flesh is flesh, and animals feel pain and suffer just as humans do. What revolts people about the idea of eating other humans should also apply to the idea of eating other animals.”
I fully take Ms. Stroyeck’s point, however, unless PETA is prepare to actually cook a human corpse (and without an actual mob ready to devour him or her), it seems like, y’know, a waste of food. And they’ve not specified who this nearly naked person is supposed to be (though I’m happy to provide a shortlist of qualified candidates if asked).