PETA Sues in Behalf of Selfie Monkey

The animal rights organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has sued photographer David Slater who published photos of a monkey using his camera to take selfies. PETA claims that the monkey should be the legal owner and should receive proceeds from the sale of the photo (“PETA’s Lawsuit over a Monkey Selfie,” Petapixel.com, Nov. 12, 2015). This is a publicity stunt by a nutty organization, but it is also probably an attempt to get some court somewhere to accept an animal as a legal entity and thus try to set a precedent. “Nutty” is definitely an accurate description of these people. PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk said, “The smallest form of life, even an ant or a clam, is equal to a human being,” and, “there really is no rational reason for saying a human being has special rights.” She says, “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” She likens the death of broiler chickens to the Nazi’s murder of Jews. In 1990, she told Reader’s Digest that humans “are the biggest blight on the face of the planet.” As elitists, though, she and her friends haven’t volunteered to step up to the plate to decrease the human population. PETA types also haven’t answered this question: “If evolution is true, as you say, and man is merely an animal and we came from nothing and are nothing and go to nothing and there is no ultimate meaning or absolute morality, why does it matter what we do, and why don’t you, therefore, mind your own business?”

(Friday Church News Notes, November 20, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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