President Obama swatted and killed a fly on television, and PETA is upset about it. In case you think I’m making this up, here is the link from MSNBC. Let me quote:
PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.
“We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals,” PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. “We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.”
I’m all for the ethical treatment of animals, but not insects, and especially flies. This is truly unbelievable. I wonder what their position is on mosquitos. Anybody know?
Mormon Heretic 
I think that’s called “Press release opportunity!!!”
I’m sure they’re just being annoying, like they always are.
I thought not killing insects was about awakining compassion within oneself, not advertising. I think I’ll send a book on Buddhism to PETA.
I’m an animal rights activist, but I’m not a fan of PETA. I think they’ve done some great things (i.e. uncovered the torture of KFC chickens, utterly appalling abuses at slaughterhouses, such as the inhumane slaughter of cows at a Kosher plant, bringing attention to unethical practices in the farming industries, such as gestational crates and battery cages, among many other things), but they tend to be too fanatical for my taste. This Obama fly thing is a good example. I’ll be honest, I don’t kill flies. I chase them to the window and open it to let them out. With spiders and other insects, I trap them in plastic bags and dump them outside. So maybe Obama should have left the fly alone. But by bringing so much attention to such a minor thing, people become less-inclined to listen to the real stories of cruelty that PETA is very good at uncovering, but maybe not so good at winning public sympathy for.
Personally, I’m more of a fan of The Humane Society and The Fund For Animals (founded by my hero Cleveland Amory), as well as IFAW and WWF (not the wrestling). 😀 I think that their approach is more effective among most people than PETA.
When a group gets too fanatical, it actually harms their cause, IMO. On the other hand, I’ve heard of PETA, but not IFAW or WWF. I know some people believe any publicity is good publicity, but I’m not one of them.
I just happened to hear an interview with the PETA spokesman by Mark Levin. As a regular listener, I was catching up on last Thursday’s show and was suprised when he actually interviewed the guy. Apparently, the spokesman draws the line at parasitic insects such as mosquitos and cockroaches. Although, his wife is in favor of capturing cockroaches and freeing them outside. He admits that he is not “perfect” with regard to all creatures in that regard, but that we should all try to be “better”. The interview was more interesting than I thought it would be anyway. Knowing how Mark gets, I thought he would just go off on him, but he was actually very polite, though maybe a little patronizing. If you are interesting in listening to the interview, you can find it (June 18 show) online at marklevinshow.com or you can download the podcast at iTunes. The actual interview is about an hour and 35 minutes into the show and lasts about 10 minutes.
I, for one, feel quite comfortable with killing insects which invade my home and those outside which will not leave me alone.