Major Win For "Animal Rights" Organization

[method77]

BERLIN (Reuters) - Mercedes-Benz has agreed to offer "leather-free" versions of all its luxury cars to pacify an animal rights group that says thousands of cows are slaughtered each year for leather car seats and interiors.

After complaints from the German chapter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, DaimlerChrysler said its Mercedes subsidiary will offer fabric or synthetic leather as options. Daimler spokeswoman Ursula Mertzig-Stein said that far from wanting leather-free cars, "our customers ... are more likely to want even more leather at the premium end. But we'll make cars without leather on demand."

PETA officials, who had threatened protests at the carmaker's Stuttgart headquarters, said they were delighted.

"When you consider that the skins of four to 15 cows are needed for each car this means thousands of cows will be spared," said PETA researcher Edmund Haferbeck. "This is a huge victory for animal rights."

Reuters

I guess we can now take cows out of the indangered animals list!!!

<_>

[Redneck4sure]

I doubt any cows were killed just for leather. The rest of the cow is used for meat and some other stuff. If Mercedes never sells another car I doubt if the number of cows killed would change. I think that PETA had a good idea when they started but have gone totally nuts. Now they are on a crusade against fishing. I don't know why they don't try harder to save roaches, crickets and other insects. That is probably next.

I am a member of PETA....People Eating Tasty Animals.

[Umma]

blame McDonalds for the leather surplus.... not Mercedes...

[DudeAsInCool]

Good for Mercedes and the Animal Rights group. Here's another topical item:

Lab monkeys 'scream with fear' in tests

Sandra Laville

Tuesday February 8, 2005

The Guardian

Secret documents describing how some monkeys can scream in misery, fear and anger during experiments were produced in the high court yesterday as evidence that the laws intended to protect laboratory animals are being flouted.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,...1407818,00.html

[slum_goddess]

Lab monkeys 'scream with fear' in tests

bah...somehow i knew it.

[Redneck4sure]

Save a monkey......lab test a liberal.

[KiwiCoromandel]

i must confess to being quite partial to a rare sirloin steak...however, as a general rule of thumb, steaks do not taste any good with the cowhide still on them..what to do with all those spare cowhides then???? :) :rolleyes:

i do, however hasten to add that i do not condone anybody eating monkey...which is just as well, because i don`t think that monkeyfur is any good for making into carseat covers...... :P :P :bigsmile:

[Redneck4sure]

very true Kiwi. And that's the problem with liberals. They are not a food group, the hides are not worth anything and once you remove the shit, there isn't anything left to even feed to the dogs or hogs. :wha':

If they weren't so damn much fun to shoot they would be totally useless.

[GabrielYoungFan]

I've gone soft.

[KiwiCoromandel]

very true Kiwi. And that's the problem with liberals. They are not a food group, the hides are not worth anything and once you remove the shit, there isn't anything left to even feed to the dogs or hogs. :wha':

If they weren't so damn much fun to shoot they would be totally useless.

nice one red......

[wingnut2600]

I think this is awesome.

Why should people have no choice in their vehicle interior? Cowhide is difficult to clean and easily destroyed. Why would you want this? Not to mention the senseless slaughter of animals for their flesh.

I am a hardcore vegetarian (I am hardcore in reasoning--I don't care if you eat meat... I don't care if most people live or die)... I don't eat animals because what is to keep me from eating humans too? Some of them are far less intelligent than animals (look above for examples), and I just don't really see the difference between killing an animal or a member of an animal from your own species... in both cases something is dead... something has been taken away that neither your Gods nor science cannot give back.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see people dead or kill people... far from that idea. I don't think either should be killed. I think there is a natural balance that man has thrown aside for something artificial and unsustainable.

What I want is to shock people into seeing that their assumptions and beliefs about different things are small. There is so much beyond what people hold as true, and much truth beyond what is seen explicitly apparent.

I await the inevitable atavistic response that will come from the ignorant and close-minded.

[Kooperman]

I await the inevitable atavistic response that will come from the ignorant and close-minded.

I guess that must be me.

Probably because I think that people have to come to their own conclusions and decisions concerning their values system and what they consider to be important within the tapestry of their life. It's wonderful to have strong beliefs and convictions about what's right and wrong, but ultimate wisdom is knowing that those are YOUR values and not necessarily those which will work best for the other unique human beings on this planet. We're all different. I can share my beliefs with others, but it's presumptuous of me to think that I should have the final say in what others must believe. Do I like your stated beliefs? Yes, they're quite sensible. Do I like the antagonistic, in-your-face way that you closed your message? No, it implies that only you have seen the truth and the only other responses here on BK are from the "ignorant and close-minded".

And I'd also rethink using the word "atavistic" in that last sentence.

[DudeAsInCool]

Do I like the antagonistic, in-your-face way that you closed your message? No, it implies that only you have seen the truth and the only other responses here on BK are from the "ignorant and close-minded".

And I'd also rethink using the word "atavistic" in that last sentence.

I didnt read his last sentence the same way you did. He said he wanted to shock people, and so I thnk he was fair in telling you where he was coming from, and admittedly trying to provoke a response..

[KiwiCoromandel]

now let me get this right before i dive right in.......because i do not share your apparently more extremist " vegan " views on the doubtful benefits of a wholly vegetarian lifestyle and because i eat red and some white meat, i am " atavistic ".....here is my understanding of the word atavistic.....

at·a·vism ( P ) Pronunciation Key (t-vzm)

n.

The reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence, usually caused by the chance recombination of genes.

An individual or a part that exhibits atavism. Also called throwback.

The return of a trait or recurrence of previous behavior after a period of absence......

now tell me, which one of the above describes my unfortunate carnivorous habits again? :bigsmile:

Edited February 9, 2005 by kiwibank

[DudeAsInCool]

Maybe he meant 'avaristic'?

[Kooperman]

Maybe he meant 'avaristic'?

Maybe he meant to post that last sentence across the street at the other place...that happens a lot there. I thought wingy's post was fine other than that. If he's found the cosmic truth though, he's got to wait for the rest of us to catch up.

[wingnut2600]

I was using atavistic in a Hunter Thompson sort of way... basically that it was a throwback... like cavemanesque. Think of the definition referring to a discarded trait that has reintroduced itself into the genetic sequence, but in a social way (I realize this is quite similar to a regression in programming).

People often take being a vegetarian (I am an ova-lacto one... i am not really that hardcore about that, again, I am anti-death and it is more of a philosophical choice - I am a bit nihilistic and think that if I put no value in some life it nullifies all life and that everything - even my own life - has no meaning) as being weak. I just thought I would post something aggressive, such as people do when they are faced with those that don't eat meat, But not in a fanatical/PETA/animal liberation sort of way. I like to tweak things on occasion.

Koop... I wasn't really aiming at you.

I just post to challenge people's beliefs from time to time... but there really aren't enough people here to really shock, outrage and cause this to perpetuate into the future.

What is truth? Isn't it different from person to person?

I realize I don't consider myself a vegetarian, since I hate the gut-reaction by people to their pre-conceived notions. i am not that person... I wish that people weren't always what I expected.

As i said, I don't really care if people eat meat. I do not partake in the consumption, and I think it is nice that some car company that sells luxury vehicles gives consumers a choice.

[Kooperman]

I can understand where you're coming from. I quit hunting about 25 years ago when I shot a bobcat and had the head mounted. I gave it to my then girlfriend who was teaching at a school whose team nickname was bobcats, and it went up at the gym. I didn't feel one damn bit of good about myself though, and haven't shot anything since. As far as being a vegetarian goes, I don't understand those who still eat fish and chicken...

[Redneck4sure]

I could care less if Mercedes offers choices in their fabrics. Personally, I avoid buying leather because I just don't like it. It is a personal preference. I hate leather seats in cars, don't care for leather sofas/recliners and like leather shoes slightly better than non leather. Even then I don't like leather souls but I live with them. I am just saying that I don't believe Mercedes has cows killed for leather. I think they buy leather from cows that have been killed for meat. I may be wrong and don't care enough to look it up.

I still think PETA is a bunch of lunatics that took a good idea and went crazy. Kind of like the nuts in CA that burned the auto dealerships because they thought people ought not to drive SUVs. I have a friend that must be smarter that me because he is a vegetarian. We go to lunch frequently. He doesn't throw up on my steak and I don't piss on his salad.

[slum_goddess]

What is truth? Isn't it different from person to person?

all the above especially this made me think i bopped into one o' my philosophy boards. thanks wingnut for some deep thinking here (disclaimer: i eat steak every chance i get but always looking for a reason not to; pet man doesn't eat meat apart from chicken).

[Redneck4sure]

"What is Truth" is a song by Johnny Cash circa 1969 or so. :)

[KiwiCoromandel]

I was using atavistic in a Hunter Thompson sort of way...

I just post to challenge people's beliefs from time to time... but there really aren't enough people here to really shock, outrage and cause this to perpetuate into the future.

" I was using atavistic in a Hunter Thompson sort of way... "

i don`t consider that atavistic is actually the best word to describe or categorise hunter thompson and his frantic and crazed tripping through, say, the american landscape in " fear and loathing in l.a " i think that his journey in that respect was more a journey of heavy consumption, heavy irony and sensory overload........

" I just post to challenge people's beliefs from time to time... but there really aren't enough people here to really shock, outrage and cause this to perpetuate into the future. "

there is nothing wrong with raising an informed debate in an open forum.....i would imagine that those whose shock and outrage that you would like to evoke would need to be interested enough to react in the way that you were hoping that they would......playing the devils advocate is an old and skilled game, sometimes , however that game can backfire.....the old saying " be careful what you wish for because you might just get it " could be applicable in this case........ :bigsmile:

Edited February 9, 2005 by kiwibank

[method77]

I want to get in this discussion but I understand shit of what is posted above

"Lost in translation"

[Redneck4sure]

Jump on in Method!

[Ken]

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see people dead or kill people... far from that idea.

Drum roll please.....................

I don't care if most people live or die