Don't kill flies Mr. President, PETA says

[ph4ever]

U.S. President Barack Obama shouldn't be swatting flies during TV interviews — or off the air, for that matter, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says. The President appeared on CNBC Wednesday, when a fly distracted him for mere moments and he cupped his hand and swatted it onto his other arm in a very dignified way, befitting a president, some might say. What can't Obama do well?

We can't tell whether the fly was killed or flew away unharmed. Watch the video here. But the animal rights group PETA was quick on the mark to send the Oval Office one of its "Katcha Bug Humane Bug Cathers." Take that, Mr. President. Set a better example for the people, please. The group's catalogue also includes a human mouse trap, too.

Here's the PETA pitch to sell the $8 Katcha Bug:

Are you the kind of person who wouldn't hurt a fly? Is your motto "live and let live," even when it comes to tiny, six-legged, uninvited house guests? Then the Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher is for you! Simply place Katcha Bug over the bug and slowly slide its plastic trapdoor shut. The bug will step onto the trapdoor as it closes, and you can carry Katcha Bug outside, where all you need to do is slide the trap door open, allowing the bug to walk away. You'll have no problem catching even large spiders with this handy gadget. Katcha Bug measures 9 inches in length, so you won't have to get too close for comfort.


That said, PETA is pleased about Obama's pro-animal stance — his denouncement of factory farming, the Canadian seal hunt and his wife's attitude toward wearing fur.



Source

[springparrot]

ummm, NO

Swat away Mr President

[C-Dawg]

I'd like to swat all the idiots who belong to PETA

[blackjack]

[Frank4]

I think they went a bit far on this statement.

Swat Away, President Obama

[alphabits]

I wonder if the fly was free-range or factory farmed?


Sail on, my little insect brother .....

[citcat]

Oh, this has to be a joke. I can understand not hurting honey bees because they are decreasing in scary numbers and are vital to plants and flowers, but COME ON !! A friggin' nasty fly ?

What a numbnut who released that statement.
I'm going out and squash a bunch of ants just because of that.
And this gnat near my computer, he's TOAST !!!!!!!!

[Bubbaphan]

[citcat]

*SPEW* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that's funny !!!!!!!!!

[labatt1876]

If animals were not meant to be eaten, why would they be made of meat?

[ejr]

I have had a large number of flies in my house for about a week (can't figure out where they got it), so I greatly appreciate what he did, and wish he could come help me out with all my flies!

[Bicycle Bill]

PETA says, don't swat flies. What's next? Live and let live with regard to termites, roaches, and bedbugs?
I can just see it now: Dozens of PETA members outside of the SC Johnson company (makers of Raid!® and Off!®) HQ in Racine WI carrying signs and banners reading "Mosquitoes have rights too"!!

To any high muckety-muck of PETA who happens to be reading this:
It is time for you-all to quietly fold up your tent and fade off into oblivion. Please.

-"BB"-

[Conolulu]

Ok...This made me laugh today and I really needed that laugh....

Reminded me of a time when my sister was still alive...

We were having a cookout, and a fly landed on the plate the burgers were on...and my sister squashed it....My son got upset and said "Aunt Fran? It was just a tiny fly!"


And Fran, in true Fran fashion looked at the 5 yr old kid and said:

"A tiny fly that probably just flew off a tiny pile of Sh*t."

[mermaidindisguise]

Hey! I just looked down andsaw a flea on my ankle.... I better let him live.... I wish I had a humane device that would let me catch it so that I could take it outside where it could get on one ofmy pets and come back in again. Wait... don't fleas and flies have a life span of like one day..... lol

PETA wanted some press - and of course they got it. I would have not even acknowledged them!!

[surfpirate]

P.E.T.A. is an easy laughable target for this. I am not a real fan of PETA.

But, targeting them for this is too easy.

PETA did not "seek this out" for their own press opportunity. What happens all too often, the mainstream consertavive and liberal media (yes - BOTH) .... seek out PETA for comments ... both HOPING that it will be something they (the press) can exploit. Not the other way around.

In this instance ... the media was all over PETA looking for a comment. Instead of saying "no comment" (maybe they should have) PETA essentially issued the following:

As we all know, human beings often don't think before they act. We don't condemn President Obama for acting on instinct. When the media began contacting us in droves for a statement, we obliged, simply by saying that the president isn't the Buddha and shouldn't be expected to do everything right—if not for that, we would not have brought it up. It's the media who are making a big deal about the fly swat—not PETA. However, we took the opportunity, when asked, to point out that we do offer lots of ways in which to control insects of all kinds without harming them, including the humane bug catcher we sent President Obama. There is even a chapter in PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's book Making Kind Choices about how to rid your home of "uninvited guests."

We have lots of other items on our agenda, as you can imagine, and PETA's focus will remain on our core issues—promoting alternatives to eating animals, opposing fur and products made from animal skin, opposing laboratories that torment animals, and fighting the abuse of animals in circus training camps as well as other overt abuses that fall within our mission statement, which states that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.

We support compassion for all animals, even the most curious, smallest, and least sympathetic ones. We hope that everyone will take inspiration from Nobel Peace Prize–winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who believed that even insects were deserving of compassion and who would stop to move a worm from hot pavement to cool earth. Aware of the problems and responsibilities that go along with an expanded ethical code, Schweitzer said that we each must "live daily from judgment to judgment, deciding each case as it arises, as wisely and mercifully as we can."

We can't stop all suffering, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop any. Our wish is for all people to act wisely and mercifully toward animals.

The media (BOTH mainstream conservative and liberal) pick and choose what they wanted out of this, and the all too easy synopsis they chose was "OBAMA SHOULD NOT KILL FLIES".

C'mon people .... get real. PETA, as much as I disagree with them, did NOT SEEK OUT this issue.

[blackjack]

I have had a large number of flies in my house for about a week (can't figure out where they got it), so I greatly appreciate what he did, and wish he could come help me out with all my flies!

Yep. I had several hundred in my garage last week...note the "had". Good ole Raid took care of them. I didn't have time to hand-swat each one.

[TropicalTroubador]

There must not be many PETA members in Florida (mosquitos) or Minnesota (black flies).

As I've long maintained, PETA is far more strenuously opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass little old ladies than bikers.

[Cincy'sOwnDrunk]

"We can't tell whether the fly was killed or flew away unharmed"




It showed a close up of the fly on the ground. I don't think it was moving!



Shhhhh! Don't tell PETA, but I killed a roach today at work. I know I shouldn't have, but...considering I work at a sandwich shop, I thought I'd put one moral aside for another.

And those ants that were swarming around my back door....sorry!



BTW, I must have missed the PETA protest against Fear Factor and Survivor.

[Cincy'sOwnDrunk]

I just saw on my twitter that PETA is planning a protest at the site of a boxing match between a washed up "boxer" and a DUCK that is to take place tomorrow night.

P.E.T.A. is an easy laughable target for this. I am not a real fan of PETA.

But, targeting them for this is too easy.

PETA did not "seek this out" for their own press opportunity. What happens all too often, the mainstream consertavive and liberal media (yes - BOTH) .... seek out PETA for comments ... both HOPING that it will be something they (the press) can exploit. Not the other way around.

In this instance ... the media was all over PETA looking for a comment. Instead of saying "no comment" (maybe they should have) PETA essentially issued the following:

As we all know, human beings often don't think before they act. We don't condemn President Obama for acting on instinct. When the media began contacting us in droves for a statement, we obliged, simply by saying that the president isn't the Buddha and shouldn't be expected to do everything right—if not for that, we would not have brought it up. It's the media who are making a big deal about the fly swat—not PETA. However, we took the opportunity, when asked, to point out that we do offer lots of ways in which to control insects of all kinds without harming them, including the humane bug catcher we sent President Obama. There is even a chapter in PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's book Making Kind Choices about how to rid your home of "uninvited guests."

We have lots of other items on our agenda, as you can imagine, and PETA's focus will remain on our core issues—promoting alternatives to eating animals, opposing fur and products made from animal skin, opposing laboratories that torment animals, and fighting the abuse of animals in circus training camps as well as other overt abuses that fall within our mission statement, which states that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.

We support compassion for all animals, even the most curious, smallest, and least sympathetic ones. We hope that everyone will take inspiration from Nobel Peace Prize–winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who believed that even insects were deserving of compassion and who would stop to move a worm from hot pavement to cool earth. Aware of the problems and responsibilities that go along with an expanded ethical code, Schweitzer said that we each must "live daily from judgment to judgment, deciding each case as it arises, as wisely and mercifully as we can."

We can't stop all suffering, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop any. Our wish is for all people to act wisely and mercifully toward animals.

The media (BOTH mainstream conservative and liberal) pick and choose what they wanted out of this, and the all too easy synopsis they chose was "OBAMA SHOULD NOT KILL FLIES".

C'mon people .... get real. PETA, as much as I disagree with them, did NOT SEEK OUT this issue.

[flyboy55]

P.E.T.A. is an easy laughable target for this. I am not a real fan of PETA.

But, targeting them for this is too easy.

PETA did not "seek this out" for their own press opportunity. What happens all too often, the mainstream consertavive and liberal media (yes - BOTH) .... seek out PETA for comments ... both HOPING that it will be something they (the press) can exploit. Not the other way around.

In this instance ... the media was all over PETA looking for a comment. Instead of saying "no comment" (maybe they should have) PETA essentially issued the following:

As we all know, human beings often don't think before they act. We don't condemn President Obama for acting on instinct. When the media began contacting us in droves for a statement, we obliged, simply by saying that the president isn't the Buddha and shouldn't be expected to do everything right—if not for that, we would not have brought it up. It's the media who are making a big deal about the fly swat—not PETA. However, we took the opportunity, when asked, to point out that we do offer lots of ways in which to control insects of all kinds without harming them, including the humane bug catcher we sent President Obama. There is even a chapter in PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's book Making Kind Choices about how to rid your home of "uninvited guests."

We have lots of other items on our agenda, as you can imagine, and PETA's focus will remain on our core issues—promoting alternatives to eating animals, opposing fur and products made from animal skin, opposing laboratories that torment animals, and fighting the abuse of animals in circus training camps as well as other overt abuses that fall within our mission statement, which states that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.

We support compassion for all animals, even the most curious, smallest, and least sympathetic ones. We hope that everyone will take inspiration from Nobel Peace Prize–winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who believed that even insects were deserving of compassion and who would stop to move a worm from hot pavement to cool earth. Aware of the problems and responsibilities that go along with an expanded ethical code, Schweitzer said that we each must "live daily from judgment to judgment, deciding each case as it arises, as wisely and mercifully as we can."

We can't stop all suffering, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop any. Our wish is for all people to act wisely and mercifully toward animals.

The media (BOTH mainstream conservative and liberal) pick and choose what they wanted out of this, and the all too easy synopsis they chose was "OBAMA SHOULD NOT KILL FLIES".

C'mon people .... get real. PETA, as much as I disagree with them, did NOT SEEK OUT this issue.

Thank you for the post.