Dear PETA, Where Are You Now?

You are not heroes.

Dear PETA,

Where are you now? In the past week, wildfires have riddled Colorado, Kansas, Oaklahoma and Texas. Cattle, horses and numerous other animals are dead or badly burned, not to mention the human lives that were trying to save them. According to High Plains Public Radio, the largest of the fires, “spread from the Oklahoma Panhandle into southwest Kansas and has consumed more than 800,000 acres of prime grassland.” So, I ask you again. Where are you now?

You’re always there to tell us how wrong our industry is for raising animals to feed the world. I’ve seen you brand yourselves with hot irons to martyr yourselves for cattle. You are always at the truck stops harassing cattle-ports and at rodeos with your video cameras condemning the industry for its alleged mistreatment of livestock.

Mistreatment? What a joke, just like your organization. People died this week, PETA, right alongside their livestock because they were trying to save them! Where were you when cattle needed to move out of the way from the engulfing flames? Where were you when a dad had to put down his children’s beloved horses because they were so badly burned and couldn’t breathe? Domer, an Oaklandon farmer said, “Even the cattle that survived in the fast-moving fire may have been so severely injured they will have to be euthanized.” Where are you as thousands of tons of hay are being rushed to the Texas panhandle to feed the remaining livestock?

You didn’t rush into immediate danger to save these animals. Ranchers did. CNN reported that the fire in Clark and Comanche counties is the largest wildfire on record in Kansas. Along with losing their livelihood, “They’ve also lost their homes, outbuildings and equipment.” The people you condemn with your bullshit propaganda risked their own lives for their livestock, for their neighbor’s livestock, for stranger’s livestock. One last time PETA, where are you now? Because if you’re still on your high horse when it comes to agriculture, you’re not only mistaken, but blindly ignorant.

Your organization is no hero; it is the epitome of hypocrisy. People for the ethical treatment of animals only care when it’s convenient, or if the cameras are watching.

Signed,

A Livestock Owner’s Niece