PETA Protests Padres, Nobody Notices

[Franklinnoble]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sport...ory?id=1783769

By Darren Rovell
ESPN.com

Taking a page out of an old high school yearbook trick, an official with an animal rights organization successfully placed a hidden message in a brick on the grounds of the San Diego Padres new stadium, Petco Park.


People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had a 12-word statement engraved in an 8-by-8 inch brick -- the commemorative bricks were offered by the Padres as part of a permanent display surrounding the team's new $411 million stadium.

The message reads, "Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This Championship Organization!" The first letter of every word spells "BOYCOTT PETCO."

"Petco Park might be the place where homers go to die, but PETCO stores are where animals go to die," said Dan Shannon, a PETA campaign coordinator.

PETCO, which has more than 650 stores in 43 states, sells animals as well as pet-related products. In January 2003, the company purchased the naming rights to the Padres' new stadium, a 22-year deal worth $60 million.

Earlier this week, Padres and PETCO officials discussed whether something should be done with the brick, but PETCO executives had no problem with it.

"If you walked by and read their message, you wouldn't know it had anything to do with PETA," said Don Cowan, PETCO's director of communications.

PETA, which objects to the sale of animals altogether, has targeted PETCO for months, written letters to Padres executives in hopes that they would cancel the naming rights agreement. They have also sent out monthly casualty reports citing animal deaths in PETCO stores to company officials.

PETCO officials contend that they have investigated some of the reports submitted by PETA and most, they say, are mischaracterizations. Since 1965, PETCO has adopted more than one million animals and over the past five years has given a total of $18 million to 1,900 animal shelters, according to Cowan.

Over the past month, Petco Park has generated 100 million online and broadcast media impressions for PETCO for mentions of the park's name, Cowan added.

PETA has been active in the sports world of late. In 2002, the Milwaukee Brewers denied PETA's request to include a vegetarian soy sausage in the Brewers' traditional game-day race of mascots, which includes a bratwurst, a hot dog, a Polish and Italian sausage.

Shannon said that PETA plans on sending letters to the two NBA Rookie of the Year frontrunners, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, advising them to turn down the award since it is sponsored by "Got Milk?," a campaign overseen by the California Milk Processors Board. PETA officials say they object to the cruelty that dairy cows endure as a result of their treatment by dairy farmers.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at [email protected].

[WSUCougar]

In a related story, it was discovered that San Diego has not actually had a baseball team since 1998.

[sabotai]

Good job PETA, now your little protest has given some people more incentive to go to the park to see the brink (and laugh). More money in the pockets of the Padres and PETCO.

I found this humorous...

"Petco Park might be the place where homers go to die, but PETCO stores are where animals go to die," said Dan Shannon, a PETA campaign coordinator.

And 2/3rds of all cats and dogs that find their way to PETA die (because you kill them) you fucking hypocrit.

Have I mentioned I hate PETA?

[Fonzie]

I love peta bread.

[Suicane75]

I love Peta Wilson

[sabotai]

(Colin Quinn impression) That's pita bread, stupid. (/Impression)

[Fonzie]

We shouldn't let this thread peta out.

[WSUCougar]

Wouldn't it be PFTETOA, anyway?

[WussGawd]

I like PETA members...they taste like chicken.

[MacroGuru]

You ever wanna rile a PETA member up. Tell them that kicking puppies and/or kittens is just like punting a football, other than they don't fly as far.

Even if you are joking, they get disgusted with such a joke, they go off.

OR eat the biggest ass hamburger right in front of them. They will tell you all the mean things that happen to the animals, trying to gross you out while you eat the burger. The tip here, is to eat it in a disgusting way, so the grease drips, with your mouth open, so they can actually see the meat. They tend to shy away from you after that.

[Suicane75]

I am all for an organization whos main source of activism is to parade supermodels around naked. I like to look at them while Im downing a quarter pounder.

[stkelly52]

PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals

[pjstp20]

Originally Posted by indoorsoccersim

You ever wanna rile a PETA member up. Tell them that kicking puppies and/or kittens is just like punting a football, other than they don't fly as far.

Even if you are joking, they get disgusted with such a joke, they go off.

How ridiculous is it to be disgusted by that? I mean come on, kicking helpless animals even as a joke is funny as hell. Right?

[Draft Dodger]

I think the people who run PETA are the same people who run the RIAA.

[tucker342]

You know, I'm all for animal's rights, but PETA is a terrible orrganization. They are way too in your face. It just puts people off.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by pjstp20

How ridiculous is it to be disgusted by that? I mean come on, kicking helpless animals even as a joke is funny as hell. Right?

Pretty ridiculous I'd say. He didn't say to actually kick the animal, merely to talk about the aerodynamics of a punted pooch.

For the record, I've never kicked a dog or a cat nor do I ever expect to. I did hit a rooster in the head with a two by four once though. Hey, I was six and he was almost as big as I was. He scared the crap out of me. Didn't even blink after I hit him either. I hated that bird so much.

[Bonegavel]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Wouldn't it be PFTETOA, anyway?

Nice, i think i will refer to them (verbally at least) as pff-tay-TOW-uh from now on. Brilliant.

[Anthony]

if you watched Penn and Tellers "Bullshit!" show, they reveal a lot about PETA that i'm sure they wouldn't want the general public to know.

namely how they support ex-convicts who went to jail for bombing labs and for arsen, how they themselves have huge freezers that contain the dead bodies of the animals they put to sleep in the name of being kind to them. Bullshit quoted PETA as saying sometimes the best way to help an animal is to allow it to sleep forever.

i'm not making this up, if you have a chance to see Bullshit hopefully this episode will be on. i believe it's on Showtime.

[sabotai]

Yeah, I saw that episode. They didn't reveal much I didn't already know. The one thing I found most interesting was the Vice President of PETA who has diabetes and uses insulin, even though it was made using animal testing and contains animal products. *cough*hypocrit*cough*