An email from PETA, in response to a well deserved FU (http://kateharding.net/2009/08/19/whom-we-talk-to-when-we-talk-about-fat/):

Dear Ms. Pyne,

 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on PETA’s billboard. We apologize for any offense we may have caused; that was not our intent. Please read on to learn how we are moving forward.

 

The original billboard is being replaced with one that says “GONE. Just Like All the Pounds Lost by People Who Go Vegetarian. GoVeg.com.”  It has no provocative artwork, and it stands as a tribute to the people who contacted us after seeing the first billboard and have taken our 30-day Pledge to Be Veg (https://secure.PETA.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2055) or are trying a meat- and dairy-free diet in their own way. As one woman wrote, “I have tried Atkins, Fatkins and everything else in the book, but no one ever suggested a vegetarian diet. Now that I’ve seen the research, count me in!”

 

We agree that a world where self-esteem is unrelated to body size would be a wonderful place, but we also know that most people feel depressed and embarrassed about their weight and often need some tough love. Our aim was not to insult people who are overweight but to get people talking—and then persuade them to make a simple, positive change for their health. We have heard from people who were offended by our message, and we have been yelled at on talk shows, but we have also heard from overweight people who expressed support for our tactics, including some women whose vegetarian weight-loss journeys we plan to chronicle on our Web site.

 

While this billboard has caused some people to “shoot the messenger,” it has also created a great debate about the message: that people are eating themselves to death. Americans now eat more than 1 million animals an hour—animals who are raised and killed in appallingly cruel conditions. Something drastic must be done to shake up society’s complacent acceptance of the national obesity epidemic, and we want people to know that they have options: Pills and procedures are not the solution. The human illnesses and animal suffering that a meat-heavy diet causes are completely unnecessary: a pure vegetarian diet is the optimum diet.

 

We take obesity very seriously indeed, which is why we think it would be cruel not to tell people about how, by going vegetarian, they can help themselves, animals, and the Earth. If change is going to come, someone must stir things up. PETA won’t shy away from doing so. Unless they are truly among the few with an irreversible medical condition, there is no reason for people to be carrying around extra weight. By encouraging people who want to lose weight to go vegetarian instead of resorting to unhealthy fad diets, we hope to offer them a choice that the multimillion-dollar diet industry won’t give them: a long-term strategy for maintaining a healthy weight.

 

Research has shown that higher body mass index is associated with a greater risk of premature death from all causes. For example, according to the American Heart Association, obesity contributes to heart disease, America’s number one cause of death. The American Dietetic Association says that vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity than meat-eaters do. Reputable studies have shown that fad “weight loss” diets don’t work long-term—but going vegetarian does. Studies published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the New England Journal of Medicine have found that vegetarians are far less likely to be overweight than meat eaters are. Obesity is an epidemic, not something that children should grow up accepting as perfectly normal. We want a healthy, humane world, and we think everyone else does too.

 

All this said, certainly not every single vegetarian is at a healthy weight, as some have suggested our billboard implies. However, there are many more meat-eaters who are obese and unhealthy. For most people, eating low-fat vegetarian meals is an effective way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. But weight loss isn’t the only reason to try a vegetarian diet; we also promote going vegetarian as a great way to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of the top killer diseases. For most people, a low-fat vegetarian diet is an effective prevention strategy.

 

PETA promotes healthy vegetarian living in many ways, including distributing free copies of our “Vegetarian Starter Kit,” hosting free public food tastings, offering meal plans and thousands of meat-free recipes at http://www.VegCooking.com, and educating people about the meat industry’s disregard for animal welfare (http://www.GoVeg.com/factoryFarming.asp) and its devastating effect on the environment (http://www.GoVeg.com/environment.asp).

 

To read more about how obesity can be addressed by going vegetarian, please go to http://www.GoVeg.com/obesity.asp. To read vegetarian weight-loss success stories, please visit http://www.GoVeg.com/f-veganweightloss.asp. You can order a free “Vegetarian Starter Kit” for yourself or a friend at http://www.GoVeg.com/order.asp to learn even more.

 

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts and for giving us the opportunity to share ours. Not everyone can agree on everything in this world, and, again, if you were offended, we regret that.

 

Sincerely,

 

The PETA Staff

http://www.PETA.org

Wow. I need some tough love, huh? We fat people have self esteem issues, eh? Well NO SHIT when you go around treating us like we're incapable of reasoned decision making! Fuck you PETA, even more than usual, for making incorrect correlations (to understand how incorrect, pls read http://kateharding.net/but-dont-you-realize-fat-is-unhealthy/ by my most favorite Kate Harding. No really, go read it, even if you're not fat.) and supporting the same disgusting system of self-hatred which you claim to be trying to subvert to your own needs.  

I sent them a reply citing the above sentiments, although slightly nicer, although I don't know why, and I ended by suggesting that if they find it so hard to stop marginalizing and opressing me, as a fat person, maybe they could imagine me with horns to make it easier.