Vegetarian Paul McCartney’s Image Used by McDonald’s to Sell Hamburgers

Famed vegetarian, musician Paul McCartney, is less than pleased with McDonald’s after the meat-pushing fast food chain used his image in their Liverpool location.  Okay, so ‘less than pleased’ isn’t quite accurate: more like really, really pissed.  McCartney is a longtime vegetarian who has appeared in a slew of PETA ads and has worked for decades to educate people about the cruelty that food animals suffer.  So, naturally, he’s asking his fans to boycott McDonald’s.

From Ecorazzi:

A McDonald’s spokeswoman says the picture was to “acknowledge the outstanding contribution the Beatles made to both local and global culture”. But Paul’s spokesman Geoff Baker wants to know, “What sort of morons do McDonald’s think Beatles fans are? It’s ridiculous and insulting to use images to peddle hamburgers. Fans should boycott McDonald’s - and not just in Liverpool.”

What, did McDonald’s really think that was going to slide – especially in Paul’s hometown? Of course he’s mad.  Beatles fans might be all kinds of crazy, but most of them probably aren’t going to run out to McDonald’s and start buying hamburgers just because his photo is in the window.  Or are they? Hey, weirdo with the house full of Paul McCartney cardboard cutouts – I’m talking to you.

Link [Ecorazzi]

KFC to Offer Vegan Chicken in Canada

After years of dramatic protests outside KFC’s all over the world, the Canadian branch of the fast food giant has cut a deal with PETA to improve its chicken slaughter conditions and introduce vegan options on their menu. That’s right – vegan ‘chicken’, at KFC of all places.

From kypost.com:

“It means more choice for people who are vegetarian and more options for people thinking about it,” said David Alexander, director of operations for the Toronto Vegetarian Association.

PETA will now call off its Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign in Canada, which was supported by many celebrities including Canadians Pamela Anderson and Ryan Gosling. KFC Canada pledged to buy from suppliers who gas their chickens, what PETA calls “the least cruel form of poultry slaughter ever developed.”

PETA will continue to press KFC in the United States and elsewhere to change its slaughter practices – and sell unchicken, as 461 KFC Canadian chain stores have agreed to do.

“KFC is sort of taking a bit of leadership on the issue,” said Alexander, a vegetarian for two years. “We’ve moved beyond the era of the veggie burger, I think.”

Interesting. Using more humane methods to slaughter their chickens is downright awesome, and a huge victory for PETA, who have practically waged war against KFC for decades. It’s awesome to see a big chain agree to rethink their slaughter practices, because, in case you’re ignorant of the issue (as many people go out of their way to remain), they really are disgusting and cruel in most cases.

It’s very surprising that KFC would be willing to offer vegan ‘chicken’, made mostly of soy, at their restaurants – but hey, it’s a good thing. Maybe some meat eaters will even make the switch, if it tastes good enough, and that would mean fewer animals being raised and slaughtered overall. And of course, vegetarians want fast food, too.

Link [kypost.com]
Photo credit: United Poultry Concerns

Lab Grown Meat: PETA’s Contest is Lame, Pointless

PETA is at it again, and if you didn’t groan at least internally when you heard that, perhaps they’ve pushed you past your give-a-shit limit. They put out a press release announcing that they’d give a $1 million reward to the first person who can successfully ‘grow’ chicken in a lab without harming animals. From PETA.org:

In vitro meat production would use animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce. The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten. Some promising steps have been made toward this technology, but we’re still several years away from having in vitro meat be available to the general public.

At first when I heard this, I thought it was just another one of PETA’s publicity stunts: putting out something shocking to draw attention to an issue. As a vegetarian since the age of 12 and someone who cares deeply about animal rights, I’ve never been a fan of PETA and this sort of thing is exactly why. PETA frustrates me because they have a noble goal but they’re turning the entire animal rights issue into a freak show replete with naked celebrities, buckets of blood and gross-out tactics that turn off the general public rather than achieving anything real.

Unfortunately, they’re serious. They really want someone to make this work. So, why is this lab-grown chicken contest a bad thing? You may wonder why a vegetarian would be anything less than thrilled about the idea of fewer animals being harmed on a daily basis (and, after all, livestock farms are certainly not good for the planet).

Basically, this contest isn’t going to accomplish anything. First of all, $1 million wouldn’t even cover the expenses required to pull this off. Not only would researchers have to spend literally years working on this project, the contest requires them to do near-impossible sales and marketing tasks beyond the scope of science. Daniel Engber of Slate describes it well:

…they need to move 2,000 pounds of the stuff at supermarkets and chain restaurants spread out across 10 states during a period of three months. And the Franken-meat can’t cost more than regular chicken…

To make matters worse, PETA’s commercial requirements saddle researchers with demands that have nothing to do with science. Any company that wants to sell artificial chicken for public consumption will probably face a lengthy government-review process.

In short, PETA is asking for the impossible. Any researcher who puts a serious amount of thought into this contest will most likely realize that they simply don’t have the time or funds to accomplish the lab-meat feat.

This ‘lab grown meat’ stunt is just another example of PETA making vegetarians look bad, in my opinion. I can’t imagine that ‘Franken-meat’ would be all that appetizing to meat-eaters anyway, but you tell me: would you eat it?

Link [PETA] + [Slate]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons & Flickr user karindalziel