The animal rights group PETA now has a bad reputation for causing more harm than good and for never knowing how to start a fight or present a point of contention. Unfortunately, because of the persona that PETA has developed over the years, the public has a tendency to believe that all of their statements are unsupported, misinformed, or just a result of a lack of sophistication regarding balance, complexity, and the various issues involved. Overall, this has resulted in significant criticism of PETA’s most recent X statement. Since the Kentucky Derby is scheduled to start on May 3rd, horse racing is receiving a lot of attention. As usual, though, not all attention is good. Thus, we get at PETA and one of their latest tweets on X.
Under the caption, “You raced her to death,” PETA shared an AI-generated picture of two cartoon-style horses, with the white one lamenting the passing of the blue one. “White Horse may have won the carrots, but she lost so much more,” the caption said. It goes without saying that the post was not well received, particularly in view of the numerous disputes surrounding AI-generated photographs. Fans might have responded differently and more empathetically if PETA had brought up the fact that 12 healthy horses died at Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby last year. The argument is more complex than that, though. In addition, the Kentucky Derby is a multimillion-dollar race where the money is determined by the individual’s ethics and principles on the horses to do well, so they are undeniably kept in the best of conditions, living in state-of-the-art stables with high-end health care that many horses couldn’t dream of having access to in their lifetimes.
The Derby even has strict health regulations before the race, where a horse could be disqualified for having a fever, injury, or missing practice. Therefore, even if the fatalities that occurred last year were awful, PETA could have at least maintained some respect with the online community by presenting their argument with some perspective, which isn’t the case at the moment.
In response to PETA’s X statement regarding the Kentucky Derby, the online community
Responses ranged from incisive and cutting to highly existential and esoteric. Some X users took advantage of the occasion to present a more significant philosophical dilemma: This X user stated, indicating that while we think we’re wielding agency, we’re really not much different than the horses. Hmm, one to dwell on, or not, depending on the time of day. In a technical sense, we’re all in an existential race to our deaths, using our limited time here to self-actualize some deeper meaning.
“You’re always on the wrong side of history when it comes to animal rights,” said another X user, pointing out PETA’s apparent blind spots. Unfortunately for PETA, this is not far from the reality, given that they were charged with cultural prejudice in 2020 for criticizing the usage of monkeys to grow coconuts in Thailand while ignoring the fact that pigs were used to gather truffles in Europe. Perspective frequently makes all the difference. A reasonable question was raised by another X user: Have you ever seen a wild horse? What do they spend the most of the day doing? This argument, which presumably refers to galloping Mustangs in Wyoming, is similar to PETA’s in that it ignores the subtleties, namely that galloping Mustangs in Wyoming are choosing to gallop and not being ridden by a jockey through 1.25 miles of stress, noise, and pressure. Perspective and nuance.
Another X user made a solid point by writing, “Thanks for reminding me I need to pick up some glue and paint brushes this weekend.” This demonstrates how difficult it is to find fault with one incidence of cruelty when so much of our daily lives are based on some type of exploitation. This is a difficult one to debate, so perhaps it’s best to leave it out of this essay and focus instead on the last X statement. “How many animals have you euthanized in the last few years?” This is an excellent topic because PETA themselves state on their website that they euthanize “sick, injured, dying, or otherwise suffering (physically or psychologically) and whose guardians often can’t afford the treatment which, until we look at the numbers, seems humane enough. In 2023, 2,471 dogs and cats were put down by PETA, while 3,117 were adopted. This number only makes things more difficult and raises the next query. In this “existential race to our deaths using our tiny window of life to self-actualize some deeper meaning,” who gets to select who gets to accomplish what? Anyway, let’s celebrate kindness in all its manifestations during Kentucky Derby week!
