I don't know butwhatif. I think her point was to make people not look at animals as something different, apart from ourselves. I think her point was a shock jock performance art kind of thing....i.e. if a person thinks nothing about force feeding a sentient being so that they may have foie gras, then maybe they shouldn't think that eating her liver is such a terrible thing. I don't think that she sees the distinct line between *humans* and *animals*.....maybe she thinks we are all sentient beings which deserve the same respect, compassion and care...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force-feeding
Force-feeding
Force-feeding of birds is practiced mostly on geese or male Moulard ducks, a Muscovy/Pekin hybrid. Preparation for gavage usually begins 45 months before slaughter. For geese, after an initial free-range period and treatment to assist in esophagus dilation (eating grass, for example), the force-feeding commences.
Gavage is performed 24 times a day for 25 weeks, depending on the size of the fowl, using a funnel attached to a slim metal or plastic feeding tube inserted into the bird's throat to deposit the food into the bird's crop (the storage area in the esophagus). A grain mash, usually maize mixed with fats and vitamin supplements, is the feed of choice. Waterfowl are suited to the tube method due to a non-existent gag reflex and extremely flexible esophagi, unlike other fowl such as chickens. These migratory waterfowl are also said to be ideal for gavage because of their natural ability to gain large amounts of weight in short periods of time before cold seasons. For this reason, gavage is usually a "finishing" stage before the bird is set for slaughter, for if left to its own devices after finishing, the bird will quickly return to its normal weight.
The result of this practice is a severely enlarged and fatty liver which results in the liver disease hepatic lipidosis. The liver may swell up to 12 times its normal size (up to three pounds). While the livers are the coveted portions of these birds, the fatty flesh of geese and ducks (traditionally used to make confit) as well as their feathers do also find a market.
Considering that a normal goose only weighs between 3 and 13 pounds, I would think that a 3 pound liver would be very uncomfortable. Not to mention having a tube jammed down your throat 2-5 times a day... Is it really necessary to torture another living being so some *civilized human* can eat some paste on a cracker? Really? Maybe she felt that sending part of her liver would make them look at it differently. After all, she was done with it and all it is going to do at this point is rot. Maybe she felt this was a better use for it than moldering in the ground. Is it really soooo different from donating your body to medical science? If you can't get someones attention, how do you change their minds? I'm guessing she didn't feel that sending parts of her body to places is any worse than what we do to animals everyday in the name of *civilization*....
After all, God said that not a sparrow would fall that he would not know....
I hear you, I really do, but I just feel that this was more about shock value, (which I'm not a fan of).
She probably has managed to sway some people into being vegies themselves, and has made us discuss the topic and really think about how horrific it all is....so she's achieved something, but not in the broader picture, imo.
I was a vegetarian for 7 years, and believe me, I debated all of these points till the cows came home (no pun intended).
I ended up getting quite sick. My body has trouble absorbing B12, so not eating meat made it worse.
When I saw a hematologist and he gave me my results, he said that I had two choices. 1) I could have B12 injections monthly, or 2) I could eat
3 pounds of RAW liver each day! My jaw dropped as he told me this, and he continued on to say that if I squeezed some orange juice on it, it would help with the asorbtion, and the juice gave it a better flavor!!
Uhm, no thanks...injection please.
It was disgusting back then, and even though I have gone back to eating meat, it still disgusts me now. There's certain things I still can't bring myself to eat. I can eat chicken breast, but not a leg, or wing, because I'm reminded that this was once a live animal who was pumped full of steroids and hormones, while being caged with so many others in such inhumane conditions .
We're hypocrytical to the extreme- I know that. We will eat cows, sheep, pigs etc, yet we are horrified that in other countries people eat cats and dogs.
Or in Italy where live maggots are eaten as a delicacy. Most of us would cringe and gag at the thought of it, but really what's the difference, right?
I personally would like to see PETA work towards making changes to the system that allows these animals to live such horrific lives before they are slaughtered,and doing something about the massive amounts of wastage instead of always going for shock value and major publicity.
To be honest, I don't even know how much they do to change anything, since I don't visit their site, because I find their campaigns offensive, in the sense that I am being made to feel guilty, and its so 'in your face', aggressive.
I think it's great for them to try to educate people and keep reminding them about the truth of animal cruelty, but it's kinda like religion. It's not nice having it shoved in your face, and it's a personal choice each individual needs to make for themselves. Maybe if they changed their strategy, they might reach more people.
I just worry that things like this will make the general public view them as loonies instead of really hearing the message they want to send out.
JMO
