PETA protests, but butcher shop customers unfazed

An animal right’s protest outside of a local butcher shop appeared to have a significant impact, but probably wasn’t the kind of effect PETA was going for.
 
Bay Meats Butcher Shop owner Cindy Salo said she struggled to keep up with a surge in customers as members of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals held a demonstration in front of her store Wednesday morning.  Business seemed to pick up after the PETA demonstration began, and a hotdog stand was even set up just a few feet away from the protesters.

“Everybody is entitled to their own opinion,” Salo said. “I don’t know if they are targeting the business so much as they needed some props.”

“We have a fiberglass cow now and they liked it. I brought it inside because I didn’t want it to be damaged. They were very gracious and asked it if was OK that it was outside. I said ‘fine’ and now the cow is outside.”

Salo added that all of the beef her butcher shop uses comes from either local slaughterhouses or from Alberta. Each source, she said, slaughters their animals humanely.

The four PETA members protesting outside of Bay Meats held signs declaring that meat is murder. Despite a morning downpour, protesters remained outside and even covered fellow PETA member David Matthews in plastic wrap to illustrate a point that meat comes from flesh.

PETA campaigner Emily Lavender said the animal advocacy group wanted to remind people that all meat comes from flesh and that no matter how animals are killed it is still seen by her group as murder.

Before coming to the grocery stores, chickens have their throats slit, pigs have their teeth, tails and testicles chopped off without painkillers and cows are routinely skinned at the slaughterhouse, she said during her protest.

“People think slaughtering a human is cruel and appalling but all animals have the same capacity to feel pain and suffering just like we do,” Lavender said.

“They have personalities, they have emotions and they form friendships and families when given the chance. This is murder. We hope people will make the kind choice and go vegan. Going vegan is better for your health, better for the environment and it helps stop cruelty to animals.”

She added that people can visit the PETA website for an undercover video on how animals are killed at a slaughterhouse. She also said that PETA is organizing another protest to be held in Winnipeg, but that they could still return to Thunder Bay some time later in the year.

But not every protester in front of the butcher shop were members of PETA. Justin Winters attended a counter-rally,  which was organized via Facebook after PETA announced their Thunder Bay demonstration.

Winters said he wasn’t a fan of PETA’s methods, and thought their demonstrations were often too heavy-handed.

“I found some information about the leaders behind PETA and it’s kind of shifty,” Winters said. “You could consider that a terrorist organization these days. There are other organizations … that don’t go to extremes to prove their point.

“If you use violence and extremism to get your point across then technically you are a terrorist organization. That fits the standard definition for me.”

People who support PETA don’t know the lengths the group is willing to go for their views on animal rights, Winters said. There are other organizations that support animal rights that don’t resort to violent methods and are more deserving of people’s support, he said.

“They are trying to support animal rights, but at the same time they are totally disregarding human rights,” he said.

“I’m an animal lover myself and I don’t like people who abuse animals. PETA with all their hypocrisies behind it makes me want to raise awareness about PETA itself.”

Winters said the Bay Meats Butcher Shop doesn’t have a factory farm and therefore is undeserving of PETA’s demonstration. He added that he believed the protest made more sense in front of a larger restaurant or butcher shop.