More peta buffonery!

[RICHARD]

By Darren Rovell
ESPN.com

Taking a page out of an old high school yearbook trick, an official with an animal rights organization successfully placed a hidden message in a brick on the grounds of the San Diego Padres new stadium, Petco Park.




People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had a 12-word statement engraved in an 8-by-8 inch brick -- the commemorative bricks were offered by the Padres as part of a permanent display surrounding the team's new $411 million stadium.


The message reads, "Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This Championship Organization!" The first letter of every word spells "BOYCOTT PETCO."


"Petco Park might be the place where homers go to die, but PETCO stores are where animals go to die," said Dan Shannon, a PETA campaign coordinator.


PETCO, which has more than 650 stores in 43 states, sells animals as well as pet-related products. In January 2003, the company purchased the naming rights to the Padres' new stadium, a 22-year deal worth $60 million.


Earlier this week, Padres and PETCO officials discussed whether something should be done with the brick, but PETCO executives had no problem with it.


"If you walked by and read their message, you wouldn't know it had anything to do with PETA," said Don Cowan, PETCO's director of communications.


PETA, which objects to the sale of animals altogether, has targeted PETCO for months, written letters to Padres executives in hopes that they would cancel the naming rights agreement. They have also sent out monthly casualty reports citing animal deaths in PETCO stores to company officials.


PETCO officials contend that they have investigated some of the reports submitted by PETA and most, they say, are mischaracterizations. Since 1965, PETCO has adopted more than one million animals and over the past five years has given a total of $18 million to 1,900 animal shelters, according to Cowan.


Over the past month, Petco Park has generated 100 million online and broadcast media impressions for PETCO for mentions of the park's name, Cowan added.

PETA has been active in the sports world of late. In 2002, the Milwaukee Brewers denied PETA's request to include a vegetarian soy sausage in the Brewers' traditional game-day race of mascots, which includes a bratwurst, a hot dog, a Polish and Italian sausage.


Shannon said that PETA plans on sending letters to the two NBA Rookie of the Year frontrunners, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, advising them to turn down the award since it is sponsored by "Got Milk?," a campaign overseen by the California Milk Processors Board. PETA officials say they object to the cruelty that dairy cows endure as a result of their treatment by dairy farmers.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at [email protected].

----------------------------


"buy me some peanuts and a veggie soy sausage....."

No thanks, I'll pass!

[mugsy]

Oiy!! Will these people ever learn? All that is going to do is to make more people go to PETCO simply to spite PETA. And I'm sure LaBron James really cares about how dairy cattle are treated...all he cares about is a pay check. They need to pick their battles and they don't seem to be doing a stellar job of that.

The minor league team here in Fort Wayne is an affiliate of the Padres too!! I wonder if they'll boycott us too? lol

[Nomilynn]

I don't think it's a bad idea, though, to offer veggie burgers and hot dogs at baseball games. There are lots of people who are vegetarians. As long as the other choices aren't taken away, why not? Why not give it a try and see how it goes; it might be very popular.

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Nomilynn
I don't think it's a bad idea, though, to offer veggie burgers and hot dogs at baseball games. There are lots of people who are vegetarians. As long as the other choices aren't taken away, why not? Why not give it a try and see how it goes; it might be very popular.

I don't have any problem with selling them...

I just don't want to see wienies racing!!

Remember??

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...ghlight=wienie

[mugsy]

You're right that it's not a bad idea, although, I've been to Milwaukee....and they LOVE their brats!! lol I don't know if they would sell enough to make it cost effective. I'm sure that's what the owners were considering, although, it might not be bad to test it and see how they sell. The "dog race" at the stadium is an institution....I say keep that the same.

[Twisterdog]

"If you walked by and read their message, you wouldn't know it had anything to do with PETA," said Don Cowan, PETCO's director of communications.

Exactly. No one would have ever noticed that. I bet if you went through all those bricks, there would be multiple "secret messages" ... simply at random.

PETA does the dumbest things, I swear ... this is a case in point. They consistently miss their target audience .... like baseball fans are going to spend their time at the stadium searching for hidden messages in bricks, then saying, "Oh, gee! I paid for season tickets to see baseball, but I guess I'll just go home and boycott a pet store." Puhleese.

[KYS]

I agree, Peta does not seem to pick their battles
very well.
I think a veggie item would be a great idea for
health reasons alone. Salad anyone.

[lbaker]

Do carrots really scream when you pull them out of the soil? Gee, I may never eat again.. right. Cracker Jacks anyone? At the O's games in Baltimore they offer crab cakes, will WE be boycotted?

[Corinna]

Cracker jacks are carmeled covered popcorn right ? Doesn't popcorn scream as it pops?

[K9soul]

The Petco store here sells fish, birds, rodents, and a few reptiles/amphibians. I imagine they occasionally have casualties with the incoming and outgoing of these animals, I would think any pet store would. Even animal shelters I'm sure have had deaths (other than euthanasia) before due to sickly health or whatnot. So that slogan: "Petco Park might be the place where homers go to die, but PETCO stores are where animals go to die." comes off as totally ridiculous to me, but then a lot of propaganda from Peta does. Petco also has adoption center and shelter fund raisers and other very beneficial events for pets. Peta would wipe away the significant good done for thousands of animals, for one or two bad that is often probably skewed or misconstrued anyway. It seems to me as drastic as campaigning to get rid of plastic bags due to some person at some point and time misusing it.

I would have nothing against a vegetarian alternative for people who wanted to have the option, as long as they don't take away the regular meat alternative for others, which I'm sure Peta would love to do but knows they would never be able to.

I agree the letters to the baseball players urging them to turn down an award seems ludicrous. Then again most radical groups, on one side or another, take things to a ridiculous extreme.

[popcornbird]

I hate all of this Petco propaganda. Oh all the pet stores we have in our area, Petco is by FAR, the best. Their animals are very healthy and well taken care of. I have seen birds at Petsmart that didn't look too well..........MANY times. I have complained to Petsmart employees about that. The last time we went there, I saw a cockatiel sitting on the floor of its cage, breathing very hard. It was obvious that this poor bird was sick. Of course I complained about it, and the employees, looking very guilty about it, took him out and said they would get him checked. I have NEVER seen such a thing at Petco..........NEVER. For such a large chain store, I believe they do an EXCELLENT job caring for their animals. I haven't seen such care at Petsmart, nor have I seen such healthy animals at any other pet store. I love Petco. The employees there are always so friendly, and knowledgable about the animals there as well. The animals are always healthy, and very active and playful. I will always shop at Petco no matter what Peta says. I try to avoid shopping at Petsmart, because I have seen neglect there with my own eyes. I know there are good Petsmarts too, but the one in my area is not the best. It is HUGE, takes ages to even find what you need to buy, and quite often, the animals are not in the best of condition. Sad but true. Peta needs to take a hike.

[guster girl]

Petco isn't great around my area. I've only been to a couple where they're actually clean. I'm not against Petco at all, though. I've lived in several states, and, they're not all like the ones here. There's just never any customer service, AT ALL. And, they all look like they haven't showered or something. The animals look fine, usually, but, I know at least the ones closest to me, that they could be better cared for. THere have been several times in the last year, that I've had to tell an employee..... um, that mouse (hamster/gerbil) is dead. It sucks that it's a lot of times just dependant on the management. But, I still go for the selection sometimes, and, I'm definitely going to boycott Petco as a corporation. Maybe just the couple around here.

[K9soul]

Petco and Petsmart really vary on a store to store basis depending on the management. That's just another reason that boycotting the whole chain makes no sense to me. Both the Petco and Petsmart stores here are always clean and the animals always look healthy and happy. I like how the birds are housed in Petco a bit more, they just recently did a huge walk-in bird room so people can walk in and see the birds instead of just looking at them like through a shop window.

I think the thing to do is if someone comes across a particular store that is managed poorly to make complaints and if those go unheeded, take your patronage elsewhere. If the animals truly seem horribly neglected or mistreated there might be other things one could do like complain to the franchise headquarters or something.

When I was growing up, there were a couple different Wal-Marts in the area. Both of them sold a few fish and smaller birds (parakeets/finches/canaries). One of them had deplorable conditions, the tanks were nasty and filled with scum and algae so bad you could hardly see the fish. There were always a few dead fish floating around in the tanks. The bird cages were nasty and the birds always looked ill. The other Wal-Mart a few miles down the road had crystal clear fish aquariums, bright, clean cages with active chattering birds, and never once did I see a sick or dying animal. I had to make my judgements based on the individual stores, and not just conclude that all Wal-Marts were one way or the other.

[Kater]

I buy pet supplies from stores where no animals are sold and if I can’t find what I need in a local pet store then I will look to purchase it online or through mail order. At this point this is just the obvious choice for me. PETA and groups like them first made me aware of how I could carry my ethical beliefs into my role as consumer. I am always learning more and must continuously reexamine my choices – I fully acknowledge that I am far from perfect. I probably could have made the connection on my own (eventually) but I appreciate that PETA and other groups put these issues out there to get people to question what they are supporting with their dollars. I think this campaign has more to do with a state of mind than boycotting a particular company because as we’ve all pointed out there are pet stores outside the PETCO chain which are relatively worse than some particular PETCO stores. Some may not agree, but this is what I see as the larger goal of this campaign.