PETA strikes again
by Lori Barrett | July 2, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Posted in baltimore news, sports
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a new target: Baltimore. Specifically, the Baltimore Ravens.
The team plans to use live ravens as mascots during the upcoming season, with plans that reportedly involve the birds flying through the tunnel ahead of the players during their entrance. In a letter sent to the Baltimore Ravens’ vice president of marketing, PETA called for an abandonment of the plans — and even further, for implementation of a policy that bans the use of live animals during games.
PETA believes the tunnel stunt — as well as the bright lights and loud noises of the game — would be frightening, disorienting, and possibly dangerous for the birds.
The director of PETA said: “If the Ravens want to increase fan support, they don’t need cheap gimmicks. They just need to start winning games. Edgar Allan Poe would be spinning in his grave if he knew that his poem had prompted Baltimore to harm ravens in the name of marketing.”
I’m not sure PETA is going to make any fans in Baltimore with those words. Any thoughts?
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Would the birds be kept in pens and "reused" for the next game or would they just fly out to the streets and different ravens brought in?
I'm not a PETA supporter by any means, but I think having some crows fly out of the tunnel first is kind of hokey anyway.
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Pretty hokey indeed. I don't need to see a live bird to get all charged up. I like the big-ass character mascots better anyway.
But is it really hurting the birds? Ravens are some of th smartest birds around and easily trainable. Shouldn't be too tough to pull off if they wanted to. But still, not necessary. I'd be happier if the team was winning games. No bird's gonna do that.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:01 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
"Edgar Allan Poe spinning in his grave"??? You have got to be kidding. Maybe calling Baltimore "the City that Reads" would have Poe spinning in his grave, but some birds flying thru a tunnel would hardly constitute a grave-spin for a man who's life was spent in tragedy.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:16 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
The whole idea of using a Raven as their mascot is ridiculous from the start - particularly when you consider it's symbolism in the poem itself. I'm not sure a bird traditionally regarded as the bearer of bad tidings, and a constant reminder of lost love in the poem itself exactly delivers the uplifting message one would expect of a sports team mascot.
That said, the stunt should be abandoned, not because PETA says so, but simply because it's a stupid idea that only underscores their awkward choice in mascots.
!
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
I think the whole raven idea is pretty stupid in the face of modern pyrotechnics and some good old fashioned AC/DC, but Ingrid Newkirk is a psychotic freak who marginalizes the state of animal rights in the world with ridiculous over-the-top bull****. Going after "Baltimore" over a pair of birds is just as ridiculous given the city's propensity for say, dog fighting. But oh wait, those crimes aren't perpetrated by flashy, high-profile targets, so why go after them? (Michael Vick notwithstanding, oh she also opposes AIDS research)
For an interesting duality regarding PETA, first watch I Am an Animal, an HBO doc on Newkirk, then watch Penn and Teller's Bull****! episode on the matter. Both of them are rather eye-opening.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:08 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Surprise, surprise. PETA is pissed off again, just because the team plans to use live ravens — yes, a pair of squawking poopmongers — as mascots. If anything, PETA should be protesting the fact that the team’s plan to pump up the crowd and intimidate the opposition with birds is terribly lame. Now, I could see the plan working if they were the Baltimore Lions or Tigers or Velociraptors or something totally badass like that, but ravens? Give me a break.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
PETA should go give some more money to terrorists.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:21 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Christ - do I at least get a t-shirt for the most censored poster on the board?
Another one of my comments banished to the digital graveyard...
!
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:19 am | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Hey, don't sell the raven short! There is a lot of Norse, Germanic and Irish mythology referencing ravens, usually in the context of war, battlefields, bloodshed and feasting on carrion. The sort of images that football (well, excepting carrion) is associated with. So ravens can be badass, too. Maybe not the 'in your face' bad-assedness (?) of a tiger or shark, but still intimidating all the same.
Having graduated from a school with the turkey (a Fightin' Gobbler? No, seriously!) for a mascot, I can say a raven would definitely have been scarier.
That said, having a small raven fly out into a huge stadium seems a little silly, because the scale dwarfs the symbol. Who can really see it all that well, anyway?
On the other hand, PETA needs to find better uses for their energy. This type of protest undermines their credibility in my opinion.