What’s Really in PETA and HSUS’s Kitchens?

It seems that the owner of a vegetarian restaurant in Australia has taken his love of animals a little too far. The cleverly named Kingsland Vegetarian Restaurant was recently fined $16,000 for eight different food safety violations, including the presence of cockroaches. Khan Hoang, the restaurant’s owner, admitted that he was aware of the roach infestation, but failed to do anything about it because he was morally opposed to killing the bugs.

In order to have the restaurant reopened, Mr. Hoang relented and has since decided to regularly use a pest control team. Mr. Hoang’s actions may seem strange, but he would likely fit right in with radical animal rights groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) or the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Both set aside their dogmatic beliefs that animals are owed the same rights as humans when it is sufficiently inconvenient—even bugs.

These groups would sooner see a child die from cancer or AIDS than have a cure be developed through the use of animal testing. As Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s president, infamously said, “even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it.” While PETA may not want animals to be used for potentially life-saving drugs, the group is more than happy to kill animals itself instead of spending the resources to find them forever homes. (Those lettuce-bikini street stunts don’t pay for themselves, after all.)

PETA isn’t the only hypocritical animal rights organization. The vegan activist group HSUS also has no problem with animals being killed as long as it benefits the organization’s agenda of veganism. Perhaps the best example of this is California’s recently implemented Proposition 2. The ballot measure bans egg farmers from using conventional cages and was heavily financed by HSUS. A corresponding measure extended this requirement to all egg producers wishing to sell their products in the nation’s most populous state.

The law immediately caused egg prices to rise drastically—all part of HSUS’s plan. However, according to an agriculture economist at Iowa State University, the law could cause 40% of all hens in Iowa (the nation’s leading egg producer) to be killed. This is equivalent to 24 million hens. HSUS’ response? Silence.

So, the next time an animal rights activist tries to feed you a fundraising appeal, ask yourself if you can trust the kitchen it was cooked in.