Friday, April 8, 2011

I adopted tofu, does that count?

I've been so caught up with house buying (or not) that I almost missed the mess about the PETA website and Infertility Awareness Week.

After taking a two  minute peek, I wish I had missed it entirely. Basically, PETA is happy to give away vasectomies to people who neuter their pets. So far, so good. The problem is that, by doing so, they are claiming to "honor" infertile people.

I can't find the logic in there, but I am not surprised: It's PETA. I don't expect them ever to be logical, much less to conduct a campaign in good taste. Even if I agree with many of the things they have to say, I'd never give any money to an organization that wastes it in offensive campaigns that alienate people to their cause.

In the meantime, PETA is far from apologizing and keeps talking about adoption. I wonder how many adopted kids the executive that wrote that statement has. The answer is: Probably none.

The logic of the regular breeder is as follows: "Since I am able to conceive naturally, there is no reason why I should adopt. You, unlucky infertile, cannot conceive naturally, so it falls upon your shoulders the task of adopting unlucky kids."

This of course oversimplifies what is a very complicated issue. I will not dwell on it right now since I have done it previously and probably will again in the future. All I am going to say is that, by the same logic, there's people who are perfectly able to purchase a cute puppy from a puppy mill. Why should they bother adopting a grown up pet from a shelter? Especially a pet like my own mutt, whose murky genetic origins resulted in funny looks, and who has been traumatized and as a result has a few undesirable behavior issues.

I just want to add that I did try once to follow what PETA calls a cruelty free lifestyle, but it proved too difficult, given that my PCOS diet dictates that I take protein in every meal. Having beans or bean products in every meal resulted in weight gain and indigestion, plus an overuse of the pressure cooker that ecologically minded people would not appreciate.

Hey, but at least I tried to follow a cruelty free lifestyle. I could probably ask PETA to also try not to be cruel to infertile people. But I guess they're going to tell me to just adopt.

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