This torrent features two different films: The 2007 HBO Documentary I AM AN ANIMAL: THE STORY OF INGRID NEWKIRK AND PETA and the 2004 episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit! that deals with PETA. I am going to refrain from making any comments one way or the other, but will include some basic links and so forth, as well as an interesting email…
When I first saw the P&T episode, I went to the PETA website to do a little research. Even after some weeks, there was no response regarding the P&T episode. I sent them a short email basically saying I had seen the show, and wanted to know what they had to say about it. This was the response I got:
“Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Penn and Teller’s show about PETA, which certainly lived up not only to its original April Fools’ Day (2004) airdate, but also to its title—Bullshit.
Penn and Teller are notoriously unsympathetic to animals, yet even we were surprised to see them resort to such crude tactics in their efforts to twist the truth beyond recognition and discourage people from supporting PETA’s work to stop cruelty to animals. Reveling in their own callousness, the illusionists pointedly wore leather and fur on their show, ate rib roast in front of a live bull, and even lamented that they weren’t allowed to slaughter a chicken on the air. Their special guest for the show, Ted Nugent, has been known to replay tapes of pigs’ being shot just to hear them scream again and laugh at their distress.
Also appearing on the show was a representative of the Center for Consumer Freedom, a front group for companies and industries that profit from animal exploitation, such as Outback Steakhouse and Philip Morris (which performs nicotine experiments on animals), as well as logging and cattle-ranching interests. In addition to PETA, this group targets National Public Radio, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and anyone who speaks out against the health dangers of smoking and drinking. To learn more about this nasty little group of corrupt profiteers, please see the following:
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http://www.ConsumerDeception.com
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http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=8984
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• http://www.citizensforethics.org/activities/campaign.php?view=3.
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Penn and Teller’s statements about PETA’s budget were wrong—and deliberately so. For example, they chose not to mention the thousands of animals PETA has saved and sterilized, as well as the remarkable and often heart-wrenching work that our dedicated staff performs for animals every day. To cite an example, our SNIP program (Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please) has sterilized more than 20,000 local dogs and cats, performing the operations for a nominal fee or for no fee at all. Our Community Animal Project (CAP) spays and neuters an additional 500 dogs and cats per year. To help dogs left outdoors on chains in extreme weather, we travel to rural and impoverished areas and deliver, free of charge, hundreds of sturdy, custom-built doghouses every year along with warm and soft straw.
Penn and Teller also failed to make any distinction between torturing an animal to death in a laboratory or slaughterhouse and providing euthanasia to animals suffering from injuries or illnesses from which they cannot recover. Although PETA has no shelter facility, and most of the animals PETA rescues are in very bad shape—their delicate bodies often ravaged by disease or injuries—our euthanasia percentages are no higher than the average for shelters statewide. We urge everyone who is concerned about domestic-animal abuse to join us in our campaign to promote spaying and neutering.
PETA works through peaceful—though sometimes gimmicky—means. We maintain a strict creed of nonviolence and advocate no action that is dangerous to anyone, human or other-than-human. Shame on Penn and Teller and their cheap comedy (if you can call shouting and posturing “comedy”) for their intentionally misleading cut-and-paste portrayal of PETA and, especially, for their hostility toward animals.
Please visit http://www.PETA.org/about to learn more about our vital animal-saving efforts. You may also be interested in this op-ed that ran in the Fort Worth Weekly:
http://www.FWWeekly.com/issues/2003-06-19/thought.html.
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I hope this information is helpful. Thanks again for writing and for the opportunity to respond.
Sincerely,
Jeff Mackey
Correspondent
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals”
I posted the letter at that time to the P&T message board, (http://www.sho.com/site/message/boards.do?groupid=7) where it garnered some comment. So, here are the technical details, and enjoy the shows.
Video Codec..........: XviD 1.0.2
Video Bitrate........: 941kbps
Duration.............: 29:53.610
Resolution...........: 576*432
Framerate............: 29.970
Audio Data:
Audio Codec..........: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate........: 132 kbps VBR
Audio Channels.......: 2
File Data:
Filename.............: Penn & Teller BULLSHIT S02E01 - PETA.avi
Filesize.............: 243,871,744
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0672535/ - P&T
Video Codec..........: XviD ISO MPEG-4
Video Bitrate........: 1232kbps
Duration.............: 1:12:15
Resolution...........: 608*352
Framerate............: 29.970
Audio Data:
Audio Codec..........: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate........: 107 kbps VBR
Audio Channels.......: 2
File Data:
Filename.............: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA.avi
Filesize.............: 733,106,176
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1094184/ HBO
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/iamananimal/
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