THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 12, 1996 TAG: 9603120033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: The Gateway
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
IF YOU'VE EVER worn leather shoes, enjoyed chicken cordon bleu, attended the circus or looked down a gun barrel at a deer, there's a World Wide Web site for you.
It's called PETA.
No, it's not a joke. PETA.
People Eating Tasty Animals.
It's a compilation of links to meat industry sites, furriers, sellers of leather goods, taxidermists and papers defending animal experimentation in medical research. You couldn't swing a dead cat around this page without hitting another politically incorrect site. Tasty even has a link for people to send hate mail.
Many of the supportive writers say the page made them laugh. But the real PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - is not amused. They're so much not amused that they're threatening to sue the page's creator, who has officially registered his domain site as peta.org.
Tasty author Mike Doughney calls his page ``participatory political satire,'' and he evidently considers animal activitists to be fair game. The Times of London calls Doughney ``a Maryland computer buff with a wry sense of waggishness.'' We can't confirm that. Doughney did not respond to our e-mail pleas for an interview.
But we did go browsing through the Tasty page and we can say for a fact that Doughney's web page has expanded our horizons. Who would have thought that there would be a web site for Goose and Ptarmigan Shooting in Iceland. For NetVet - Cow Home Page. For the Varmint Hunters Association. For PIGVISION.
Not that we can tell you what PIGVISION is. The link didn't work.
But Doughney did not set out to irritate PETA. He had other fish to fry. He writes, in the introduction to his page, that he set it up about four months ago as a small, informal experiment to find out how long it takes to get the word out about unusual web pages when no effort is made to promote them.
Now that PETA, which is moving its national headquarters to Norfolk this spring, is annoyed, Doughney has an attorney.
Some links on his page are dead serious: The Hunters Role in Wildlife Conservation Today. Benefits from the Animal Experimentation of Dr. Tom Gennarelli.
Others are, well, lighter: My Favorite Vegetarian Recipe (First, catch one vegetarian. . . ). Save the Vegetables. And this unsigned comment, allegedly from a fan:
``Glad someone out there isn't afraid to speak there mind. I used to be a proffesional trapper, but since the Antis got there way fur prices dropped and I was forced to quit doing what I loved most.''
Doughney even has a link to the real PETA's web pages, which include vegetarian recipes, exposes of animal research, action alerts for members who want to become involved in letter-writing or other campaigns, etc. He's got a big ol' disclaimer at the top of page, noting that the Tasty page is not connected with or endorsed by PETA. And he adds a warning: ``Feeling lost? Confused? Offended? Perhaps you should, like, exit immediately.''
Perhaps you should, before you get to the fan mail section, where one satisfied customer wrote, ``Keep up the good work, and remember: Save the Whales. Collect the whole set.'' by CNB