THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 24 lines
Barry Hellman (letter, July 16) is a few French fries short of a Happy Meal. He pokes fun at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for protesting McDonald's promotion of the movie ``Babe,'' but he entirely misses - or ignores - PETA's point.
McDonald's will go down in history as the company that told kids hamburgers grow in ``hamburger patches.'' Now the message seems to be that animals are happy to have their flesh sliced and diced and served on a bun - as long as kids get a cute toy. What Happy Meal hypocrisy!
Why don't we tell kids the truth? Hamburgers don't grow on trees; they are made from the ground-up flesh of dead animals. And animals raised for food in this country are far from happy.
Yes, it's upsetting. But I think kids deserve to be given a choice about what they eat - beans or baby pigs - and the only way they can make an informed decision is by having all the facts.
MAGGIE MOORE
Virginia Beach, July 19, 1996 by CNB