You don't make friends with salad.

At least, not if that salad ever had anything to do with the lettuce-loving PETA. I was nothing short of disgusted at discovering that following the brutal attack on a man riding a Greyhound bus in Winnipeg, everyone's favourite anti-everything activists had the nerve to attempt to release a newspaper ad (in Manitoba, no less) comparing the poor victim to slaughterhouse animals.

The editor declined the ad, saying only that it wasn't something they would want to do, but did note that since it's appearance on the PETA website, the newspaper has been flooded with phone calls and messages.

“Like human victims, animals in slaughterhouses experience terror when they are attacked by a knife-wielding assailant,” Lindsay Rajt of PETA said in a news release. “We are challenging everyone who is rightly horrified by this crime to look into their hearts and consider leaving violence off their dinner plates.”

Rajt said the ad was intended to be shocking and is meant to spur people to think about the terror and pain experienced by animals who are raised and killed for food.

You'd think that a group so large would at least be able to respect the fact that they might make errors or go one step too far, right? Apparently not, because their response to the mass amounts of hate-mail they've been recieving over the ad is, well...less than professional.

Yes, of course we were horrified (who wouldn't be?) when we heard the details of this barbaric, incomprehensible killing. And obviously, everyone's good thoughts go out to anyone affected by this violent act. That's all a no-brainer. Now, remember, PETA is known for being provocative - that's our job. The animals don't benefit from our silence. So our thought is always: How can we get people to see that despite their feelings about this kind of violence, they are often paying someone to do exactly what was done to the man on the bus, and worse, just so that they can eat a sandwich? Voila, the ad!

Basically, they're saying, "If you're offended by our ad, there's obviously something wrong with you because they do this to farm animals all the time! Don't you see, it's the same! Oh, yes, we're sorry about the brutal murder. Order our vegetarian starter kit now!"

I often wonder how far PETA will go to get their "message" across. I do not condone animal testing, hunting for sport, or wearing fur for fashion. But I'm not about to run up north and throw blood all over an Inuit tribe whose lives are centred around using animals for food, shelter, medicine, clothing...anything you can think of. There's a limit. PETA doesn't seem to understand the concept of "enough", and they only seem to be getting worse.

I grew up on a farm, where we raised chickens, goats and rabbits, all as pets. The chickens would lay the best tasting eggs, and every spring we'd have new baby animals running around. Once a year we would by a hundred or so chicks that we would raise strictly for meat. PETA will tell you that my family were monsters. What they won't tell you, is that my farm, along with countless others in Canada and the US, treat their meat animals no different than they would a family pet, providing the best food, water, and comfort possible for the duration of their lives. My neighbours even feed their cattle day old doughnuts from the coffee shop - they go nuts over them. Point being, far too many people believe whatever information they are fed, and feel that is enough. They need to do more research on their own, and understand that life isn't as black and white as PETA may think. I genuinely feel sorry for anyone involved in the creation of that horrendous ad. It's beyond disrespectful, disgusting, and tasteless.

Now, they did apologize for the whole "Holocaust on your Plate" ordeal, but regardless, this is just ridiculous. Some things are better left unsaid, unwritten, un-thrown in your face...you get the idea.

Am I a bad person for eating Swiss Chalet just before I wrote this?