I have no idea whether or not this happened today, and from the sound of it, I don't wanna. To wit:
"Today, attendees of the 15th Annual International Pediatric Endosurgery Group (IPEG) Conference will be greeted by members of PETA holding a demonstration outside the Hilton Anatole, where IPEG will be subjecting live pigs to invasive surgical procedures, after which the pigs will be killed."See what I mean? PETA's offices were closed by the time this came across my desk; we'll find out tomorrow just what happened and get back to you with, one hopes, the tasteful photos for which PETA's known. Though, come to think of it, I am craving sausage all of the sudden. --Robert Wilonsky
UPDATE: At 5:40 tonight, Laura Yanne, who's with PETA's research and investigations department, called to explain just how the animal-rights group wound up at the Anatole today. She says PETA got a call only yesterday "from someone working the event who was shocked 50 pigs were being delivered to the hotel." According to Yanne, the American College of Surgeons was also meeting at the Anatole--which it was, because this is apparently Surgical Spring Week 2006, par-tay!--but the ACS recently declared it would no longer use live animals for practice.
"The reason we object so strenuously is because there are a variety of high-tech non-animal methods already being used for training in medical schools," Yanne says. "There's no reason for pigs to be killed. No reason at all." She says since it was a hastily assembled protest, only a handful of PETA protesters showed--which wasn't bad for a last-minute operation, she insisted. "We wish we had a little more time, but that's the way it is." As for the news that 50 pigs were being taken to a hotel for a meat-and-greet-the-sharp-end-of-a-scalpel, Yanne says, "It's not unusual, but we're hoping to make it more unusual." Gotta say, while I loves my bacon, that sounds like a swell idea.
