Image by Xuân Tuấn Anh Đặng from Pixabay
An organisation called the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance has had its feathers ruffled by a suggestion from an animal rights activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), that a memorial to chickens be erected in South Australia using state funds.
PETA wants a memorial erected on a spot between Mount Barker and Hahndorf, in the Adelaide Hills, where a large number of chickens died in a truck fire in late August.
The animal rights group – whose motto reads, in part, that ‘animals are not ours to eat’ – has approached the SA government to erect a memorial reading: ‘In Memory of the Chickens Who Suffered and Died at This Spot. Try Vegan.’
PETA believes this would let people know that the best way to prevent incidents such as this one is to go vegan, which would help eliminate the terrifying trips to abattoirs chickens are forced to make.
“We hope our memorial will prompt people not to eat animals or – at the absolute least – remind truck drivers to make their transport to slaughter as safe and comfortable as possible,” said spokesperson Emily Rice.
But the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance is having none of it. On Thursday it released a hard-hitting statement that showed it isn’t chicken to make its opinions known.
Phrases such as “feather-brained”, “headless chooks” and “fowl policies” have all been thrown around in the slanging match as the two adversaries go beak-to-beak.
“At PETA, common sense is scarcer than hen’s teeth. They are attempting to yoke taxpayers into paying for their advocacy,” said ATA Policy Director, Emilie Dye.
“The last thing Australians need is a group of feather-brained chicken lobbyists egging state governments into spending taxpayer dollars.”
She continued: “While PETA runs around like a group of headless chooks, taxpayers are trying to make ends meet during a brutal recession. A quick nugget of truth for PETA: taxpayers don’t appreciate you pecking away at money they worked hard to earn.”
“We cannot give policymakers free range to spend our money on fowl policies and frivolous memorials.”