OPINION/COMMENTARY

PETA Preys On The Gipper

The self-described "total press sluts" at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have once again crossed the line of decency, this time adding insult to the injury of a recently widowed former First Lady. PETA plans to use the image of the late President Ronald Reagan in a campaign blaming meat consumption for Alzheimer's disease. "Win one for the Gipper," reads the PETA ad. "Animal fats DOUBLE your risk of Alzheimer's," it continues. Nancy Reagan officially informed the animal-rights radicals that their attempt to hijack her husband's image was not welcome. PETA, of course, paid her little heed. The sad truth is that this most recent episode is yet another reminder that PETA is simply more interested in animal rights than in human lives -- as it actively opposes the efforts of scientists to cure or treat Alzheimer's disease.

PETA's position is so radical that president Ingrid Newkirk declared: "Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it." PETA's medical front group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), attacks the Alzheimer's Association, the Alzheimer's Disease Research, and the Alzheimer's Society of Canada because those groups know a cure for the degenerative disease might require the use of animals....