PETA’s silly pachyderm protest

The city of Glendale and the Tournament of Roses Parade go together like, well, carnations and marigolds. The city first entered a float in 1911 and hasn’t missed a parade since, except during World War II, when the event was called off. That long streak was nearly broken this year when boosters ran short of money and city officials feared the float would have to be canceled, but local businesses ponied up more than was needed over the summer, a design was finalized and builders got to work on the float, a charming depiction of a festooned elephant towing a circus wagon.

And then People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals got wind of it.

After PETA activists protested at a City Council meeting in August, complaining that the float glamorized the inhumane treatment of elephants, council members with less-than-rigid backbones raised questions about design changes, with Mayor Laura Friedman suggesting that the elephant could be depicted in a wild setting. But construction was already finished and that option was not realistic. Instead, the council hoped to appease activists by soliciting a new name for the float (apparently the original name, “Stepping Out in Style!,” implied that elephant servitude was stylish). Suggestions from animal rights activists included “Step Away from Animal Abuse” and “Wishing for My Natural Life.” Instead, the city went with “Just Imagine the Music, Fun and Freedom,” a change that utterly failed to satisfy PETA but was approved last week by the Tournament of Roses.

The Glendale incident demonstrates, not for the first time, how remarkably bad PETA is at picking its battles. The organization aims to halt mistreatment of elephants, and that’s a worthwhile cause; we’ve supported its call to end elephant rides at the L.A. County Fair, among other past anti-cruelty crusades. But PETA has a knack for annoying even its supporters by turning respect for animals into what looks a lot like contempt for people, or at least by implying equivalency between animal rights and civil rights. Examples are too numerous to list here, but we’ll mention one recent incident: After a Sacramento woman was arrested this summer for allegedly killing her infant daughter by putting her in a microwave oven, PETA sought to erect a billboard in that city showing a person putting a pork chop in a microwave, with a mother and baby pig pictured nearby and the message, “Everybody’s Somebody’s Baby. Go Vegan.”

This kind of thing doubtless gets the organization a lot of publicity, but it also trashes its credibility. If it wants to regain some, it should focus more on real, live elephants and less on pachyderms made of posies.