People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is running a new controversial exhibit called "Are Animals the new Slaves?" which compares the treatment of animals to the historic enslavement and lynchings of blacks. Naturally, people are in an uproar over this, claiming the PETA campaign is racist and an insult to all the slaves and lynching victims who have suffered in the past.

David Carr, director of special projects for PETA, has maintained that the exhibit, which is currently touring the country, leaves people with "something to chew on."

"People have shouted at us for comparing black people to animals. But the exhibit also compares other cruelties — women being denied the right to vote, children forced into labor," Carr said.

Could Carr be suggesting that we give chickens the right to vote? Or maybe we should implement labor laws for horses and set them up with a fat pension?

The philosophy of PETA's insulting comparison is based on the notion that humans and other animals are deserving of the same rights. In the PETA world, not only would humans from across the globe walk hand in hand, but we would also live in perfect harmony with every other creature on the planet. Nothing on the planet would quibble with anything else, and the only possible threat to this non-stop love-fest would be an unexpected alien invasion.

Maybe I'm being facetious, but I think PETA's priorities are a little off when they presume that animal suffering is in any way comparable to human slavery. Sure, animal cruelty is an important issue, but before we go and start uniting the species as one, we should work on uniting our own. Once we can get past the religious, racial, ethnic, political, and national boundaries that cause us to steal from, enslave, and kill each other, then we can ask the important questions, like: What's for dinner, chicken or beef?

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