{"id":153,"date":"2019-01-03T14:56:50","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T18:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/?p=153"},"modified":"2019-01-03T14:56:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T18:56:50","slug":"peta-weighs-in-on-live-animal-mascots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/2019\/01\/03\/peta-weighs-in-on-live-animal-mascots\/","title":{"rendered":"PETA Weighs in on Live-Animal Mascots"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John M. Simpson.<\/p>\n

In typical fashion, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently called for an end to live animal mascots at collegiate sporting events.\u00a0 This was apparently prompted by\u00a0a “meet and greet”\u00a0between\u00a0the competing football teams’\u00a0animal mascots prior to the January 1, 2019\u00a0Sugar Bowl.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

According to\u00a0PETA,\u00a0the mascot for the University of Texas at Austin — a longhorn steer named “Bevo XV” — “broke free of the metal barricades he was caged within” and “nearly trampled” the mascot of the University of Georgia — an English bulldog named “Uga X.”\u00a0 Based on the ESPN broadcast<\/a> of this interaction — with multiple\u00a0“instant replays” — it is debatable at best that there was any danger to the animals or the surrounding people.\u00a0\u00a0Bevo XV was\u00a0tethered with a halter the entire time, and even\u00a0PETA admitted\u00a0that, as\u00a0one of the UT handlers stated,\u00a0\u00a0the longhorn is as “docile as a lamb” and “was just going to say hi” to Uga X.\u00a0 Nonetheless, PETA cited this “frightening near-tragedy” as a reason why live-animal mascots\u00a0should be replaced by humans.<\/p>\n

PETA’s position obscures a few facts, not the least of which is that both animal mascots are supplied by families who each have\u00a0extensive histories of caring and proper animal husbandry practices.\u00a0 Furthermore, while PETA advocates substituting humans for mascots, PETA apparently doesn’t know that Georgia already has a human mascot — who goes by the name “Hairy Dawg:”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It further appears that Georgia’s canine mascot may have it better than the human one.\u00a0 Uga X reportedly<\/a> has his own hotel suite on game day:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In its call for the unemployment of Bevo XV, PETA also apparently was not familiar with the nearly 100-year history of the UT mascot and the fate of the original Bevo<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 When his\u00a0handlers determined that he was “more of a liability than an asset,” Bevo\u00a0was slaughtered, barbecued and served at the 1919\u00a0season banquet attended by UT Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies, half\u00a0of the animal going to each team.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John M. Simpson. In typical fashion, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently called for an end to live animal mascots at collegiate sporting events.\u00a0 This was apparently prompted by\u00a0a “meet and greet”\u00a0between\u00a0the competing football teams’\u00a0animal mascots prior to the January 1, 2019\u00a0Sugar Bowl.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21,233,5,231,232,101,45],"ppma_author":[697],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-animal-rights","tag-english-bulldog","tag-john-simpson","tag-live-animal-mascots","tag-longhorn-steer","tag-people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals","tag-peta"],"authors":[{"term_id":697,"user_id":317,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jmsimpson","display_name":"John M. Simpson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2018\/06\/simpsonjohn-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}