NOT to defend PETA in ANY way, however, when they first started eons ago, they weren't like they are now. They really were focused on cruel treatment of animals (circus animals come to mind, as well as dogs and cats, etc), and that's why I joined them. Course, I'm a bit older than you are SR. But along the way, they started getting the lunatic fringe joining, and that's when they started going to hell in a hand basket. They started going off the deep end 20 some odd years ago when they began their attacks on women who wear furs. Not that I had a fur coat, but that's when I started thinking that maybe they were going above and beyond and pulled my membership.