Animal activist group PETA has criticised The Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence after she said “screw Peta” in response to a Rolling Stone question about a squirrel skinning scene in her movie, Winter’s Bone.
Lawrence had to learn how to skin a squirrel for the movie.
“I should say it wasn’t real, for PETA — but screw PETA,” she said.
PETA president Ingrid Newkirk responded, saying: “She’s young and the plight of animals somehow hasn’t yet touched her heart.”
“As Henry David Thoreau said,’The squirrel you kill in jest, dies in earnest.’ When people kill animals, it is the animals who are ‘screwed,’ not PETA, and one day I hope she will try to make up for any pain she might cause any animal who did nothing but try to eke out a humble existence in nature,” he said.
At the Oscars with Silver Linings Playbook co-star Bradley Cooper
Comments
25 Comments so far
Still can’t believe that people have such an issue with animal cruelty but seemingly none with the human slaughter in the movie. Priorities out of whack much????
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Umm….maybe because it was a real dead squirrel getting skinned and the hunger games is fiction…!
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I do not condone animal cruelty, but anyone who supports PETA and their contradictory propaganda ought to watch the episode of Penn and Teller: Bulls**t! – PETA, and then tell me what you think about that particular organisation.
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PETA are out of control. Do people realise that they don’t even approve of guide dogs and would rather people’s pets were put down rather than be ‘enslaved’.
They are also happy for unmulesed sheep to die a horrible death being eaten alive by maggots rather that put their money and energy into researching an mulesing alternative.
PETA want no pets, farm animals, beekeeping etc. They are hardline and crazy. they even support radical groups like the Animal Liberation Front who firebomb buildings that carry out animal research.
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At the end of the day, if you;re starving and have nothing to eat, most of us would eat a squirrel. It would be fairly safe to say that if most PETA activists had to choose death or eating a squirrel, I think most of them would eat up.
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not giving a shit about peta is not the same as condoning animal cruelty, peta are just being full of themselves
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She was interviewed on Letterman recently and spoke about it as well. She said it was a horrible thing to do but it was for the role. I was quite repulsed by the scene in the film but it was moving at the same time, a young girl, poor and starving trying to find her drug addict father. Apparently she was taught by a professional hunter. It sounds to me like the quote was either shortened or taken out of context.
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Animal cruelty is never right and certainly never “cool”…..I’ve been a vegetarian for 25 years because of the cruelty that still remains in the animal food – production industries. This was not a documentary about desperate survival in the wild – just a movie. Special effects can take care of depicting that scene but that actress’s cavalier attitude will come back to haunt her, unless of course she’s been raised to have no empathy for other animals.
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Not supporting PETA has nothing to do with condoning animal cruelty.
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I do not condone cruelty to animals at all, and I personally give no sh*t about anything PETA says these days.
Ever since their focus seemed to be more on “which celebrity arse can we blow enough smoke up to have them represent us”, and after their pathetic misogynistic attention seeking tactics (they seem to have more respect for animals than human women) they lost all credibility. Which is unfortunate, as initially I think they did genuinely do some good work.
People should give more support to groups that show (and have) more respect like the RSPCA.
Jennifer Lawrence on the other hand is AMAZING – talent, brains and not some flouncy vapid half-starved wannabe.
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http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
I’m a vegetarian and anti animal cruelty, but I disagree with many of the things that peta do.
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This is more non-news. A young actress says something saucy and a little badly thought-out. PETA says – a young actress just said something badly thought-out… End of story I would have thought. Is there really anywhere else for this to go without making it a whole hoo-ha that it’s not meant to be???
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It’s celeb news! A talking point. And the way PETA react to stories like this is an interesting talking point, I think.
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Arghhh, wearing fur is shit. Plain. Simple. No need for it even if our forefathers did it. PETA bashing is becoming a sport. Anyone would think they were the ones skinning defenceless creatures and using them as a fashion accessory. Vulgar, crass and unnecessary. If you wear fur (or pretend to skin a squirrel for its fur), it’s quite simple, I (and many people like me) judge you.
As for PETA taking a joke, maybe we should have a little chuckle about people pretending to murder children; break into fits of giggles when someone pretends to chop a cat’s ear off and belly laugh when someone simulates throwing toxic chemicals on a rabbit for an animal test.
Forgive me, but I’m with PETA. It’s not funny. It’s another sad indictment on the way we view and treat our animals.
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If you would like to read up on how ‘unfunny’ the fur trade is. Check out the facts: http://furcruelty.com/#/animals/4544318202
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Keep in mind that the actress wasn’t *actually* skinning a squirrel, she was playing a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world who *had* to skin a squirrel. So the “forefathers” reference is petty apt really.
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Winter’s Bone isn’t set in a post-apocalyptic world.. You’re thinking of The Hunger Games..
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If any of us had to survive in the wild we would probably eat an animal. I would also try to find native veggies, but let’s face it growing enough veggies to sustain yourself on takes a lot of work and gathering enough to survive solely on would take a lot of time.
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Peta should learn not to take everything so seriously
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I agree with Jennifer. The people at PETA have a wonderful message but they deliver it in shocking ways. They behave like common bullies.
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But it’s not being a bully to skin a squirrel? (Pretending or not?)
Of course not, it’s all just good, clean fun.
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Shocking, misogynist ways – some of their ads are incredibly sexist and degrading to women.
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I think you’ll find that’s because it’s predominantly woman who create the most demand for fur fashion.
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In what way do you agree with Jennifer? She didn’t say anything about PETA’s advertising, she just said “screw PETA”. For all you know she could mean “Screw PETA, fur is awesome”.
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Jennifer was the one who brought up PETA in the first place. If someone says “screw you” about someone/something, they’re entitled to respond. I actually think PETA’s response was quite calm and measured.
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