No tickets to inauguration for PETA
By Drovers news staff
| Wednesday, January 21, 2009
When Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion ponzi scheme collapsed late last year, so did PETA’s plan to gain access to President Barack Obama during Tuesday’s inauguration festivities.
According to a story in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, a PETA staffer found an offer on auction site eBay for an exclusive package of tickets to inaugural events, including a private meeting with President Obama. The Internet listing, called the “2009 White House Full Inauguration Tickets VIP Access,” was posted last summer by December Rain, a Chicago-based charity. December Rain got the idea from people who were investors with Connecticut-based investment firm Fairfield Greenwich, a firm which, in turn, invested with Bernie Madoff.
The Fairfield Greenwich investors claimed to have connections to gain the inaugural tickets, and December Rain paid “hundreds of thousands of dollars” for several tickets. On eBay, December Rain offered the tickets for sale, and PETA bought a package of two tickets for $5,500.
But about a week before the inauguration, December Rain officials sent an e-mail to PETA and other auction buyers saying that the tickets never materialized after Fairfield Greenwich lost billions of dollars investing with Madoff.
To be sure, PETA was not to be left out of the inauguration excitement. PETA volunteers handed out fur coats to Washington's homeless, who, PETA says, are “the only people who have an excuse for wearing fur.” The coats were donated to PETA by “people who have had a change of heart.”
The group also handed out cups of hot soy cocoa (my imagination runs wild with what that tastes like - warm chocolate spit?) to inaugural parade attendees. The message on the cups was “Thank You For Not Wearing Fur!”
PETA has also placed messages on the backs of pedicabs or cycle rickshaws in Washington during inauguration week reading: “Earn Your Wings, Lose The Fur. Animals Shouldn't Be Fashion Victims.” The pedicab drivers will hand out propaganda that explains how animals are “gassed, strangled or electrocuted and often skinned alive for their fur.”
Additionally, PETA members dressed in animal costumes passed out copies of PETA's “Vegetarian Starter Kits” while holding signs that read, “Yes, We Can - Go Vegetarian. – Greg Henderson, Drovers editor
