PETA to buy Tiller Clinic - Plans for Veggie Cafe

Personally, I think their money would be better spent building or supporting animal shelters all across the land. Not to detract from the good that Peta does, but they (and other BIg mother orgs like HSUS, ASPCA, etc.) could do SO MUCH more with their resources. Just MHO.
------------------------


Animal rights group wants to buy slain abortion doctor's clinic
o

CHICAGO (AFP) — An animal rights group said Thursday it wants to transform a Kansas abortion clinic that was shuttered after its owner was murdered into an animal cruelty education center.

"We want to take a building that has been a flashpoint for conflict on one moral issue and turn it into a place of dialogue on another one," said Bruce Friedrich, vice president for policy at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The Nonviolence for All Beings Center would promote vegetarianism by teaching people about the cruel way in which farm animals are treated.

"Most people on the issue of cruelty to animals don't put two and two together," Friedrich said.

"It's a reality that anyone who is eating animals is paying people to abuse animals and slit their throats which is something most of us wouldn't do personally."

The center would feature a vegetarian restaurant and each visitor would receive a complimentary video which graphically depicts how farm animals are slaughtered.

Operation Rescue, a pro-life group which spent years demonizing Dr. George Tiller for providing controversial late-term abortions, has also expressed interest in buying the Wichita clinic.

His family dismissed the offer as nothing more than a publicity stunt.

PETA does not intend to make a statement on the morality of abortion or to imply that there is a parallel between abortion and cruelty to animals, Frederich said.

"Obviously everyone is saddened by Dr. Tiller's murder but the discussion of the value of life has come front and center in the public conversation," Friedrich told AFP.

"We would be irresponsible if we didn't talk about the fact that everyone can make a positive difference in compassion every time we sit down to eat."

PETA has engaged a realtor in Wichita to inquire about whether Dr. Tiller's family intends to sell the windowless building.

The organization has been thinking about opening the center for some time and will continue to keep its eye out for an appropriate venue should the Wichita plan fall through, Friedrich said.

Tiller, 67, was a lightning rod in the nation's culture wars over abortion and had already been shot in the arms and seen his Kansas clinic bombed, vandalized and targeted by decades of protests before he was gunned down in the foyer of his church on May 31.

Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old Kansas City area resident with a history of mental problems and links to anti-abortion groups, has been charged with his murder.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »


http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ieDNWP-2RLxxz1hlndyAmuszoCbw