AR-News: PETA Earns Rebuke From Dalai Lama

[jim robertson]

PETA Earns Rebuke From Dalai Lama

Fri Jun 25,11:54 AM ET


NEW DELHI - The office of the Dalai Lama said Friday the animal rights group 
PETA misrepresented the nature of a request by the spiritual leader that 
fast-food chain KFC not open an outlet in his homeland, Tibet.


People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, based in Norfolk, Va., released 
a document Thursday from the Dalai Lama asking that the Louisville, Ky., 
restaurant chain "abandon its plan to open restaurants in Tibet."


But the Dalai Lama's heading on the document, "APPEAL," was changed to "Dear 
Mr. Novak," a reference to CEO David Novak of Yum! Restaurants, the parent 
company of KFC. PETA then issued a news release saying the Dalai Lama had 
"dispatched a letter" to the company.


The rest of the text of the Dalai Lama's appeal was unchanged, including his 
comment that seeing a chicken slaughtered outside a kitchen in India in 1965 
made him decide to become a vegetarian.


The Dalai Lama's secretary, Tenzin Geyche Tethong, said in a letter faxed 
Friday to Ingrid Newkirk of PETA in Norfolk, that "We strongly object to 
your changing the nature of the appeal without seeking our approval."


Tethong said in the letter, made available to The Associated Press, that the 
Dalai Lama's office had "intentionally sent ... a general appeal," and had 
rejected a PETA request that a letter be addressed to Novak.


In Louisville, Yum! spokesman Jonathan Blum said Thursdat the company has no 
current plans to enter Tibet.

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So many gods, so many creeds,so many paths that wind and wind, while just 
the art of being kind is all this sad world needs.
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1805-1919)