So, PETA’s always all in a huff about what the Vandy researchers are doing up at the lab. This past fall, Kate Snowden won the Pope Award for reporting on the way PETA misconstrued the activities of the lab:
“The biggest oversight of the Orbis article rests in its failure to actually mention the conclusion of the massive investigation of PETA’s allegations: Dr. Schall was cleared of all charges. John Howser, assistant director in Vanderbilt’s Office of News and Public Affairs, said in the 2006 Hustler article on the topic, ‘There’s no smoking gun memo, as PETA would like you to think, that indicates that Dr. Schall is doing anything wrong.’”
But now–oh, but now–former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and PETA dilettante Bonnie Jill Laflin has upped the ante to Count of Monte Cristo proportions by writing a letter to Tennessee Titans cheerleader and Vanderbilt molecular neuroscience researcher Melissa Hodges. A letter! That should do the trick. From her informed perspective:
I’m writing on behalf of my friends at People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and PETA’s more than two million members. I am a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and a current scout for the NBA, but my great passion is animal protection. I was therefore extremely disappointed to read about your work in an animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University Kennedy Center. You may not be aware of the indifference that Vanderbilt University has shown in regard to following even the minimal standards required by federal regulations. Or that Vanderbilt has been cited for dozens of violations of the animal welfare act in the last three years.
So, clearly, this will end well. Cheers to Melissa Hodges for, first, clearly being awesomely smart and repping Vandy well by making PETA angry over actually legitimate scientific contributions to the world. And, second, for being a lady up at the Vanderbilt labs (where I have many a friend working diligently with, like, cockroaches in a closet. They’re just living the dream.).
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Check out this peta video: http://meat.org