I encourage all of you to visit Keiko's blog to add a link to your letter you send PETA and (please) sign the petition to get PETA to take down this campaign.
My letter to PETA... who no longer has my support as an organization that I can stand behind:
Dearest PETA,
I am one of the thousands, if not by now, millions, of women who has been outraged and compelled to respond to PETA's horrible excuse for a provocative "Win a Vasectomy" ad campaign. I have read the responses given by your company representatives to the many letters that you have received from our community, the infertility community. What I find most appalling is that whoever came up with this campaign within PETA did a horrible and inept job of researching what infertility is and what it isn't. What's worse is that the "think tank" participants thought that this ridiculous ad campaign would be best received if it were hidden, stealth-like, in the middle of our National Infertility Awareness Week, which is spearheaded by the Resolve: The National Infertility Association. To say that you are "honoring" this week of awareness, our week of awareness, is a huge slap in the face to millions of women and men who suffer from infertility.
I too suffer from infertility and what disturbs me most about this ad campaign is the ignorance that PETA has about infertility. Infertility is not about choosing to have or not have children. More than 7 million people, men and women alike, suffer from this disease. For clarity, they are not suffering from indecisiveness over whether or not they want children, they are suffering from real, concrete, and sometimes incurable reproductive dysfunctions. We are all diagnosed by real doctors who have actual degrees and who spend tireless hours working towards cures, procedures and medications to help people cope, not always solve, infertility. Infertility is what we live with and believe me, it is not a choice. Infertility is not only about the inability to "have a child our own," it encompasses so much more. For PETA to minimize it to it just being about procreation is unconscionable.
I understand that PETA likes to use the shock factor in their ads in order to draw attention to their cause. Unfortunately your "Win a Vasectomy" campaign is not shocking to me. It is in-line with how the majority of society views infertility. It is shallow, ignorant and completely misses the mark. It saddens me to think that forward-thinking people, such as those who are employed at PETA, can be so narrow-minded in their views on what is the root of the world's overpopulation issue.
My suggestion is that you go back to the drawing board and this time, think outside of the box - though I think it's quite obvious, your creative team did not see what is obvious to most. Did it ever occur to you that a more tactful and potentially more effective way of educating on world overpopulation would have been just that - Educating? Perhaps an ad campaign that linked ignorance and lack of education to the growing pregnancy rates around the world would be more effective. We aren't the bad guys here, we are not the ones that are overpopulating the world! Those that continue to have children out of ignorance, social conditioning and yes choice, are the perpetrators! Why go after our group when clearly there are people, like The Duggars (19 kids...and counting, now THAT's shocking!!) and those that don't have access to effective birth control options, are adding more than their fair share of overpopulating the world. Those of us with infertility could be so lucky to have one child - more often that not, one is enough for us. Why not support a free condom or birth control drive with every dog or cat that comes in to get spayed or neutered?
I invite you to speak with reproductive endocrinologist doctors and those of us facing, struggling and living with infertility to discover what infertility truly is. I assure you, all of us living with infertility are aware of adoption and how many children need to be adopted in the world. If you want to stand for a cause or link yourself to a movement, how about working towards making adoption actually easier and less expensive for anyone who wants to be a parent. Isn't it only fair that we are able to adopt children with as much ease as those who adopt a dog or cat?
I request, at the very least, that you separate your campaign from our National Infertility Awareness Week and find another cause to piggy-back on. Perhaps they will be more understanding, more forgiving. You have outraged, angered and motivated and entire community that you have underestimated. Don't be surprised if you are someday ridiculed, mocked and under-valued for your efforts by our group. Though I doubt that that anyone in our group would stoop so low. We are a group of men and women that are strong-willed, compassionate, tolerable, unstoppable and above all else, know the importance of research and education.
We too have a voice and we will be heard!
With kind regards,
JT
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
very well written.
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