Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
As most of you know, PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) produces lots of sexist, racist, fatphobic, and even ableist ads. Their ideologies match, unfortunately. They are incredibly unreasonable, too, and they effectively want to remove companion animals from human contact entirely.
Members of PETA have done the following to me.
Attempted to take my service dog’s leash
Threatened to take him away
Sent me death threats
Threatened to euthanize him out of “mercy”
Claimed that I am a “slavedriver” and “active participant in the speciesist h*l*caust” (Ah yes, please tell the romani-german-native girl that she’s basically a Nazi. Good idea.)
Left threatening voicemails on my phone.
Scared me so badly that I had to move house at one point
Grabbed my service dog
Tried to pry my hand off of my service dog’s harness
Threw paint on a faux fur-lined coat I was wearing (the paint got matted in my hair to the point where I had to shave my head)
Speaks openly on their hatred for service dog handlers.
Adding:
Their “Adoption” services are a complete lie. Do not bring an animal to a PETA facility or allow PETA volunteers or employees to take an animal. THEY WILL KILL IT.
Their own documentation shows that they euthanize approximately 90 - 97% of all animals they take in, on a yearly basis. This includes everything from seriously injured/ill animals, to healthy puppies and kittens.
They support Breed Specific Legislation, and call for the mass extermination of all “Pit Bull-type dogs”.
if there is anyone out there who doesn’t know this - this is really important. PETA kills and terrorizes animals. They do so for their own propaganda and in turn, profit. There is nothing ethical about their treatment of animals let alone other human beings.
Their position is, supposedly, that animals are equal to humans and as such use really ableist, racist, and wildly inappropriate metaphors that undermine real human oppression and suffering. Often just for shock value. If they applied their principle, then they are basically saying that mentally ill or struggling and homeless humans should be put to death on mass.
In addition to all of the above, they also promote the idea that dairy products cause autism.
Plus, they harassed Steve Irwin’s family while they were grieving his death.
They’re pretty terrible.
The Humane Society of the United States and the SPCA are where it’s at, if you want broad, effective, and ethical animal rights organizations on a national scale, though you can be really effective seeking out your local no-kill shelter or wildlife refuge.
I call upon the fan fic writing gods to bless you with the perseverance to finish one of your unfinished drafts.
May your fingers dance along the letters upon your device with ease, may the devil of distraction stay far from you, and may your work not need much editing.
I pass this blessing upon every fan fic writer out there.
“Our Human, subject identification Red, is quite an interesting specimen and has unique responses to many different situations, at times different responses to a single situation. Further study has suggested that the species of humans take a positive interest creatures typically seen by other kinds as dangerous and feral, such as witnessed in the attached report of our Tarkian Exploration 08207 where a juvenile Kisekling was found and claimed by Human Red. It is currently being raised by our Human and, to the astonishment of the entire crew, the two have appeared to be bonding. Upon inquiry, no knowledge of such an occurrence has been previously noted by any crew member. Reports will continue to bring updated information on the event and its impact with Human Red, as well as future ones.”
“Yeah, so, like my alien friends are definitely assholes, but I got them to let me keep a dragon - his name is Benny the Great Flamestalker, Ben for short - and the next stop is supposed to have some dinosaurs so it kinda evens out. Still wish they served burgers in the cafeteria, though.”
one of the most important things ive learned from upper level biology education so far is that dna isnt the god-like all-powerful beacon of similarity between all living beings on the face of the earth as high school science textbooks will lead u to believe but actually is, in fact, the molecular equivalent of a smoldering dumpster fire that’s in a constant state of chaos and cellular scandal like some highlights:
-the parts of dna that just casually detach on a physical level from the main strand, do some sick skateboard tricks in the cytoplasm, and land somewhere else with 43552342 copies
-the parts that would do A Thing if they wern’t physically spooled up so tightly that the Make Thing Happen machinery couldnt get to them
-the dna thats in ur mitochondria bc the mitochondria used to be a bacteria that our bigger, buffer cellular ancestors just vored in the primordial ooze
-the dna that’s in chloroplasts in plants for the same reason
-rna….bitches be crazy like what is she gonna do next?? o she gonna act like a protein now and do shit?? im on the edge of my seat
-sometimes u just gotta make more chromosomes man like sometimes u just be hanging out and u gotta make ur genome 64 sizes larger and then change ur mind only 100,000 years later and delete half of it and thats just how it is on this bitch of an earth
-random shit from like 5 BCE is just casually left over everywhere like no susan i told u to leave that gene alone we might need it to fight dinosaurs again u just never know!!!!!
dna is earth’s biggest and brightest train wreck and honestly i wouldnt trust a dna molecule to water my plants let alone run my body but here we fucking are
I am feeling physically very unstable after reading this.
I’m a genetics professor and everything here is true.
There’s a fern that has 1,260 chromosomes. That’s 630 pairs of chromosomes. No, we don’t know why.
Oh, and everyone should know that the person who first presented evidence for endosymbiosis (the official name for cells eating each other and then turning into mitochondria or chloroplasts instead of being digested) was this woman, Lynn Margulis, in 1967:
Her paper where she presented the theory was rejected 15 times before it got published. Over the next decade, her work was mocked and ignored. Now every biologist knows that she was right.
The bits of DNA that move around (“jumping genes”) were discovered by this woman, Barbara McClintock, in the 1940′s:
Her work on them was ignored and derided for about two decades before some people started to take it seriously. In 1983 she won a Nobel Prize for it.
Something of a derail, but I feel strongly about talking about the contributions of these two women.
it’s never not the time to learn about cool women in science
I KEEP TELLING PEOPLE REAL BIOLOGY IS A TRAINWRECK
In 1966, 8-month old David Reimer was being circumcised at a Winnipeg hospital. During the procedure, a general practitioner filling in for the regular surgeon seared the boy’s penis with an electric cauterising machine. His penis was so badly burned that it eventually fell off.
David’s parents sought advice from Dr. John Money, a sex researcher at a Baltimore hospital. Money decided to use David as an experiment to prove that gender depends on how a child is raised.. Money claimed parental influences and society formed sexual identity. He suggested that the rest of David’s genitals be removed and that he be prescribed female hormones. David would live as a girl, it was determined. His name was changed to “Brenda” and his progress was compared with that of his identical twin, Brian. As they grew older, the differences between the two diminished. “I tried really hard to rear her as a gentle lady but it didn’t work,” said David’s mother.
Despite being dressed in girl’s clothing combined with years of counselling and therapy as well as hormone treatments, David insisted he was a boy. When David was 15-years-old, he learnt about the botched surgery from his father. From that point onward, he rejected further treatment, including an operation that was planned to create a vagina. David underwent surgery to remove his breasts and to construct a penis. He changed his name back to David and eventually went on to get married. He was never able to father children himself but became an outstanding stepfather.
His case created an upheaval in theories on sexual identity. Tragically, on the 4th of May, 2004, David committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
