Payback Is a Female Dog

Sometimes you see those stories that just make you smile. This would be one of those stories:

NEW YORK: Paul McCartney has been drawn into a row alongside Hollywood actors and pop stars from Gillian Anderson to Moby over their support for an animal rights charity.

McCartney was named as one of 50 celebrities who were instructed to "fire your publicist" in a $US11,000 ($14,400) advertisement in the Hollywood magazine Variety because of his support for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The advertisement, placed by a pro-animal-testing organisation, was designed to embarrass PETA supporters after two of the organisation's employees were charged with animal cruelty in North Carolina.

The PETA activists were arrested after they allegedly collected dogs and puppies from animal shelters, killed them and threw the bodies into a rubbish bin. Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook are accused of disposing of 31 animals in this way as part of PETA's program of animal euthanasia for pets that end up in shelters.

The advertisement lists celebrities from Oliver Stone to John McEnroe who, it says, should be ashamed of supporting PETA.

Never-has-been Ally Sheedy sums up the celebrity response:

Ally Sheedy, the actor best known for her performance in The Breakfast Club, said she was not ashamed to have been named in the ad.

"I don't know anything about the case," she told the New York Daily News. "But it's one of those things where this is an organisation that has done so much good for so long."

Typical Hollywood, they support an organization and have no idea what that organization does.

I'm a big animal lover. At this moment I have three dogs, three cats, two birds, numerous fish and hermit crabs residing in my house. During any time of the year, I could have six 3-day old puppies that were abandoned taking refuge in one of my bathrooms. My better half will get up every three hours and feed them with a bottle. She works for a veterinarian and has done more to save animals than near anyone I know. There are great animal organizations out there that are not radical and do good work out of the celebrity spotlight. PETA is not one of them.