January 7, 2010, - 10:48 am

Overstock.com Now In Bed with PUTAh (PETA)

By Debbie Schlussel

If you’re a fan of the discount website Overstock.com (as I was . . . until now), you might want to rethink that.  The website now worships at the alter of animal rights orthodoxy.  Overstock.com bowed to PETA–we refer to it on this site by its more appropriate name, PUTAh a/k/a People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals and humans.  And it will no longer sell anything made from the exotic animal skins.

overstockburmesepython.jpg

I think I might wear either my eelskin or rattlesnake cowboy boots (yup, I have and wear pairs of both), today, in protest.  Or, maybe, my iguana boots.

After receiving video footage from PETA’s brand-new investigation exposing the extreme suffering caused by the exotic-skins industry, Salt Lake City-based online discount retailer Overstock.com announced that it will no longer sell products made from exotic skins.

According to company officials, “[Overstock.com, Inc.] has removed all exotic animal skins products from its website, including but not limited to: snake, alligator, crocodile, lizard, ostrich, stingray, eel, shark or kangaroo and will no longer sell such products.” . . . .

“I do not believe that animals should be treated as decorative objects,” says Overstock.com Chair and CEO Patrick Byrne.

Hmmm . . . I hope he likes wearing cork and pleather shoes. ‘Cuz, FYI, Mr. Burns, er . . . Mr. Byrne, leather shoes, belts, luggage, etc.–well, that’s all “treating animals as decorative objects.”

More:

Chairman and Chief Executive Patrick Byrne thanked People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals “for informing us of these issues and presenting us with evidence that factored into our decision.”

Overstock.com’s shares were at $13.56, down 1.1%, in after-hours trading. The stock has gained 24% in the past year.

No biggie that “exotic” animals, like Burmese pythons, are now breeding like rabbits and destroying all wildlife in the Florida Everglades (and lefty scientists and herpetologists predict are that they will spread throughout America, ultimately and destroy most American wildlife).  We need to “protect” them and their takeover, right?  Who cares about keeping Florida python bounty hunters working and able to put food on their tables?  We need to protect the pythons and alligators and their right to be predatory against babies in backyards.

Animals were made to serve man, not the other way around.




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19 Responses

Keep your eelskin away from your credit cards. It is said eelskin can scramble the magnetic strip.

JLin on January 7, 2010 at 11:06 am

“We need to protect the pythons and alligators and their right to be predatory against babies in backyards.”

That does not stop my friends in Georgia and Florida from dispatching aggressive gators with a well placed shot. The county will do it for you legally for free as well. The gators are killed and butchered by licenced hunters.

JLin on January 7, 2010 at 11:12 am

Does coming from an exotic location make something exotic? Burmese pythons are as common in Thailand as squirrels are here in Michigan.

Does Austrailian kangaroo hide fall into this category?

I don’t consider the Everglades an exotic location, bring on the snake skin boots!!!!!!!

Jamie on January 7, 2010 at 11:15 am

It kind of reminds me of how mountain lions are invading populated areas, and, in some cases, attacking humans. Some of these nitwits don’t seem to find anything wrong with this, because “after all, we took over the mountain lions’ territory.” I remember a few years ago a mountain lion killed a jogger, and the mountain lion was subsequently shot. Some of these numbskulls memorialized the mountain lion, rather than the woman that the mountain lion killed.

Little Al on January 7, 2010 at 11:37 am

I have leather shoes and belts and I’m a member of the other PETA. What will they do next – ban pets?

NormanF on January 7, 2010 at 12:12 pm

Wow! I thought PETA meant, People Eating Tasty Animals. Must have missed the memo about the name change 🙂

Mewize on January 7, 2010 at 12:24 pm

debbie, when i was in asia we used to eat dog alot,

dogs with garlic was amazing, and cat kebabs are tasty too

drew299 on January 7, 2010 at 12:30 pm

And dare I remind you…

PETA KILLS ANIMALS!

http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

Bob Porrazzo on January 7, 2010 at 12:49 pm

Dogs are herders, protectors, rescuers, companions and guides for the blind. We’ve had a symbionic relationship with them for 50,000 years helping each other in the hunt and the best idea Asians have for them is to eat them? Uh, okay drewie – you cool, lil’ dude.

DS_ROCKS! on January 7, 2010 at 1:26 pm

Where is the proof that animals were made to serve us? Does that mean we can kill, mutilate, anhialte them without remorse?

Nak on January 7, 2010 at 1:46 pm

    Your very existence annihilates life every minute of everyday, both plant and animal. The only way you can avoid that is to no longer exist yourself. You may wish to reexamine your sophomoric view of things.

    Worry01 on January 8, 2010 at 6:06 am

Nak asked, ‘Where is the proof that animals were made to serve us?’ There is no proof. Just that man has more intelligence than animals and with intelligence we have the ability to have animals serve us. In fact for evolutionists and Darwinists (such as many animal people) that is what we are, the top of the food chain.

I wonder what Eskimos and Native Americans would think if PETA protested their culture as they still hunt and kill animals for survival? Seriously PETA are overrun by HOMOSEXUALS who see animals as their children since they obviously cant procreate.

If I had to eat to survive, then any animal is fair game. Killing animals for sustenance such as food and clothing, or lab research, hunting is ok with me. Someone mentioned the mountain lion being killed, I think they should be shot with tranquilizers and later put in another area. That is more sensible.

CaliforniaScreaming on January 7, 2010 at 2:57 pm

I love grilled gator tail and my python skin cowboy boots so I’m guessing I’m not on PETA’s Christmas card list.

Joe J on January 7, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Here’s what I don’t understand and wonder why nobody mentions this. OVerstock does not control what is being made. By definition, they purchase items that are already made and discount them because they are out of style or overstocked. So like everything else, it’s BS. There is no reason for them not to sell all animal stuff, because they didn’t contract it to be made. Lip service to the wrong people from the wrong people. Perhaps PETA wants those items to be buried with a special service?

sam on January 7, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    Overstock was quite good to me in the past. It allowed me to purchase refurbished SLR’s and lenses for a fraction of what it would have cost, if I had purchased those items new or even in a functional used state. It is a bad development that they are listening to a group as freakish as PETA.

    Worry01 on January 7, 2010 at 9:39 pm

As an owner of a burmese python:

The more they eat the faster they grow (as a survival mechanism) and they always act hungry. They often fool human keepers into overfeeding them. When free, they can grow very large very quickly in a prey-rich area.

As snakes they are natural escape artists, able to squeeze through tiny holes one wouldn’t expect their body to fit through.

They shouldn’t be able to survive the winter in anything other than a Florida-like state, but given that humans provide many sources of survivable heat…

luagha on January 7, 2010 at 5:01 pm

I don’t eat anything that typically wears a collar.

pinandpuller on January 7, 2010 at 10:26 pm

And then there is this from Indiana…

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/22191531/detail.html

Bob Porrazzo on January 10, 2010 at 8:39 pm

PETA does sadly euthanize cats and dogs for their shelter, but only when it is needed because they have no other option and no one has adopted them. Why would such a big animal rights organization willingly kill dogs and cats? There’s no reason, financial or otherwise for it. Please research before you write.

Steph on November 28, 2010 at 12:57 pm

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