Animal-rights group targets tryouts for meat ads

Karen Zekan

Friday, July 31, 1998 | 11 a.m.

Pigs have a place in this world.

Their ears and hooves wind up playthings for dogs. Their bodies provide pay checks for men and women working on America's pig farms, in slaughterhouses, for trucking companies and behind grocery store meat counters.

And for the fourth summer in a row, pigs are helping Oscar Mayer employees make a living by driving the company's 27-foot-long Wienermobile from town to town searching for the next child to star in a company television commercial.

But only a handful of locals were thinking pig Wednesday morning when the mammoth orange-, mustard- and ketchup-colored motordog went on display during tryouts for kids ages 3-10 inside the Southern Nevada Zoological Park.

As members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the group's message to anyone who would listen was, "Pigs are friends, not food." Some passersby took stickers and handouts detailing torture piglets endure before they end up in a bun; others looked away, kept walking or made snide remarks.

"I thought it was pretty sassy of me to ignore them," one smiling mom said as she left the zoo, refusing to give her name. "I don't want my kids to know where meat comes from. We have a lot of cows around where we live and I don't want my kids having nightmares."

Furthermore, she was angry that she had to pay the zoo's $3.95 admission price to get her two boys into the zoo to sing the Oscar Mayer Weiner theme song on camera for the competition.

PETA volunteer Joe Iacona defended the demonstration as a chance to educate the public about the questionable health benefits of hot dogs, remind them of alternative food choices, and discuss the morality of the meat packing process.

Literature passed to open hands claimed that piglets' are castrated and their tails chopped off shortly after birth without anesthesia and kept in tiny cages stacked one atop the other until they are loaded onto trucks bound for the slaughterhouse. PETA claims the pigs are often still conscious when hung by one leg and bled to death during processing.

"Hot dogs are made with pigs' lips, spleens, intestines, stomachs. If people understood the torture and suffering that went into making a hot dog, they'd realize why they should try to cut it out of their diet," said Iacona, a vegetarian.

"You can't see what goes on behind the scenes when you see the package in the store. What's worse, though, is that the Wienermobile is exploiting children to glorify their product. Kids learn their cute jingle and the whole experience is so enthralling, but it's deceitful. Kids deserve to be told the truth."

The message fell on many deaf ears.

"I was raised on a farm. You raise 'em, you kill 'em, you eat 'em," said Terry Catanzaro.

"If you've ever watched an animal being butchered, there's an old saying -- 'the only thing you throw away is the oink.' I have no problems eating meat. We had chickens and cows, we'd play with them, but we always knew that they'd be killed so we could eat."

Catanzaro had no problem with PETA volunteers demonstrating, but added as she wheeled her youngster in a stroller toward the zoo's ticket counter, "I still don't consider a pig my friend."

Although she didn't know what pig parts go into hot dogs, Wienermobile attendant Lindsay LaBonge said the tour she took of an Oscar Mayer plant during her two-week "Hotdogger" training course convinced her that hot dogs are acceptable.

"Lips, eyes, intestines -- it's not true, whatever PETA is saying. The meat is ground up so finely and put in casings," LaBonge insisted. "A lot of (PETA's) information is false, especially about Oscar Mayer."

Federal law requires slaughterhouses to kill animals humanely before dismembering them.

A recently released book entitled "Slaughterhouse" includes interviews over the past decade with plant workers describing live hogs being dumped in scalding tubs and cattle being skinned alive.

A Nebraska inspector and a former veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture spoke publicly in April about witnessing similar violations as those described in the book.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture commissioned a study last summer that looked at 61 of the nation's 1,900 packing plants. The results were not made public, but the USDA admitted finding two plants improperly stunning animals.

Mori Wholesale said it complies with federal law by humanely stunning animals at its Fallon plant. Botto & Associates in Yerington declined to discuss its processing operations.

Oscar Mayer makes wieners and bologna from meat purchased from slaughterhouses.

LaBonge and her fellow Hotdoggers welcomed each child as they stepped up to the microphone for a chance at stardom. Tryouts are a one-shot deal: sing the song while being videotaped and hope you make the cut.

Oscar Mayer will fly 20 finalists and their families to Orlando, Fla., this fall for the final round at Sea World. Finalists are eligible for $5,000 scholarships; the winner gets $20,000.

"Parents don't care about what PETA's saying," LaBonge said. "The kids are mesmerized by the 27-foot-long Wienermobile. It's an American icon. We try to make them shine, have fun, feel like they're on top of the world, and let them leave with a smile."