Head to toe, does she or doesn't she practice what she preaches?
Revised March 2008.
Pamela Anderson considers herself an animal lover and is an official spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Like all "sensitive" PeTA babes, she wants people to break free from owning or benefiting from animals. That means no more meat, no fish or chicken, milk or eggs, no more wearing of animal fibers, no more animal testing for medical research, no pets, and so on.
Her PeTA credits include narrating videos opposing the leather and fur trades, and launching a line of "cruelty-free" cosmetics with proceeds going to her gurus.
Since Pam is such an eyeful, we decided to take a closer look at the standards she applies in her own life. Does she qualify as a true PeTAphile, or is PeTA exploiting her naïveté? Can she cross her heart and say she does not benefit from animals? And how sensitive, or smart, is she really?
HAIR: Pam's natural hair color, to judge from her February 1990 appearance in Playboy magazine, is brown, and that makes her a bottle blonde.
The active ingredient in hair bleach is hydrogen peroxide. This stuff is all around us, even in rain, but it's not that strong or we'd all be blondes! In fact, many mouthwashes contain hydrogen peroxide.
At the other extreme though, a strong solution of hydrogen peroxide can be used for rocket fuel!
Obviously, Pam needs something in between. And how can cosmetic companies be sure she won't harm her scalp? Animal tests of course!
Of course, we now know that a 3% solution is all Pam needs to have fun. But let's not forget all the bottle blonde bunnies that made this possible!
COSMETICS: In 1999, Pam launched a new line of supposedly "cruelty-free" cosmetics called Pamela, with the proceeds going to PeTA. PeTA responded by naming her Humanitarian of the Year "for her outstanding efforts to improve the plight of animals."(1) Way to go, Pam! But since then, Pamela cosmetics have been gathering dust. PeTA did announce that in February 2002 Pam donated bags full of Pamela cosmetics to abused and battered women in shelters because "they'll soon be job-hunting and she wants them to feel and look their very best."(1) Or perhaps the real reason Pamela cosmetics are being given away is because no one will buy them! In PeTA's 2003 Shopping Guide for Caring Consumers, Pamela cosmetics are not even mentioned. So ... finding out exactly what goes into Pamela cosmetics is not easy. Or if Pam even wears them. What we have found out is that unless you live in the jungle and rely on vegetable dyes to pretty yourself up, your lipstick and eyeliner contain animal fat. Slaughterhouses and butchers sell their leftovers to rendering plants, which process them all and sell the fat on to your favorite cosmetics company. Oh, but hold up ... no one said Pamela cosmetics didn't contain animal products. They only said they were "cruelty-free". And what does that mean? The US Department of Agriculture has this to say(2) about cosmetics advertised as "cruelty-free" or "not tested on animals": "The unrestricted use of these phrases by cosmetic companies is possible because there are no legal definitions for these terms. "Some companies may apply such claims solely to their finished cosmetic products. However, these companies may rely on raw material suppliers or contract laboratories to perform any animal testing necessary to substantiate product or ingredient safety. ... "Many raw materials, used in cosmetics, were tested on animals years ago when they were first introduced. A cosmetic manufacturer might only use those raw materials and base their 'cruelty-free' claims on the fact that the materials or products are not 'currently' tested on animals." Until evidence to the contrary becomes available, we will assume (a) that Pam's lips are coated in animal product, and (b) that the ingredients were all tested on animals at some point. Does that earn Pam a Humanitarian of the Year Award? How about Hypocrite of the Year? (1) Pamela Anderson Donates Cruelty-Free Cosmetics to Women's Shelter PeTA press release, Feb. 21, 2002. (2) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; "Cruelty Fre - Not Tested on Animals."
LIPS: Over the years, Pam has either learned how to wear a permanent pucker or she's had lip augmentation. One of the most common materials used in lip jobs is collagen, derived from the carcasses of animals, typically cows. Another is Hylaform, which comes from bird carcasses. There are now alternatives that are not derived from animals, such as Restylane and Achyal, but even these were tested on animals before going to market.
CHEST: As a young adult, Pam's mammaries were modest in scale, but at around the age of 22, she had them enhanced for the first time, either with silicone or silicone bags filled with saline solution. Thereafter her breasts continued to grow until some shrinkage was noticed at about the age of 29. It is estimated that the amount of silicon residing in Pam's chest could be used to make 23 Pentium motherboards.(1) Field testing of breast implants has notoriously been carried out mostly on women. But toxicity tests have been conducted on animals, while other animal tests ensured the surgical techniques and anaesthetics used are safe for humans. Pam's implants are also unfriendly to the environment. They are inert, resistant to extremes of temperature, and highly resistant to weathering and oxidation, which means they'll be hanging around in the ground long after her body has decomposed. On another level also, her bosoms represent a double standard at work. In October 2003, Pam wrote to David Novak, CEO of Yum! Brands, parent company of KFC, apparently oblivious to the irony of her complaint. "I can't understand," she said, "why a company that claims to care about animal welfare would continue to allow chickens to be bred and drugged to be so top-heavy that they can barely walk."(2) (1) Pamela Anderson Lee's Breasts. (2) See "Pamela Anderson Concerned about KFC Chickens," Associated Press,
TATTOOS: Pam's barbed wire tattoo celebrates range fencing for cattle ranches (which she opposes, of course), but one of her tattoos is also the source of her current infection with the liver disease Hepatitis C. Or so she says. Pam insists she caught the infection from former husband Tommy Lee after sharing a tattoo needle, a claim Lee has vigorously denied. But however she caught Hep C, what are her plans to cure herself of this potentially fatal condition? Well, she should stick to her first choice and take drugs tested on animals. In July 2002, Pam announced that from December she would be starting on a course of interferon in combination with other antiviral drugs.(1) But interferon has been extensively tested on animals since the 1950s. And so in November, she told a conference on liver disease that she was undergoing homeopathic treatment, partly because she wanted to avoid drugs tested on animals.(2) In an interesting twist, Pam has given her support to the American and Canadian Liver Foundations, filming a joint public service announcement for them. The American Liver Foundation is on a PeTA list of charities to boycott because it funds research involving tests on animals.(3) Says PeTA, these "cruel" experiments "have no practical benefit to anyone. They are unnecessary, unreliable, and sometimes dangerously misleading." In fact, PeTA has refused to condemn terrorists for attacking research facilities, while its vegan campaign coordinator, Bruce Friedrich, openly advocates blowing them up.(4) Pam, the researchers in those laboratories care about people like you. PeTA does not, or it would stop working tirelessly to shut down the very research that could save your life. We presume PeTA has also influenced your decision to dump tried and tested treatments in favor of homeopathic medicine. For your sake, we hope you know what you're doing! (1) Pamela Anderson plans hepatitis treatment, Reuters, July 24, 2002. (2) Anderson blames rock star lifestyle for hep C infection, National Post, Nov. 16, 2002. (3) Charities That Test on Animals. (4) Speaking to the Animal Rights 2001 national convention in McClean, Virginia, July 2001, Friedrich said: "If we really believe that these animals do have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then of course we're going to be, as a movement, blowing stuff up and smashing windows. For the record, I don't do this stuff, but I do advocate it. ... I think it would be a great thing if, you know, all of the fast-food outlets, and these slaughterhouses, and these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it's perfectly appropriate."
Pam changed husbands again in 2007, hitching herself to One Night in Paris (Hilton) stud Rick Salomon. That's nice! And so, apparently, was the menu at the wedding reception, that included pigs in a blanket, tuna tacos, and lobster! Reportedly, Pam didn't partake of these delights, but surely she knew they'd be on the menu.(1) She also parted ways from husband #2, a meat-eatin', leather- and fur-wearin' rap-rocker from Detroit called Kid Rock. Pam had tried to change Kid, who hung up his trademark fur coats in favor of petrochemical fakes. But he never changed his meat-eatin', leather-wearin' ways! "I've been respectful of the PETA thing," he told the Detroit News.(2) "I know she's been involved in that and it means a lot to her. I try not to wear real fur anymore. ... It's not like I'm changing my way of life, it's like, out of respect I don't do that. I still eat meat and all that, though. That's who I am as a person, and she understands that." But Kid's change of heart may have had more to do with his loins than anything else, according to MSNBC reporter Jeannette Walls (Dec. 20, 2001). "She's cool and distant to him if he does anything that might be not animal friendly," an anonymous insider told Walls. "The other day, someone offered to let him try on a really cool men's fur coat, and Kid said no way. He said he couldn't have sex for a week if he touches fur." It's a shame Pam couldn't show Kid the same respect he pretended to show her. NOTES: (1) "Inside Pam Anderson's Vegas wedding," OK Magazine, Oct. 8, 2007. (2) "Kid Rock gives up fur, not meat," Detroit News, Dec. 23, 2001.
DIET: PeTA preaches veganism, which means you don't consume or wear any animal products. Pamela, meanwhile, is a PeTA spokeswoman, so she must be vegan, right? Wrong! According to Famousveggie.com, Pam is just a common or garden vegetarian. This tells us that she won't eat red meat, chicken, pork, fish or seafood. But more interesting is what it says about the things she does eat! The same source defines three kinds of vegetarians, but doesn't tell us which one Pam is. Is she a lacto-vegetarian, who eats and drinks dairy products? Or is she an ovo-vegetarian, who eats eggs? Or is she, in common with most vegetarians, a lacto-ovo-vegetarian, consuming both eggs and dairy products? Does Pam's menu each morning comprise yoghurt, followed by an omelette topped with cheese, with buttered toast on the side, all washed down with a glass of milk? If so, then good for her: that's a nutritious breakfast! But hardly in keeping with the PeTA philosophy that animals are not for human use! Carnivore cash Meanwhile, Pam's more than happy to cash in on others' love for meat. In 2006, a new restaurant opened in Hollywood called BlackSteel, with a menu featuring such fine fare as smoked ham hock, crab cake, and ahi tuna. And who is a partner in this carnivores' paradise? Pam, no less! Commented Lisa Timmons, editor of the Paparazzi weblog A Socialite's Life, on the BlackSteel episode: "Next thing we know, we're going to find out your breasts are really made of veal."(1) NOTES: (1) Courtesy of "Hypocrisy, thy name is (still) Pammy," Center for Consumer Freedom, July 21, 2006.
CLOTHING: Pam wears clothes ... most of the time, anyway. And one of her favorite materials is "pleather", or imitation leather made of polyurethane film, which in turn comes from oil. Pleather first appeared some 30 years ago as a cheap alternative to the real thing, but has found a new lease of life on the bodies of vegetarian Hell's Angels and dominatrixes. PeTA promotes pleather too, actually going so far as to tell kids that the mark of class, or the "magic words", on an item of clothing or accessory are "All man-made materials"!(1) Pam is also a fan of fake fur, made from polymerized acrylonitrile. One gallon of oil yields about three jackets.(2) Pam's preferred clothing choices take centuries to degrade, and neither Pam nor PeTA is running a recycling program. Meanwhile, Pam is a participant in PeTA's campaign to bring the real leather industry down. In February 2000, PeTA released a video narrated by Pam exposing alleged cruelties in the leather industry.(3) Shortly after, she appeared on the Regis Philbin show, only to be confronted by a co-host wearing leather pants. "Backstage, I said, 'Oh, no! She has leather pants!' I almost couldn't come out. I was devastated," she told PeTA.(4) Yet when Pam's own movie career is on the line, none of this seems to matter! In her 1996 movie Barb Wire, Pam was dressed in real leather right down to her G-string! What was that all about, Pam? Meanwhile, as late as 2007, she finally turned her back on the most environment-friendly clothing choice she ever made. Pam has often been credited for turning Ugg sheepskin boots into a major fashion trend, and even wore them during a campaign against Australian sheepherders(5) - until someone finally told her what they were made from! "I'm getting rid of my Uggs," she wrote on her website. "I feel so guilty for that craze being started around my Baywatch days. I used to wear them with my red swim suit to keep warm never realizing that they were SKIN!" "I thought they were shaved kindly. People like to tell me all the time that I started that trend - yikes!"(6) We all have our moments of weakness, so we'll cut Pam some slack and assume she was the LAST PERSON ON THE PLANET not to realise what Ugg boots are made from. But even she acknowledges knowing they had something to with exploited sheep, and that's a breach of the PeTA code right there! NOTES: (1) Pleather vs. Leather A PeTA webpage promoting man-made over natural. (2) See Ho, ho, ho! Plastic Santas? (incl. "Just What Is Evolutionary Fur?") by Teresa Platt, executive director, Fur Commission USA, Nov. 20, 1998. (3) Pamela Anderson Lee Exposes Animal Cruelty in the International Leather Trade, PeTA press release, Feb. 17, 2000. (4) Pamela Anderson Has a Cow over Leather Pants on Regis Show, PeTA press release, Oct. 5, 2000. (5) PeTA pulls the wool over community's eyes, Daily Telegraph (Australia), Nov. 2, 2007. (6) Pamela Anderson tosses away Ugg boots, Expo Say, Feb. 26, 2007.
VERDICT: Pamela, you are sensitive to the needs of animals, and you care enough to fight for your beliefs. So you are already way ahead of the pack! The problem is you are not sensitive and smart! You could graduate from the PeTA Kindergarten of Sensitivity with flying colors. But that hardly prepares you for the College of the Real World! Sensitive and smart choices are what distinguish true animal lovers (or conservationists or environmentalists) from those who are exploiting you, filling you with hate propaganda and nonsense. Here's how you measure up today. Let's kick ass next semester, Pam! HAIR: 1 out of 5. Assuming that the bleach you use is hydrogen peroxide, you earn one point because this is now so well established as a hair treatment that we're sure it is no longer tested on animals. You lose the other four points because you don't acknowledge the historical role played by animals in ensuring your bottle of bleach doesn't make you bald. CHEST: 1 out of 5. A woman is faced with two choices: leaving her breasts as nature intended them, or enhancing them with the addition of silicone bags. We will not judge you for wanting larger breasts, but have you thanked the animals who tried them out first? Or the animals sacrificed in the development of the surgical techniques and anaesthetics involved so you didn't die on the operating table? And earn an extra point next semester by promising to get cremated when your time comes. You'll be polluting the atmosphere, but it's the only way to get rid of those things. CLOTHING: 0 out of 10. Ten points ride on this choice because it's a big deal. After feeding ourselves, clothing is one of the largest impacts humans have on the planet. Recognizing that in the narrowest possible sense, pleather is animal-friendly, earns you one point. No animals are directly killed in making your figure-hugging bodices. Kudos! You miss out on the other nine available points because if everyone wore pleather, we'd have an environmental disaster on our hands. Petroleum products like pleather are not sustainable, are not biodegradable, and are associated with pollution. Leather, on the other hand, is biodegradable, sustainable, and makes good use of a by-product of human food production. And now we're going to take away the one point you just received for ... how can we put this delicately ... stupidity! You thought Ugg boots were made from "kindly shaved" sheep? How exactly does that work? LIPS: 1 out of 5. Your permanent pucker deserves full points because it's just so cute! But heh, an animal rightist with collagen injections makes for a bitter-sweet kiss! TATTOOS: 5 out of 10. Well, really we're not talking tattoos here. We're talking medical treatment for the Hep C you may or may not have contracted from a tattooist's needle. And the role of animals in drug testing is another big choice we all make, so there's another ten points riding on this. You earn a solid five points for sticking to your guns and rejecting drugs tested on animals. But you lose five points for idiocy. Interferon is the treatment you need, and as the mother of two children, the choice should be a no-brainer! (In fairness, you are going to lose five points on this one whatever you do. Refuse interferon and you're an idiot, take it and you're a hypocrite.) COSMETICS: 2 out of 5. We're going to cut you some slack here because we haven't found any evidence indicating your cosmetics are not made entirely from plants. Hence the two points. But since the only people we know of who wear plant dyes on their faces live in the Amazon jungle, we're deducting the other three points. If you don't have any animal extracts smeared on your lips and eyes, and you still manage to look so great, how come no one uses the Pamela line of cosmetics? And oh yeah, to earn more points next semester, start by acknowledging that the ingredients in "cruelty-free" cosmetics may not currently be tested on animals by the cosmetics industry, but sure as the sun rises each day, they have all been tested on animals at some time by someone. DIET: 8 out of 10. There's nothing wrong with being a vegetarian, or a vegan for that matter. Or a meat-eater. Just be sure you know why you've made that choice. We're awarding you a fat eight points here because, to the best of our knowledge, you have not tried to force your vegetarian diet on others. In a world where a diversity of food choices is key to ensuring our survival, Kid Rock needs to keep eating his steaks to balance out all your soy burgers! But you lose the remaining two points because you cannot, in good conscience, promote the PeTA cause while selling dead animal flesh through your Blacksteel restaurant. LOVE LIFE: 0 out of 5. Heh, this is really none of our business! We're sorry it didn't work out with meat-eatin', leather-wearin' Kid, and wish you luck with Paris-pokin' Rick. But we have to deduct points anyhow! Lose two points for allegedly denying Kid sex for a week if he so much as looked at a piece of fur. And lose the other three points for serving pig in a blanket, tuna and lobster at your latest wedding reception! FINAL SCORE: 18 out of 55. Congratulations Pam! With such a score, you can graduate with honors from the PeTA Kindergarten of Sensitivity! Or qualify for Grade 1 entry to the College of the Real World.
LOVE LIFE: