PETA defends use of Holocaust images in ads

BERLIN -- An animal rights group said on yesterday it would go ahead with a controversial advertising campaign that likens the slaughter of animals to the murder of Jews under the Nazis, despite threats of a legal challenge.

Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews, said he would ask prosecutors to pursue charges of "inciting racial hatred" against the vegetarian group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals for the advertisements called "Holocaust on a plate."

PETA campaign coordinator Matt Prescott said the group is "not willing to end the campaign."

The posters, due to be displayed in Stuttgart starting today and in 11 European cities at later dates, show pictures of battery hens packed into cages next to historic pictures of emaciated inmates in concentration camp bunk beds.

Stuttgart prosecutor Eckhard Maak was quoted yesterday as saying PETA should think twice because German law sets fines of up to five years in prison for anyone found guilty of belittling or denying the Holocaust.

Maak said that if the campaign went ahead "then you can expect the police won't shut their eyes," according to an advance copy of an interview to be published in today's Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

Spiegel earlier told the newspaper the Jewish council would press charges if the campaign was launched.

PETA officials say the posters are designed to raise public awareness of what they call the maltreatment of animals prior to slaughter.