Bob McCarty Writes

After learning that the folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are urging Oklahomans to boost their health by “giving meat the boot,” I concluded that they don’t know much about the people from the state where I was born and raised.

PETA, the left-wing extremist animal rights organization, issued a news release — the most salient paragraph of which appears below — about Oklahomans yesterday:

“Oklahoma residents’ love affair with barbecue and fried chicken is literally killing them,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman.  “We’re confident that Oklahomans can and will rise to the challenge of improving their health, and the best way to do that is to leave animals off their plates.”

So barbecue and fried chicken is killing them, huh?  Tell that to my wife, whose grandmother lived to the ripe old age of 98 — the last 20-plus years of which was by herself on a farm miles from the nearest neighbor.  She subsisted on a menu of what I call “farm food” — that is, a lot of fried animal meat accompanied by vegetables, biscuits, gravy and the like.

If the day ever comes when more than a small percentage of Oklahomans decide to “leave animals off their plates,” I’ll know that they’re either experiencing a plate shortage or just enjoying a good meal of barbecue in a bowl.