Whisky Company Bashes PETA's 'Club' Cartoon

A whisky company isn't laughing about a clever New Yorker-style cartoon concerning seal killing created by PETA. "Anything but a Canadian Club," a sad-eyed seal sitting at a bar tells a bartender awaiting his order in the ad. Now the parent company of Canadian Club whisky has fired off a cease-and-desist letter ordering PETA to remove the ad from its website and stop distributing it on coasters in bars. "PETA's malicious publication has caused degradation of Canadian Club's corporate image," wrote the company's counsel.

"For the record, Jim Beam and Canadian Club take no position on PETA's position with respect to the Canadian government's policy regarding the treatment of seals; our interest is solely protection of our important intellectual property rights." PETA has been cowed by the letter, and has promised to yank the cartoon. "It's toast," said a spokesman. But "it's hard not to want a stiff drink" when contemplating the carnage Jeffrey Kerr tells the New York Daily News. The annual seal hunt sponsored by the Canadian government began this week; some 60,000 seals will likely be killed. (More Canadian seal hunt stories.)