LONDON: The images are shocking. Topless and partially nude women slaughtering animals, blood across the arms and the ground and dead life sitting before the image. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) condemned the calendar that portrays former Miss Czech Republic Diana Kobzanova wielding an axe with blood running down her arms. Despite PETA's protests, the 27-year-old model says that accusations that the calendar promotes animal cruelty are wrong. She said that all images feature animal models constructed for the shoot. She explained the calendar is for charity. “All the proceeds from the calendar will go to the Helppes Associaton which trains guide dogs for the blind and the physically handicapped,” she said. But, the actual images say otherwise, PETA and other activists have argued. In one photo, a woman is shown bending over a dead pig while chickens peck away at the blood-soaked ground. “Only a sociopath could find sexual excitement from the depiction of horrific and violent acts against frightened living beings,” a spokesman for the world's largest animal rights organization said. “Such imagery is likely to get the public to consider that real pigs used for meat are sensitive beings who suffer violent, bloody deaths and who do not want to die,” the statement continued. For Tammy Evans, a Welsh animal rights proponent, the calendar goes too far. She told Bikya Masr that “for anyone to see the good in this, wherever the money is going, is sorely misusing the idea of animals and their rights.” She added that she hoped the calendar would be taken from any shelves and destroyed. “It continues the idea that it can be funny, or even sexy, to see women covered in blood killing something. It is so wrong, I don't even know what to say,” Evans added. BM
