Basketball furore puts PETA in a spin
An attempt by PETA to hijack the decision taken by the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to ditch leather basketballs appears to have gone badly awry for the vegan pressure group.
The story begins in mid May when it emerged that the NCAA rules and championship committee had earlier ruled that leather basketballs would no longer be part championship games, and that synthetic balls would be used instead.
Almost immediately, PETA began publicly taking credit for the decision, saying that it had been made in response to its lobbying campaign against leather. To lend credence to the assertion, it dispatched the NCAA a package of vegan chocolate basketballs, along with a note containing the slogan, "Thank you for moo-ving away from leather!"
But the NCAA was quick to refute the claim. "To characterise that PETA’s information was a primary influence is a misrepresentation," said NCAA spokeswoman Jane Jankowski in a statement to the sports press. The point was reinforced by Gregory Sheheen, managing director of the Division One mens tournament: "This (the Peta campaign) was not even a factor," he said.
In fact, the decision was taken on the grounds of performance – and in particular the ability of synthetic leather balls to be used without having to be ‘broken in’ first. In any case, the shift away from leather basketballs had long been in progress before PETA called upon the NCAA to discontinue the use of leather balls, in November 2001.
Despite the NCAA’s very public rebuttal of PETA’s claims, this did not prevent it from coming under fire from the country’s cattlemen. In a letter to NCAA president Cedric Dempsey, the president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Wythe Willey, wrote: "Those of us who make our living in the cattle business would like you to explain the NCAA’s relationship with PETA and, in particular, how PETA influenced the decision to stop using leather basketballs."
