BP and Animal Cruelty

In the blog, The PETA Files, Ingrid Newkirk argues that if any charges are brought against BP for the oil spill, animal cruelty should be among them. Newkirk almost presents this as fantasy, which of course it is, but she concluded her post by offering a number of personal choices that can make the world better for animals, including reducing meat consumption (or better yet going vegetarian), working to reduce or eliminate factory farming, and buying less gas and other petroleum-based products. All these suggestions are relevant, and so easy. But, for the record, I am totally OK with charging BP with animal cruelty.