Kids Take Meat, Veggies With Grain Of Salt Hunter Shows Up To Grill Activists

Thirty years from now, if middle-aged Spokane residents wet their beds and have nightmares in which they are attacked by giant vegetables, psychologists will trace it to The Day the Carrot Came to Town.

Subtitle: The Day the Grownups Acted Badly.

“The grownups are all acting like idiots, that’s what several (children) told me,” said police Officer Sue Mann.

Mann was called to two Spokane elementary schools on Friday to make sure a hunter with a propane barbecue didn’t attack an animal rights activist in a carrot costume.

The carrot and two other volunteers from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were spreading the gospel of vegetarianism, telling kids that eating meat kills “little piggies” and tears cows from their families.

The activists started the day at Woodridge Elementary, where they got little attention from students. Some kids were scared and others were curious, but few took the group’s pins, which urge kids to “Eat your veggies not your friends.”

PETA’s Violet Kelly said she was threatened by Roger Dudley, an unrepentant meat-eater who took exception to PETA’s display. Dudley, whose 11-year-old son goes to another Spokane school, acknowledged that “I’m quite vocal” but says he didn’t threaten anyone.

“I very likely was shaking a finger at her,” he said.

Whatever. The scared carrot called the cops, drawing the attention of the media, who secretly hoped for vegetable warfare on a slow news day Friday.

Meanwhile, at Balboa Elementary School, Principal Louis Haymond called an assembly to remind his 400 students that they shouldn’t talk to strange carrots. The students sniggered.

“Will there be other vegetables?” asked one boy.

“No, just the carrot,” said Haymond.

When the final bell rang, the Balboa students were greeted on the sidewalk by the carrot, three television cameras, several reporters and a gaggle of gawkers.

Mann, three other officers and two security guards scanned the crowd for any sign of trouble. Luckily, there wasn’t a Vegimatic in sight.

Dudley was there, shadowing the carrot with a propane barbecue on a TV tray. The grill wasn’t lighted, but loaded with two lean moose steaks.

“I don’t know if you want to give (Dudley) any press because that’s obviously why he’s here,” said Kelly, a Virginia resident who accompanied the carrot to Calgary, Alberta, on Wednesday, and will be in Seattle and Portland next week.

Watching from their buses and the school lawn, the students were amused.

“This is dumb,” said 7-year-old Gabrielle Carroll.

One boy innocently tried to shake the carrot’s hand. He was whisked away by a teacher.

One woman encouraged her 5-year-old son to take a pin. She said she thought PETA was encouraging kids not to eat sweets - not meats.

“He doesn’t eat meat anyway,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. “He’s picky.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo