When we last checked in on People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the organization was ruining Christmas for Spokane’s children.

In December 2003, PETA sponsored a controversial billboard on Trent that showed a plump Santa looking down the front of his pants, and offered a message with a course double entendre implying the fabled elf would not be making his traditional appearance. Apparently, the PETA brain trust was having fun with its claim that milk causes impotence and other maladies. It’s doubtful, however, that passing children understood the nuance.

Earlier that year, PETA showed equally poor taste in displaying “Holocaust on Your Plate” at the Spokane County Courthouse grounds – photographic propaganda that compared the treatment of animals on factory farms to the Jewish Holocaust. The purpose was to shock passers-by into reconsidering meat as a dietary choice. Understandably, the nationwide campaign upset Jewish leaders.

Now, PETA is targeting two Shrine Circus performances Saturday at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds, asking in writing that the fairgrounds quit playing host to the circus and similar events. A letter from PETA to Fairgrounds Manager Chris Holloway claims that the Shrine Circus is both “dangerous and cruel.” But PETA has gained such a bad reputation among practical citizens that the letter was dismissed out of hand. The shows will go on.

Commendably, Holloway and local Shriner coordinator Rob Turnipseed had no second thoughts about the Saturday events. Proceeds from the circus will enable local Shriners to continue to provide free medical care to children at the charitable organization’s 22 hospitals, including one dedicated to orthopedic and plastic reconstructive surgery in Spokane.

Unfortunately, PETA can’t be dismissed lightly as extremists who are hell-bent on spoiling children’s fun and deflating the Shriners’ profit. PETA members target impressionable children with their sadistic billboards, crusades and comic books, such as “Your Mommy Kills Animals!” which features on the cover a crazed woman in an apron killing a rabbit with a hunting knife. The Center for Consumer Freedom, a food-industry coalition, says PETA bragged of reaching 2.3 million children and teachers in 2003.

PETA has proved it can’t be shamed into behaving civilly. Most are turned off by its outrageous tactics and campaigns. But children are susceptible. So, parents should explain to them why PETA’s extremists are wrong when they carry their opposition to eating meat and drinking milk to a condemnation of Shriners’ circuses.