Most people generally avoid dog shows because they’re attended exclusively by red-faced spinsters in wax jackets.

But just to make really sure, PETA has decided to go out of its way to put people off the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show by hanging around outside in full Ku Klux Klan garb – a stunt that’s still 18 times less offensive than when Sadie Frost got two centimetres of bumcrack out for them.

Why is a celebrity gossip website telling you about this? Because, if you think about it, dogs are like fluffy little celebrities, aren’t they? Also, bum-all else has happened today.

What we like best about animal rights group PETA – apart from the fact that if you put a piece of popcorn chicken on your tongue in front of one of its members, they’re guaranteed to fall to the ground clutching their chest and hyperventilating like you’re eating their own children – is that it never stops thinking up new ways to scare the masses into becoming life-long wan-looking joyless vegans.

In recent memory, PETA has tried the I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur campaign, the I’d Rather Go Naked And Grow A Silly Haircut Than Wear Fur campaign, the OK OK I Won’t Wear Fur Just Please Don’t Let Paul McCartney Get Naked campaign and the weird campaign about Mickey Rourke glowering at dogs’ testicles until they fall off.

But PETA’s last trick – trying to turn the world vegetarian with an advert about a woman rubbing a bit of broccoli over her face in a sexy way – failed when censors apparently banned it from TV. So, fine, PETA needed to scale back and do something less likely to offend for its next stunt.

Which is why it’s currently standing outside the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show dressed up like KKK grand imperial wizards. Obviously. USA Today reports:

Their goal was to draw a parallel between the KKK and the American Kennel Club. “Obviously it’s an uncomfortable comparison,” PETA spokesman Michael McGraw told the Associated Press. But the AKC is trying to create a “master race” when it comes to pure-bred dogs, he added. “It’s a very apt comparison.” The group passed out brochures implying the Klan and AKC have the goal of “pure bloodlines” in common.

It’s a sort-of valid argument – this year the BBC isn’t even broadcasting Crufts because of fears that institutionalised inbreeding in pedigree dogs is creating generation after generation of increasingly warped and ill animals – but, hey, dressing up as well-known group of racists like the KKK to get the point across? Really smart, PETA. Why not just go the whole hog next time and let Miley Cyrus do a campaign?

But it’s not just the transparently attention-seeking shock tactics of PETA that’s got our goat – it’s the lack of long-term thinking on display. What do KKK outfits most look like? That’s right – great big mansized white dog turds. And who loves big dog turds more than anyone else? That’s right – dog lovers! If anything, PETA is creating a huge moving advert for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Silly PETA. You fail again.

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