RockerChik...
I think a lot depends here on
what age child we are talking about. As ItsTheWoo pointed out, very young (primary school age) children are psychologically incapable of drawing the conclusions from such demonstrations described in the original article that you seem to think they should. In short, they will come away from such an encounter with a very different perception and idea of what the message is than an older child or adult would.
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Ok, PETA goes a little ape-sh*t sometimes, for very good reason. It DOES get people's attention and that's what they're TRYING to do. If anything, their displays cause kids to ask: "Mommy, Daddy - why are they doing that?" Then, MOMMY and DADDY, it's YOUR job to explain and enlighten YOUR KIDS about the issue.
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Moral and ethical issues regarding PETA's tactics and activities aside, you're making the assumption here that parents aren't "doing their job". Admittedly, some aren't, but as a parent who has contact with lots of other parents, I have yet to meet one that is teaching their children that cruelty and war are good things that should be engaged in whenever possible.
Am I a bad parent because I don't teach my kids that eating animals is murder? Not in my opinion.
As a parent, it's also MY job to determine when my kids are ready to learn certain lessons on those subjects, not an organization who could use a few lessons in morality and ethics themselves.
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Kids are tough, you know. They can take it, especially when things are explained to them lovingly and intelligently.
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IMNSHO, handing a young child a bucket filled with fake blood and chicken parts is neither loving OR intelligent. Neither is exposing them to the "realities" of this world before they are capable of understanding it.
I'll give you a concrete example of what I'm talking about. When 9-11 happened, my kids were in first grade. My husband let them watch some of the footage from that awful event on TV against my better judgement using the same reasoning that you used above. Yes, there were lots of questions and I did my best to explain to them (lovingly and intelligently) what happened in a way that they could understand. What did they take away from it? Nightmares for weeks and the fear that a plane was going to crash into their school, not that the people who would do such a thing were monsters or that it was a horrible tragedy in which thousands of innocent people died...as ItsTheWoo pointed out...it was all about
them. Still think it's a good idea to expose young kids to "reality" and that they're tough enough to handle it?
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Wouldn't you prefer that there be environmentally conscious, cruelty-and-war abhoring individuals running the show here on earth by the time we're in our golden years? I know I would.
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If you're really serious about that, a good place to start would be in eliminating the violent video games and movies that our culture encourages children to engage in from a young age. If that's not teaching them that violence and cruelty are not only okay, but "fun", I don't know what is.