One of PETA's founders is Ingrid Newkirk. If you want to know what kind of nutcases you're dealing with, just Google up some of her quotes. Then you can feed them back to whoever is giving you a hard time. See if they are really insane or just misinformed. If they agree, they are insane and nothing you say will make any difference. If they are shocked, then you might have a chance to educate them.