The ludicrous moment PETA asked the Pet Shop Boys to change their name
Crafting the perfect band name is by no means an easy task. Ideally, you would want something that is memorable yet palatable enough to roll off the tongue easily. The reality is that most band names sound pretty terrible until the band themselves achieve the fame and stardom that gives credence to the name. By all that is logical, Pet Shop Boys is a pretty mediocre band name, but that did not stop the duo from achieving pop perfection during the 1980s.
Bursting onto the mainstream stage in 1985 with the number-one single ‘West End Girls’, the duo of Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant enjoyed a cataclysmic rise to success during the mid-1980s. With an impressive run of hits, including the likes of ‘Always On My Mind’, ‘It’s A Sin’, and the Dusty Springfield duet ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’, Pet Shop Boys helped to redefine expectations of mainstream pop during the 1980s. While much of the music produced at the time was corporate, soulless pop, Pet Shop Boys imbued their music with a variety of defiant and pioneering political messages.
This political action, usually revolving around the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and equality, brought Pet Shop Boys onto the radar of various charities and organisations. One such organisation was People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—or PETA, to you and me—who approached the band back in 2009 with a particularly bizarre request. In a letter addressed to Lowe and Tennant, the organisation pleaded with the synth-pop icons to change their band name.
Having operated under the Pet Shop Boys name since 1981, it would have been a pretty odd decision for the duo to change their name in 2009 when their popularity was already waning. Nevertheless, the letter from PETA Europe read, “You have many loyal fans of the Pet Shop Boys here at PETA. We have a request that may at first seem bizarre, but we hope that after considering the following facts, you will understand why we are asking this of you: will you please consider changing your name from the Pet Shop Boys to the Rescue Shelter Boys?”
The letter goes on to highlight the harsh treatment of animals within the pet shop industry, painting a pretty bleak picture of the reality for pets, with regard to commercially-focused breeding and the low-cost, high-reward ethos of many big businesses. PETA, as an organisation, is wholly opposed to the idea of keeping animals as pets, which likely goes some way to explaining their plea to the 1980s pop sensation.
Continuing, the letter shares, “Agreeing to change your name to the Rescue Shelter Boys, you would help raise awareness about the cruelty involved in the pet trade and encourage your millions of fans to consider giving a home to an abandoned or unwanted animal from an animal shelter. So, what do you say?” While the letter’s message seems to have been made in good faith, it is difficult to imagine anybody buying tickets to see a band called the Rescue Shelter Boys.
It is also worth noting that PETA operates its own animal shelter, which has been noted for its unusually high levels of euthanasia. In fact, it was revealed in 2014 that the organisation euthanised 80 percent of the animals in their shelters. So their plea for the Pet Shop Boys to change their band name in an attempt to reflect the importance of animal shelters feels like it would be a particularly bad PR move for Tennant and Lowe.
Of course, the band did not end up changing their name to Rescue Shelter Boys or any other name, and they continue to operate as Pet Shop Boys to this day. However, the group did seem to agree with the inherent message of PETA’s request, posting the full letter to their website and saying it raised “an issue worth talking about”.
