Monthly Archives: October 2001

Animal Rights Protesters in Arkansas Show True Heart of the Movement

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Surprise, surprise, surprise. Animal rights activists associated with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty have long been extolling and promising violence, and in their big protest (if you consider 180 or so activists a major protest) against Stephens Incorporated, they tried to follow through on those promises.

Police had set up a 3 foot barrier to separate the protesters from the Stephens, Inc. building. Late in the afternoon, while one activist shouted \”The Battle of Little Rock has begun\” over a bullhorn, several demonstrators — pushed at the barrier and attempted to climb it, at which point police apparently used force, reportedly including stun grenades, rubber bullets, and pepper spray, to control the crowd.

Estimates of the number arrested ranged from 10 reported by an Arkansas television station two a couple dozen reported by the Associated Press.

Earlier in the day the activist, many of whom refused to give the press their last names, showed up at the homes of at least two executives of Stephens Inc. to protest. Police were well-prepared, however, with plenty of police at several points along the march and a police helicopter circling overhead (hint — maybe police in Great Britain should take a look at how police can prevent violent hooliganism while still allowing people to peacefully protest).

Animal rights activist Ryan Courtade (who still can\’t make up his mind which side he\’s on), quickly sent out an e-mail describing the events and, in my opinion, accurately assessing the state of the animal rights movement,

Our movement needs to take a step back and reanalyze itself. What happened today is not acceptable. If we have to force Stephen\’s to drop it\’s financial back [sic] of HLS from Terrorism, and Fear, then we are no better than the lowest form of life. We need Stephen\’s to drop financial back because of what they are doing to animals. We need to speak in a unified voice, and not with terror.

Sure, but lets be honest — there is no animal rights movement today that is separate from this sort of violence. The handful of animal rights organizations willing to condemn these sorts of actions can be counted on one hand, while even a group like the Humane Society of the United States stoops to hiring advocates of terrorism and violence.

The problem that folks like Courtade face is that the animal rights movement already waged its nonviolent campaign and it lost big time. People do care about animal welfare, and they are certainly more aware of animal issues than they were 20 years ago, but the animal rights movement has been heard and soundly rejected by the overwhelming majority of Americans. People may disagree about the most humane way to kill a cow, but few Americans consider killing a cow for food to be inherently immoral. People may be concerned about the fate of animals used in medical research, but nobody except Ingrid Newkirk is going to go along with letting a premature infant die just to preserve the life of a calf whose lung tissue is used to make the infant\’s lungs work more efficiently.

The rhetoric is stale and played out — all the animal rights movement has left are its arsonists and agitators. It\’s ironic that even as SHAC should be riding high with its claimed successes at driving HLS out of business, its leaders (as well as the rest of the animal rights movement) seems to have an air of increasing desperation. Even PETA\’s nutty campaigns are becoming less and less imaginative and, more importantly, the shock value is simply no longer news.

Look at the protest against Stephens. After hyping this protested practically every week on animal rights mailing lists, and garnering extensive publicity for itself, the best SHAC can do is convince a little under 200 activists to travel to Arkansas? No wonder they have to resort to intimidation and fear — without it, they\’d be irrelevant.

Source:

In response to the Stephen\’s demonstrations. Ryan Courtade, E-mail communication, October, 29, 2001.

Animal rights activists picket. Tim Taylor, Times Record (Fort Smith, Arkansas), October 29, 2001.

Demonstrations turn violent. KARK News 4, October 29, 2001.

Activists clash with police in Ark. Melissa Nelson, The Associated Press, October 29, 2001.

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How Many People Will Die from Mad Cow Disease?

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As I noted last year, although initial predictions suggested that tens of thousands of people would die from variant Cretuzfeldt-Jakob disease (Mad Cow Disease), so far the number of new cases and deaths have been extremely small. Now, a new study suggests that in the worst case scenario only a few thousand people will contract the disease — not the 100,000 or so predicted by other researchers.

A lot depends on how existing numbers are interpreted. So far, very few people have been diagnosed with vCJD. From 1995 to 1999, for example, there were only 61 cases of the disease diagnosed in Great Britain, with 55 deaths. Altogether, only about 100 people have died from the disease.

Still, researchers at the Imperial College predict that as many as 100,000 people could die from the disease. This is predicated on the view that large numbers of people were exposed to Mad Cow-infected beef, but simply have yet to show any symptoms of the disease. Researchers published this month in Science offers an alternative view — that few people have contracted the disease because few people actually consumed Mad Cow-infected beef.

In their study, the researchers conclude that even if 12 million people in Great Britain were exposed to the disease, the incubation period in most cases would be far longer than current human life spans. They estimate that the total number of vCJD cases will be somewhere between a few hundred and several thousand.

\”Even in the worst case scenario, there are never likely to be more than 100 cases of vCJD pre year,\” researcher Huillard d\’Aignaux told Reuters.

Sources:

UK study predicts fewer human \’Mad Cow\’ cases. John Griffiths, Reuters, October 25, 2001.

vCJD \’epidemic\’ might be waning. Pallab Ghosh, The BBC, October 26, 2001.

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Animal Liberation Front Hits Iowa Farm Second Time in One Week

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Last week I wrote about the Animal Liberation Front vandalizing and releasing animals at two farms in Iowa. The activists weren\’t finished with the two farms, however, and went back and hit one of the farms again.

The first time around, ALF activists released about 1,600 mink from the farm of Scott Nelson on October 16. Nelson had managed to round up about 600 of the animals, before activists once again invaded his farm on October 23 and released the recaptured animals.

An ALF press released said the activists would keep returning to the farm until they \”close the place down, and ALF spokesperson David Barbarash said,

These people are quite serious. Fur farms have gone out of business in the past as a result of ALF raids, and I have no doubt they will put this mink prison out of business as well.\”

Source:

Ellsworth fur farm raided second time in one week. Frontline Information Service, Press Release, October 23, 2001.

Mink sprung again; farm near failure. Staci Hupp. Iowa Register, October 24, 2001.

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What Kind of Message Are We Sending to Our Children?

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In an advertisement carried in Animal People, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals president Ingrid Newkirk takes a moment to claim that Americans are not teaching their children to empathize with others, since most Americans continue to practice violence at the dinner table. But mainly Newkirk wants readers to know that at times like these, many people — for some odd reason — aren\’t as focused on animal rights issues, but don\’t worry, PETA will be there to remind them.

Newkirk writes,

Sadly, people tend to forget animals in times of human crisis, which will make our work even harder. People don\’t remember that animals in slaughterhouses and laboratories experience such horror and pain every day. Please help us, now more than ever, incorporate kindness into daily life and strive to gain respect and protection for even the smallest and most despised among us.

We don\’t have to feel powerless; we can reduce the violence in the world.
Contact us for a free \”Raising Kind Kids\” brochure. And, please, practice nonviolence at the dinner table by going vegetarian.

Gee, Ingrid, what kind of message did you think you were sending when you helped animal rights terrorist Rodney Coronado? Was it a message of compassion that was on your mind when you said

I find it small wonder that the laboratories aren\’t all burning to ground. If I had a more guts, I\’d light a match.

If children are receiving a message that political differences justify political violence, that message is coming from PETA and other animal rights groups who insist on shouting that view every chance they get.

Source:

What messages are we sending
our kids about compassion?. Ingrid Newkirk, Animal People, Fall 2001.

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Who Gives a F— about New York When Elephants Are Being Killed?

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British boy band Blue logged on to the web site of the British tabloid The Sun to promote their next single which is scheduled for release in the UK in November. Instead, band member Lee Ryan ended up making outrageous statements that the terrorist attacks didn\’t deserve the intense media coverage, which should be devote to the plight of animals.

During the web chat, a fan asked why the group\’s tour of Singapore had been cancelled. The group had actually been in New York and witnessed the second plane that hit the World Trade Center. After his band mates go on about the horror of watching that, Ryan goes off about elephants and whales:

Lee Ryan – What about whales?

They are ignoring animals that are more important. Animals need saving and that\’s more important.

This New York thing is being blown out of proportion.

Simon- Shut up Lee.

Lee – Who gives a f… about New York when elephants are being killed.

Duncan- Shut up.

Lee – I\’m not afraid to say this, it has to be said. IÂ’m not afraid to say it and that\’s why I\’m the outspoken one from the band.

The group\’s record label, Virgin Records, apparently raked Ryan over the coals for this obscene statement, and almost immediately an apology was posted on the group\’s official web site. A statement attributed to Ryan says,

By now you might have heard about the stupid comments I made the other day to The Sun newspaper.

I just wanted to say to you all how sorry I am, I can\’t believe I said it. I didn\’t even mean it like that and the second I said it I was like \”Oh My God\” that isn\’t what I meant.

All I can say is that since we got back from New York we have all been asked again and again about our experiences there and, to be honest, what we saw in New York was so bad that I\’ve always tried to avoid talking about it.

He didn\’t mean it? Give me a break. This has \”cover your ass\” all over it. Or as The Sun put it, \”Lee may have apologized but he is 18, old enough to vote and to know better.\”

Don\’t worry, though, if Virgin should drop the group or his pop career goes south, he\’s always got a career writing editorials for Animal People.

Sources:

Who give a **** about New York when whales and elephants are dying? Dominic, Mohan, The Sun, October 26, 2001.

Blue chat outrage. Jacqui Swift, The Sun, October 26, 2001.

Statement from Lee. Lee Ryan, PopGoss.Com, October 26, 2001.

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Animal People: Sure People Died on Hijacked Planes, But What about the Animals?

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Sometimes animal rights activists reach such new lows that it is difficult to believe that sane people actually believe such things. Such was my reaction to an editorial in the October 2001 edition of Animal People which actually compared the plight of the flight attendants who apparently had their throats slit by terrorists to the fate of animals in slaughter houses.

The unsigned editorial, \”Osama bin Laden on meat and denial,\” notes that among the effects of the terrorists was a training manual of sorts which advised the terrorists to look upon the killing of human beings in the same way they might look upon the ritual slaughter of animals. That people willing to commit such horrendous terrorist acts would have no problem with this is obvious, but the Animal People editorialist also finds the analogy to be a sound one. According to the editorial,

That terrorists might slash the throats of some jet riders to intimidate others, without causing them discomfort, en route to murder thousands, is self-evidently preposterous. Yet bin Laden obviously did manage to convince the hijackers that their deeds would have no more negative moral consequence than killing animals for meat. Many and perhaps most of the nine billion animals sent to slaughter in the U.S. each year, as well as the billions killed abroad, have at least as long to sense doom as did the September 11 victims. Neither are the animals\’ last cries as unlike the cell phone calls made by some of the September 11 victims as the typical meat-eater would like to believe.

Equally disturbing to meat-eaters might be awareness that doomed animals, too, often put up frantic resistance, like the passengers who tried to retake United Airlines flight 93, saving countless lives by causing the hijackers to crash the plane far from any target.

The editorial then goes into a long-winded specious argument that meat eating is, if not the sole cause of violence in human societies, then at least a major contributing factor, or as the editorial sums up its case, \”The horror of September 11 was a reflection of human attitudes toward meat. You don\’t have to take our word for it. Take the word of Osama bin Laden.\”

There is, of course, an alternative explanation which is that there are only two groups, to this writer\’s knowledge, who insist on devaluing human life to the point of seriously comparing the death of a cow in a slaughter house to the death of a woman who has her throat slit by a box cutter — terrorists working at the behest of Osama bin Laden and the animal rights extremists.

Source:

Osama bin Laden on meat and denial. Animal People, October 1, 2001.

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Eloquent Commentary on Animal Rights Terrorism

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In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, animal rights activists and Animal Liberation Front defenders argue that their brand of terrorism isn\’t comparable to what happened at the World Trade Center the Pentagon. Certainly the two are not comparable in terms of scale and loss of life, but they are united by the simple fact that the goal is to terrorize people in an effort to change their behavior. When activists set a researcher\’s home on fire or fire bomb a laboratory, they are not attempting to make a reasoned argument about the role of animals in medical research, but rather are sending a pretty clear message — stop this or else.

Gillian Reynolds, writing in the London\’s Daily Telegraph, did an excellent job of puncturing the notion that there is any real difference in aims among terrorists. Reynolds wrote about a broadcast in Great Britain about the terrorism faced by Colin Blakemore, who has been targeted by animal rights activists largely because he is willing to publicly defend himself and debunk many of the activist claims. Reynolds wrote,

How can people who profess to care for animals be so vile to fellow human beings? …

A bomb was sent [to Blakemore] through the post, packed into the kind of cardboard tube that usually carries posters. His children had picked it up, looked at it. Had they opened it, at least one of them might have died, the others showered with HIV infected needles with which the explosive was also said to be packed. A letter arrived, razor blades attached to the top, lacerating the hand of the secretary who opened it. Gangs of screaming people invaded the Blakemore garden, tried to break down the front door. On police advice, they put in security gates and cameras, had panic buttons installed. The protesters came on Christmas Day, on Easter Sunday.

This is, in its most literal form, terrorist behavior. Blakemore and his family have suffered through it.

I couldn\’t have said it better.

Source:

Conscience and the call to arms. Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph (London), October 23, 2001.

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Animal Liberation Front Hits Two Iowa Farms

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Animal Liberation Front activists hit two separate farms on successive days in Iowa, releasing thousands of animals.

In the early morning hours of October 17, activists snuck onto a farm near Ellsworth, Iowa, and released about 1,400 mink.

The next day, on October 18, ALF activists hit a farm near Mineola, Iowa, releasing more than 100 pigeons and other birds. The farm had been the victim of a previous ALF attack in September 2000.

ALF spokesperson David Barbarash confirmed that the ALF was responsible for the attacks. Barbarash told The Omaha World-Herald,

The ALF is claiming responsibility for both actions. I think what the ALF is doing is giving these animals a fighting chance for survival.

Aside from the loss of the animals activists did about $4,000 in damage to pens and aviaries on the farm.

It is interesting to note that there were several breeding pairs of rare ducks and geese. Apparently if you hunt rare animals that\’s bad, but if you release rare animals to be killed in the wild, that\’s good!

Source:

Vandals release 1,400 mink. Kate Kompas, Des Moines Register, October 18, 2001.

Activists hit Iowa farm again. Chris Clayton, Omaha World-Herald (Iowa), October 19, 2001.

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Animal Liberation Front Claims Responsibility for $1 Million Coulston Fire

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On October 11, 2001, the Animal Liberation Front took credit for a September 20 fire at a Coulston Foundation facility that caused an estimated $1 million in damages.

An incendiary device was detonated at a building at The Coulston Foundation\’s White Sands Research Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Coulston spokesman Don McKinney called the fire an act of terrorism, but police say their investigation has not yet determined a particular group responsible for the fire.

The building was a maintenance facility where no animals were housed, and no one was injured in the blaze.

In a press release, the ALF terrorists wrote, \”We intend for this act of nonviolent economic sabotage to bring an end to this truly evil institution.

McKinney had other words for this violent act of terrorism,

This has been an assault on Alamogordo, an assault on New Mexico and an assault on the United States, and it has been done by a citizen of the U.S. right at the time that our nation is under attack. I find that considerably less than acceptable.

Sources:

Animal rights group claims responsibility for fire at primate lab. The Alamogordo Daily News (New Mexico), October 12, 2001.

A.L.F. claims responsibility for Coulston Federation Fire. Frontline Information Service, Press Release, October 11, 2001.

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PETA Ridiculed in MAD Magazine

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Massachusetts-area animal rights activist Lorraine Nicotera recently posted a message to an animal rights e-mail list pushing a parody of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in this month\’s Mad Magazine as some sort of publicity victory.

The actual Mad feature is a spread called \”Only a true PETA nut…\” which then has various endings to that sentence stem such as \”…will try to reason with a mosquito,\” accompanied by humorous graphics.

Rather than see this for the ridicule it is, Nicotera thinks the piece \”shows that PETA and Animal Rights Activists and other organizations have gone so far into mainstream, we are even in MAD Magazine!\”

Talk about wishful thinking — although I do hope that Mad continues to poke fun at the insanity that is the animal rights movement.

Source:

Only a True PETA nut . . . MAD mag. Lorraine Nicotera, e-mail communication, September 18, 2001.

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