AnimalRights.Net

Back in May, Friends of Animals blasted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for supporting Burger King’s introduction of a veggie burger. In a letter distributed on the Internet, Priscilla Feral noted that the BK Veggie Burger was not vegan since the buns include butter. She concluded,

How much sadder if ethical and religious vegetarians have to sue animal protection groups for misleading the public about the ingredients in Burger King products.

The hilarious thing is that at the same time Feral was writing this, Friends of Animals was promoting a cookbook on its web site that includes recipes that call for shrimp and butter!

Friends of Animals quickly took down the page after it was publicized by critics of the group, but the group had a web page that listed several recipes and noted that were from The Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special Cookbook. Friends of Animals provided a handy link to an online bookstore where people could buy the book and Friends of Animals would get a small cut of the proceeds.

Profiting from a book that sanctions the killing of poor helpless shrimp and the exploitation of cows for butter? How cruel.

Source:

It’s easy to have delicious vegan meals and desserts! Friends of Animals.

Ohio State University researcher Michael Podell is leaving that university after an incessant campaign against him in which activists sent him death threats and harassed his children near their school. So of course, Neal Barnard and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine issued a press release taking credit for driving Podell out of OSU.

According to the release,

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) today declared a victory in its two-year battle to stop federally funded experiments at Ohio State University (OSU) in which cats were dosed with methamphetamine (“speed”), infected with a disease-causing virus, and finally killed.

The press release also includes Barnard’s typical obfuscation of the facts regarding medical research. Barnard claims that, “This experiment was not only cruel, but also needless.” The press release adds,

The doctors group [PCRM] pointed out that Dr. Podell had failed to consider alternatives to animal use, as required by law. Most notably, HIV-positive human patients who have used methamphetamine are already under clinical study, and the brain-damaging effects of drugs and the virus are well known.

Talk about nonsequitur. Yes, doctors already know that the AIDS virus progresses much more rapidly in people who abuse methamphetamine, but the open question is why this is the case. Podell’s research with cats produced new findings suggesting how this happens, including the surprise that brain cells themselves appear to be resistant to FIV infection but that the disease got into such cells through infected lymphocytes in a process that was accelerated in the presence of methamphetamine.

Source:

Doctors declare victory as cruel drug abuse experiments on cats are halted. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Press Release, June 13, 2002.

A few months ago Jeff Nelson of VegSource.Com and Robert Cohen, the anti-dairy activist who calls himself the Not Milk Man, had a public falling out which led Nelson to abruptly cease hosting Cohen’s web site. This month VegSource traded barbs online over who was more dishonest/deceitful. The answer, of course, is both of them.

Nelson tries to sell visitors to his site a bill of goods as slick and deceitful as any nonsense put out by Cohen. According to an essay posted to the VegSource.Com web site, Beware of Robert Cohen aka the NotMilk Man, Nelson and company have long knew that Cohen was full of it and have a duty to warn people away from Cohen,

No matter what reason brings a person to vegetarianism, ethics play a role. We do it because it’s the right thing to do for our health, our environment, or the animals we use for food.

. . .

Honesty and integrity — a respect for truth — has motivated numerous top vegetarian and vegan experts, scientists, MDs, authors and activists to arrive at the same conclusion: Robert Cohen is a fraud.

Cohen, who sometimes calls himself the “notmilk man,” is abusive and dishonest. He also has a propensity for fabricating scientific data which has time and again been shown to be not only worthless, but potentially dangerous.

. . .

VegSource has run numerous articles over time documenting Cohen’s unscrupulous excesses.

Oh yeah, the VegSource crowd have been really diligent about Cohen.

Jeff Nelson was so concerned about Cohen’s lies, that until February 2002, VegSource hosted Cohen’s web site, NotMilk.Com.

Nelson knew all along that Cohen was a fraud which is why Nelson invited to VegSource.Com’s Sept. 2001 E-Vent. Nelson addressed that E-Vent on Sept. 28, 2001 mentioning the speakers who would be featured, including this bit about Cohen,

Robert Cohen? WeÂ’ve got your case of White Wave Chocolate Silk out in the van. It was delivered this morning by a group of slaves. But seriously, weÂ’re thrilled to have Robert here, this is the first time IÂ’ve ever met him in person, and IÂ’m really looking forward to his talk tomorrow.

Nelson was just thrilled to have Cohen there.

Of course, Nelson has a newfound integrity and truth telling, so what was the first thing VegSource did after the falling out with Cohen? Why, with the sort of integrity we’ve come to expect from the animal rights movement, VegSource removed from its web site incriminating evidence of its prior support for Cohen.

This VegSource.Com web page is a full of photos from that 2001 E-vent at which Cohen was a speaker. The odd thing is if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, the last image is that of John Robbins. That’s odd, because back when it was first created, the page ended with three pictures of Robert Cohen speaking along with complimentary text.

You can see for yourself the Google cached version of the page, but in case that goes away, here is how the page looked earlier this year:

Batting in the
clean-up position was the NotMilkMan himself — Robert Cohen.

Jeff’s mom described
Rob as a “great speaker” — and Jeff’s mom is always right!

Said Jeff and Sabrina: “I think Rob Cohen just got us off dairy!”

I’m surprised Jeff and Sabrina let Jeff’s mom (not to mention others in attendance) get taken in by such a fraud. And if they knew Cohen was prone to citing faulty studies, distorting evidence and, apparently, outright lying, why did they find his talk so convincing?

The issue here is not whether or not Cohen was a fraud — that was obvious years ago to anyone who cared to actually look at the nonsense he was spewing. The problem with Cohen was that his nonsense was suddenly turned against people within the animal rights movement.

For example, on March 26, 2002, Nelson wrote an article about what he thinks is Cohen’s unfair attacks on White Wave, which makes Silk soy milk. Nelson claims that,

This charge is only the most recent in a long line of failed attempts by Cohen to damage White Wave. We’ve already responded to some of Cohen’s earlier attacks on White Wave with the article, “Does Silk Bilk?” At the time I wrote that article (September of 2001) and when I spoke to Cohen before publishing it, he told me he was making it his personal mission to try to “destroy” White Wave. He said the company had not been personally respectful to him. When I pointed out that he had made a number of unfair and untrue statements in his articles on White Wave, he told me he didn’t care whether his criticisms of the company were accurate or not, because any attack was justified because they were a “bad company.”

But look at the kid glove treatment Cohen got for unjustified attacks on White Wave:

1. Nelson’s September 2001 article does not even mention Robert Cohen by name.

2. Nelson’s article was written on Sept. 18, 2001 — more than a week before VegSource.Com had Cohen speak and sang his praises.

Ah, integrity at work.

Although Nelson apparently wants to recast VegSource.Com as willing to expose falsehoods within the animal rights movement, in fact VegSource.Com has actively nurtured a “hear no evil” policy in its discussion boards. VegSource.Com now claims that,

We have people who come onto our discussion board from time to time and state confidently that vegetarianism is a religion (we correct them).

In fact what VegSource.Com routinely done is delete posts and ban users of anyone who criticizes the animal rights movement, regardless of merit. Last June, for example, I wrote an article pointing out that VegSource.Com was using a faked photograph to illustrate a medical research story. I posted the URL on the VegSource.Com discussion group. Not only was all of the discussion about this deleted, but the discussion group was configured to reject any articles that linked to AnimalRights.Net (see VegSource “Censorship”).

VegSource.Com extolling its own integrity is a bit like Cohen recommending a good ice cream store.

As for Cohen, what can I say about Cohen. The guy is a nut case. But he’s a nut case who the animal rights movement welcomed into the fold for years despite his blatant distortions and inaccuracies. That it took Nelson until February 2002 to criticize Cohen says volumes about the alleged integrity of the animal rights movement.

Sources:

Beware of Robert Cohen aka the NotMilkMan. VegSource.Com, June 20, 2002.

The Notmilk Newsletter. Robert Cohen, June 22, 2002.

Animal rights activists have been out in force recently protesting efforts by federal wildlife officials to round up and euthanize geese in Seattle as part of an annual cull to control the population. Officials last week arrested a 55-year-old Seattle man after he allegedly tried to cause an accident with a U.S. Department of Agriculture truck.

Witnesses told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that the man was driving an older Toyota and had been pulling in front of USDA trucks and slamming his breaks. The third time he tried this stunt, he hit a truck driven by a 45-year old federal wildlife official who was taken to a hospital and treated for neck and back injuries. The man was released the same day.

Although the paper did not disclose the man’s name, it quoted a member of the University Washington Chapter of the Northwest Animal Network as saying that the man was known for participation in animal rights protests and had organized “geese patrols” in an effort to disrupt the USDA cull efforts.

Mike Linnell, assistant state director for the USDA, told the Post-Intelligencer,

Everybody’s free to voice their opinion, but when they start running into us . . . There was a deliberate attempt to cause an accident. Someone could have very easily been injured or killed.

. . .

Our people are scared. This isn’t the first time it’s happened.

Animal rights compassion on display in Seattle.

Source:

Protests against killing of geese turn violent. Hector Castro, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Report, June 22, 2002.

In 1988 Norway ended its export of whale meat with a final shipment to Japan. Fourteen years later, Norway is preparing to resume the international trade in whale meat with a 10 ton shipment of meat and blubber from minke whales destined for Iceland.

International trade in minke whale meat is banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, but Iceland, Norway and Japan hold reservations on that designation and claim that decision is based on politics rather than science and apparently intend to defy the ban.

Norway is also apparently in negotiations with Japan to resume whale meat shipments. Like Iceland and Norway, Japan maintains the ban on the trade in minke whale meat is politically motivated.

Sources:

Iceland, Norway Resume International Whale Meat Trade. High North News, June 21, 2002.

Whale’s on menu. The Sunday Times, June 23, 2002.

British animal rights activist Robert Moaby plead guilty this week to four counts of making death threats against people connected with Huntingdon Life Sciences and 17 counts related to the distribution and possession of child pornography which was found on Moaby’s computer after British police effected a search warrant of his residence.

Moaby had sent death threats to executives at the Bank of New York and the AIM Fund Management, both of which have been targeted by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty for their connections with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Detective Constable Tim Duffin told The Times of London,

Some of these e-mails were quite terrifying. They contained almost all the profanities you could think of and threats of sexual assault.

Moaby sent them saying he was representing SHAC, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. The threats were very time specific and would say things along the line of ‘you will die this week.’

The targets of these threats lived in the United States and they informed the FBI who in turn passed along information about the threats to Scotland Yard which arrested Moaby on June 21, 2001. Moaby is scheduled to be sentenced on July 22.

Source:

Animal rights activist hoarded child porn. The Times (London), June 18, 2002.

On June 11 the European Parliament approved a proposal to not only ban cosmetics testing on animals, but also to ban the import of any new cosmetics product that has been tested on animals anywhere in the world.

The proposal defined 14 specific tests used on new products in the European Union. For 11 of those tests, any new cosmetic sold in Europe after December 31, 2004 would have to have been tested in an animal alternative (no word on exactly how strict that standard is given that many animal alternatives in fact utilize animals). For the other three tests, companies would have until 2008 to develop alternative tests.

Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany already ban the testing of cosmetics products on animals within their borders, but the proposed ban on the importing of products tested on animals will meet stiff resistance from the European Commission, especially from France, where most European cosmetics animal testing occurs, and Great Britain, which argues that the law would violate international trade agreements.

In 1993, the European Parliament approved a similar ban which was later rejected by the European Commission.

Source:

Strasbourg votes to ban cosmetics tested on animals. Stephen Castle, The Independent (London), June 12, 2002.

Policy and politics: MEPs ban cosmetics tested on animals. Andrew Osborn, The Guardian (London), June 12, 2002.

At the beginning of June, Ohio State University research Michael Podell published an important study related to his feline AIDS research. Podell’s findings offered important clues about how drug abuse quickens the rate of AIDS infection and AIDS-related dementia. But a little more than a week later OSU announced that Podell was leaving OSU. Podell says it was because he never received the support he need from the university in dealing with animal rights activists.

In an e-mail to Columbus newspaper The Other Paper, Podell maintained that lack of support from OSU was the main reason for his exit. Podell wrote,

The Ohio State University could not provide an environment conducive to continuation of my research or my role as a clinician and instructor. There were many opportunities for these problems to be addressed appropriately, but an insufficient response pattern was taken by the administration here.

OSU maintains that it did all it could to help and support Podell, but OSU public relations flak Earle Holland unintentionally confirmed Podell’s point. He told The Other Paper that Podell wanted the university to issue a public statement supporting him and condemning the animal rights protesters. Holland went on to add that,

Mike [Podell] would like to have a definitive statement out of the institution to put a stop to this. That’s not something an institution can do.

So OSU had a $1.68 million grant from the federal government (which was awarded to OSU, not to Podell) and a top notch medical researcher, and it considered it beyond the pale to issue a press release unequivocally defending his research? It’s hard for me to think of a more pathetic institutional response.

Certainly it’s unfortunate to see Podell fleeing OSU due to animal rights activists, but since OSU was unwilling to grow a spine he had little choice.

Sources:

Embattled researcher leaving. David Lore, The Columbus Dispatch, June 12, 2002.

Cat AIDS researcher says Ohio State didn’t back him. Josh Caton, The Other Paper, June 20, 2002.

The latest target of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is Marsh, a multinational insurance company that provides legally required laboratory insurance policies to Huntingdon Life Sciences (what’s next? Are these morons going to start targeting the suppliers who sell paper clips to dentists frequented by HLS employees?) On its web site, SHAC posted the following release allegedly sent to SHAC by the Animal Liberation Front,

Happy Fathers Day Rob Harper. I hope you liked our gift

In the wee hours of the mourning (sic) on June 15, Marsh Boston Employee, Rob Harper . . . received an early Fathers Day gift that he will never forget. A few gallons of red paint were thrown all over Harper’s front steps and door. This left the front of his house caked in a huge pool of red paint.

Rob Harper is responsible for 500 animals dying within HLS today and as long as Marsh has ties with HLS, Marsh will be a target. This also goes for any other company or business that has times with HLS – they will pay for it.

There will be no rest for these murders. HLS will be closed.

This action is dedicated to the 500 animals that were murdered inside of HLS today.

Love,
The Animal Liberation Front

Not a single word, of course, on the animals killed to make those gallons of paint.

Source:

SHAC press release. June 17, 2002.

Several Southern African nations recently submitted proposals to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species asking it to once again allow world trade in ivory. Ivory trade was banned in 1989 after widespread poaching had reduced the number of elephants from an estimated 10 million in 1900 to an estimated 600,000 in 1989.

Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe all applied to have the ban on the ivory trade overturned permanently.

In part, the ivory ban is a victim of its own success. Widespread poaching has all but disappeared and, as a result, elephant populations have increased markedly. In some areas the number of elephants now exceeds the carrying capacity of the protected wildlife preserves. In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, for example, the optimal population is 7,000 elephants, but there are now more than 9,000 elephants in the park.

Other governments also face similar problems where they will have to start killing elephants in order to prevent the elephants from harming other species.

Supporters of the ban insist that if it is lifted widespread poaching will inevitably return. The proposal will be considered at the CITES convention in Chile next November.

Sources:

Push to reopen trade in ivory. Michael Dynes, The Australian, June 14, 2002.

African states fight ban on ivory trade. Michael Dynes, The Times (London), June, 13, 2002.

Bid to overturn ban on ivory sales. Gaia Vince, NewScientist.Com, June 14, 2002