Month: May 2002

PETA Puts Supporter of Violence on Its Payroll

Gary Yourofsky’s absence from the animal rights movement was short lived as the advocate of violence distributed a letter this week indicating that he is now on the payroll of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Yourofsky writes in his letter,

The day after my resignation letter was sent out a couple of months ago, I received a phone call from Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s founder and president. Ingrid called after Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s Director of Vegan Outreach, informed her of my situation. As most of you recall, after six years of volunteering for ADAPTT, I resigned as ADAPTT’s president due to financial ruin.

Ingrid’s message was touching and emotional, to say the least. Frankly, I was blown away that Ingrid would call me with concern because I could no longer continue my activism. Getting a call and/or a request from Ingrid is like getting a call from the Godfather’s Don Corleone. It’s an offer one can’t refuse.

In a nutshell, Ingrid and PETA wanted to know what they could do to keep me involved. We’ve been in negotiations ever since. Then, on Monday, May 20, PETA made me its official, national lecturer. This union will benefit the animals immensely. Words cannot describe the joy that I am experiencing over this alliance.

Yourofsky’s comparison of Newkirk to the fictional Don Corleone is quite apt. Newkirk says she wishes she could torch labs, hires people who admire serial killers and advocate violence, contributes to legal funds for accused animal rights terrorists, and now has hired on Yourofsky who once said that, “I would unequivocally support” murder in order to further animal rights aims. Oh yeah, that’s a real peace loving, nonviolent bunch of folks right there.

Yourofksy is planning to hit the lecture tour and PETA apparently plans to sell recorded copies of his rantings. Yourofksy writes,

After watching my 68-minute presentation, PETA, like many others in this movement, believed that my vegan/animal liberation lecture was damn persuasive! So, our goal now is to have DAILY lectures set up in schools across the U.S. when the fall semester begins next September. Several people will be helping me achieve this goal. Plus, at the end of June, an oration will be recorded at a Michigan college and placed on VHS, DVD, and CD (audio). These items will be featured in PETA’s next issue of Animal Times which will be available in the PETA catalogue. This will help us reach many educators across the country.

The rest of Yourofsky’s letter is given to defending himself against charges that he’s “sold out,” since he used to blast PETA every chance he got. Yourofksy writes,

By the way, those closest to me know that I have been growing wiser as each year of activism passes. I used to be flat-out vituperative when it came to PETA and other groups who didn’t do things my way. But last year I started to realize that my acrimony was wrong and wasteful. . . .

Moreover, after spending a week here at PETA’s HQ in Norfolk, Virginia, I now see that PETA people work damn hard for the animals. There are 100 Yourofskys working in this building, each activist doing what they do best. Every activist should be required to meet our PETA brethren face-to-face and attend a monthly staff meeting to see all the hard work and achievements. While I may have had tactical differences with PETA, I have had tactical differences with EVERY group and EVERY activist involved in animal liberation, even the ALF!!!! Heck, I don’t even agree with myself sometimes!

For any of you out there who feel that I’ve sold out or something like that — let me paraphrase Paul Watson by saying what makes you think I care what you have to say? Creating an image for one’s self is NOT more important than fighting for animal freedom. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “I work for the animals and the animals alone.” And, thanks to largest animal rights organization in the world and its founder Ingrid Newkirk, I can now continue my work!

Of course. The $10,000 that PETA gave Yourofsky to run anti-fur advertisements in the Detroit-area played no role whatsoever in his sudden change of heart.

Source:

Open Letter. Gary Yourofsky, May 28, 2002.

Meat Eating Causes Famine in Malawi

As we all know by now from reading animal rights literature, famine in the developing world occurs because people in the developed world (i.e. you and I) insist on eating meat which deprives those poor people in foreign lands of enough food to eat. In fact, something like that is going on in the African nation of Malawi as we speak.

Back in July and August 2001, Malawi experienced a a number of problems which led to a shortfall in its staple crop, maize. Agricultural experts and others predicted that Malawi would be about 400,000 tons short of the amount of maize it would need to feed its people.

The government of Malawi said that such claims were nonsense. There was more than enough food to go around and the country could not possibly be anywhere near starvation. In fact there was so much food in Malawi, that last fall the government sold much of its maize reserves to Kenya.

Of course countries that are openly selling grain to other countries don’t attract a lot of attention from aid organizations and donors. Malawi blithely went on its way pretending that it had more than enough food — in fact, some of its leading politicians apparently horded food on the mistaken belief that there would soon be shortages and the price of food would go through the roof.

By January 2002, the effects of the food shortage were beginning to be felt and people in Malawi started dying from hunger-related conditions. In February 2002, despite the fact that it had no shortage of grain whatsoever, Malawi President Bakili Muluzi was forced to finally declare that his country was experiencing a humanitarian disaster and go begging for money and food from the developed world.

Now, Malawi needs about $22 million in aid to avoid widespread starvation, but since it waited so long to do anything about its hunger situation, it has only been able to raise $5 million. Malawi was counting on $47 million from the IMF, but that organization concluded that the government of Malawi was so corrupt that the aid would largely be wasted and denied the African nation’s request for assistance.

Okay, I know what you are thinking. So far this disaster was caused partly by a drought which was exacerbated by wholesale government mismanagement, corruption and delay. But what about the meat eaters? What role did they play?

That I am not sure, but they had to be behind it all. Those animal rights activists wouldn’t lie to us, now would they?

Sources:

Malawi declares famine emergency. Raphael Tenthani, The BBC, February 27, 2002.

Hope fades for Malawi aid. The BBC, May 16, 2002.

Malawi bishops deplore famine chaos. Raphael Tenthani, The BBC, March 31, 2002.

Malawi famine set to continue. Raphael Tenthani, The BBC, May 14, 2002.

Women’s Studies Course at the University of South Carolina Requires Loyalty Oath

CNSNews.Com recently reported about a women’s studies graduate seminar at the University of South Carolina that apparently requires students to adhere to the ideological views of the professor teaching the class.

The class is taught by professor Lynn Weber, who is also the director of USC’s Women’s Studies Program. In “guidelines for classroom discussion” that Weber distributes, students are told that they must,

acknowledge that racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other institutional forms of oppression exist.

The guidelines go on to inform students that by participating in the class they “agree to combat actively the myths and stereotypes about our own groups and other groups.”

According to CNSNews.Com, a student who objected to this ideological litmus test forwarded a copy to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education which fired off a letter to USC pointing out that the guidelines are unconstitutional. As FIRE President Alan Charles Kors wrote in a letter to USC,

Through these official ‘guidelines,’ USC demands that students embrace and remain loyal to professor Weber’s own viewpoints and beliefs. In a USC classroom, in a required course, no less, students must hold a preordained set of opinions, regardless of whether or not they agree, under the stated, explicit, and coercive threat of being graded poorly for honest intellectual dissent.

Universities tend to value academic freedom above everything else, except when uppity students get the idea that it applies to them as well.

Source:

University mandates ideological ‘loyalty oath,’ rights group alleges. Lawrence Morahan, CNSNews.Com, May 15, 2002.

Ontario Prosecutors Appeal Cat Killer's Lenient Sentence

When an Ontario judge sentenced Jesse Champlain Power, 22, to just 90 days in jail to be served on weekends for torturing and killing a cat, animal activists were outraged. So was the prosecutor’s office which announced earlier this month that it would appeal the judge’s sentence.

The prosecutor decided not to appeal the sentence of Anthony Wennekers, 25, who was sentenced to 10 1/2 months in jail, and was released immediately based on time served.

Source:

Ontario: Crown to challenge cat-skinner’s sentence. The Ottawa Citizen, May 17, 2002.

Crown appealing cat killer sentence. Gretchen Drummie, The Toronto Sun, May 17, 2002.

Better Living Through Chemistry: Bring On Melanotan and Provigil

Some people just can’t stand seeing other people happy — especially if that happiness is “unnatural.”

In Wired, for example, Wil McCarthy takes on the wonder drug Melanotan. Melanotan has chemical properties that sound like a pharmaceutical marketer’s dream come true. The drug’s major effect is to create a deep, healthy tan. And it also just happens to be an anti-inflammatory, increases sexual desire and suppresses appetite.

McCarthy derisively refers to Melanotan as “the Barbie drug.” He concludes his noting that by the end of this decade Melanotan and drugs like it will be common adding that, “this decade is a breathing period, a chance to prepare for our cultural destiny: the drug-fueled extreming an professionalization of shallowness itself.”

For McCarthy, using chemical compounds to increase the sheer joy of life is inherently shallow and a waste. To McCarthy, drugs like Melanotan are proof that “Yesterday’s drugs were about need; today’s are about desire.”

Much the same criticism was directed against Viagra when it first appeared. A drug to produce erections? Aren’t children still dying of malaria in Africa? Who needs Viagra?

Similar handwringing was on display over Provigil. Provigil has been used for years to treat narcolepsy. The drug’s maker wants the FDA to approve Provigil for more widespread use.

Provigil doesn’t increase sexual desire, but it does act as a stimulant to keep people awake — with very little side effects. Stimulants commonly used by people to stay awake tend to make people jittery or are addictive and all tend to keep a person awake for hours only to bring him or her crashing down later.

In studies Provigil keeps people awake for long periods without the jitters, addictiveness, and other problems associated with other stimulants.

The major concern about Provigil is that it may be abused, but certainly caffeine and other stimulants are already used excessively by many people.

Personally, I’d love to get my hands on either drug. Why should not used drugs not only to treat/cure disease, but also to improve our general well being? These sorts of drugs need to be safe and have potential side effects disclosed, but I would hope that once those criteria are met that we would not slip into McCarthy’s brand of biomedical Puritanism that sees the pursuit of joy and happiness as inherently shallow.

Sources:

Thin! Tan! Hotter than Hell! Wil McCarthy, Wired, June 2002.

Stay-awake pill keeps users alert. Dan Springer, Fox News, May 2, 2002.

BUAV Release Video Purporting to Show Cruelty at Cambridge University Labs

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection this month released videotaped footage purporting to show animal cruelty at a Cambridge University laboratory. The laboratory uses primates to carry out research into diseases such as Parkinson’s.

According to BUAV the video shows “horrific” procedures which the BBC summed up thusly,

BUAV said one of its investigators had secretly filmed monkey used in experiments for Parkinson’s Disease, stroke and fundamental research into brain function.

The pictures show animals that have had their skulls opened and their brains deliberately damaged, either by sucking out sections, cutting sections, or by injecting toxins.

BUAV claimed the monkeys suffered bleeding head wounds, fits, vomiting, severe bruising, whole-body tremors and mental and physical disabilities. It said the standard of care offered to the animals in these states was woeful.

For its part, Cambridge University launched an investigation of the allegations. It released a statement saying,

The university is taking this matter extremely seriously and has launched a full-sacle investigation into the claims made. These claims have very far-reaching implications and every possible effort is being made to establish the facts surrounding them.

Much of BUAV’s allegations seem to turn on whether or not what the primates experienced “moderate” or “substantial” suffering.” Regardless, like other animal rights investigations (including previous ones by BUAV) there was a glaring oddity in the release. Namely, BUAV claimed its operative conducted an investigation that last 10 months, but it released just a heavily-edited 21-minute videotape to highlight its allegations. Odd that with all of that time undercover, BUAV could only find 21 minutes worth of material to string together for its video.

It is certainly possible that Cambridge University’s primate facility has not been performing due diligence to met UK laws about animal cruelty, but a more likely explanation is that BUAV has released a selectively edited video to give this impression. Given BUAV’s habit of suppressing the results of investigations into animal cruelty that it does not approve of, the group does not have a lot of credibility.

It will be interesting to see how Cambridge’s investigation compares to the BUAV videotape.

Source:

Cambridge monkey experiments inquiry. The BBC, May 24, 2002.

University probe into monkey lab claims. The Cambridge News (UK), May 25, 2002.