Month: October 2003

PETA Urges Newfoundlanders to Go Vegetarian

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals took out a billboard in St. John’s, Newfoundland urging people there to abandon fishing.

The billboard features Carre Otis as a mermaid with the tagline, “Try to relate to what’s on your plate.”

The billboard wasn’t too persuasive to a customer of Ches’s Famous Fish and Chips in St. John’s who told The CBC,

She doesn’t look nearly as attractive or taste as good as fish.

I guess the roles just aren’t coming in for Otis after the masterpiece that was Wild Orchid.

Source:

Go vegetarian: animal rights group to Newfoundlanders. CBC News, August 22, 2003.

Ingrid Newkirk's Letter-to-the-Editor on "Holocaust On Your Plate"

Ingrid Newkirk was displeased enough with a column in the Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington) that slammed People for the Ethical Treatment for the Animals’ Holocaust on Your Plate campaign that she penned a letter in response,

It’s hard to imagine a meaner, smaller-minded piece of writing than Mr. Clark’s “PETA stoops to new low with exhibit” (Aug. 7).

Well, Ingrid must not be thinking very hard. There’s that interview from Genre in which PETA’s Dan Mathews said he admired Andrew Cunanan “because he got Versace to stop doing fur.” Or who can forget Newkirk’s repeated defense and support of the Animal Liberation Front. I’m sure if she tries really, really hard, Newkirk can find plenty of more noxious stuff without even leaving her small-minded office.

Our Holocaust exhibit is funded and designed by caring Jewish people who wish human beings to widen their circle of compassion to those who are misunderstood and mistreated even today. To greet this exhibit, as Mr. Clark did, as a “clucking, oinking” shame shows deep disrespect for those who lost relatives in the Holocaust and could not stop it, but do not feel powerless now to stop the cries, the anguish and fear, cannot be dismissed simply because the victims are different species. To call caring souls “the lunatic fringe” is just cheap.

I think the word Newkirk was looking for there is “accurate.” PETA keeps claiming that the exhibit is funded by Jewish individuals (some of PETA’s best friends are Jews!) but until she’s willing to identify who is funding “Holocaust On Your Plate,” we only have Newkirk’s word for that. And, frankly, Newkirk doesn’t have a track record that makes her very credible.

I have stood on the floor of slaughterhouses in this country and overseas and even held the heads of animals whose throats were being slit. To laugh off their suffering as “chicken poop” is not something one expects to read in a respected newspaper. Shame, indeed. But not on the PETA exhibit or those trying to reduce the sum total of pain in the world.

In fact, Newkirk advocates creating fear and suffering. As she said after an animal rights extremist group sent razor blade-laced letters to medical researchers, “I hope it frightens them [the researchers] out of their careers. If experimenters feel afraid now, that’s nothing compared with the fear, harm and death they have inflicted on their victims.”

It’s hard to imagine a meaner, small mind person than Newkirk.

Source

PETA column cheap, disrespectful. The Spokesman Review, August 15, 2003.

China Lifts Ban on 54 Species Despite SARS Concerns

Despite continuing concerns over the origins and transmission of SARS, China in August announced the lifting of a ban on the trade and sale of 54 species of wildlife. This includes the civet cat which is known to be a carrier of the disease.

More than 800 people worldwide have died from SARS since it first emerged in China in late 2002.

So far researchers have not yet been able to say whether SARS jumped from non-human animals to humans, but transmission from civets or other animals to human beings somewhere in southern China is a leading hypothesis for the disease’s emergence at the moment.

The World Health Organization, which is trying to pinpoint the source of the disease, opposed China’s move. Dr. Hank Bekedam, WHO representative to CHINA, said, “We think it’s a little early to lift the restrictions.”

Source:

News shorts. MeatNews.Com, August 19, 2003.

SARS: China to lift wildlife ban. Associated Press, August 14, 2003.

David Agranoff's Other Arrests and Admiration of Terrorists

As I noted previously, David Agranoff had his home raided by law enforcement officials in August as part of their investigation into a $50 million August 1 arson in San Diego. Agranoff and other activists complain that Agranoff is being needlessly harassed by law enforcement officials.

Well, Agranoff certainly should understand needless harassment. As he told Mark Gabrish Conlan in an interview posted on Indymedia, Agranoff has quite a history of harassing those he disagrees with,

Zenger?s: How did you first get into trouble with the law?

Agranoff: My first arrest was at Sims Poultry, a poultry producing plant in my hometown. I was caught in the act of spray-painting the trucks, in an act of economic sabotage — not a very effective one. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It’s not that I don’t support people doing those kinds of actions, but there’s a lot of things people need to understand before they choose to take an underground action like that. I didn’t understand what it involved, and that’s why I got caught. I was just acting on emotion and anger that I felt towards the industries that harm animals.

Agranoff here is referring to his 1993 arrest and conviction for vandalizing Sims Poultry. He plead guilty to criminal mischief and resisting arrest, and was given a one year suspended sentence. Agranoff says in his interview that he has been arrested 15-20 times since while protesting various businesses.

Agranoff emphasizes that after his first arrest he decided not to participate in such acts anymore, but nonetheless admires the “heroism” of those who do,

However, when someone says, “What do you think of the ELF”, then I have to say that if somebody felt compelled to risk their freedom and their life — since, if they’re caught in the act of doing this, it’s very possible that they could be shot at — to do actions like that, as far as I’m concerned, that is true heroism. By putting their life on the line to defend the environment, they’re putting the earth and all life forms on it before themselves. They are trying to defend the planet and willing to risk their own lives for that. That is a true act of bravery, and it puts me in a position where I have to defend the people who make those kinds of decisions.

Sources:

David Agranoff:
Activist Victim of FBI, Corporate Harassment. Mark Gabrish Conlan, August 2003.

ALF claims responsibility for Sims arson. Steven Hinnfield, Herald Times (Indiana), May 15, 2002.

RSPCA Unhappy about Plans to Obtain Primates from Mauritius

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals issued a press release in August saying it was “shocked and appalled” by a recent decision by the UK government to import research primates from a breeding center in Mauritius.

The RSPCA claims that the breeding center, Centre de Recherches Primatologiques, does not meet basic animal welfare standards and notes that in 2002 it provided the government with video footage and photographs of the center which the RSPCA says prove its claim.

RSPCA deputy head of research animals Penny Hawkins complained that the government does not make public its criteria for evaluating primate breeding centers,

We just do not know what standards the government applies and the RSPCA cannot therefore assess the scale of the problem.

In addition, the RSPCA claims that the Mauritius center and other international centers use primates caught in the wild which promotes the hunting of such animals. In the UK it is illegal to import a wild caught primate, but it is not illegal to import the captive-born offspring of a wild-born primate.

According to Hawkins,

The ultimate aim has to be to replace experiments on primates with humane alternatives. However until this is achieved, reducing the suffering associated with their breeding and supply must be an urgent and immediate priority for scientists, industry and the government.

Sources:

Fury Over Wild Monkey Hunts. Financial Times (London), August 31, 2003.

Primate centre decision shock. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, August 2003.

Animal Rights Activist's Home Raided in San Diego Fire Case

Law enforcement officials investigating a San Diego fire that destroyed a five-story apartment complex on August 1 raided the home of animal rights activists David Agranoff and Cari Beltane on August 14.

Agranoff and Beltane run an animal rights group called Compassion for Farm Animals. In May 2003, Agranoff was forced to submit hair, saliva and fingerprints to a Indiana grand jury investigating an arson at an Indiana poultry case.

Agranoff and Beltane later led a protest attended by about 30 activists complaining of the “harassment” they faced from police. Agranoff said at the protest,

We are not guilty of anything. Neither was Martin Luther King when he was targeted by the FBI. People have the right to an opinion without being subject to criminal investigation.

Most news outlets, however, failed to note that Agranoff has faced legal troubles before this related to his animal rights activism. In 1996, Agranoff, then 22, was sentenced to 6 months in jail and fined $1,000 after being convicted of resisting arrest and unlawful assembly during a protest at a New York fur store. At the same trial, Nicole Rogers, 19, was sentenced to two months in jail and a $500 fine, and Christopher Tarbell, 20, to one month in jail and a $500 fine for trespassing and unlawful assembly.

Agranoff’s sentence was thrown out on appeal to the New York State Supreme Court, but Rogers and Tarbell’s sentences were affirmed.

Oddly enough at trial, lawyers for the trio complained that they were being unfairly associated with Anima Liberation Front-style actions, so it was a bit surprising to see that among other things that apparently drew the attention of law enforcement to Agranoff is his role in arranging an appearance of Rodney Coronado to speak in San Diego the day of the arson.

Source:

Judge Sentences Fur Protesters To Jail Three Animal-Rights Activists Were Convicted Of Misdemeanors For Their Actions During A Demonstration At Georgio’s Furs. The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), August 2, 1996.

Animal Rights Activist Sentenced To 7 Months Convictions Of Two Other Members Of The Group In Separate Incident Upheld. Jim O’Hara, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), March 1, 1997.

Agents raid activists’ home in arson probe. San Diego Union-Tribune, August 2, 2003.

They call search by agents harassment. Ray Hubbard, San Diego Union-Tribune, August 24, 2003.