Showing Animals Respect and Kindness’ Steve Hindi sent out a letter to supporters of his group chiding activists and groups for not sufficiently supporting his pet project, SHARK’s Tiger video truck,
Over the last two and a half years that it has crisscrossed the United States, SHARK’s Tiger video truck has proven itself to be the most effective weapon of compassionate and nonviolent direct action in the animal protection movement. The Tiger has graphically exposed a long and still growing list of animal abuses, including but not limited to rodeos, bullfighting, slaughterhouses, the fur industry, Korean dog torture/slaughter, dolphin slaughter, circuses and most recently, shoemaker Adidas’ support of the mass-murder of kangaroos in Australia.
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It is a mystery to me why the animal protection movement has not jumped on the effort to bring the message of compassion out to the uninformed masses. Only one other truck close to the scale of the Tiger has been built, and interestingly it was again by a small organization run by lawyer Lori Peterson in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Although SHARK applauds the use of smaller vans as display vehicles by smaller organizations, the movement needs the “heavy weaponry” represented by a large Tiger-type vehicle.
I find the lack of forward momentum in this area to be indicative of a lack of leadership, dedication and commitment. Hundreds of millions of dollars come into this movement every year. Yet, a tiny fraction of that money at best goes to bring our message from the animal rights conferences and meetings, out to the masses. This is unacceptable. There should be no higher priority than getting the issues and images of animal abuse out to the public.
SHARK can wait no longer for others to pick up the ball. Therefore, I am proud and excited to announce SHARK’s intent to build two more Tiger trucks, with completion expected before the end of the year. We also intend to upgrade the original Tiger to an even more effective and invincible weapon of nonviolence.
I suspect that Hindi here is vastly over-estimating the effect that the Tiger truck and similar efforts have at promoting animal rights, especially since it targets people who are likely not ideal recipients for the animal rights message — is targeting the animal rights message at people attending a rodeo, for example, really an efficient way to push Hindi’s agenda? Color me skeptical. There has not, after all, been any sudden massive grass roots movement against rodeos in America.
Source:
E-mail communication. Steve Hindi, August 2003.