Animal Rights Terrorism, Redux
Last Thursday’s post on the animal rights firebombing in Santa Cruz earned me a couple outraged comments, so I suppose I did something right. I’m sure they don’t realize it, but they’re comments reflect what I was saying.
That is, commenter Connee said, “[Animal Rights] people value ALL life but have NO problem with destroying the property of people who commit acts of violence against sentient beings.” That would be the words from a supporter of terrorism - “I will hurt you if you get in the way of my extremist ideology.”
Another commenter denied that animal rights activists were terrorists, claiming that they are nonviolent, displaying complete ignorance of recent history, for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in any case.
People like these implicitly condone violence over the use of animals in biomedical research - including the use of fruit flies and nematodes in research. That’s right - they threaten violence to save the lives of flies and worms for crying out loud. They care not that the welfare and ethical treatment of research animals is looked after, but that they are studied at all. I wonder why these people aren’t bombing livestock farms, pet shelters, pet stores, and generally anyone who owns an animal cage.
No, as has been implied, I do not think that supporters of animal welfare are terrorists - I count myself among them. But animal “liberators” are nuts, and the members of some animal liberation groups (e.g. ALF) are terrorists and terrorist supporters.
Even for the mammals that they get upset over, animal rights terrorists deny the indisposable service that mammalian models of disease perform for medicine, including for veterinarians helping the animals that they value above human life. Speaking of - I would love to know what the SPCA thinks of terrorist groups like ALF. Of course I support bans on the use of animals for cosmetic testing, fashion, etc. Even the SPCA supports this. But no one in their right mind wants biomedical research to come to a screeching halt.
But I digress - as I have said, I urge them and everyone to stop this nonsense, and renounce the use of violence as a political tool. In fact, take it one step further - support biomedical research and encourage informants of these violent acts to come forward to the proper authorities.
More related blog posts on Animal Rights terrorists:
Animals in Research: Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals
Book Review: The Animal Research War
Handling Research Animals: Taking Courses and Learning How to be Kind
About the Author
Dan Rhoads
Dan is an American working in industry in a small Mediterranean country. He has a BSc in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Cancer Pharmacology and Biochemistry.
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