From: pallas@cephalo.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu (Sarah Pallas)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
Subject: Re: Animal rights bashing (VERY LONG, SORRY)
Date: 9 Oct 1992 22:55:36 GMT
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,Tx
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: cephalo.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu

In article <1992Oct8.223523.27879@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> tracy@scoraz.resp-sci.arizona.edu (Tracy Scheinkman) writes:
>
>Though there are well-meaning but misinformed groups out there, they are
>still working for the well-being of animals.  Instead of bashing these
>groups we should work to inform them as well as we can. 

I am quite sure that PETA, CEASE, ARM, Friends of Animals, In Defense
of Animals, the ALF and others have no interest in being "informed" by
anyone.  Their positions are relatively well-thought out, and they
have no interest in softening them.  They would consider your interest
in breeding and riding and showing horses to be highly arrogant and cruel.

> Also the
>vast majority of all animal support groups do not cling to your 
>semantic division of "welfare" vs. "rights" many that call themselves
>animal rights groups are in essense welfare groups. 

You're incorrect here.  The groups I'm talking about make a
complete distinction.  Or perhaps it's more correct to say that they
are animal welfare AND animal rights organizations (see below).
Read their literature, educate yourself.  In the beginning, these
groups didn't think the public was ready for their animal liberation
platform, so to raise funds and get support, they just presented
arguments from a welfare standpoint.  Now that they have become very
powerful (PETA started in 1981 with less than 20 members, now they have
over a quarter million), they are becoming more honest about what
their complete agenda is.  I realize I'm attacking a
position that you probably hold dear, and I'm sorry, but I think
you've been misinformed, and I hope you'll try to see the other side
of the story.  At least keep an open mind.

Perhaps you're confused with some of their fund raising literature,
which may talk about specific issues such as leg hold traps without
getting into the philosophy of what they call "speciesism".  See the
book "Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer- it was the springboard for
the formation of many animal rights groups.  You also need
to look at the writings and speeches of the heads of these groups,
such as Alan Pacheco, Ronnie Lee, and Ingrid Newkirk, and
at statistics on animal rights-associated crime.  I can give you a few
here, but I think this is probably something the rest of the net has
little interest in, so I don't want to get too long.
(Anybody who's not interested in the details, press 'j' now.
 
Some examples:

In early 1987, after they set fire to a research facility at the Univ
Calif Davis, the California Attorney General's Office put ALF on its
list of the 10 most dangerous terrorist organizations.  A year later,
the FBI put ALF on its list of domestic terrorist organizations.

A Columbia University professor had his house burned to the ground by
activists in January 1990 after a series of threatening phone calls.

Quote from Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals "Animal
experimentation is just plain wrong.  Human beings have no right to
the knowledge gained from experimentation on animals-even if it's done
painlessly. "

One researcher was killed when a bomb used in a protest against him
went off prematurely.

AP Wire Service quotes Barbara Hale, spokesperson for PETA, saying
that her organization's goal is to block all medical research that
uses animals.

Animal activist Frannie Trutt was convicted of attempted murder,
posession of explosives, and bomb manufacture July 16th, 1990.  She
pleaded no contest to planting the bomb.  She was after 
Leon Hirsh, the CEO of the U.S. Surgical Corp.

Quote from Pacheco:  "The time will come when we will look upon the
murder of animals as we now look on the murder of men."

Quote from Peter Singer:  "It can no longer be maintained by anyone
but a religious fanatic that man is the special darling of the
universe, or that other animals were created to provide us with food,
or that we have divine authority over them, and divine permission to
kill them."

Quotes from Newkirk:  "I don't believe human beings have the 'right to
life'.  That's a supremacist perversion.  A rat is a pig
is a dog is a boy."   "Six million people died in concentration camps,
but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in
slaughterhouses."  humans have "grown like a cancer.  We're the
biggest blight on the face of the earth."  Newkirk envisions "a world
where the lion will lie down with the lamb, where man will live in
harmony with nature, where when two animals fight, human beings will
intervene." "Pet ownership is an absolutely abysmal situation brought
about by human manipulation."

From an article by John G. Hubbell:  "The average supporter has no
idea that societies which traditionally promoted better treatment for
animals, taught pet care, built shelters for strays are now dedicated
to ending the most effective kind of medical research."  Some of the
activists I have talked to believe that we should do medical research
on prisoners or the elderly instead of animals.

Alex Pacheco states it is best to be "strategically assertive" in
seeking reforms while never losing sight of the ultimate goal:  "total
abolition of animal exploitation".

One of ALF's leaders said she would be "overjoyed when the first
scientist is killed" after being jailed in England for attacks on fur
stores, butcher shops and fishing tackle stores.

Deputy Chief Constable John Harland says "We are dealing with very
sinister people, criminal terrorists," after his investigation of two
car bomb attacks set by animal rightists which injured a 13 month old
boy in London.

From Michael W. Fox, environmental studies director of the Humane
Society of the United States:  "Humane care is simply sentimental,
sympathetic patronage.  Human beings aren't superior to the other animals,
we're just different."  Humane society literature states that "there
is no rational basis for maintaining a moral distinction between the
treatment of humans and other animals."

To show that the welfare of animals is not their major interest,
consider that the ALF has burned two facilities for diagnosis and
treatment of sick animals, and the threats against veterinarians I
mentioned in another post.  Also, ALF has attacked facilities at
Michigan State University where they were doing research on
alternatives to using animals in research.

>right of domesticated animals to a relatively pain-free life, decent
>care, and a relatively pain-free ending.  Whether you like it or
>not this is what many Animal Rights groups believe.
>
I'm not sure what "whether you like it or not" is supposed to imply.
Yes, they believe that and I never said they didn't.  So do I.  The point you
seem to be completely missing is that they also believe that animal
ownership is slavery, and that some believe using violence is
appropriate for ending the "subjugation and oppression" of animals.  
That kind of creates a problem for us horse-lovers!

Sarah Pallas
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian