> The only conclusion I can come to that makes any sense, after reading
> PETA's stuff, is that their primary motivation is not animal welfare.
> Their primary motivation is that they hate man.
>
> Sounds weird, but that's the only theme I could come up with that tied
> all of their arguments together. It also, to some extent, explains the
> irrationality (from our point of view) of their behaviour.
>
> Again, this is *not* true of most animal welfare folks.
>
> Mark
I remember seeing an article last year about Mercy Crusade having been
found with over $100,000 worth of assault weapons. I was horrified, as
I had donated money to them in the past, thinking they were more animal
welfare, as in spaying and neutering and find homes for strays, etc. I
don't think violence is ever the answer, I think most people would
agree, I hope.
I have one very good friend who is on the board for Animal Legal Defense
Fund and several other groups (having participated in animal research
myself, even though non-terminal studies, you can imagine the
enthusiastic debates we have, and are still very good friends BTW!), she
is firm in her convictions but realistic and open to debate and
compromise and everyone working together. She has told me that there is
ALOT of conflict going on within the animal rights/animal welfare groups
(I'm not real sure where the dividing line is) because of some people
leaning towards violence and "lunatic fringe" activities, in conflict
with those who disagree with various forms of animal usage but that
aren't willing to blow anyone up over it. It would be unfortunate if
Radical wins out over Reasonable just cuz they're usually willing to
push harder.
One last two cents---two years ago at a pet exposition here in L.A., I
was a speaker on horse ownership, the subject being basically why a
good, older horse is a better bet for a first-time horse owning family
than a three-year-old TB off the track. I gave that talk three times a
day for five days and every time, security had to remove animal rights
people who were trying to shout over the PA system that I was a Bad
Person for even owning ("imprisoning") a horse, etc., etc. I'm still at
a loss to understand why teaching responsible horse ownership is such a
terrible thing, and it definitely gave me a bad taste for some of the
radical groups. These people were from ALF, by the way.
Susan