AR-News: Fw: JAVMA - animal rights terrorists

[Elizabeth Forel]

PLEAE FORWARD - 

from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association

----- Forwarded Message -----

JAVMA, May 15, 2004, pp. 1567-1568
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/may04/040515j.asp
The Animal Rights Struggle
Animal Agriculture Alliance addresses animal rights movement
In recent years, animal rights activists have bombed Chiron Corp., a
biotechnology firm in Emeryville, Calif., and vandalized a laboratory at
Louisiana State University's School of Veterinary Medicine where the
effects of environmental pollutants on human health are studied. In a
much milder protest, activists picketed against certain animal
agriculture
practices at last year's AVMA Annual Convention. So, what does the future
hold?
According to Wes Jamison, PhD, an associate professor of agriculture at
Dordt College (Sioux Center, Iowa), the animal rights movement, which has
its roots in Europe, is cyclical and is here to stay. "Every 30 years or
so, the movement gains incredible strength, and then it falls away. But
every time the movement (has) come back since the 1890s, it has gotten
stronger," Dr. Jamison explained at a meeting of the Animal Agriculture
Alliance in late March. "It's cyclical and ratchets forward each time it
comes back." Dr. Jamison, who is also director of the Agricultural
Stewardship Center
at Dordt, says four social conditions cause the movement: urbanization,
anthropomorphism, acceptance of evolutionary theory, and affinity for
egalitarianism.
"You have an urban audience whose experience with animals is pets. You
give them anthropomorphized visions of animals since they are little. You
(teach) them that we really are like animals. You couple that with the
idea of egalitarianism with the extension of moral rights, and you have a
very
virulent movement," Dr. Jamison said.
While conditions in modern society create a ready-made audience for
animal rights activists, the movement does wax and wane over time. As the
movement grows, Dr. Jamison explained, it exhausts the potential supply
of people
who will support it. Animal use groups organize and defend themselves,
and the rights movement fragments.
"What happens if you are trying to stop animal use and it keeps going on?
You get disheartened. You are faced with a choice—you become pragmatic as
a
movement or you become a fringe (fundamental) movement," Dr. Jamison
said.
According to him, this is where we are today. Pragmatists lean toward the
reduce-replace-refine movement; fundamentalists lean towards extremist
groups such as the Animal Liberation Front. Today, zealots are more
fanatical than ever and contemplate more violent acts out of desperation
and rage.
Currently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is monitoring terrorist
groups such as ALF and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Mike Gallagher, an
agent in the FBI's domestic terrorism operations, unit who also spoke at
the AAA meeting, says that, while SHAC's current target is
Huntingdon-affiliated research laboratories, he believes its members will
eventually move on to other industries, possibly agriculture.
"What you guys can do is be vigilant in reporting suspicious activities.
If
you have people out there taking pictures, asking weird questions, trying
to get access to your facility, report them to your local police,"
Gallagher said. "State and local police liaison with our joint terrorism
task forces on a regular basis."
Joint terrorism task forces are teams of state and local law enforcement
officers, FBI agents, and other federal agents and personnel who work
shoulder-to-shoulder to investigate and prevent acts of terrorism.
Gallagher also recommended that those in the animal agriculture industry
continue liaisons, including those with federal and state agriculture and
livestock agencies.
Gallagher reminded the audience that the Bioterrorism Preparedness and
Response Act passed in 2002 includes a provision imposing fines and
prison
sentences on persons committing terrorist attacks or conspiring to attack
animal enterprises.
Animal use groups must also remain vigilant in monitoring groups that are
working toward their goals using legitimate means. In the late 1990s, a
switch from protest to process occurred—many animal rights groups started
using legislative, regulatory, and judicial processes to work toward
their
goals. When animal use groups organize, they are usually unable to
succeed
on a federal level, and this has shunted their efforts to state and local
levels.
"That is where (animal rights groups) are having a quiet and very
significant impact on the way people use and view animals," Dr. Jamison
said. "They have advantages. They have better organization, they have
intense activism, and they have local civic support."
Dr. Kellye Pfalzgraf, director of the office of animal well-being at
Tyson
Foods, told meeting attendees that if animal agriculture industries want
to
retain certain practices and protect their image, they must be proactive.
"The activists are spending a lot of money and are more than willing to
talk about what we do wrong," Dr. Pfalzgraf said. "We aren't telling them
what we do right."
Dr. Jamison recommended that animal use coalition groups take on every
local legislative battle, maintain their coalitions even in down cycles,
and use ingenuity when addressing the public.
"This is a moral movement, not a scientific one. If you try to win this
from a scientific perspective, you will lose," Dr. Jamison said. "You are
going to have think about how to engage this movement and engage the
public
from now on, because we are not going back to a rural culture where
people
raise their own food."
According to Dr. Jamison, animal use groups will have to deal with local
and state brushfires as well as periodic conflict with a revitalized
national movement roughly every 30 years. "There will be no end to this,"
he said. "You are in for the long twilight