Animal Rights Extremism
denialism | May 5, 2012In a brilliant parody of the HSUS shelter ads, humane watch has put sad looking lawyers in cages to emphasize that donations to HSUS do not fund shelters.
HSUS is like PETA but with deodorant and suits. Hah! I love it. HSUS is PETA.
It's upsetting that this fake charity has co-opted the reputation of our local humane societies, used ads depicting suffering animals in cages, then taken in millions of dollars from well meaning people to lobby for animal rights causes. Every time I see their ads I get furious. Less than 1% of their take goes to shelters. HSUS is not a humane society at…
denialism | April 12, 2012In it's increasingly bizarre need to inflict it's animal rights morality on everybody, PETA's Ingrid Newkirk has criticized Jennifer Lawrence for scenes in Winter's Bone and the Hunger Games, which show her hunting and eating animals.
The actress was dubbed "the coolest chick in Hollywood" by Rolling Stone, and in the magazine's latest issue she recounts her on-screen squirrel-skinning scene in the 2010 movie "Winter's Bone."
"I should say it wasn't real, for PETA. But screw PETA," she told the magazine.
In response to the actress's comment, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk told Gothamist, "[…
denialism | April 6, 2012You may have heard about Planned Parenthood turning down Tucker Max's 500k charitable donation on the grounds his misogynistic past marred the gift.
Now PETA is asking for the donation.
Let's beg him not to do this. Instead of giving money to the dog-killing animal rightsists, how about a donation to pro-test and put a thumb in the eye of the anti-research pet killers? Send him a message, donate the money to a pro-science group.
Here's my email to Tucker:
Hey, I hear you're looking to give a charitable donation and now PETA is saying they'd be happy to receive it. As a pet owner, doctor…
denialism | March 22, 2012Our initial optimism over Huffpo science being a haven for reason in a den of disease-promotion and quackery appears now to be misplaced. It appears the animal rights cranks have made inroads with Bruce Friedrich, a member of PETA and advocate of animal liberation, who has jumped from Huffpo "green" to Huffpo "science". The science gatekeepers at Huffpo have clearly failed.
Writing about "Speciesism: The Movie", he exposes the anti-science ideology of the animal rights movement, and Huffpo science doesn't seem to have noticed:
Every now and then, a movie comes along that is capable of…
choofnagle | February 21, 2009The San Francisco Chronicle reports that four young people have been arrested on suspicion that they harassed UCB and UC Santa Cruz animal researchers under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.
It is clear from the reporting that law enforcement is taking this issue seriously. The FBI and seven other law enforcement agencies were involved, and effort was coordinated through the Joint Terrorism Task Force. From the press release and reporting, it looks as though agents were following these activists in public places, and filmed them using publicly-available computer terminals. Even DNA was…
denialism | December 8, 2008I was reading two articles on disparate subjects and found them oddly linked in my mind. The first former terrorist Bill Ayers' explanation of why he didn't respond when Obama was smeared by association and the second P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker writing for the WaPo about the escalation in recent years of animal rights terrorism.
What struck me about both these articles is the interesting divide between how terrorists justify their behaviors and diminish their objectives of striking fear into their opponents, and the reality of what the subjects of such acts perceive. Conn and…
choofnagle | October 10, 2008Gautam Naik covers an interesting development in Switzerland. Scientists there must now justify the ethics of genetic research on plants:
Dr. Keller recently sought government permission to do a field trial of genetically modified wheat that has been bred to resist a fungus. He first had to debate the finer points of plant dignity with university ethicists. Then, in a written application to the government, he tried to explain why the planned trial wouldn't "disturb the vital functions or lifestyle" of the plants. He eventually got the green light.
The rule, based on a constitutional…
choofnagle | April 21, 2008John Schwartz reports in the Times that PETA:
...said it would announce plans on Monday for a $1 million prize to the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012."
I love it! This, in my opinion, is great news. Now the question is, how will the left accept it? Will they call PETA's petri-dish meat "frankenfood?" Is laboratory-designed food made by lefties more healthy than laboratory-designed food by big agribusiness?! Only time will tell, but it will be fun to watch.
sb admin | April 6, 2008People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an extremist organization. Some might even call it a cult, and a violent one at that.
Ingrid Newkirk, the president of PETA, is a particularly objectionable fuckwit. Many of my friends are vegetarians for ethical reasons. They object to the treatment of the animals we use for food, and they object to the impact raising food animals has on the environment. It's a personal choice. But they don't think that a chicken is the ethical equivalent of a person. My friends just aren't that stupid.
Ingrid is not one of my friends. In her…
denialism | February 28, 2008This time it appears to be a physical assault and an attempt to enter a home of a researcher that works with mice.
The researcher described the attack in which people wearing masks attempted to break into her house during her daughter's birthday party. Although her identity is being protected, I admire her moxy, she's not going to back down.
"I'm a scientist, I do research that's really valuable," she said. "One in seven women get breast cancer."
She also said she refused to move from her Westside Santa Cruz home, where police say six masked intruders banged on her door and tried to…
denialism | February 11, 2008I'm very upset to see that following up on previous threats, animal rights terrorists have set fire to a scientist's house.
I've been saying for a while that the real threat towards biological science isn't the evolution denialists and other silly cranks' rather laughable attempts at trying to convince people the earth is 6000 years old.The real threat is what we've seen in England and other countries of extremist violence against scientists for using animals in research. These actions are often justified based upon the absurd premise that research can be performed without the use of animals…
choofnagle | November 20, 2007In today's New York Times, Doreen Carvajal reports that cosmetic companies are scrambling to come into compliance with a 2009 ban on the use of animal testing for cosmetics in the European Union. 27 member economies strong, the EU can pass such rules, and watch the industry innovate to reach the goal of more humane treatment of animals.
As the 2009 deadline approaches, European regulators issue periodic tallies of the number of laboratory animals potentially spared by alternatives to animal tests, across all kinds of industrial uses. Part of the pressure for alternatives also stems from…
denialism | November 2, 2007The latest pathetic assault on a scientist came from ALF against UCLA scientist Edyth London. Using a garden hose they flooded her home, causing tens of thousands in damage. However, rather than intimidating her out of performing research in addiction she has written an article for the LA Times, defending animal research.
For years, I have watched with growing concern as my UCLA colleagues have been subjected to increasing harassment, violence and threats by animal rights extremists. In the last 15 months, these attempts at intimidation have included the placement of a Molotov cocktail-type…
denialism | September 26, 2007I have trouble believing this, but animal rights extremists have apparently stolen a kindergarten bunny.
Students at the Community Building Children's Center arrived at their downtown preschool Monday morning to discover that their pet rabbit Sugar Bunny had been kidnapped over the weekend. Teachers found anti-circus flyers in his hutch.
"Somebody stoled him," said five-year-old Zion. "I'm sad."
How do they know it was them? Apparently they left their calling card - anti-circus literature:
The half-dozen flyers left behind advertised protests against the Ringling Brothers Circus, which was…
denialism | September 11, 2007An art teacher has been "removed from the classroom" for proselytizing to his students about his vegan lifestyle. Apparently after being born-again into veganism, he wouldn't stop talking to kids about living "cruelty-free" during class. The kicker? He now wants to charge the school district with child endangerment for encouraging them to drink milk.
Dave Warwak, 44, also said he plans to ask the McHenry County state's attorney to file child-endangerment charges against the school district because the school continues to promote milk and other animal products as part of a healthy diet.…
choofnagle | September 4, 2007Opportunity knocks for all of you creative people out there! PETA is holding a blog advertisement contest! This could be fun. Perhaps we could have our own countercompetition in the comments? PETA is offering a $500 gift card to the winner. For our contest, I'd totally be willing to take you out for some hot dogs. Let the competition begin! Here's my first shot:
Go Vegan! Who Needs B12 anyway?
Or
Go Natural: Eat Meat!
denialism | August 28, 2007Props to Nick Anthis and PZ for addressing the animal rights vs animal welfare issue in science.
In particular this statement from PZ, "Once we've defeated the creationists (hah!), we're going to have to manage the next problem: well-meaning but ill-informed animal rights activists."
That sounds about right. If things in the United States follow the trends in Europe and Britain, the long-term and far more dangerous threat to biological science will be animal rights extremism. There is good discussion in both of these articles so check them out.
denialism | August 1, 2007Janet points us to this AP article about how the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine -aka PETA pretending to be doctors (less than 5% of them are actually doctors) - is now suing UCSF over reported violations of the animal welfare act.
I'm sure this is as noble as their attempts to smear McDonalds, or sue the dairy industry or their lawsuits against fastfood chains for serving "carcinogenic" grilled foods, or calling school lunches weapons of mass destruction for containing meat, and on and on.
Does anyone think this is a legitimate attempt to foster reform at UCSF (which was…
denialism | July 3, 2007The LA Times reports.
The FBI and the Los Angeles Fire Department are investigating an anonymous claim that animal rights extremists placed an unexploded incendiary device found under the car of a prominent UCLA eye doctor last weekend. The incident was similar to one last year in which another UCLA researcher was the intended target.
A gasoline-filled device was discovered Sunday by the car outside the Westside home of Dr. Arthur Rosenbaum, who is chief of pediatric ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. The device did not ignite despite evidence of an attempt to light it,…
denialism | May 24, 2007Both Nature and the LA Times this week have articles cautioning against labeling animal-rights extremists "terrorists" in the US. The justification that they're using is that the groups in question, ELF and ALF, are not terrorists because so far they've only destroyed property, and haven't managed to kill anyone yet. Terrorism, in their view, should be limited to instances in which people are actually killed or in which the government is attacked.
I completely disagree.
Take, for instance, the case of Dario Ringach as described in this article from science:
In the United States, however, if…