PETA Action Alert: Washington Post & Washington Times

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PETA Action Alert: Washington Post & Washington Times

Equal rights for all species, human and non-human alike:

 

Alfred Kuba

________________

Dear friends, SBIDA no longer uses language that accepts the current concept of

animals

as property, commodities and/or things. Rather than refer to ourselves or others

as " owners "

of animals we share our lives with, we now refer to ourselves and otheDear

friends, I no

longer use language that accepts the current concept of animals as property,

commodities

and/or things. Rather than refer to myself or others as " owners " of animals we

share our

lives with, I now refer to myself and others as " guardians " of our animal

friends and to

animals as " he " or " she " rather than " it. " Guardians do not buy or sell animals;

instead

they rescue and adopt. I urge you to do the same.

________________

LIVE CRUELTY FREE LINKS

www.VegSource.org www.farmsanctuary.org

www.PeTA-online.org www.idausa.org

www.vegepet.com

-

Writers Network

writersnetwork

Friday, October 11, 2002 12:34 PM

PETA Action Alert: Washington Post & Washington Times

 

 

The Washington Post printed the following piece about Paul McCartney's outrage

over the World Wildlife Fund's support of vivisection. Please read it and

respond with a letter to the editor in support of Sir Paul. For information

about " green washing " and animal experiments, go to

http://www.peta-online.org/cmp/sci.html.

 

Send letters to letters (Please include your name, address, phone

number, and the title and date of the article. It is best to keep letters less

than 200 words.)

 

The Washington Post

 

" The Reliable Source "

 

Oct. 11, 2002

 

 

.. Animal rights activist and vegetarian Paul McCartney has a beef with the World

Wildlife Fund over its support of animal testing, and yesterday faxed a tough

letter to WWF Chairman William Reilly asking that his group stop supporting

government chemical experiments under " the endocrine disrupter screening

program, " an Environmental Protection Agency program to determine the toxicity

of industrial pollutants. Writing on behalf of the People for the Ethical

Treatment of Animals, the former Beatle said: " I was appalled to learn . . .

that the US office of WWF has been a driving force behind the design and

development " of the testing regime. WWF Vice President Richard N. Mott responded

that mere thousands of animals are being exposed to industrial pollutants " so

that many millions of animals around the world don't have to suffer through the

uncontrolled chemical 'testing' that is already taking place. . . . We welcome

the chance to have a dialogue with Sir Paul. " In other words: Life is very short

and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.

 

Part II of III

 

The Washington Times printed the following wonderful column in support of the

animal rights movement. Please thank the Washington Times for printing this and

take this opportunity to show your support for compassionate treatment of

animals.

 

Send letters to: letters

 

" Who are you calling a terrorist? "

 

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20021010-73507064.htm

 

By Steven Zak

 

Washington Times

 

Oct. 11, 2002

 

One might be tempted to believe that conservatives don't like animals. A

lot sure don't like animal advocates. At the tamest level, they label us

" screwballs " and " extremists " or just, derisively, " animal righters. " But more

seriously, some such critics - let's call them " animal wrongers " - brand us

terrorists.

The Wall Street Journal howls that we " terrorize civilians. "

Dick Boland in The Washington Times barks that " Animal-rights groups are

the closest thing to terrorists we have in this country. " (Apparently he hasn't

read about the al Qaeda training camp graduates recently arrested in Buffalo,

N.Y. and Portland, Ore.) Wesley J. Smith adds to the cacophony in National

Review Online (NRO) with the ominous pronouncement that animal advocates " have

crossed to the dark side - animal rights terrorism. "

Granted, some radical animal activists have committed serious acts of

vandalism and other crimes. But the wrongers' wrath isn't directed solely at

them. Mr. Smith, for instance, condemns groups like People for the Ethical

Treatment of Animals and even the moderate Humane Society of the United States.

Why do the wrongers feel so threatened by even mainstream animal welfare

activism, whose lineage in this country goes back to the Puritans? (One would

expect some conservative sympathy for a cause with so much history.) Mr. Smith

provides a possible answer in an earlier NRO piece where he objects to

" personhood theory " - according to which rights come not from simply being human

but rather from " possessing relevant cognitive capacities. "

In plain English, that means that no conceivable set of facts could ever

convince Mr. Smith that animals have rights. It wouldn't matter if animals could

read philosophy, compose sonnets and play a game of chess. For Mr. Smith, human

life alone has value, not because of any characteristics humans possess but

" simply and merely because it is human. "

Try such a declaration in a purely human context: " Caucasian/male/gentile

life has value simply and merely because it is caucasian/male/gentile. " Such

claims have of course been made at various times and places, explicitly or

implicitly, but few would mistake them for moral positions.

What such a baldly self-serving,only-my-group-has-value argument reveals,

though, is that equating animal rights with " terrorism " is not a reaction to the

vandalism of any radicals. For the animal wrongers, anyone who trumpets the

value of nonhuman lives, even peacefully, is a threat. The mere recognition that

animals have a place in the circle of moral concern, alongside human beings,

leads to, as Mr. Smith puts it, " dehumanization " - the ultimate form of terror.

No wonder the animal wrongers see " terrorists " everywhere. There are plenty

of people concerned about animals, even among conservatives. For example: Sen.

Jon Kyl and Rep. Elton Gallegly, who just three years ago championed legislation

to outlaw snuff films with animal victims. And former Republican senatorial

staffer Christopher J. Heyde,who wrote critically in the Washington Times

recently about animals in labs. " I am appalled, " he wrote, " that these atrocities

occurred in U.S. laboratories, which happened in part because the overwhelming

majority of animals used in research have been denied legal protection. " And

Matthew Scully, a former speechwriter for President Bush and author of a new

book on animal rights, who argued in a recent piece for the New York Times, the

intrinsic worth of elephants and against the ivory trade. And Victorino Matus,

who wrote sympathetically in the conservative Daily Standard about the neglected

and abused animals in the Kabul Zoo. And former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani,

who appeared at a black-tie dinner at New York's Waldorf Astoria to raise money

for veterinary care at the nonprofit Animal Medical Center - and to honor NYPD

and other search-and-rescue dogs.

Even conservative author and dog-lover Ann Coulter was quoted in the New

York Post as saying that " Dogs are people too. "

Do such expressions of concern and caring for animals make you worry that

animals will soon get the vote, or that shared restrooms for them and us can't

be far behind? Of course not. But they apparently do worry the animal wrongers,

who fear the slippery slope that we've all stepped onto long, long ago.

But they're worse than just silly reactionaries. By equating vandalism and

other property crimes with terrorism, the wrongers trivialize the real thing and

insult its victims. Which, come to think of it, sort of makes them terrorists.

At least as much so as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to

Animals.

 

Steven Zak, a longtime animal advocate, has written about animal rights for

many publications including the Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times.

 

Part III of III

 

Terrorizer is a magazine for heavy metal fans in Europe. They printed the

following article about PETA's upbeat and playful campaign to promote humane

alternatives to leather which included a letter to the metal band Judas Priest

asking that they change their album name from " Hell Bent for Leather " to " Hell

Bent for Pleather. " It ends by calling PETA activists " neo-fascist malcontent

busybodies who term themselves 'animal lovers' because they're too pompous and

obnoxious to actually make any human friends. " For information about cruelty in

the leather industry, go to www.cowsarecool.com.

 

If you would like to respond to this comment, send letters to:

editorial

 

" Terrorizer "

 

October

 

" Judas Priest have become the latest targets of the US animal rights

 

group PETA and their ongoing anti-leather campaign. Bizarrely, the

 

organisation

 

are requesting that the band change the name of their 1978 album " Hell

 

Bent

 

For Leather " to " Hell Bent For Pleather " . Pleather is a synthetic

 

substitute for leather. In a letter to Priest, PETA spokeswoman Lisa

 

Fransetta, 24, wrote - Dear Messrs Tipton ......., U'm enclosing a

 

picture

 

of myself at last week's 62nd Annual Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, SD, so

 

you

 

can see what's going on. Obviously, you have many fans here at People

 

for

 

the Ethical Treatment of Animals. That's why, on behalf of our more

 

than

 

750,000 members and supporters worldwide, we're asking if you'll

 

consider

 

using your mettle, and you rmetal, to riff against animal abuse. We've

 

done

 

our market research, and we're serious when we say that headbangers with

 

a

 

heart would love to hear you update the lyrics of your song " Hell Bent

 

For

 

Leather " to " Hell Bent For Pleather " .

 

With so many rocking alternatives to leather, even the baddest men on

 

two

 

wheels know that animals don't belong in a " Killing Machine " - kicked in

 

the

 

face, forced down the ramp with an electric prod to the man who slits

 

their

 

throats and turns them into leather jackets, pants and boots. The wide

 

selection of synthetic leather gear now available means that today's

 

rebels

 

with a cause won't have any trouble keeping skins off their shins.

 

Animals

 

don't have a voice, so they can't be " Screaming for Vengeance " , which is

 

why

 

we ask that as you finish up your current tour, you leave the hides

 

behind

 

and encourage your legions of fans to get " Hell Bent For Pleather " from

 

now

 

on. "

 

A letter from Priest's management in response to the request stated " The

 

members of Judas Priest are all animal lovers, and none of them condone

 

any

 

kind of cruelty to animals. Their stage clothes are not made from real

 

leather - they are made from synthetic materials "

 

..A member of the Terrorizer staff recently

 

spent some time with Priest and agreed to speak out on the leather debate on

 

condition of anonymity. Chris Chantler assured the newsroom that

 

although he didn't get close enough to the band to smell them they wore what

 

looked like leather to him but that it may well have been some kind of

 

imitation. He concurred with the settled view of the office that if the band

were

 

indeed sporting faux leather it would be purely for practical reasons,

 

and not because they were in any way worried about offending the neo-fascist

 

malcontent busybodies who term themselves 'animal lovers' because

 

they're too pompous and obnoxious to actually make any human friends. Top to

 

toe real leather under hot lights during a summer tour in the USA I would

 

have thought would be too much for a bunch of blokes in their 50s. "

 

 

 

 

Please do not use any exact wording from this alert in your letter. If the

editors notice similar wording in different letters, they are unlikely to print

any of them.

 

These action alerts are time-sensitive and should be responded to within 48

hours.

 

For a complete list of PETA factsheets to help you with your letters, go

to: http://www.peta-online.org/cmp/act-facts.html. These factsheets are not

copyrighted, and you are welcome to use any of the text in your letters.

 

For PETA's Guide to Letter-Writing, please go to:

http://www.peta.org/alert/tkit.html.

 

Please include your name, address, and phone number in letters to editors so

that you can be contacted should your letter be chosen for publication.

 

Please do not forward any action alerts or cross post them on any listservs.

 

If an editor contacts you about printing your letter, please let us know!

(Contact annaw)

 

Suggestions for the Writers Network? Send comments to annaw.

 

Thanks for all your efforts in behalf of animals!