Animal Rights Leader Justifies Violence, LA TImes 11-13-05

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Animal Rights Leader Justifies Violence, LA TImes

11-13-05

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:38:17 -0800

 

Animal Rights Leader Justifies Violence

In a '60 Minutes' interview, the L.A. area activist

says those who harm

'innocent beings' should be stopped by any 'means

necessary.'

 

By Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writer

 

 

One of the leading animal rights activists in the Los

Angeles area has

taken

his campaign to the national stage in recent weeks,

saying that it may

be

" morally justifiable " to kill people to stop medical

research on

animals.

 

In recent U.S. Senate testimony and in a " 60 Minutes "

interview that

will

air tonight on CBS-TV Channel 2, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a

trauma surgeon,

said he

believes that researchers, slaughterhouse workers and

others who kill

animals " should be stopped using whatever means

necessary. "

 

 

 

Vlasak is a board member of Animal Defense League,

which has held

raucous

protests in the last few years outside the homes of

city animal

services

employees and the residences of Mayor Antonio

Villaraigosa and former

Mayor

James K. Hahn.

 

The group has demanded that the city stop euthanizing

animals at the

city's

six shelters — nearly 25,000 dogs were killed in the

last fiscal year —

and

that Villaraigosa live up to his campaign promise to

fire Guerdon

Stuckey,

the general manager who oversees the animal services

department.

 

The " 60 Minutes " segment focuses on the role of

activists, including

Vlasak,

in fighting medical research on animals. The segment

is not about the

situation in Los Angeles.

 

According to a transcript provided by CBS, when

reporter Ed Bradley

suggests

that Vlasak is advocating murder, Vlasak replies: " I

think people who

torture innocent beings should be stopped. If they

won't stop when you

ask

them nicely, they don't stop when you demonstrate to

them what they're

doing

is wrong, then they should be stopped using whatever

means necessary. "

 

Vlasak also tells Bradley that he would not resort to

violence.

 

" My role in the movement is not to go out and do

that, " he says, " but

to

explain to the mainstream media and to the public in

general why these

people are doing what they're doing. "

 

Last month, at a Senate committee hearing on medical

research on

animals,

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) asked Vlasak to clarify if

" whatever means

necessary " included murder.

 

" That would be a morally justifiable solution to the

problem, " Vlasak

responded.

 

He has made similar remarks in the past. Last year,

Vlasak was banned

from

Britain because officials there said he was endorsing

violence.

 

In an interview with The Times, Vlasak, 47, said he is

on the staff of

several hospitals, but declined to name them.

 

He is married to another of the city's most prominent

animal activists,

Pamelyn Ferdin, who is the co-leader of the Animal

Defense League. In

the

1960s and early '70s, Ferdin was a child actor, best

known as the voice

of

Lucy on the " Charlie Brown " television cartoon shows.

 

Vlasak said that Ferdin initially got involved in

protesting the

killing of

wolves in Alaska and then introduced him to the

broader field of animal

activism.

 

The turning point for Vlasak, he said, was reading the

book " Diet for a

New

America, " about factory farming.

 

While living on the East Coast, he joined the Sea

Shepherd Conservation

Society, a group known for using its ship to interfere

with the fishing

industry and seal and whale hunts.

 

Vlasak said that his recent comments were not intended

to endorse

violence

in the group's campaign in Los Angeles. " I think we

have a reasonable

chance

of succeeding using nonviolent means, " he said.

 

Vlasak said that he was trying to explain that

violence is often

inevitable

in any battle for freedom. " Anyone fighting for their

own liberation

has had

to use violence at some stage of the struggle, and I

don't think animal

independence is any different, " he said.

 

Informed of Vlasak's comments on " 60 Minutes, "

Stuckey, the city's

animal

services chief, said he feared that activists might

harm one of his

employees.

 

" It's no different than Osama bin Laden, " Stuckey

said. " He doesn't

strap a

bomb to his chest and kill people on the bus, but he's

the catalyst

that

encourages others to do that. "

 

Stuckey also said that neither Vlasak nor the defense

league is doing

anything to cure animal overpopulation, provide spay

and neuter

services or

combat illegal breeding.

 

The mayor's office declined to comment on Vlasak's

remarks.

 

In late October, Villaraigosa met with Vlasak, Ferdin

and another

league

member in his City Hall offices. In a contentious

45-minute session,

the

mayor criticized the protests and refused to fire

Stuckey as long as

activists continued to demonstrate near the homes of

city employees.

Eight

days later, the group protested outside the mayor's

Mount Washington

residence.

 

The league mailed graphic videos of dogs being killed

at shelters to

the

homes of City Council members. That week, the council

decided to lend

surveillance equipment to city employees threatened by

animal

activists.

 

While the Animal Defense League harasses city

officials, another group

known

as the Animal Liberation Front has claimed

responsibility for several

acts

of vandalism at the home of shelter employees. The

front also has

claimed

responsibility for arsons across the United States and

is listed as a

terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of

Justice.

 

Most recently, the group took responsibility for

throwing smoke

grenades

into the hallway of the Bunker Hill apartment building

where Stuckey

lives.

 

Vlasak often passes along the Animal Liberation

Front's communiques to

the

media, but he has long insisted that he is not a

member and does not

take

part in that group's activities.

 

Madeline Bernstein, president of the local chapter of

the Society for

the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, criticized Vlasak's

remarks.

 

" I don't think it helps any of us if the general

public — whose support

we

want — thinks that any one of us is capable of

throwing smoke grenades

or

murdering people who disagree with us, " she said. But

Bernstein, who

was on

a search committee that recommended Stuckey, also

believes that

Villaraigosa

worsened the situation by raising activists' hopes

that he would fire

Stuckey.

 

Vlasak said that he does not worry that his comments

will cause people

to

dismiss him as an extremist.

 

" I'm not that concerned about personal fortunes —

maybe part of it is

that I

see people die every day at work, " he said. " Life is

fragile and I feel

like

I have a message. I abhor the suffering of animals.

I'm not encouraging

anyone to get violent; I'm just looking for what

works. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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