Animal Rights Article--front page of the Contra Costa Times

[Guest guest]

The home page of the website has a nice photo of

Elliot Katz: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/

 

The article page has an anti-rodeo demo photo:

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/crime_courts/7148966.htm

 

Here's the article:

 

Posted on Fri, Oct. 31, 2003

 

Extreme actions

Animal rights groups use increasingly violent tactics

By Randy Myers and Gary Bogue

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

 

It's gone way beyond just saving the lives of pets.

 

Some animal rights groups have turned to more extreme

measures to make their point, especially in the Bay

Area.

 

From urging Rodeo to change its name to Unity, to

defacing the property of a Sonoma County chef who

serves foie gras, to the bombing of two East Bay

companies with indirect ties to animal testing, animal

rights activists are attracting the attention of the

media and the public.

 

They're also on the minds of FBI agents.

 

" Over the past few months, there's definitely been an

increase in the intensity and the level of damage, "

said LaRae Quy, an FBI spokeswoman in San Francisco.

 

Some say extreme measures such as the bombings set

back the causes of the animal rights movement and

animal rescue organizations.

 

" It's definitely hindering our work, because we could

be classified and thrown in with the extremists by a

public that doesn't understand the differences between

the different animal groups, " said Dave Stegman,

executive director of the Valley Humane Society in

Pleasanton.

 

Most animal welfare workers agree extremist measures

can be a blow.

 

Stegman recounted the reaction he saw the day of the

Shaklee Corp. bombing.

 

" I was walking around town, stopping in a restaurant

for a cup of coffee, and I could hear people talking,

and they were terrified. I heard a wife calling her

husband at work on her cell phone and telling him not

to come home. She was terrified. Terrorists had bombed

a company in Pleasanton.

 

" And then in the news the next day, you see 'animal

rights' is responsible, and there's immediately a link

between this and all the good our own organization is

trying to do in the local community. "

 

He divides the animal groups into three factions --

animal rescue/welfare, city and county animal services

and the advocacy animal rights groups.

 

The Virginia-based People for the Ethical Treatment of

Animals is the best-known and biggest of the advocacy

groups. Founded in the '80s by Ingrid Newkirk, it is

noted for its in-your-face and media-savvy tactics to

generate visceral reactions. The group stresses that

its actions are legal -- it uses civil disobedience

and never resorts to violence.

 

PETA's hit-and-run request that Rodeo should change

its name was meant to focus attention on animal

conditions at rodeos. Just as the unusual idea grabbed

headlines and television cameras, the 59th Grand

National Rodeo opened at the Cow Palace.

 

A flurry of media coverage made Rodeo the buzz at

water coolers and on talk radio.

 

But the idea roused outrage in newspaper letters to

the editor and on talk radio shows. Did the action

trample on PETA's message?

 

No, said Lisa Franzetta, PETA's campaign coordinator.

Three days after the story was plastered on front

pages, the number of hits on the group's anti-rodeo

Web site skyrocketed.

 

PETA spokespeople acknowledge their antics are of the

" shock and awe " variety. (It has used naked models to

oppose the fur trade.) But strip away the P.T. Barnum

showiness and the message comes across loudly, said

Bob Chorush, PETA's special projects coordinator.

 

" At the end, when the makeup washes off and all things

are as they were, people talk about the issue. "

 

Tony La Russa, the co-founder and chairman of the

Animal Rescue Foundation, shares similar anti-rodeo

sentiments but says the Rodeo campaign branded PETA as

merely goofy.

 

" I think PETA has done a lot of good things to raise

our awareness, " he said. " In this instance, they may

have gone too far at being silly, in my opinion. "

 

Frustration over not being heard leads some animal

advocates to take drastic steps, violating laws and

destroying or defacing property. Some of these acts do

lead to change.

 

Extremism has always been a component of the animal

rights movement. The recent cluster of Bay Area

activities could be due to a bolder, younger

generation of activists who demand more action, some

say.

 

" As far as the violence and extremism is concerned, I

think you're seeing a small and mostly young element

of the animal movement has taken on these tactics, "

said Kim Sturla, founder of the Animal Place farm

sanctuary in Vacaville.

 

" How representative of the movement this is, I don't

know. "

 

Illegal actions like the August break-in and

vandalization of the specialty food store and

restaurant Sonoma Saveurs, which planned to sell foie

gras, snatched the media spotlight. It also achieved

activists' goal of alerting the public to how foie

gras is made -- by force-feeding ducks with a tube

that balloons their livers to an abnormal size. In

September, activists released four ducks from a Sonoma

farm.

 

The lawbreakers made the news and generated outrage

and support for their cause. This sends a disturbing

message for advocates who operate within the law.

 

" The foie gras thing ... that has been an issue for

decades, " said Eric Mills of Action for Animals in

Oakland.

 

" A sad message is that violence works. I hate that

sort of stuff. I'm for peaceful change and I don't

want to do that. I want to change people's minds. I've

been doing this for 30 years and I haven't seen too

much change. "

 

One of the groups advocating radical change and

revolutionary action is the Animal Liberation Front.

The FBI labels it a domestic terrorist organization.

Formed in the late '70s, the group urges nonviolence

but does destroy and damage property, primarily by

arson.

 

The Front is part of a trend toward " special interest

extremism, " the federal government says.

 

" The ALF is considered a terrorist group, whose

purpose is to bring about social and political change

through the use of force and violence, " said James

Jarboe, FBI chief of domestic terrorism during a 2002

congressional hearing.

 

Jarboe estimated that the ALF and the Earth Liberation

Front committed more than 600 criminal acts between

1996 and 2002. Damage estimates mushroomed to more

than $43 million.

 

The line between advocacy and radical groups can grow

thin.

 

In 2001, PETA contributed $1,500 to the North American

Earth Liberation Front " to support their program

activities, " according to an IRS form filed with the

state Attorney General's Office.

 

The money paid for ELF spokesman Craig Rosenbraugh to

travel to Washington, D.C., to testify at a

congressional hearing, said PETA spokeswoman Lisa

Lange.

 

" As far as the ALF, we don't have a comment about

them, " she said. The money was a one-time donation and

the group's activities have not injured anyone, she

said.

 

An unofficial spokesman for the Animal Liberation

Front says the terrorism label is unfair because the

group never hurt anyone, protects life and does not

use bombs.

 

" The greatest example of terrorism is dead bodies, "

said Rod Coronado.

 

Coronado was convicted of a 1992 arson at the Michigan

State University Research Facility. The blaze

destroyed 32 years of research on the fur industry. He

served a 41/2 year sentence and said he is not

involved with Animal Liberation Front activities.

 

He says the Liberation Front gets a bum rap. He said

the Aug. 28 bombing at the Chiron Corp.'s Emeryville

headquarters and at the Shaklee Corp.'s offices in

Pleasanton on Sept. 26 were contrary to Liberation

Front philosophy. The animal rights group

" Revolutionary Cells " has claimed responsibility in

the bomb blasts that caused minor damage.

 

Authorities are seeking a Marin County man, Daniel

Andreas San Diego, in connection with the blasts.

 

San Diego volunteered at In Defense of Animals in Mill

Valley four to five years ago. President Elliot Katz

describes him as pleasant and a hard worker.

 

In Defense of Animals espouses nonviolence, Katz said,

and frequently pressures laboratories to stop animal

testing. Katz says one of his greatest victories was a

nine-year battle to close a New Mexico laboratory that

used chimpanzees in medical experiments.

 

He also leads a campaign to change laws to refer to

" pet guardians " instead of " pet owners. " Berkeley, San

Francisco, West Hollywood, Boulder, Colo., and Rhode

Island have done so. He has been arrested 37 times for

civil disobedience.

 

These missions aim to heighten awareness and to

educate others about animal research. The soft-spoken

Katz opposes animal research for scientific and moral

reasons.

 

" It is clear that cruelty and brutality can generate

scientific information, " he said.

 

" But we as a society have decided it was wrong to do

it on African-Americans, and it was wrong what the

Nazis did in the concentration camps, and it was wrong

what the Japanese did in their concentration camps.

 

" But we haven't, as yet, felt that it's cruel to gain

scientific knowledge by torturing individuals of other

species. "

 

 

--

Reach Randy Myers at rmyers or at

925-977-8419. Reach Gary Bogue at 925-977-8582 or at

gbogue.

 

 

 

 

 

--

 

© 2003 Contra Costa Times and wire service sources.

.

http://www.bayarea.com

 

 

 

 

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