Who's Afraid of Jerry Vlasak? By Dr. Steven Best. Must read!

[Guest guest]

[OpEdNews]

 

Yes this is a long editorial, but extremely important - many points to make when you're being called a "terrorist" and lots of great info I didn't know - lots to learn! Please read it![Editorial note from Jason Miller: Who’s Afraid of Jerry Vlasak?

 

Not TPC! I am proud to announce that Dr. Jerry Vlasak has joined our editorial collective as senior editor of animal liberation!By Dr. Steven Best...Dr. Jerry Vlasak is known for many things. He is a trauma surgeon in Los Angeles, a militant animal rights activist, a former vivisector turned renowned critic of vivisection, a scientific advisor to groups like Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) and In Defense of Animals, and a founder and Press Officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. He also has a lot of “former†roles on his resume, such as former spokesperson for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and former Board Member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Vlasak has earned the exile status of “former†for his controversial public defense of violence as a legitimate tactic for the animal

rights/liberation movement to use against those who exploit animals for profit or “research.†He is also a former visitor to the UK. In summer 2004, UK Home Secretary David Blunkett, always acting in defense of the vivisection industry so important to the British economy, saw it fit to ban Vlasak, along with PamelynFerdin, from again entering the UK because of his controversial exercise of free speech rights. In effect, Blunkett’s action elevated Vlasak from a mere (US) “domestic terrorist†to the more menacingstatus of “international terrorist.â€...Similarly, when Vlasak urges animal liberation by any means necessary, he is asserting the right of animals to self defense. But since they cannot defend themselves (except for instances such as where elephantsor tigers justly kill their trainers), humans must act on theirbehalf. And if violence is needed to save an animal from attack, then violence is

legitimate as a means of self defense for animals. If one likes, this could be called extensional self defense, since humans are acting on behalf of animals who are so vulnerable and oppressed they cannot fight back to attack or kill their oppressors.....Vlasak appeals to situations in human society where violence is legitimate as a means of stopping greater violence or a method of self-defense. He argues that to dismiss the use of similar arguments in defense of animals is sheer speciesism, as he himself draws the logical conclusions others – including the vast majority of people in the animal rights movement – cannot or will not draw. Vlasak simply says what many are thinking or what logic dictates apart from the constraints of speciesism. Vlasak is also somewhat unique in the animal rights movement in his ability to situate animal liberation struggles within the larger historical context of past human liberation struggles.

Vlasak underscores the hypocrisy of those whocondemn attacks on property but condone the appalling violence inflicted on animals. He exposes the inconsistency where people rail against the ALF as “terrorists,†even though in thirty years of operation they have never harmed a single human being, while ignoringwhat animal exploiters do to animals and the many occasions they have harmed and even killed activists....For those with vested interests in exploiting animals, Jerry Vlasak is a menace and extremist. For those fighting for a sane, just, and nonviolent world, one that extends basic rights and justice to animals, he is a champion of liberation. And perhaps he is an augur of a dark future to come, where the civil war between those hell-bent on destroying life and the planet and those intent on stopping themerupts into the kind of violence that has been a part of modern liberation movements. As of yet, the animal

liberation movement has no John Browns or Nat Turners, and it is a remarkable testimony to the restraint of activists who know the horrors and true extent of violence that human sadists inflict on animals.full story:http://www.opednews.com/articles/Who-s-Afraid-of-Jerry-Vlas-by-Steve-Best-090503-913.html