[ SHOWGSD-L ] Report from national animal rights convention
- From: "Ginger Cleary" <cleary1414@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Showgsd-L@Freelists. Org" <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:39:30 -0400
Ginger Cleary,Rome, GA ww.rihadin.com
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human
hands, will ever be liable to abuse. ? James Madison
Member GSDCA
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GA Director Responsible Dog Owners of the Eastern States.
-----Original Message-----
AMP NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
Los Angeles, Sunday 22 July 2007
AR 2007 - Direct Action or Hearts and Minds?
Navigating the Chasm in the AR Movement
"For the past five years our movement has become progressively more
fractured over the issues of 'violence' and 'welfare vs. abolition'.
Intellectual discourse has given way to breakdowns in communications,
public denunciations and the boycotting of this conference
by several mainstream groups."
- Alex Hershaft, founder, National Animal Rights Convention
AR2007 Plenary Session Friday, 20 July 2007
This year's National Animal Rights Convention - AR2007 - offered a
clear but brief glimpse of a chasm in the movement. There's the
militant faction of the animal rights movement: a small number of
direct action advocates who have recently taken several body blows
for their tactics and now appear to be struggling to regain their
footing both internally and within the animal rights movement in
general. Other activists are just as determined the priorities
should rest on enhancing the movement's public image and educational
outreach.
To be sure, most of the attendees of AR2007, held this year in Los
Angeles, had little interest in the meeting's undercurrent of angst
about tactics and priorities. Many were newcomers to the animal
rights movement. Others were there to compare notes on vegan
lifestyles, gain peer encouragement for their local campaigns from
spay-neuter programs to getting veggie-dogs to be sold at ballparks,
for their once-a-year update on the status of national campaigns, or
to sell/buy specially-targeted products ranging from books on the
benefits of a raw food diet to pleather stilettos.
And it is unlikely that the militant factions will have much presence
at the Taking Action for Animals Conference in Washington, D.C. at
the end of the month. The chief sponsor of that meeting, the Humane
Society of the United States, while sharing with militants the
extreme goals of the movement, is intent on showing a moderate face
to the public, the main source of HSUS funding. Look for a well-
packaged and managed series of "animal protection" discussions there,
and emphasis on strategies for winning hearts and minds.
Given our limited resources, and in order to provide AMP News Service
readers with a timely report on the flavor of the meeting and current
trends in the activists' opposition to animal-based research, AMP
attended only the AR2007 sessions focused on that topic, and the
plenary sessions which featured some (but by no means all) of the
movement's thought leaders. We also talked one-on-one with some of
the key proponents of militant action.
We do not intend this to be a report on the full range of activities
of the conference, but on how animal research was discussed by AR2007
participants, and to seek to learn from an unusual public display of
the dynamics of the militant faction that encourages direct action
and, for some, violence, as a legitimate tactic in its attempt to
stop medical progress.
NEW MEETS OLD AT AR2007
Those of us who have attended the National Animal Rights Convention
for years found a familiar four-day format, including multiple tracks
of workshops to draw new activists further into the movement and to
provide support and encouragement to veteran activists.
Added to the program this year, however, were workshops and a plenary
session focused on the new Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and what
the Equal Justice Alliance and other activist groups claim to
be "government repression of activism." A case study of the
successful prosecution and conviction of six SHAC leaders was also
presented by activist and self-proclaimed 'independent journalist'
Will Potter and Audra Lindsey, a longtime SHAC spokesperson.
Familiar names are on the list of those who presented a case against
the use of animals in research: Michael Budkie, Camille Hankins,
Matt Rosell, Andrew Knight and even Alex Pacheco, reflecting on the
Silver Spring Monkeys case that launched PETA to prominence in the
early 1980s. It may be more significant to note those not on the
speaker's roster. Among the absentees:
Former SHAC president Kevin Jonas, a strong presence at previous
meetings, now serving his prison term along with five other SHAC
members.
Rodney Coronado, recently released from prison and facing more legal
action. He has - yet again - renounced the use of direct action for
the animals and environment.
Leaders from HSUS and PETA who, as Hershaft noted, are boycotting
AR2007 and will join with other groups in Washington in late July.
Wayne Pacelle, JP Goodwin, Ingrid Newkirk, Bruce Friedrich, Michael
Markarian and Paul Shapiro are all previous headliners.
Neal Barnard and others from PCRM.
Ray Greek, a doctor who has written several books that attempt
a 'scientific' argument against animal research.
Jerry Vlasak, Animal Liberation Press Officer, who staffed the ALPO
booth in the exhibit hall, but did not address any session. AMP
spoke with Vlasak, who had gained more notoriety last week when he
told a reporter that activists had "no choice" but to resort to
violence. Vlasak's wife and fellow militant Pamelyn Ferdin also
remained voiceless at AR2007.
The workshops that focused on campaigns against animal research
relied on the old chestnuts of misrepresentations and rhetoric
against research and little in the way of new content, despite the
efforts of Australian Andrew Knight of Animal Consultants
International to present and explain recent articles from peer-
reviewed journals that he (falsely) claimed demonstrated that animal
models produce invalid results. He urged activists to "maximize the
impact of this new evidence" by using the articles in their media
work, at conferences, with legislators, ethics committees and other
audiences. "I don't think that grassroots activism, unfortunately,
the way we have seen it, in a militant way, is actually going to
succeed, unfortunately. I wish that it would, but I don't think it
will," he said.
Knight also joined with SAEN's Michael Budkie in a video showcase
entitled "Abuse of Animals for Science" that ran decades-old film
distributed by PETA and other activists. One member of the audience
questioned the age of the film, given dated clothing styles and that
some film was shot in black and white. Budkie conceded the video
dated from the 1980s and even earlier. but asserted that similar
research continues today. He did have one new piece of video he said
he had just obtained through a FOIA filing that showed clean and new
primate social housing and enrichment - which seems to be in
contradiction to Budkie's charges that primates are left to languish
in solitary cages and to lose their minds from boredom. Budkie chose
to fast-forward that video to make time for PETA's video on high
school dissection, appropriately narrated by Alicia Silverstone, best
known for her role in "Clueless."
Budkie gave basic chalk talks on how to investigate research through
on-line NIH, USDA and Department of Defense databases and FOIA
filings. He repeatedly stressed that every activist in the room
could and should be doing such investigations of their local research
institutions, and then work with SAEN to attract media
coverage. "The fact that animal rights activists don't like animal
research is not exactly news any more," he cautioned his listeners.
He suggested that instead of focusing on protests and other stunts,
media coverage is of better quality when generated through news
conferences by activists with 'something significant' to report from
the investigations they have conducted of grants, research protocols
and other materials. "The public is concerned about the waste of tax
dollars," Budkie noted. "When you add up the dollar signs, people
start to listen."
At the SAEN booth in the exhibit hall, Budkie was relentless in his
networking?finding out where people were from and saying, "We should
taalk." He told a plenary session that one of the reasons he attends
the AR conventions is to find "the one activist' in a position to
research a facility. He even tried to recruit this AMP
correspondent, not at the time realizing the affiliation.
Like Budkie, Camille Hankins of Win Animal Rights (WAR), spoke at
several workshops, focusing on the SHAC campaign and direct action,
to the point of repeating several stories. She seemed to enjoy the
celebrity acclaim she received from direct action supporters and
revel in defiance:
"I am proud of the fact that the government is after me. I am proud
that I have a FBI file and that they want to monitor everything I say
and that the AMP - Americans for Medical Progress - reports
everything I say and do in their newsletters." (AMP Editor's note:
As regular readers know, Ms. Hankins' comment on the extent of her
AMP coverage is quite overstated: we listen to her so you don't have
to.)
Nevertheless, Hankins feels the breath of the law on her neck, and
anticipates she will follow the example of her SHAC "friend and
associate" Kevin Jonas. "I'm not afraid. I'm going to prison. I
don't care when I go. I'll know I did it for the animals and it was
worth it."
On Saturday evening, Hankins led activists to four locations in LA
for protests. A fifth venue was scrubbed because of the potential for
confrontation with police, she said.
STUMBLES ON THE PATHS TO ANIMAL LIBERATION
National AR Convention founder Alex Hershaft made the stark and
candid comment that begins this year's report in an extraordinary
panel session during Friday evening's plenary meeting attended by
some 300 registrants. The session, "Paths to Animal Liberation"
dramatically showed the controversy within the movement over direct
action tactics.
First up was Armaiti May, a recent graduate of the UC Davis
Veterinary School who wants to open her own "vegan veterinary
practice." Throughout vet school, she said, some of her classmates
often treated her like an outcast because of her animal rights
perspective. She said the experience helped her realize that "the
unfavorable image of animal activists as a whole and the actions of a
few activists in particular, was making my work as an activist much
more difficult than it needed to be." May took a passionate and
critical look at the impact of some tactics on the public image of
animal rights activists:
"Threatening children of executives working for companies engaged in
vivisection, sending these people pornographic magazines, shouting
menacing slogans outside their homes and vandalizing their personal
property do not reflect the positive image of animal rights
activists. They play right in to the hands of our opposition by
chipping away at our moral high ground, allowing animal abusers to
unfairly paint us as terrorists."
May called for constructive, educational outreach that focuses on
long-term objectives:
"When considering the merits of an action it is important to consider
not only whether the action is morally justifiable but whether it is
strategically effective. The animals need us to be likable and
respectable in the eyes of the masses in order to win over the public
whose support and participation in the struggle for animal liberation
is vital for our success. [?] Nonviolence and integrity must guide
our actions, and aalso our thoughts and words."
Although her call for a 'perfect vegan world' that included
educational outreach and nonviolent activism received applause from
portions of the room, she was slapped down by subsequent speakers who
received far greater audience approval. Camille Hankins of the
militant Win Animal Rights group and the North American Animal
Liberation Press Office (ALPO), said that her vision of a 'perfect
vegan world' was "when you stand between the animals and those who
would kill exploit and abuse them and you stop that killing and that
exploitation and that abuse." She continued:
"I would never deny the fact that education is a good thing, outreach
is a good thing - we need all these tools. This is about using all
the tools in the tool chest. We have such a massive responsibility
and a massive job and to do that we need everything we have, to use
everything that we have, everything in the tool chest I do believe
we need education; I do believe we need open rescue; I do believe
that we need good media; I do believe that we need to have our
activists respected. But at the same time I really think (animals)
need to be freed and I really believe that those mink need to be out
of those cages. [?]Words mean nothing. Action is everything. Animal
liberation or else!"
Alex Hershaft, the AR2007 organizer, called the differences "a chasm"
in the movement, but nevertheless sought to find common ground:
"Even as conservative an organization as the HSUS has condoned civil
disobedience and open rescues in the past, both illegal and both
involving some small element of violence. On the other hand of the
spectrum, nearly everyone in the movement including ALF condemns acts
designed to injure any living being. Thus, the only tactics that
really are in dispute are massive property destruction and
intimidation such as home visits. That's about it."
Hardly. With his next breath, Hershaft raised the conflict between
abolitionists and welfarists, coming down on the side of
abolitionists, noting that while no reputable abolitionist leader
would oppose welfare reforms, "what we do oppose are animal rights
activists who advocate welfare reforms. It wastes animal resources
and legitimizes animal exploitation."
Lest there be any confusion where Hershaft comes down on militant
tactics, he answered that firmly:
"Who needs the militants anyway? We all do, especially the animals.
Granted that some individuals may have used animal rights as a cover-
up for anti-social behavior and have given us a bad name. But the
responsible militants among us play a key role as the conscience of
this movement. [?] What has kept me going ?is the inspirationion and
dedication of our more militant brothers and sisters who are willing
to lay down their careers and their freedoms for the animals. We all
have different paths to animal liberation, but we all need the
militants - especially the animals."
On Monday, following a morning of lessons in lobbying, California
activists will go to the local offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein
and several area Representatives to push for the repeal of the Animal
Enterprise Terrorism Act. SAEN's Michael Budkie will lead others on
a protest against research at UCLA.
Obviously, much more information and insight was revealed at the
AR2007 conference. Additional material will appear in AMP's
subsequent reports, including the AMP News Service Digest and our
coverage of the Taking Action for Animals meeting in Washington later
this month.
Please feel free to distribute this report, keeping our contact
information intact. As always, AMP's key contacts are welcome to be
in touch for additional details.
-----------------------
Americans for Medical Progress
908 King Street Suite 301
Alexandria VA 22314
703 836 9595 amp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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