Animal Activist Terrorists
An excerpt from my book.
An Introduction to Terrifying Dog Politics (with References)
Beverley Rutland-Manners has asked me to write an overview of dog politics, if only to get this somewhat unpleasant topic out of the way before she embarks on the more delightful themes in her book. To ignore the current political climate would not be a complete and honest account of the difficult issues that every high profile and ethical animal breeder faces today. So I hope we can get this topic over with so the reader can move on to the fascinating story of how Beverley has created her enchanting new dog breed.
Sometime in 2008 Beverley came to me for help. If I hadn’t been familiar with the issues that she and many others in the animal breeding world were facing, her story of being harassed and receiving death threats would have sounded too far fetched.
Beverley had told me about a group of individuals who were stalking her, breaking into her property at night, photographing and stealing her dogs and setting up hate sites on the internet to destroy her good reputation as a high profile dog breeder. She suspected these individuals and groups were doing this to drive her out of business, but she couldn’t, for the life of her, imagine why anyone would do this to her. I advised her that these appear to be illegal activities amounting to: harassment, defamation, theft, destruction of property and trespassing. And I reminded her to report all these activities to the police since they are actionable either under civil and criminal law. I could understand why the motives for the crimes made no sense to Beverley, since she had not done anything to provoke them, but in the brave new world of animal rights and animal liberation extremism where firebombing, murder, violent attacks and break-ins occur on a regular basis against dog and cat breeders, fast food restaurants, circuses, farmers, rodeos, pet shops, horse stables and universities, it was the order of the day. I know that Beverley was having trouble understanding this, as anyone would, and that she was frankly becoming alarmed.
When I first briefed Beverley on some of the current extremist animal rights and animal liberation movements, she seemed confused and told me emphatically that she had always ensured her animals received the best food, accommodation, exercise, love and affection, and vet care available and that her well appointed stud could never have been mistaken for anything other than a quality kennel. She had even donated thousands of dollars to the local chapter of the Humane Society to help prevent animal cruelty and to support animal shelters. Indeed, she mentioned that she had even rescued dozens of animals herself and found loving new homes for them. I told her that this was the way that things were done, once. Since nobody in their right mind would approve of animal cruelty, this is how most people would think about animal welfare - that is: before a radical new animal liberation movement began.
Early in the animal liberation movements (since the 1980s), position statements were made and treatises were written by various activists and organizations outlining a new place and role for animals in society. This included the concept of legally prohibiting animals to be used for any purpose, including as guide dogs or domestic companion animals to humans. PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) adopted the following statement from animal rights activist John Bryant as part of their official position: ‘The cat, like the dog, must disappear... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist’. [1] Meanwhile, PETA’s founder, Ingrid Newkirk, made this statement: ‘I'm not only uninterested in having children. I am opposed to having children. Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it is nothing but vanity, human vanity’. [1] As the animal rights movement developed and became influential enough to lobby the government into passing laws that restrict animal ownership, a case was made to elevate animal rights above human rights. Prominent animal rights activist and academic, Tom Regan, specialises in this kind of animal rights theory. When he was asked whether he would rescue a baby or a dog from a capsized lifeboat, Regan answered: ‘If it were a retarded baby and a bright dog, I’d save the dog’.[2]
As the animal liberation movement gained more strength, a militant form of compulsory veganism emerged as its central philosophy. This attracted academics as well as the core animal liberation activists who began campaigning for the release of animals from farms into the wild (where animals would often perish), rather than advocating that animals received humane treatment. This philosophy, of course, required that humans no longer eat meat. ‘We should distinguish our message from less meat, because what we want is no meat,’ said Carrie Packwood Freeman, activist and professor at Georgia State University, in 2010.
In their attempt to stop humans eating meat, animal rights extremists have carried out mass break ins and released hundreds of thousands of farm animals into the wild, including turkeys, cows and pigs. Most of these domesticated animals have become either meals for wild predators or encountered painful deaths, such as starvation, since they are not able to fend for themselves in the wild. On December 19, 2006 in Princeton NJ, animal liberation extremists cut fencing at the Griggstown Quail Farm and released 2500quail, pheasants, and partridges onto a nearby busy highway. Most of the birds were killed in collisions with cars, and while many of their bodies were retrieved, none were found alive. The theft cost the farmer $80 000 and represented a substantial portion of his breeding stock. [1]
By the 1990s the philosophy of animal liberation took on a more dangerous and sinister turn with the 1991 publication: A declaration of War: Killing People to Save Animals and the Environment.[2] Since then, escalating violence has occurred against individuals or companies involved with the food and pet industry. Some notable examples are: On September 28, 2006 animal rights extremists in Cambridge, Maryland were suspected of setting fire to the Boston Tropical Fish and Reptile store. On October 31, 2006 arsonists in Standlake, UK torched six fully loaded egg trucks, causing $500 000 in damages. More than 50 fire fighters battled to contain the blaze and tried to prevent it from spreading to nearby buildings where chickens were housed. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claimed responsibility for the attack. On April 4, 2006 in Scotchfort, Canada a suspected animal rights activist threw a homemade firebomb into a lobster boat. On August 9, 1999 in Plymouth, Wisconsin the Animal Liberation Front claimed credit for bombing and setting fire to the United Feeds Mill during the morning hours. The damage was estimated as $1.5 million. Another one of hundreds of incidents occurred on January 4, 1997 when over 20 stores and restaurants in Salt Lake City had their windows shot or smashed out, including: McDonalds, Arby's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, a trapping outfitter, a leather shop, milk trucks and other food related businesses. On December 30, 2000, a mail bomb was sent to a pest control company in Cheshire, UK and exploded, injuring the owner's 6 year old daughter who was helping her father with the mail.
[1] http://www.trentonian.com/article/TT/20061223/TMP02/312239988
[2] Screaming Wolf (pseudonym), A Declaration of War: Killing People to Save Animals and the Environment. Patrick Henry Press, 1991
[1] Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's founder and president, New Yorker Magazine, April 23, 2003
[2] Tom Regan, ‘Animal Rights, Human Wrongs’ speech given at University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 27, 1989.
[1] John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of A Changing Ethic,1982:15
Sometime in 2008 Beverley came to me for help. If I hadn’t been familiar with the issues that she and many others in the animal breeding world were facing, her story of being harassed and receiving death threats would have sounded too far fetched.
Beverley had told me about a group of individuals who were stalking her, breaking into her property at night, photographing and stealing her dogs and setting up hate sites on the internet to destroy her good reputation as a high profile dog breeder. She suspected these individuals and groups were doing this to drive her out of business, but she couldn’t, for the life of her, imagine why anyone would do this to her. I advised her that these appear to be illegal activities amounting to: harassment, defamation, theft, destruction of property and trespassing. And I reminded her to report all these activities to the police since they are actionable either under civil and criminal law. I could understand why the motives for the crimes made no sense to Beverley, since she had not done anything to provoke them, but in the brave new world of animal rights and animal liberation extremism where firebombing, murder, violent attacks and break-ins occur on a regular basis against dog and cat breeders, fast food restaurants, circuses, farmers, rodeos, pet shops, horse stables and universities, it was the order of the day. I know that Beverley was having trouble understanding this, as anyone would, and that she was frankly becoming alarmed.
When I first briefed Beverley on some of the current extremist animal rights and animal liberation movements, she seemed confused and told me emphatically that she had always ensured her animals received the best food, accommodation, exercise, love and affection, and vet care available and that her well appointed stud could never have been mistaken for anything other than a quality kennel. She had even donated thousands of dollars to the local chapter of the Humane Society to help prevent animal cruelty and to support animal shelters. Indeed, she mentioned that she had even rescued dozens of animals herself and found loving new homes for them. I told her that this was the way that things were done, once. Since nobody in their right mind would approve of animal cruelty, this is how most people would think about animal welfare - that is: before a radical new animal liberation movement began.
Early in the animal liberation movements (since the 1980s), position statements were made and treatises were written by various activists and organizations outlining a new place and role for animals in society. This included the concept of legally prohibiting animals to be used for any purpose, including as guide dogs or domestic companion animals to humans. PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) adopted the following statement from animal rights activist John Bryant as part of their official position: ‘The cat, like the dog, must disappear... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist’. [1] Meanwhile, PETA’s founder, Ingrid Newkirk, made this statement: ‘I'm not only uninterested in having children. I am opposed to having children. Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it is nothing but vanity, human vanity’. [1] As the animal rights movement developed and became influential enough to lobby the government into passing laws that restrict animal ownership, a case was made to elevate animal rights above human rights. Prominent animal rights activist and academic, Tom Regan, specialises in this kind of animal rights theory. When he was asked whether he would rescue a baby or a dog from a capsized lifeboat, Regan answered: ‘If it were a retarded baby and a bright dog, I’d save the dog’.[2]
As the animal liberation movement gained more strength, a militant form of compulsory veganism emerged as its central philosophy. This attracted academics as well as the core animal liberation activists who began campaigning for the release of animals from farms into the wild (where animals would often perish), rather than advocating that animals received humane treatment. This philosophy, of course, required that humans no longer eat meat. ‘We should distinguish our message from less meat, because what we want is no meat,’ said Carrie Packwood Freeman, activist and professor at Georgia State University, in 2010.
In their attempt to stop humans eating meat, animal rights extremists have carried out mass break ins and released hundreds of thousands of farm animals into the wild, including turkeys, cows and pigs. Most of these domesticated animals have become either meals for wild predators or encountered painful deaths, such as starvation, since they are not able to fend for themselves in the wild. On December 19, 2006 in Princeton NJ, animal liberation extremists cut fencing at the Griggstown Quail Farm and released 2500quail, pheasants, and partridges onto a nearby busy highway. Most of the birds were killed in collisions with cars, and while many of their bodies were retrieved, none were found alive. The theft cost the farmer $80 000 and represented a substantial portion of his breeding stock. [1]
By the 1990s the philosophy of animal liberation took on a more dangerous and sinister turn with the 1991 publication: A declaration of War: Killing People to Save Animals and the Environment.[2] Since then, escalating violence has occurred against individuals or companies involved with the food and pet industry. Some notable examples are: On September 28, 2006 animal rights extremists in Cambridge, Maryland were suspected of setting fire to the Boston Tropical Fish and Reptile store. On October 31, 2006 arsonists in Standlake, UK torched six fully loaded egg trucks, causing $500 000 in damages. More than 50 fire fighters battled to contain the blaze and tried to prevent it from spreading to nearby buildings where chickens were housed. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) claimed responsibility for the attack. On April 4, 2006 in Scotchfort, Canada a suspected animal rights activist threw a homemade firebomb into a lobster boat. On August 9, 1999 in Plymouth, Wisconsin the Animal Liberation Front claimed credit for bombing and setting fire to the United Feeds Mill during the morning hours. The damage was estimated as $1.5 million. Another one of hundreds of incidents occurred on January 4, 1997 when over 20 stores and restaurants in Salt Lake City had their windows shot or smashed out, including: McDonalds, Arby's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, a trapping outfitter, a leather shop, milk trucks and other food related businesses. On December 30, 2000, a mail bomb was sent to a pest control company in Cheshire, UK and exploded, injuring the owner's 6 year old daughter who was helping her father with the mail.
[1] http://www.trentonian.com/article/TT/20061223/TMP02/312239988
[2] Screaming Wolf (pseudonym), A Declaration of War: Killing People to Save Animals and the Environment. Patrick Henry Press, 1991
[1] Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's founder and president, New Yorker Magazine, April 23, 2003
[2] Tom Regan, ‘Animal Rights, Human Wrongs’ speech given at University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 27, 1989.
[1] John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of A Changing Ethic,1982:15
These domestic terrorism incidents number in the hundreds and are more comprehensively listed on the website of the National Animal Interest Alliance.[1] Not only do these incidents often go unpunished, but publicizing them brings its own risks, as one UK journalist found out. On October 26, 1999, Graham Hall, an award-winning TV filmmaker was abducted and tortured by animal rights extremists in a sadistic revenge ritual, for exposing the activities of the Animal Liberation Front in his documentary: Inside The ALF. Eleven months after the program aired Hall was kidnapped at gun point, blindfolded and driven to an unidentified house where he was bound and told he would be killed. For several hours his assailants tortured him, which included forcing his head between his legs while they burned ‘ALF’ into his bare back in 4 inch high letters with a hot branding iron. Before releasing him with serious burns and mutilations on his back, extremists threatened to harm Hall’s family, torch his house and to kill him if he went to the police. After the incident, the ALF's official spokesperson issued this chilling warning: ‘people who make a living in this way have to expect from time to time to take the consequences of their actions’.
After I’d briefed Beverley on the current risks of breeding animals, especially as a high profile person who has created a new breed of dog, she began to understand how fortunate she had really been to avoid more serious harm to herself and to her animals. After being severely harassed by animal rights extremists for several years and after the theft of her most valuable dogs, she was forced to move to an extremely remote location to maintain a safe environment for herself and her dogs. This imposed many hardships on Beverley, but it was the only way she could safeguard the rest of her most valuable bloodlines and ensure her new breed would survive until long after the current social upheavals and madness had ended. This, of course, came at a horrendous price which claimed her business and her home, and threatened to spoil her excellent reputation through the constant defamation she was subjected to on animal extremist’s hate websites. Beverley also had to discontinue her time honored traditions of allowing people to visit her kennel.
After paying this horrific and unfair price, Beverley did miraculously succeed in preserving her best bloodlines and is continuing to provide happy, healthy puppies to people in need of stable pets, companion dogs and service animals. Indeed, my wife and I have one of her delightful Australian Cobberdogs as a cherished family pet. Beverley is one of the few individuals to mentally, physically and financially survive such a horrendous attack and she attributes her survival to unwavering faith in a merciful and loving God. She is indeed fortunate to be able to continue, on a small and exclusive scale, breeding the exceptional dog breed that she created.
I was very pleased to let Beverley know that in recent years, much legislation has been passed into law, including the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act which makes it illegal to interfere with businesses that utilize animals, or to threaten or harass employees or clients of such companies. The Act gives the US Department of Justice and law enforcement wide powers to target Animal Rights extremists and curb their activity. This law is echoed by corresponding laws in several other countries, and I am in close contact with both national and international law enforcement in order to track violations.
Meanwhile, I trust that dog lovers and owners everywhere will go on loving, caring for and enjoying their loyal pets, as they have always done, as their cherished right to bond with humanity’s best friend, the dog. Now with the nasty issue of dog politics out of the way, I hope the reader will go on to enjoy the story of how the captivating Cobberdog came into existence.
Thomas Smith Esq.
October 2013
[1] http://www.naiaonline.org/