Hunger Striker Blows His Horn – Then Quits

FCUSA PRESS RELEASE, DECEMBER 15, 1998
Hunger Striker Blows His Horn – Then Quits
By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, FCUSA (April 1998 – May 2011), and Simon Ward, Communications Director
YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND: To most of us, an ex-dustman who firebombs people he disagrees with, then carries on in prison by hunger-striking (and unsuccessfully to boot), might seem an unlikely hero. But to Britain’s animal rights movement, Barry Horne is a star.
On Dec. 13, Horne ended a 67-day hunger strike aimed at pressuring the government into establishing a commission to study alternatives to vivisection. Given the Labour Party’s track record of pandering to animal rights groups, Horne’s demand was not surprising. After all, it had just taken the radical step of banning animal testing for cosmetics. But Horne had miscalculated. Not even Labour was going to yield to the demands of a man serving 18 years for arson.
To his fellow animal rightists, however, it hardly mattered whether Horne won over the government or not. The victory came in the good use he made of his mouth during all those weeks it wasn’t eating food.
“Deathbed” Interviews
In a seemingly endless stream of “deathbed” interviews, Horne held the attention of the media just long enough to vilify animal “abusers” and the government.
“This is the end. In death you win,” he said on one occasion when the end seemed nigh. “Words are cheap. Only actions really count. This is not for me, it is for every animal in every torture lab. We are creating a turning point – a moment in history that will be remembered. Never doubt this. We will see an end to this evil.”
And so he and his spin doctors milked the media, hungrily hovering in anticipation of the final chapter. But the days turned into weeks, and still the “deathbed” interviews kept on coming. The more cynical even suggested he had a secret stash of food! Then just as the media were getting bored and his supporters were planning another high-profile vigil, Barry called it quits.
Celebration!
No problem, said his supporters. The vigil became a celebration, and the propaganda machine kept rolling on!
“Barry’s hunger strike has achieved more than we could ever have imagined,” announced an unknown group calling itself Animals Betrayed Coalition (ABC). The hunger strike “has caused people in and out of the [animal rights] movement to reassess the priorities in their lives and do that bit more for the animals. People have asked, ‘What can be happening to animals in laboratories that is so bad that someone is prepared to die for it?’”
And anyway, Horne had apparently achieved his purpose. Said ABC, Horne started eating again because “there was enough positive indication [from the government] pointing towards the end of animal experiments for him to end his hunger strike.” Apparently the government had told Horne it would initiate some kind of review next January, although of course no commitment to phase out vivisection was made.
Assassinations
Even if the Labour Government does appear to be ceding an inch of ground, it is likely that other factors were involved in bringing Horne’s hunger strike to an end. Among these could have been pressure from moderate animal rightists fearing the consequences of his death.
Giving new meaning to the phrase “compassion is the fashion”, another unknown group called the Animal Rights Militia (ARM) had published a hit list of 10 people who work with lab animals who would be executed if Horne died. On learning of this monstrous development, Horne reportedly said: “People must do what they feel is right in response to my death. … Look at the evil of Nazis and the level of violence needed, quite rightly, to stop them.”
Hitler, of course, was an animal lover like Horne, who pointed to the methods of preparing kosher food to vilify Jews and thereby help justify their persecution. But though the irony of comparing ARM with the Allies, rather than with Hitler himself, eluded our famished activist, it is certain that mainstream animal rightists do not condone premeditated murder. Morality aside, the public backlash that would follow the murders of 10 innocent people would drive the movement underground for years to come – reason enough in itself for Horne to end his strike.
Government Blamed
One of the named targets of ARM was to have been Prof. Colin Blakemore of Oxford University, who directs the Oxford Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience. A vocal opponent of animal rights extremism, Blakemore and his family are accustomed to threats, destruction of property, assault and letter bombs.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph (Dec. 6), Blakemore said the Labour Party was not absolved of blame. “[T]he Government has been at least partially responsible for the latest upsurge in the murderous threats from the fanatics,” he wrote. “In the run-up to the election, Labour encouraged animal groups to expect great things. The party accepted just over £1 million [$1.6 million] from the International Fund for Animal Welfare.”
Amazing. And we worry about campaign finance reform in the US. What would happen to our society if IFAW bought the election?
Continued Blakemore, “In the United States, popular support for animal rights activism and the level of violence declined rapidly in the early Nineties after senior members of the Government began to condemn extremism very publicly. Louis Sullivan, US Secretary of Health in the Bush administration, spoke of ‘animal rights terrorists who have impeded life-enhancing research’. It would help enormously if Labour ministers would have the courage and honesty to say the same.”
From the front lines of US mink farms and research labs, it is nice to have our efforts battling eco- and animal rights terrorism appreciated on the other side of the Atlantic.
To quote Horne: “Never doubt this. We will see an end to this evil.” We sincerely hope so!
* * *
Messages of guidance to Barry Horne may be sent to: HMP Full Sutton, Moor Lane, York, YO4 1PS, UK.
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