Queen Bee Stings Back
Fur-Clad Monarch Condemns Terrorism, Ignores Fur Farming Victims

By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, FCUSA

UNITED KINGDOM: Amidst pomp and circumstance so grandiose it could only happen in London, Queen Elizabeth II today delivered her traditional speech to the House of Lords, marking the annual opening of Parliament.(1) The Queen's Speech(2) is a summary of the government's proposed political agenda for the coming year. The ruling party, the Labour Party, drafted this program.

A positive point in the Queen's Speech was a statement of commitment to fighting domestic terrorism, including attacks on resource providers and animal-based industries. "My Government are determined to combat terrorism," she said. "A Bill will be introduced to modernise and make permanent the powers available to respond to all forms of terrorism." Additionally, new powers will be granted to the State to seize the assets of terrorists.(3)

The current definition of terrorism in the UK was drafted in response to the Northern Ireland conflict and to international terrorism. The new definition is expected to focus on special interest "domestic terrorism" and to be copied from the US's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).(4)

Terrorism in the US is officially defined by the FBI as "... the unlawful use of force or violence, committed by a group(s) or two or more individuals, against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment, thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." In February of 1999, FBI director Louis Freeh reported to Congress that "special interest" domestic terrorism was focused on three conflicts: abortion, the environment and animal rights.(5)

As in the US, attacks on the beef, dairy, fish, fur and poultry industries, and on animal researchers, have escalated in the UK over the last decade. Using tactics reminiscent of the Irish Republican Army, terrorists have subjected farmers and others to midnight masked invasions, burned feed mills and buildings, torched vehicles, made death threats and generally harassed their victims. Letter bombs and arson have become all too common. Those transporting live animals to market are often met with protests, and medical researchers live in a state of siege.

In the summer of 1999, 17 dairy trucks were torched by the Animal Liberation Front and an English farm raising cats for use in research closed after the farmer's 60-year-old wife was chained to a fence and terrorized by "protesters".

People on both sides of the issues have died and been injured. The cost to law enforcement, society and civil debate has been substantial. People have been terrorized into silence. Clearly the British are losing this battle and have decided to make long-overdue changes in their approach to fighting special-interest domestic terrorism.

Predictably, several representatives of the unregulated conflict industry quickly condemned the proposed changes. A spokesman for Earth First! called them "an attempt to criminalise protest" (The Independent, Nov. 16)(6)

Fine Print Attack on Fur Farms

In the middle of this conflict are Britain's fur farming families, 13 farms producing about 100,000 pelts annually. Protests and illegal actions against these fur farms have risen to unprecedented heights in the last 10 years. Tens of thousands of domesticated animals have been released to become roadkill, to be torn to pieces by dogs or to die of dehydration and starvation. Many farms are targeted almost continuously, with the animals being released, recovered and released again.

Ironically, it is this conflict that has placed these peaceful rural farmers in the public eye and on the political chopping block.

Buried in the Labour Party's agenda, but not mentioned in the Queen's Speech, is a proposal to ban fur farming in the UK.(7) Meanwhile, the Queen sported a fabulous white ermine cape and an ermine-trimmed crown as she read her speech. A lover of country life if there ever was one, the Queen was silent on the question of fur but was she trying to make her own statement?

During the last political season, a Private Member's bill was introduced to ban fur farming but it stalled and died. This renewed pledge by the Labour Party should be worrisome not only to Britain's farmers but to resource providers around the world. But the bill still has to be introduced and debated, compensation would have to be worked out for the farm owners, and the bill would have to pass the agricultural lobby in the UK as well as public scrutiny.

"A ban on fur farming in the UK would be totally unjustified,'' said Wim Verhagen, chairman of the European Fur Breeders Association (EFBA). "The fur sector is well regulated and fur farming is recognized in law as part of European agriculture.''

The international retail fur trade is conservatively estimated at $10 billion. Competing head on with the expanding production of petrochemical-based or synthetic "fur" for clothing, over 8,000 farms, in dozens of countries, provide a majority of the world's organic fur and mink oil production. In turn, the domesticated carnivores raised on these farms, primarily mink and fox, consume the byproducts of beef, fish, dairy and poultry production.(8)

Although farmed production is currently the mainstay of the fur trade, it complements fur produced through the harvesting of wild animals, an important tool in wildlife management and a vital export for indigenous communities. Production from fur farms relieves market pressure during times of heavy demand, helping to stabilize prices so wildlife caretakers respond to the dictates of biologists, not the marketplace.

Urban / Rural Split in England

The only mention of concern for the countryside in the Labour Party's legislative agenda was to include additional rights for urban "ramblers" or hikers, and more protection for British wildlife. But not a word about the farmers.(9)

That said, the government's stated intention to introduce a bill for jailtime for offences "against wildlife" such as releasing non-native species into the environment could actually benefit fur farmers when their domesticated mink are stolen and abandoned by animal rights terrorists.

Conservative Party chairman Michael Ancram vehemently attacked the government's plan, saying, "The most extraordinary thing is that at a time when we have the biggest crisis that the rural economy and farming has faced in generations, the only mention of farming is the abolition of fur farms. I think it is the sign of a government which has run out of steam."(10)

Running out of steam? There appears to be plenty of hot air.

God bless the Queen.

Notes:

(1) Click here to view the Queen arriving in ermine and fur-trimmed crown; outside link to BBC.
(2) Click here for full text of the Queen's speech; outside link to BBC.
(3) UK Politics: Action on 'domestic' terrorists at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_524000/524674.stm; outside link to BBC.
(4) For more on the FBI's fight against terrorism see Engaging Political Will, FCUSA commentary, Mar. 4, 1999.
(5) FBI Terrorist Research and Analytical Center, Terrorism in the United States: 1994, Washington, D.C., US Department of Justice, 1995, p.24., From EcoTerror: The violent agenda to save nature by Ron Arnold, p12.
(6) Green Campaigners Condemn Government Move to Extend Definition of Terrorism. The Independent, Nov. 16, 1999. Outside link.
(7) See BBC News, Government to end fur farming; Carnage in the English Countryside, FCUSA commentary, Aug. 20, 1998; and Base Fur Farming Decisions on Animal Welfare, Not Emotion, British Fur Council Press Release, May 14, 1999.
(8) For more information see International Fur Trade Federation; also Discussing Fur's International Future in Amsterdam, FCUSA commentary, Feb. 11, 1999.
(9) See More rights for ramblers and wildlife; outside link to BBC News.
(10) Countryside Alliance at www.countryside-alliance.org/index.html

See also:

Euro Fur Farmers Say Any UK Ban "Totally Unjustified" European Fur Breeders' Association press release, Nov. 17, 1999.

"Britain Sidelined on Animal Welfare," Warns British Fur Trade Association British Fur Trade Association press release, Nov. 17, 1999.

Base Fur Farming Decisions on Animal Welfare Parameters, Not Emotion British Fur Council press release, May 14, 1999.

UK's Fur Farming (Prohibition) Bill "Fundamentally Wrong" European Fur Breeders' Association press release, May 14, 1999.

Teresa Platt, executive director of Fur Commission USA, represents 400 mink-farming families, and serves on the boards of the National Animal Interest Alliance and Alliance for America, groups working to restore people and common sense to the environmental equation. For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 575-5578/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com.

To take a cyber-tour of a fur farm, visit Fur Commission USA's Fur on Film at http://www.furcommission.com/video/index.htm

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