ALF Pushing Nonsense Philosophy
Farmers Issue Challenge

IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT ATTACKS by the Animal Liberation Front on American fur farming families, resource providers, medical researchers and others, Fur Commission USA would like to:

1) offer a few comments on recent statements from the North American ALF Press Office,

2) issue a challenge to ALF, and

3) explain why farmers are renaming the ALF the Animal Elimination Front (AEF).

A Few Comments

After the attack on the Earl Drewelow & Sons Fur Farm, a terrorist group called the Animal "Liberation" Front (ALF) admitted responsibility for the crime and lamented, "Inside the sheds we found a horrific scene – thousands of mink crammed 2-3 to a tiny wire cage, waiting to die in a mess of waste and cobwebs."(1) The ALF spokesperson stated, "... there is no justification for the abuse and torture of animals for any luxury item such as fur coats ... the conditions in which these animals are kept are comparable to overcrowded prison populations. I would go so far as to say a Nazi death camp."(2)

Over the top statements? Definitely.

Since less than 3% of the Earth can support crops to feed and clothe us, humans remain dependent on animal agriculture and harvests of wild animal stocks for food, clothing and other products. Once we accept this simple fact, discussion over how we interact with the animals can proceed.

Mink are bred on over 10,000 farms in dozens of countries around the world. Mink, which are carnivores, live off the leftovers from human food production, filling a niche in the agricultural food chain, the same niche they fill in the wild.

Mink are generally raised in small barns or "sheds", producing litters from 3 to as many as 13 kits. (The average litter in the US is 4.26 kits per female bred.) So for a portion of the year, the mink share a pen with 4 or 5 or 6 or 13 other mink. It is not "crammed" - it is normal. As the mink grow, they are most contented sharing pens with their littermates, 2 to 3 young mink to a pen. Some farmers reduce this to one animal per pen when the animals are mature, but many farmers feel the animals thrive with littermates throughout their lives. Obviously, the ALF knows nothing about rearing mink.

The ALF were aghast to see cobwebs and animal fecal matter in the sheds. We wonder what the ALF have against spiders which we always thought were a perfectly natural and normal part of farm life. In a mink shed, the spiderwebs gather fur from the animals and become heavy with it, what the ALF described as "cobwebs." This is normal and doesn't bother the mink or the spiders in any way. At the end of the season, of course, the shed is thoroughly cleaned. Also normal is animal waste below the pens in the sheds. Have animal, have poop! This perfectly natural product falls beneath the pens, away from the animals, and is retrieved regularly by the farmer. This animal waste is the source of much of the organic manure for use on the plant crops which the angry vegans of the ALF ignorantly insist should be the sole food and clothing source for 6 billion people. Obviously, the ALF knows nothing about farming.

The ALF admitted responsibility for the attack, describing ranches and farms raising cattle, chickens and other animals as "torture chambers and concentrations camps"(1) and even making the outrageous comparison of a country farm to a "Nazi death camp."(2) The ALF have claimed their horrendously cruel crime against animals to be a "beautiful act of compassion,"(1) as if abandoning animals to miserable, slow deaths in the wild is morally superior to hard-working people raising healthy animals on ranches and farms. It appears this terrorist group feels that, for animals, any life or death, no matter how miserable, brutal or short, is better than any life or death with any involvement by humans. This negates the fact that man is part of nature and is the only animal that adheres to moral codes on his behavior over other animals. Cruel deaths are the norm in nature and even raising crops has an impact on animals in terms of habitat loss, pollution and the deaths of animals for "pest" control and during harvesting.

The ALF insist that their practice of forcing domesticated animals out of their barns and into the wild is humane. The ALF insist that brutal, painful, slow deaths by starvation, being torn to pieces by dogs, or run over by cars is superior to life on a country farm. In reality, even with the best survival skills, most wild mink do not make it through the first six months of life. On a farm, with man's help, virtually all the mink make it through their first year and the finest animals are kept for the next year as breeding stock to continue this annual cycle. The animals are fed and watered by man, immunized by man, their fecal matter is cleaned up and used by man, they are nursed through sickness and disease and protected from predators by man, and they are quickly and humanely killed, by man, with methods approved by the veterinarians of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The entire animal is used: for clothing, mink oil, protein meal, bases for cosmetics, paint, tires and more. (For more information see Fur Farming in North America.)

Farmers Issue a Challenge

The ALF are a group of terrorists. They are attempting to impose their nonsense philosophy on the most down-to-earth people on the planet, farmers. When so many options for communicating are available, the ALF have embraced violent methods to make their misguided point: arson, theft, animal abandonment, animal cruelty, death threats, anything. Hundreds of thousands of animals have died miserable deaths from this crusade, and human beings have been hurt and even murdered by these violent zealots.

We farmers challenge the members of the ALF to put down their swords and pick up their plowshares. They should consider becoming vegetable farmers, if they believe that to be the best way to contribute to providing for people. This we could admire. But if the ALFies take up vegetable farming, they shouldn't come crying to the hunters and trappers when rabbits and rodents feast on their vegetables and deer invade their plots. And these animal "liberators" - or animal eliminators - shouldn't ask farmers for animal manure to fertilize their fields and nourish their crops. Since these animal "liberators" plan on eliminating animals from the environmental equation, let's see if they can do a better job at feeding and clothing the world than the current crop of resource providers.

Then again, maybe that's why the ALFies chose city living punctuated by countryside crime sprees. They'd never, ever make it as country farmers.

Farmers Rename ALF to AEF

For obvious reasons, we farmers have decided to officially rename the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) the "Animal Elimination Front" (AEF). With friends like these, domesticated animals certainly don't need any enemies.

NOTES:

(1) North American ALF Press Office press release, Sept. 8, 2000.
(2) "Activists claim mink release," Waterloo Courier (Iowa), Sept. 8, 2000.

See also:

Press Kit Special Feature: Safe Farms Support Campaign

In Their Own Words : Some of the more outlandish quotes from the mouths of ALF

FLYER: "Animal Rights and Eco-Terrorism : The Price We Pay" One-page handout on animal rights and eco-terror crimes. PDF format.

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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