AR2003: Been There, Done That, Bought the T-Shirt

By FCUSA Executive Director Teresa Platt

"Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt," was how Jacquie Calnan of Americans for Medical Progress summed up the Animal Rights 2003 conference, June 27 to July 1. And that was just AR2003 East, in Washington, DC. This year, for the first time, there was also an AR2003 West, in Los Angeles, Aug. 1-5. But by all accounts, the T-shirt was exactly the same.

Ditto, said I, thinking, "Another year, another couple of hours lost to reading conference reports filled with disgusting quotes and nonsensical arguments."

Yes, I know they're against humans benefiting from and owning animals, any animals, including pets. Yes, I know they want to pave over the planet with soybeans and wrap us all in cotton, hemp and synthetics. Yes, I know they hate most chefs, farmers, and all fishermen, hunters, fashion designers who insist on using silk, leather, wool, fur and sheepskin, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Yes, I know they plan on taking over the world. And yes, I get it: they really, really mean it, and some of them are really, really angry.

So, to get in the mood, I donned a recently donated gag gift, an Animal Liberation Front T-shirt. I was immediately flooded with a sense of paranoia. Would FBI agents soon be breaking down my door? I felt tremendous guilt by association just wearing the T-shirt of a group dedicated to crime, to torching everything the human race has built. It was quickly off and into the rag bin. I'll use it to clean my car.

HSUS and PeTA go MIA

After more than a decade of high-profile involvement, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) were missing from the list of sponsoring organizations for AR2003, both East and West. But of course, their influence was not lost.

HSUS's "Eating With a Conscience" vegan morality play continued with the presence of their campaigner Howard Lyman, among others. And former PeTA protégés Nathan Runkle and Patrick Kwan were there, along with many others.

The UK exported their animal rights messages via Lauren Sullivan Ornelas of Vegetarians International Voice for Animals (formerly of the Rainforest Action Network), and Kim Sturla of the Fund for Animals / Farm Sanctuary was also in the thick of things.

There was no shortage of presenters with substantial arrest records, as reflected by the organizers of one workshop, "Coping with Law Enforcement (permits, arrests, jail time, grand juries, law suits)" with Stephen Best, Rodney Coronado, Jerry Vlasak and Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson. And there were plenty of supporters of the Animal Liberation Front and their ecoterrorist ilk.

My favorite presentation was entitled, "Slaughter in the Fields (destruction of wildlife and their habitats by animal agriculture)". No mention was made of the slaughter in the fields caused by soybean and cotton production, but then that would have hit too close to home.

Lots of tossing rocks. No mention of their own glass houses.

What Price Liberation?

Property Destruction Great, Assassination Good AR2003 participants were asked to rate the following methods of achieving their goals. Here are the shocking results:
.	Moral (%)	Effective (%)
1. Civil Disobedience	100	100
2. Unmasked Animal Liberation (ex. open animal rescues)	95.7	87
3. Masked Animal Liberation	91.3	82.6
4. Unmasked Property Destruction of Equipment	82.6	73.9
5. Masked Property Destruction of Equipment	69.9	56.5
6. Property Destruction as Economic Sabotage	52.2	34.8
7. Threats against People as Destructive Sabotage	52.2	30.4
8. Threats against People as Intimidation (death threats)	26.1	26.1
9. Physical Assault	26.1	21.7
10. Political Assassination	21.7	17.4

Known for its radical rhetoric, this year's Animal Rights Conference was no exception.

During a workshop at AR2003 East entitled "What Price Animal Liberation", the group discussed what types of tactics they'd support: legal, illegal, civil disobedience, property destruction, and even political assassination.

The audience received a survey asking them to evaluate 10 different illegal tactics for achieving their goals and circle those which they considered moral and/or effective. The votes were tallied and the results were shocking (see box, right).

The entire audience felt that civil disobedience was both moral and effective. There was plenty of support for wearing masks and destroying equipment. Threatening people was considered o.k. by over half the group if it was seen as "destructive sabotage", but a threat to "intimidate", such as a death threat, was supported by "only" 26%.

More shocking, over 26% of those polled felt physical assaults were moral and 22% believed beating someone up was effective. Almost 22% believed political assassination was moral and over 17% felt it was effective in furthering their agenda.

Ouch. With survey results like this, why are we surprised at some of the violence this "movement" is generating?

AR 2003 Goes West with a Bang

Like AR2003 East, AR2003 West in Los Angeles was a few hundred of the blind leading the blind. But the real action was further south, in San Diego.

Convicted ALF arsonist Rodney Coronado was booked by San Diego Revolution Summer organizer David Agranoff for a presentation on the evening of Aug. 1. At 3 a.m. the same day, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) claimed guilt for torching a local apartment building under construction, leaving a banner stating, "If you build it, we will burn it."

Supported by various non-profits and anarchist groups, Revolution Summer held most of its events on the campus of University of California at San Diego, at the Ché Café, a non-profit, "student/community run and owned Co-op at UCSD."

Coronado's presentation was held off campus, at the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center, which is supported by the City of San Diego and the County taxpayer dollars, non-profit United Way as well as Bank of America and other corporate sponsors.

Coronado presented his now-standard instruction on basic arson mixed with an anarchist's "maximum destruction / bring down the capitalist death machine" message. Anyone who doesn't know what they're getting when they ask this man to speak must be unconscious. So we wonder why he's still on the non-profit lecture circuit.

By the end of the weekend, McDonald's had been protested, various stores were marred by graffiti, protesters were bussed up to Chino to harass dairy farmers, and a construction site was chosen for the latest ELF arson. The destruction at the apartment project alone has been priced at over $50 million, making it by far the most costly ELF arson to date. (See FCUSA editorial: Money Talks in San Diego Blaze)

If You Burn It, We Will Build It

With busy La Jolla Village Drive on the north, the 805 Freeway on the east, a synagogue to the west with a birds' eye view of the charred ruins, and apartments and condos to the south, ELF's arson site is completely framed by human development. Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes as the flames soared into the air.

Within hours of the fire, the developer, Garden Homes Management, ordered lumber to rebuild, a process estimated to take the next year. Garden Homes is owned by descendents of brothers Joseph and Harry Wilf, who came to America from Poland shortly after World War II. They had survived the Holocaust, while Joseph had also spent time in a Soviet labor camp. The Wilf descendents work for the company and the family is known for its contributions to charities and Jewish causes.

Convicted felon Coronado was available for ELF's press work and who knows how many other lectures he's booked due to the publicity. He may be coming to speak to your kids at a college near you, so stay tuned!

Capitalism was delivered the bill for San Diego's Revolution Summer and taxpayers will pay, along with insurance companies. The non-profits who organized this anarchy weekend will not pay a dime. They're tax-exempt "public benefit charities" sanctioned by the IRS to do "good works". We don't believe that promotion of crime is charitable work and we urge the IRS to do its job and clean up the non-profit sector. The IRS should use fines and penalties, revocation of tax-exempt status and serve these groups with bills for payment of back taxes! No more promoting crime with a tax-exempt dime! .

Resources:.

FCUSA Press Kit Special Feature: Safe Farms Campaign

FCUSA Press Kit Special Feature: Regulating the Conflict Industry

FCUSA chronology of animal extremist / eco-terrorist crimes

In Their Own Words : A Selection of Revealing Quotes from the Leaders of the Animal Rights Movement

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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