PETA: Cruel and Unusual

Human Events, Jan 16, 2006 by Murray, Iain, Osorio, Ivan

The FBI recently declared environmental and animal rights extremism its top domestic terrorism priority. The Bureau is currently investigating over 150 cases of arson, bombings, and other violent crimes related to these movements. Law enforcement authorities are rightly concerned about the fanaticism over animal "rights" used to justify violent criminal behavior.

The philosophy of animal "rights" espoused by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is very different from a philosophy of humane treatment of animals. An organized movement for animal welfare dates back to 1824, when William Wilberforce-a leader in the campaigns to abolish slavery in the British empire and to improve conditions in factories-helped establish the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in London. Wilberforce's revulsion over cruelty to animals was consistent with the Christian principles on which he based his life's work.

But kindness to animals is a far cry from the extremism of animal "rights" advocates. Where once animal welfare organizations promoted Wilberforce's understanding of man's duty toward animals, PETA activists demand a recognition of animal "rights." The difference between those two concepts is great. A decent concern for animal welfare has mutated into a tangle of ideas that have major social consequences. Industry and agriculture are disrupted, medical and scientific research are delayed, and the lives of those whose work involves animals are threatened by violence as a result of the passion for animal "rights."

Enter PETA

In 1983, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote these amazing words in a Washington Post article: "Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses." This disturbing statement well illustrates PETA's twisted worldview. According to PETA, animal "rights" derive from the moral equivalence between man and animal. Advocates are perfectly serious when they argue that just as we do not experiment on or eat babies, neither should we experiment on or eat animals. Taken to its logical conclusion, their view is that humans should not use animals for any purpose whatsoever.

Bear this in mind when you consider PETA's recent allegations of animal abuse at a Fairfax County, Va., facility run by Covance, a Princeton, N.J.-based international medical research firm. PETA's willingness to sponsor a long-term espionage project against a respected medical firm reveals the lengths to which it will go.

Covance develops new medicines to treat Alzheimer's, breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, heart disease, diabetes, and leukemia. Lisa Leitten, a PETA employee, worked undercover at the firm for nine months in 2004-2005 collecting data on its animal care practices. PETA posted on its website several videos Leitten acquired, claiming they were evidence of animal cruelty. The group spent tens of thousands of dollars to buy a full-page ad in the New York Times in June 2005 publicizing the videos. Covance disputed the charges and filed a lawsuit against PETA protesting Leitten's covert and deceptive actions. After a lengthy court battle, Covance and PETA reached a settlement last October. According to Covance, its terms bar PETA from "conducting any infiltration of Covance" for five years. In addition, Leitten agreed to a three-year ban "on infiltrating any commercial animal research facility worldwide." According to the Associated Press, Leitten had in the course of three years "moved from Missouri to Texas to Virginia, applying for jobs at businesses dealing with animals."

Frederick Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, and Adrian Morrison, a University of Pennsylvania professor of veterinary medicine, have written, "PETA made it clear that alleged mistreatment of animals was not the real issue. In PETA's view, animals cannot be used to alleviate health problems of people, period." Kidney transplants, cardiac surgery, alleviation of manic-depression, and treatment of hypertension are all examples of medical advances that benefit from animal experimentation. Researchers are now testing new drugs on animals to find treatments and cures for many diseases that kill millions every year. Yet to the PETA activist, these potential benefits matter not one whit, because the animals used in tests have no fewer rights than any human.

PETA's extremist views are accompanied by extremist associations. PETA activists have a long history of association with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and a related underground organization, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Former FBI Director Louis Freeh called ALF "one of the most active extremist elements in the United States." PETA has made small grants to ELF over the past ten years, and it has provided money to ALF defense funds-such as a grant of $45,000 to a "support committee" for the defense of ALF member Rod Coronado. Coronado was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to 57 months in a federal prison for the 1992 fire bombing of a research lab at Michigan State University. In 2002, he boasted about his involvement in six other cases of arson. When ABC news reporter John Stossel asked PETA president Ingrid Newkirk in 2003 about Coronado's activities, she called him "a fine young man."