PETA or Medical Research?

[Klaus]

PETA or Medical Research?

Friday, May 27, 2005

By Steven Milloy

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a campaign last week against a drug testing company for alleged violations of animal welfare laws.

It?s a smokescreen for animal rights extremists? real agenda ? a complete ban on the use of laboratory animals.

PETA claimed at a news conference last week that one of its staffers worked undercover at a biomedical research lab in Vienna, Va., run by Covance, Inc., allegedly videotaping technicians improperly handling monkeys.

Covance, which doesn?t have a history of violating animal welfare laws and regulations, responded in a statement that PETA?s undercover work was illegal and urged the media ?not to leap to conclusions about the truthfulness of these allegations, or the authenticity of any videotape and what PETA alleges it depicts,? according to the Associated Press.

While the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has jurisdiction over the applicable animal welfare rules involved, sorts out fact from fiction, let?s not lose sight of the threat to us all posed by animal rights extremists.

PETA flat-out opposes the use of animals in medical research, claiming that ?Even animal research that is carried out for ?medical purposes? tends to be irrelevant to human health.? This claim is ridiculous.

Not only has research with laboratory animals led to countless medical advances for people ? including with respect to vaccines, drugs, smallpox, diabetes, heart disease, surgery, organ transplants and much more ? but also for animals.

?For years, there was basically one way to treat sick pets: Put them to sleep. But today they can live happy, long lives,? says the Foundation for Biomedical Research, an organization ?dedicated to improving human and animal health by promoting public understanding and support for the humane and responsible use of animals in medical and scientific research.?

The crusade by animal rights extremists against medical research stoops far below respectful, non-violent philosophical difference.

?Early one recent morning, the wife of a pharmaceutical executive was followed to her workplace, her car was broken into and her credit cards were stolen; later $20,000 in unauthorized charitable donations were billed on her cards,? reported the Washington Post earlier this month.

The Post article continued, ?The [Animal Liberation Front] activists, who have asserted responsibility, once scrawled ?Puppy Killer? in red paint on the executive?s house and have posted the couple?s phone, license plate and bank account numbers on the Internet, along with this threat: ?If we find a dime of that money granted to those charities was taken back, we will strip you bare?.?

While PETA has not resorted to such tactics, it appears to condone the Animal Liberation Front's. Here's what PETA has to say about the ALF: ?Throughout history, some people have felt the need to break the law to fight injustice. The Underground Railroad and the French Resistance are both examples of people breaking the law in order to answer to a higher morality.?

PETA may be willing to equate medical researchers with slaveholders and Nazis, but that?s quite a leap in logic and morality for most people.

Congress is getting involved in the issue. Last week, the Senate Environmental Public Works Committee held a hearing into acts of terrorism committed by the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front.

The FBI testified at the hearing that, ?From January 1990 to June 2004, animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents, resulting in millions of dollars in damage and monetary loss.?

The threat may not be limited to property.

?While most animal rights and eco-extremists have refrained from violence targeting human life, the FBI has observed troubling signs that this is changing. We have seen an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics. According to an FBI spokesman, this statement was recently made by one extremist:?If someone is killing, on a regular basis, thousands of animals, and if that person can only be stopped in one way by the use of violence, then it is certainly a morally justifiable solution.??

Nevertheless, animal rights extremists seem to have at least one supporter ? or at least someone willing to look the other way ? in Congress.

Although ranking minority committee member Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., ?strongly condemned the actions of the Animal Liberation Front,? he nevertheless submitted a statement at the hearing on behalf of PETA. Sen. Jeffords, however, must not be aware of PETA?s connections to the Animal Liberation Front.

During the 1990s, PETA made grants and loans totaling $70,990 in support of a self-described Animal Liberation Front member later convicted of committing arson at Michigan State University, according to the congressional testimony of David Martosko of the Center for Consumer Freedom. PETA also has advertised that its leader, Ingrid Newkirk, ?speaks for the Animal Liberation Front,? testified Martosko.

Sen. Jeffords supports expanded medical research with embryonic stem cells ? an effort that no doubt will require the use of laboratory animals. Someone ought to tell Sen. Jeffords that he can?t be for PETA and medical research.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_frien...157819,00.html

[Klaus]

PETA or Medical Research?

Friday, May 27, 2005

By Steven Milloy

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a campaign last week against a drug testing company for alleged violations of animal welfare laws.

It?s a smokescreen for animal rights extremists? real agenda ? a complete ban on the use of laboratory animals.

PETA claimed at a news conference last week that one of its staffers worked undercover at a biomedical research lab in Vienna, Va., run by Covance, Inc., allegedly videotaping technicians improperly handling monkeys.

Covance, which doesn?t have a history of violating animal welfare laws and regulations, responded in a statement that PETA?s undercover work was illegal and urged the media ?not to leap to conclusions about the truthfulness of these allegations, or the authenticity of any videotape and what PETA alleges it depicts,? according to the Associated Press.

While the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has jurisdiction over the applicable animal welfare rules involved, sorts out fact from fiction, let?s not lose sight of the threat to us all posed by animal rights extremists.

PETA flat-out opposes the use of animals in medical research, claiming that ?Even animal research that is carried out for ?medical purposes? tends to be irrelevant to human health.? This claim is ridiculous.

Not only has research with laboratory animals led to countless medical advances for people ? including with respect to vaccines, drugs, smallpox, diabetes, heart disease, surgery, organ transplants and much more ? but also for animals.

?For years, there was basically one way to treat sick pets: Put them to sleep. But today they can live happy, long lives,? says the Foundation for Biomedical Research, an organization ?dedicated to improving human and animal health by promoting public understanding and support for the humane and responsible use of animals in medical and scientific research.?

The crusade by animal rights extremists against medical research stoops far below respectful, non-violent philosophical difference.

?Early one recent morning, the wife of a pharmaceutical executive was followed to her workplace, her car was broken into and her credit cards were stolen; later $20,000 in unauthorized charitable donations were billed on her cards,? reported the Washington Post earlier this month.

The Post article continued, ?The [Animal Liberation Front] activists, who have asserted responsibility, once scrawled ?Puppy Killer? in red paint on the executive?s house and have posted the couple?s phone, license plate and bank account numbers on the Internet, along with this threat: ?If we find a dime of that money granted to those charities was taken back, we will strip you bare?.?

While PETA has not resorted to such tactics, it appears to condone the Animal Liberation Front's. Here's what PETA has to say about the ALF: ?Throughout history, some people have felt the need to break the law to fight injustice. The Underground Railroad and the French Resistance are both examples of people breaking the law in order to answer to a higher morality.?

PETA may be willing to equate medical researchers with slaveholders and Nazis, but that?s quite a leap in logic and morality for most people.

Congress is getting involved in the issue. Last week, the Senate Environmental Public Works Committee held a hearing into acts of terrorism committed by the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front.

The FBI testified at the hearing that, ?From January 1990 to June 2004, animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents, resulting in millions of dollars in damage and monetary loss.?

The threat may not be limited to property.

?While most animal rights and eco-extremists have refrained from violence targeting human life, the FBI has observed troubling signs that this is changing. We have seen an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics. According to an FBI spokesman, this statement was recently made by one extremist:?If someone is killing, on a regular basis, thousands of animals, and if that person can only be stopped in one way by the use of violence, then it is certainly a morally justifiable solution.??

Nevertheless, animal rights extremists seem to have at least one supporter ? or at least someone willing to look the other way ? in Congress.

Although ranking minority committee member Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., ?strongly condemned the actions of the Animal Liberation Front,? he nevertheless submitted a statement at the hearing on behalf of PETA. Sen. Jeffords, however, must not be aware of PETA?s connections to the Animal Liberation Front.

During the 1990s, PETA made grants and loans totaling $70,990 in support of a self-described Animal Liberation Front member later convicted of committing arson at Michigan State University, according to the congressional testimony of David Martosko of the Center for Consumer Freedom. PETA also has advertised that its leader, Ingrid Newkirk, ?speaks for the Animal Liberation Front,? testified Martosko.

Sen. Jeffords supports expanded medical research with embryonic stem cells ? an effort that no doubt will require the use of laboratory animals. Someone ought to tell Sen. Jeffords that he can?t be for PETA and medical research.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_frien...157819,00.html

[PARAGON]

Where's our little co-pilot been working lately?

[h2co-pilot]

Well you know I have to jump on this one.

First of all, Medical research on animals is one of the most pretentious acts of our species. Especially when done in complete negligence. I understand that we need to eat and instincts of this world let nature take it's course. But it is so arrogant to take a life or imprison another creature and rob it of it's time here. Nab one of the bums from the welfare line and grow a dick on his arm.(sorry )

PETA can be extreme, the ALF is famous for it, but thier chief concern should not be looked upon as common malarky. A lot of thier tactics are meant to be that way for the publicity that non-profits can't pay for. Not that I agree with it at all- but that's the purpose. It's conflicting. Sorry for the dogmatism.

AND I like James Jeffords- his switch was noble and you don't see that often enough in politics.

Here is the link to PETA's findings in Vienna:

http://www.covancecruelty.com/index.asp

[Klaus]

CP,

While I love animals (I pity the poor bastard that harms my animals) you should be very careful about letting the end justify the means.

PETA would do well to remember the old saying that "When you lie down with dogs you get up with flees".

Do you really want to help an organization that funds terrorist organizations that go around burning down houses and Hummers?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">
The PETA-ELF connection
A tax return from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals suggests the group isn't just funding anti-fur organizations
By Stefan C. Friedman

New York Post

Nearly six years after the Earth Liberation Front set off its first firebomb in the United States, the feds may have gotten their first break in figuring out who runs this dangerous eco-terrorist group.

In congressional testimony last month, Richard Berman, of the Center for Consumer Freedom, produced a tax return from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). It turns out PETA isn't just funding anti-milk and anti-fur organizations.

It's funding arsonists.

On April 20, 2001, PETA donated $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front to "support their [sic] program activities."

One need look no further than ELF's Web site to see what those activities are: The page features a building engulfed in flames.

According to James Jarboe, domestic-terrorism chief of the FBI's Counter-terrorism Division, ELF is "the largest and most active U.S.-based terrorist group" and has already caused more than $43 million in damage since 1996.

The discovery of the donation is crucial not only because it sheds more light on PETA's misguided sympathies, but also because it could lead to the names of individuals connected to ELF — names that have so far eluded authorities.

This is not the first time PETA has been linked with domestic terrorists. PETA served as "spokesgroup" for the Animal Liberation Front, ELF's close counterpart, from 1989 to 1990.

And while scouring PETA's financials, Berman's folks also found that:

It donated $70,200 to the defense of Rodney Coronado, an ALF member convicted of a fire-bombing at Michigan State University. He pleaded guilty to similar crimes at Oregon and Washington State universities.

In 1999, PETA gave $2,000 to David Wilson, an ALF activist who once bragged about the movement's expansion into "wildlife actions."

In 2000, PETA gave $5,000 to the "Josh Harper Support Committee." Harper is an ALF member arrested on numerous occasions.


PETA's tarnished image

PETA's cuddly image has also been tarnished by its own staff. Spokesman Bruce Friedrich sounded more like an active ELF member than a crusader for animal rights when he said, "It would be great if all the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories and the banks who fund them exploded tomorrow."

PETA's board of directors later had to censure him.

As for the donation to ELF, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk admits giving the money, but claims it was an honest mistake, that the money was supposed to go toward "public education about destruction of habitat."

Maybe, maybe not.

But in a letter to Newkirk, Rep. Scott McInnis (R.-Colo.) poses seven questions, including why PETA made the donation and if it intends to donate again. And, most important: "Whose signature appeared on the returned check that PETA gave ELF?"

If the feds can get that name, it might be able to bust this ring of eco-terrorists wide open.

Now, PETA claims to be a peaceful animal-rights group opposed to illegal activities. If that's true, Newkirk will answer McInnis' questions.

So far, she's not saying what she'll do. But if she doesn't talk, there may be dire consequences for PETA.

Monday, the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, a Bellvue, Wash., -based group that tracks criminal attacks against businesses, sent a complaint to the IRS, asking that PETA's tax-exempt status be stripped because there is "information [that] strongly suggests that PETA induces or encourages the commission of unlawful acts."

Certainly, time is of the essence. As McInnis says, if ELF is not brought to heel, "it's just a matter of time before a human life is taken."

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">“ It would be great if all the fast-food outlets, slaughter- houses, these laboratories and the banks who fund them exploded tomorrow. ”
— Bruce Friedrich, censured PETA spokesman
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[h2co-pilot]

Klaus, I couldn't agree with you more. I joined and volunteered for them. I saw the need for a positive approach in thier movements so I went to school and took classes in graphic design, marketing and business just in hopes that I could volunteer more and turn it around. Then realized that the extremists w/ in the group would not change. The billboard with the hanging cow head aimed at children disgusted me.

So, I started eating meat again- stopped following Phish and pursued school more- I always shaved- so I don't want to hear any ****. My heart just hurts for the little things that can't help themselves.

[PARAGON]

like clams and mussels

[h2co-pilot]

I said "little things"- not "lesbians".