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Date Posted: 08:00:00 11/06/03 Thu
Author: Chel
Subject: It's gone way beyond just saving the lives of pets.

Extreme actions
Animal rights groups use increasingly violent tactics
By Randy Myers and Gary Bogue
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

It's gone way beyond just saving the lives of pets.

Some animal rights groups have turned to more extreme measures to make their point, especially in the Bay Area.

From urging Rodeo to change its name to Unity, to defacing the property of a Sonoma County chef who serves foie gras, to the bombing of two East Bay companies with indirect ties to animal testing, animal rights activists are attracting the attention of the media and the public.

They're also on the minds of FBI agents.

"Over the past few months, there's definitely been an increase in the intensity and the level of damage," said LaRae Quy, an FBI spokeswoman in San Francisco.

Some say extreme measures such as the bombings set back the causes of the animal rights movement and animal rescue organizations.

"It's definitely hindering our work, because we could be classified and thrown in with the extremists by a public that doesn't understand the differences between the different animal groups," said Dave Stegman, executive director of the Valley Humane Society in Pleasanton.

Most animal welfare workers agree extremist measures can be a blow.

Stegman recounted the reaction he saw the day of the Shaklee Corp. bombing.

"I was walking around town, stopping in a restaurant for a cup of coffee, and I could hear people talking, and they were terrified. I heard a wife calling her husband at work on her cell phone and telling him not to come home. She was terrified. Terrorists had bombed a company in Pleasanton.

"And then in the news the next day, you see 'animal rights' is responsible, and there's immediately a link between this and all the good our own organization is trying to do in the local community."

He divides the animal groups into three factions -- animal rescue/welfare, city and county animal services and the advocacy animal rights groups.

The Virginia-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is the best-known and biggest of the advocacy groups. Founded in the '80s by Ingrid Newkirk, it is noted for its in-your-face and media-savvy tactics to generate visceral reactions. The group stresses that its actions are legal -- it uses civil disobedience and never resorts to violence.

PETA's hit-and-run request that Rodeo should change its name was meant to focus attention on animal conditions at rodeos. Just as the unusual idea grabbed headlines and television cameras, the 59th Grand National Rodeo opened at the Cow Palace.

A flurry of media coverage made Rodeo the buzz at water coolers and on talk radio.

But the idea roused outrage in newspaper letters to the editor and on talk radio shows. Did the action trample on PETA's message?

No, said Lisa Franzetta, PETA's campaign coordinator. Three days after the story was plastered on front pages, the number of hits on the group's anti-rodeo Web site skyrocketed.

PETA spokespeople acknowledge their antics are of the "shock and awe" variety. (It has used naked models to oppose the fur trade.) But strip away the P.T. Barnum showiness and the message comes across loudly, said Bob Chorush, PETA's special projects coordinator.

"At the end, when the makeup washes off and all things are as they were, people talk about the issue."

Tony La Russa, the co-founder and chairman of the Animal Rescue Foundation, shares similar anti-rodeo sentiments but says the Rodeo campaign branded PETA as merely goofy.

"I think PETA has done a lot of good things to raise our awareness," he said. "In this instance, they may have gone too far at being silly, in my opinion."

Frustration over not being heard leads some animal advocates to take drastic steps, violating laws and destroying or defacing property. Some of these acts do lead to change.

Extremism has always been a component of the animal rights movement. The recent cluster of Bay Area activities could be due to a bolder, younger generation of activists who demand more action, some say.

"As far as the violence and extremism is concerned, I think you're seeing a small and mostly young element of the animal movement has taken on these tactics," said Kim Sturla, founder of the Animal Place farm sanctuary in Vacaville.

"How representative of the movement this is, I don't know."

Illegal actions like the August break-in and vandalization of the specialty food store and restaurant Sonoma Saveurs, which planned to sell foie gras, snatched the media spotlight. It also achieved activists' goal of alerting the public to how foie gras is made -- by force-feeding ducks with a tube that balloons their livers to an abnormal size. In September, activists released four ducks from a Sonoma farm.

The lawbreakers made the news and generated outrage and support for their cause. This sends a disturbing message for advocates who operate within the law.

"The foie gras thing ... that has been an issue for decades," said Eric Mills of Action for Animals in Oakland.

"A sad message is that violence works. I hate that sort of stuff. I'm for peaceful change and I don't want to do that. I want to change people's minds. I've been doing this for 30 years and I haven't seen too much change."

One of the groups advocating radical change and revolutionary action is the Animal Liberation Front. The FBI labels it a domestic terrorist organization. Formed in the late '70s, the group urges nonviolence but does destroy and damage property, primarily by arson.

The Front is part of a trend toward "special interest extremism," the federal government says.

"The ALF is considered a terrorist group, whose purpose is to bring about social and political change through the use of force and violence," said James Jarboe, FBI chief of domestic terrorism during a 2002 congressional hearing.

Jarboe estimated that the ALF and the Earth Liberation Front committed more than 600 criminal acts between 1996 and 2002. Damage estimates mushroomed to more than $43 million.

The line between advocacy and radical groups can grow thin.

In 2001, PETA contributed $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front "to support their program activities," according to an IRS form filed with the state Attorney General's Office.

The money paid for ELF spokesman Craig Rosenbraugh to travel to Washington, D.C., to testify at a congressional hearing, said PETA spokeswoman Lisa Lange.

"As far as the ALF, we don't have a comment about them," she said. The money was a one-time donation and the group's activities have not injured anyone, she said.

An unofficial spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front says the terrorism label is unfair because the group never hurt anyone, protects life and does not use bombs.

"The greatest example of terrorism is dead bodies," said Rod Coronado.

Coronado was convicted of a 1992 arson at the Michigan State University Research Facility. The blaze destroyed 32 years of research on the fur industry. He served a 41/2 year sentence and said he is not involved with Animal Liberation Front activities.

He says the Liberation Front gets a bum rap. He said the Aug. 28 bombing at the Chiron Corp.'s Emeryville headquarters and at the Shaklee Corp.'s offices in Pleasanton on Sept. 26 were contrary to Liberation Front philosophy. The animal rights group "Revolutionary Cells" has claimed responsibility in the bomb blasts that caused minor damage.

Authorities are seeking a Marin County man, Daniel Andreas San Diego, in connection with the blasts.

San Diego volunteered at In Defense of Animals in Mill Valley four to five years ago. President Elliot Katz describes him as pleasant and a hard worker.

In Defense of Animals espouses nonviolence, Katz said, and frequently pressures laboratories to stop animal testing. Katz says one of his greatest victories was a nine-year battle to close a New Mexico laboratory that used chimpanzees in medical experiments.

He also leads a campaign to change laws to refer to "pet guardians" instead of "pet owners." Berkeley, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Boulder, Colo., and Rhode Island have done so. He has been arrested 37 times for civil disobedience.

These missions aim to heighten awareness and to educate others about animal research. The soft-spoken Katz opposes animal research for scientific and moral reasons.

"It is clear that cruelty and brutality can generate scientific information," he said.

"But we as a society have decided it was wrong to do it on African-Americans, and it was wrong what the Nazis did in the concentration camps, and it was wrong what the Japanese did in their concentration camps.

"But we haven't, as yet, felt that it's cruel to gain scientific knowledge by torturing individuals of other species."

Reach Randy Myers at rmyers@cctimes.com or at 925-977-8419. Reach Gary Bogue at 925-977-8582 or at gbogue@cctimes.com.


Source: www.bayarea.com/mld/cctim...148966.htm

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