Fighting Words From Animal Rights Activists
Below you will find a collection of quotes, all with one thing in common: they come from the leaders of non-profit tax-exempt public benefit charities.
Fighting words are fueling a wave of violence sweeping America today, and all at taxpayers’ expense!
Acts of violence and intimidation by animal rights and environmental extremists have assumed epidemic proportions. Hardly a day goes by without another arson, act of vandalism or physical assault claimed by the shadowy Animal Liberation Front or Earth Liberation Front. But when the perpetrators are caught, they are typically teenagers with no real knowledge of how the world works.
So who puts the idea into their heads that it’s OK to terrorize a livestock farmer, vandalize a research lab, burn down an apartment building, or destroy logging equipment? Who are the cheerleaders for the criminals, the eco-terrorists?
When we looked, we were shocked. So many of them were enjoying non-profit tax-exempt status as 501(c)(03) charities, sanctioned by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as working for “public benefit”.
If you believe that organizations which incite others to break the law should be audited by the IRS, fined, penalized, and even have their tax-exempt status retroactively revoked so they, at the minimum, have to pay taxes like everyone else, then read on …
Animal Defense League – Los Angeles (EIN: 95-4823289)
Although her organization does not use illegal tactics, Pamelyn Ferdin said she supports those who do – including the Animal Liberation Front, a secretive international group on the U.S. Justice Department’s list of domestic terror organizations – and believes their help will help win the battle.
We support those brave warriors out there who take it to the next level…
Pamelyn Ferdin in Animal Activists Toughen Tactics. Some have moved beyond protesting to vandalism and threats against city officials, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 8, 2005.
I don’t think you’d have to kill too many [researchers]. I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives.
Dr. Jerry Vlasak, director Animal Defense League (EIN: 95-4823289) and board member, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (EIN: 93-0792021); Animal Rights 2004 convention, Los Angeles, CA, 2004.
The Animal Defense League is an above-ground animal rights group, but fully supports the great work done by the underground Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in freeing animals …
Website of Animal Defense League – Los Angeles; as of July 17, 2003.
ALF is classified by the FBI as a terrorist group. ADL should clarify whether “supports” means providing the means to commit crimes, or whether it merely “approves” of those crimes, which would be protected speech.
ADL-LA differs from many other animal rights and welfare groups in that we feel different tactics are warranted than have been widely used in the movement. While we acknowledge that many hands are needed on many oars, we think there are more effective strategies than writing letters, participating in boycotts, and holding signs. Each of these tactics has their place, and we use them as well, but we frequently risk our personal freedom in the form of civil disobedience to show the animal abusers in our midst that they may not continue business-as-usual. When arrested we regularly refuse to pay the government in the form of bail or fines, and we do not plead guilty to any of their charges; it is the animal abusers who are the guilty ones. We also do not accept probation as this limits our future effectiveness as activists. Though many ADL-LA members do not take part in C.D. or get arrested, we whole-heartedly support those that do and believe in the No Compromise philosophy outlined here.
Website of Animal Defense League – Los Angeles; as of July 17, 2003.
ADL hereby admits that as standard business practice it both breaks the law through civil disobedience and violates IRS Revenue Ruling 75-383.
I think we do need to embrace direct action and violent tactics as part of our movement … I don’t think we ought to be criticizing someone, whether we’re criticizing [them] because they’re writing letters, or whether we criticize them because they’re burning down fur stores or vivisection labs. I think we need to include everybody in that circle.
Dr. Jerry Vlasak; Animal Rights 2002 convention, Washington, DC, June 30, 2002.
Get arrested. Destroy the property of those who torture animals. Liberate those animals interned in the hellholes our society tolerates.
Dr. Jerry Vlasak; Internet post to AR Views list, June 21, 1996.
(For more quotes see: In their own words – Animal Defense League)
We have found that civil disobedience and direct action has been powerful in generating massive attention in our communities … and has been very effective in traumatizing our targets.
J.P. Goodwin, when still executive director of CAFT; in 2001, he left to work for the Humane Society of the US; National Animal Rights Convention (US), June 27, 1997.
It’s time for the animal rights movement to take this industry and drive the final nail into the coffin by whatever means it takes. If that means being outside the executives houses, if that means blockading their doors, whatever it takes.
J.P. Goodwin; speech “No More Fur: Bringing the Fur Industry To Its Knees,” World Congress for Animals, Washington, D.C., June 20, 1996.
We have a no-nonsense approach to destroying the fur trade. That means protests, civil disobedience and outreach, as well as supporting the ALF.
Mike Nicosia, founder of Long Island NY chapter of CAFT; quoted in “Big brother under the bumper; Boulder residents find mysterious tracking systems on their cars,” Boulder Weekly (CO), July 17, 2003.
Compassionate Action for Animals (EIN: 41-1846192)
We as a movement should embrace the Animal Liberation Front. They ignore laws that regard animals as our slaves and our servants, as our property and our possessions. They disobey laws that aid in the oppression of our fellow species. Because these actions are illegal, ALF members remain anonymous. However, if you were to meet them, you would find that they often times look very much like you and me, because that’s who they are.
Freeman Wicklund, executive director, Compassionate Action for Animals, formerly Animal Liberation League; founder in 1992 of Students Organization for Animal Rights (SOAR), an officially recognized student body at the University of Minnesota; speech “The Animal Liberation Front: Following Your Conscience,” World Congress for Animals, Washington, D.C., June 21, 1996.
We, as the forward-thinking people of today, should recognize the fact that there is nothing wrong with breaking unjust laws in the pursuit of justice. Damaging property saves animals
Freeman Wicklund, ibid.
Let us celebrate the freedom the ALF gives our brothers and sisters of other species. Let us march arm in arm with the ALF toward the common goal of total animal liberation.
Freeman Wicklund, ibid.
Houston Animal Rights Team (EIN: 76-0147586)
CALA supports the ALF because we understand the importance of illegal direct action in any movement.
Tony Nocella, president; co-founder, Radical Education Community; head of Center for Animal Liberation Affairs; CALA mission statement.
As a person that feels that all tactics must be represented in a respectful manner, I have a responsibility to make sure that property destruction is represented as nonviolent. It is also my responsibility to represent property destruction in a positive manner (describe the benefits of property destruction) instead of only representing the negatives (which marginilize and divide the movement).
Tony Nocella, in “Property Destruction, the Next Tactic,” July 22, 2001, on-line at http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/peace/jul01/msg00012.html
Last Chance for Animals (EIN: 95-4013155)
I always try to say that certain activities like bombings or arson – I always stay away from those things only because they are uncontrollable. There are things that I am against personally but I’ve seen them done and they have worked. For example the Managing Director of HLS [Huntingdon Life Sciences] in England was beaten and that put the fear of whatever into those people. It did start to shake up what was going on over there. I think the man that did it got 3 to 5 years but something like that, I think, had an effect. Now am I endorsing that? Not publicly. If it happens and it works, then that’s great.
Chris DeRose, president; in an interview with Animal Liberation NSW (Australia), 2002, on-line at www.animal-lib.org.au/more_interviews/derose. DeRose is technically engaging in protected speech, but is it his true intent to incite crime?
Liberation Collective (EIN: 93-1209571)
I receive anonymous communications from the ELF and act as a conduit … to let people know these are not just random acts. They have a clear political and social purpose, that’s to end the exploitative and abusive industry practices at hand.
Craig Rosebraugh, founder and member of the Portland, OR-based Liberation Collective from 1996-2000, and ELF spokesman, 1997-2001; after receiving an ELF statement claiming responsibility for an arson attack on US Forest Industries; Associated Press, Jan. 17, 1999.
In the legal system there is a defense called the choice-of-evils defense, and what we are saying with these direct-action cases is that you have to ask the question: Is it a greater evil to destroy this property of this corporation or to choose to allow these corporations to continue to destroy the environment, and I guess what the activists and what I am saying is that I guess it’s a lesser evil to stop these corporations from destroying the planet.
Craig Rosebraugh; New York Times, Dec. 20, 1998.
As long as it doesn’t harm human lives, we approve. I think it was a statement to corporations who continue to exploit and destroy the Earth. And I think it did just that.
Craig Rosebraugh; comment following a $12 million arson attack at Vail, CO; Rosebraugh sent out a statement from ELF claiming responsibility; Associated Press, Denver dateline, Oct. 23, 1998.
I do now feel that the best response to grand juries is to ignore them and refuse to cooperate with them completely. They will be unable to function if no one is cooperating and with enough public outcry they will disappear. It will result in many people being locked up, but our souls and minds will remain free.
Craig Rosebraugh; comment in the Liberation Collective newsletter; quoted in the Willamette Week Online, Dec. 3, 1997.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (EIN: 52-1218336)
Determined to cause economic injury to the exploiters, ALF members burn down their emptied buildings and smash their vehicles to smithereens. Perhaps, after reading this book, you will find that you cannot blame them.”
Ingrid Newkirk, president; author’s note in Free the Animals : The Story of the Animal Liberation Front, by Newkirk and Chrissie Hynde, published Oct. 21, 2000.
I will be the last person to condemn ALF. … No one has been hurt, they have stopped the hurting of animals.
Ingrid Newkirk; New York Daily News, Dec. 12, 1997.
Would I rather the research lab that tests on animals is reduced to a bunch of cinders? Yes.
Ingrid Newkirk; New York Daily News, Dec. 12, 1997.
I wish we all would get up and go into the labs and take the animals out or burn them down.
Ingrid Newkirk; National Animal Rights Convention (US), June 27, 1997.
I know it’s illegal [trespassing], but I don’t think it’s wrong.
Ingrid Newkirk; Montgomery County Journal (Maryland), Feb. 16, 1988.
[Fredrich]…a co-founder of PETA, says arson, property destruction, burglary or theft are ‘acceptable crimes when they directly alleviate the pain and suffering of an animal’
Alex Pacheco, co-founder; quoted by the Associated Press, Jan. 3, 1989.
If we really believe that these animals do have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then of course we’re going to be, as a movement, blowing stuff up and smashing windows. For the record, I don’t do this stuff, but I do advocate it. I think it’s a great way to bring about animal liberation, and considering the level of the atrocity and the level of the suffering, I think it would be a great thing if, you know, all of the fast-food outlets, and these slaughterhouses, and these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it’s perfectly appropriate … I think it’s perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through the windows, and, you know, everything else along the line. Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.
Bruce Friedrich, vegan coordinator; addressing the National Animal Rights Convention, McClean, VA, July 2001. Through words such as “advocate”, Friedrich is explicitly inciting listeners to commit new crimes, which is illegal.
Do not be afraid to condone arsons at places of animal torture,” he has written to supporters. Matter of fact, if an “animal abuser” were to get killed in the process of burning down a research lab, “I would unequivocally support that, too.
Gary Yourofsky, founder of Animals Deserve Adequate Protection Today and Tomorrow (ADAPTT); resigned March 2002; May 2002 joined PeTA as “national lecturer”; shortly after, went onto retainer; quoted in “Activist devotes life to animal rights”, Toledo Blade, June 24, 2001.
We cannot condemn the Animal Liberation Front … they act courageously, risking their freedom and their careers to stop the terror inflicted every day on animals in labs. [ALF’s activities] comprise an important part of today’s animal protection movement.
PeTA statement issued following $500,000 worth of vandalism at mink feed facility in Edmonds, WA, for which ALF claimed guilt; June 19, 1991.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (EIN: 93-0792021)
I have organized and led hundreds of campaigns and they have all been important. I think our most successful campaigns have involved the sinking of whaling ships.”
Paul Watson, founder, interviewed for Bite Back magazine, Issue #3, summer 2003.
Here are my prison credentials. Two weeks in an Iranian jail in 1972 on charges of espionage. One day in a Seattle jail in 1977 on charges of trespass. Ten days in a Quebec Jail in 1980 on charges of breaking the Canadian Seal Protection Act by protecting a seal. Ten days in a Quebec jail in April 1983 awaiting bail on charges of Conspiracy to break the Canadian Seal Protection Act by conspiring to save seals. Ten days in December 1983 on a conviction ordering me to serve 21 months in prison for Conspiracy to break the Canadian Seal Protection Act by conspiring to protect seals. One day in an Icelandic jail in 1989 awaiting a determination on charges that were not laid. Five days in 1993 in Newfoundland awaiting bail on charges of Mischief to save cod fish. Ten days in 1995 for Accessory to Mischief for saving cod fish. One day in Germany in 1997 on a Norwegian Interpol warrant for sinking a whaling ship. Released and rearrested in the Netherlands on the same Interpol warrant and held for eighty days in 1997 awaiting an extradition hearing to Norway.
Paul Watson, ibid.
Shortly after the sinking of half the Icelandic whaling fleet in 1986, a former colleague of mine from Greenpeace approached me to tell me that what we had done in Iceland was a ‘cowardly, despicable, criminal, and unforgivable action.’ I answered, ‘So what? We did not sink those ships for you or for any of the six billion hominid assholes on this planet. We sank them for the whales. Find me one whale that disagrees with the action and we will no longer do such things but until then, we could not give a damn what human beings have to say about the action’.
Paul Watson, ibid.
There is no such thing as violence against property. There is only violence against life. Destroying an object that is used to violently injure or take life is in fact an act of non-violence.
Paul Watson, ibid.
It’s always makes me smile to hear of [convicted ALF arsonist] Rod Coronado or Alex Pacheco referred to as bigger than life activists. I knew them when they were idealistic teenagers. But I also see them as examples of how individuals can make a difference. I witnessed them transform their compassion into passionate activism. Both men have accomplished much over the years and I admire them both and my loyalty to them is solid. I am proud indeed that Sea Shepherd was able to contribute to their education as activists.
Paul Watson, ibid.
Am I a pirate? I suppose I am if there are those who call me such but I look upon myself as a good pirate in pursuit of bad pirates. … I am a good pirate because my crew and I have saved countless lives of creatures as diverse as sea-cucumbers to sharks, to sea-turtles to whales, to seal to cod, and so many more wonderful and valued species. So in answer to your question as to if I am a 21st Century pirate, my answer is that yes, in a world run by evil, profit mongering, violent, resource plundering, mass killing buccaneers, I am one of those rare pirates who seeks not profit, nor blood, treasure, or gain. I seek stability and conservation, protection, and the satisfaction of saving lives.
Paul Watson, ibid.
Sea Shepherd activities require very delicate strategies. We walk a fine line between legal and illegal. To date, we have avoided criminal convictions. The one exception was when Ben White was arrested in Florida for attempting to rescue captive dolphins. The attempt failed. Sea Shepherd was hit with an $8,000 legal bill and we narrowly avoided a civil suit.Ê White acted in Sea Shepherd’s name without the know-ledge of the Sea Shepherd board. He was quite aware of the Sea Shepherd policy that prohibits any illegal action within U.S. territorial waters. We operate internationally, and we need the sanctuary of the U.S. to be effective. White’s actions threatened the security of Sea Shepherd.
“Attacks on Sea Shepherd are unfair,” by Paul Watson, Animal People, December 1993.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a law abiding organization. We rigidly adhere to and respect the laws of nature or lex natura. We hold the position that the laws of ecology take precedence over the laws designed by nation states to protect corporate interests …
Paul Watson, in a “letter to the Norwegians” in the newspaper Nordlys, Jan. 8, 1993.
We confront dangerous people. As the captain, it is my responsibility to protect the lives of my crew … Therefore, I have prepared myself for the possibility of defending my crew in a situation that could never occur, but if it does I will use firearms to first intimidate and then to defend.
Paul Watson, quoted in the Los Angeles Free Weekly, Apr. 24, 1992.
The scuttling of the Nybraena was not a terrorist or criminal act. We were responsible for removing an instrument of death and destruction without causing death or injury.
Paul Watson, on the 1992 scuttling by Sea Shepherd of the totally legal Norwegian fishing and whaling boat Nybraena.
We had rules about not hurting anyone, about not using weapons. I left because those rules and that philosophy seems to be changing.
Scott Trimmingham, former president, on announcing his departure, Outside magazine, September 1991.
I was the person who first thought up the tactic of tree-spiking and as such I feel obligated to defend this child of my imagination.
Paul Watson, in “In defense of tree-spiking“, for Earth First! Journal, Sept. 22, 1990.
FRUM: Mr. Watson, how easy is it to raise money against the seal hunt?
WATSON: Well I think that of all the animals in the world or any environmental problem in the world, the harp seal is the easiest issue to raise funds on. Greenpeace has always managed to raise more money on the seal issue, for the campaigns, than have actually been spent on the campaigns themselves. The seal hunt has always turned a profit for the Greenpeace Foundation. And the other organizations like IFAW, API, Fund for Animals also make a profit off of the seal hunt.
FRUM: Are you suggesting that they fight for seals rather than other animals because it’s easy, or easier, to raise money that way, or because it’s a profit maker for them?
WATSON: Well, it’s definitely because it’s easier to make money and because it does make a profit. Because there are over a thousand animals on the Endangered Species List and the seal isn’t one of them, the harp seal isn’t one of them.
In an interview with Barbara Frum, for CBC Radio, 1978.
