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CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS |
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| MONDAY - MAY 19, 2008 | |
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Understanding Animal Activism vs. Animal Extremism |
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Kay JOHNSON Executive Vice President Animal Agriculture Alliance 1501 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1100 Arlington, VA 22209 USA
Tel: +1 703-562-5160 Fax: +1 703-524-1921
Kay Johnson Smith has worked professionally with agriculture promotion and education for more than eighteen years. She joined the Animal Agriculture Alliance as Executive Director in 1994 and was named Executive Vice President in 2004. Johnson is responsible for all day-to-day activities, as well as program and issue management, industry relations, and serves as the Alliance’s key spokesperson. Smith is the coordinator for the Animal Agriculture Alliance Coalition addressing the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production and serves as the industry coordinator for input to USDA and the OIE for OIE’s initiative developing international animal welfare guidelines. She is also an active in her daughter’s school, church and local community.
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“Organizations Working
Executive Vice President Animal Agriculture Alliance Animal rights is no longer a term only understood and used by those in animal use industries and the activist community. It is a term, or rather a concept, accepted and used more and more by the mainstream public – and generally an endearing one at that.
The rights of animals have become a part of our mainstream culture in America because of the misconception of what “rights” are. Most people think of “rights” as the care and treatment of animals – and to that, the vast majority of Americans would agree it is our responsibility as humans to care for our animals, whether they be cats, dogs, birds, cows, pigs, sheep, chickens or turkeys.
What differs for some is they believe animals should have equal legal rights as humans, therefore, be given the same status as children, the elderly or those with mental illness – those unable to speak out legally for themselves. Generally those people would be considered extremists or zealots because their belief is beyond mainstream. To that end, these extremists are of the opinion that animals are not ours for use for any purpose, and their goal is to eliminate all animal use industries, including and foremost, animal agriculture.
The number of activists that are driven to the extremes of terrorist activities to create economic damage to animal use businesses or use intimidation to threaten individuals to quit their jobs or go out of business are in the minority but the number and severity of the incidents continue to grow. And most believe it’s just a matter of time before an individual or group of people are hurt or killed as a result of their terrorist actions.
The majority of activists, however, use legal means, such as lobbying, ballot initiatives and lawsuits, to accomplish their objectives, and are willing to work toward incremental “wins” to achieve their long term objectives of regulating animal agriculture and/or eliminating it altogether. These groups often present themselves as working for the protection of animals, in particular cats and dogs, all the while their sole objective is to create a vegan society. Because these groups are unsuspecting, have so much power through large memberships and are extremely well-funded, they are by far the ones modern animal agriculture and the associated industries need to be most concerned about long term. |
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While the group that comes to mind most often is PETA, the more prominent groups in this last category include the Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE), Humane Farming Association, In Defense of Animals and others.
Below is just a short list of the most commonly used actions in recent years by these same organizations. The four that are currently most influential are:
Some of the activists’ recent success stories include:
2001: Rhode Island adopt animal guardian legislation. ² 2002: Florida constitution is amended, eliminating gestation stalls for pregnant sows. ³ 2004–2005: New Jersey established standards of care for farm animals in conjunction with farm and animal welfare organizations; Farm Sanctuary sues New Jersey claiming the standards are not humane. 2005: HSUS petitions USDA to amend transportation regulations to include transportation of farm animals by truck under the 28-hour law (already was but unknown to HSUS). 2006: GRACE holds workshops for citizens in Indiana and Ohio to train them to file lawsuits against CAFOs. 2006: HSUS, FS, and other activist groups spend nearly $2 million to pass Arizona Proposition 204 banning gestation crates and veal in AZ. The stakes are high for animal agriculture as these groups gain more credibility, more empowerment and momentum from their wins at the state level, more money from like-minded private foundations and individuals, and more power through partnerships and mergers of activist organizations. With their focus right now being the food and animal agriculture industries, it is more important now than ever that every person involved in the food chain remain vigilant in their own business and work together with producers and other food chain partners to proactively address any issues affecting credibility of agriculture’s commitment to animal care and welfare. Every stakeholder should also meet with their legislators at all levels to ensure their understanding and support for what you do, build good relations in their immediate communities to inform and educate the general public about your commitment, and work to expose these groups for what they really are – vegan led and driven groups working to eliminate the use of animals as well as individuals’ freedom of choice.
While producers, processors, and retailers have not yet felt the sting of decreasing sales, they are beginning to see their choices in production systems and farm locations eliminated through regulation, ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments – and this is only the beginning for these groups.
References 1. Ehart, O.R., 2005. Presentation at Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit, Arlington, VA. 2. In Defense of Animals website, http://www.idausa.org/news/newsarchives/news_ri.html, August 2, 2001. 3. Associated Press, November 6, 2002. 4. Farm Sanctuary website, http://www.njfarms.org/lawsuit_2005.htm, November 2005.
5. Humane
Society of the United States website,
http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/animal_protection 6. Alliance Link, September 28, 2006. 7. Campaign for Arizona Farmers & Ranchers press release, “Out-of-State Animal Rights Militants Pouring Cash into Prop. 204,” November 6, 2006. |
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Eric MORGAN IMPEX Services
International Limited
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“Manchester - Animal Activism in the U.K.”
Eric MORGAN
Born in Liverpool UK, Eric Morgan spent his early working life as an animal technician within the University of Liverpool and various pharmaceutical companies. The animals he worked with ranged from rats, mice, rabbits and guinea pigs through to non-human primates, dogs, cats and farm stock. Eric left the research industry to pursue a career in sales and marketing promoting specialized animal nutrition to the research market. In 1996, with the onset of bio-engineering and genetic modification, Eric recognized the requirement for a streamlined transport service specifically aimed to cover research animals and formed Impex Services Int'l Ltd |
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Doug SMITH L.E.A.R.N. PO Box 6932 Bryan, TX 77805 USA
Tel: +1 979-255-6312 Fax: +1 979-696-7246
Doug is currently a Security Program Manager for the US Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, Special Programs Section.
As the Field Operations Director for LEARN Inc. Doug is responsible for the program management and oversight of customized security and anti-terrorism training to clients, including federal, state, and local government entities and employees. He plans, develops, delivers and monitors training, which focuses on anti-terrorism preparedness, vulnerability assessment of facilities, the development of protective intelligence capabilities, and the implementation of threat management strategies. Assists clients in clarifying training needs; presents customized solutions. |
“Threat Management
Doug SMITH Field Operations Director Law Enforcement Academic Research Network (L.E.A.R.N.)
The Animal Rights movement continues to grow in sophistication and capability. Their goal is the abolition of all animals used in the agriculture industry. Their capability is enhanced by having formed alliances with thirty (30) other like- minded groups and by consolidating their funding to a level of over $290 million dollars. Currently, one of their key issues is the confinement of animals. As such, the process of transporting animals is of interest to these groups. This means they are a credible threat to the animal transportation industry.
Over the past 10 years LEARN Inc. has helped local, state, and federal government agencies, and private industry develop successful threat management strategies. Our clients, come from law enforcement, public health, emergency management, Universities, USDA, DOJ, and various corporate clients.
This presentation provided guidance on setting up a threat management capability for your organization. Topics included protective intelligence and analysis, surveillance detection methods, and threat reporting.
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Doug orchestrated, designed, and delivered a customized anti-terrorism training program for the USDA-FSIS nationwide; his team completed the initiative within the projected budget and 18-month timeline. Additionally he designed a process with the USDA-FSIS media lab to develop a customized, interactive video used to facilitate training; trained 75 selected instructors to deliver a six-hour, short-course of the anti-terrorism course. Designed and implemented an effective and efficient curriculum revision process that ensured all existing programs met Department of State standards. Conceived a customized instructor development course for 18 Department of State High Threat Protection instructors, ensuring they met standards for instructor certification for the Certified Technical Trainer (CTT) competencies. Conceived a national threat and vulnerability course for the Department of Justice, which was delivered across 25 states and regarded by participants as a highly interactive, effective course. Participants represented six disciplines, including fire, medical, law enforcement, public works, administration, emergency management, and federal and state government entities. [ Back to Top ] |
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Last Updated: 19-Jun-2009 |
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