Animal Rights Activists

[Ridgley]

Do you think animal rights activists have a right to intimidate and terrorise staff who work in companies like Huntingdon Life Sciences?

I was horrified to read how far they are willing to go. For me, groups like this tend to lose support when you start to intimidate companies, send hoax bombs and destroy lives.

[Jeremy]

Ridgley - I think the vast majority would agree with you.

If you look into the recently jailed Huntingdon campaigners, some of them seem to have particularly skewed views, influenced by paganism/druidry. Most of them are quite young, and obviously easily influenced.

[louisiana]

Jeremy, I think that's giving paganism a bad name.

You might as fairly (or more fairly) say that US and UK warmongers and mercenaries have particularly skewed views influenced by Christianity. :-$

[Jeremy]

Maybe they do. Didn't Tony Blair say that God told him to go into war with Iraq, or something along those lines?

[Brendan]

?God made me do it.? is at least more plausible than all that Weapons of Mass Destruction balls.

[Huguenot]

I had a friend at Uni who joined the ALF. She did it because she thought it was thrilling. Nothing to do with the animals, it was all about the anger experience, the people and the action.

[DJKillaQueen]

I had a run in with an ALF activist when the circus was in town (there were two at the gate before the performance). She was trying to tell me that the horses, that were in good sized shelter and looked more than healthy were being ill treated.

I had a conversation with her about horses that work and pointed out that both Police and Funeral horses travel and work more and that she was putting the general issue of animal cruelty (which obviously has merit) before the individual case (and very good condition and welfare) of the horses at this particular circus.

She wasn't interested in anything I had to say and as I walked away she said, and I quote - 'Thank you for SUPPORTING animal cruelty'. Not only was that extremely insulting but I am absolutely the wrong person to be so patronising to. So I then gave her a piece of my mind on what animal cruelty really is and suggested that she should spend her time picketing elsewhere instead of intimidating those going to the circus.

They are extremists, and like all extremists they can't accept any view outside of their own extreme views, which in themselves are sometimes devoid of any real perspective.

There is definitely more that can be done to stop unnecessary cruelty to animals but it is never ok to threaten people. Because of that, even though I would agree with some of the views of animals rights organistaion, I would never stand side by side with any organisation that is so extreme.

[louisiana]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Maybe they do. Didn't Tony Blair say that God told

> him to go into war with Iraq, or something along

> those lines?

Indeed. Which is why I think the OP unfairly impugned pagans by making a far less warranted causal association. Pagans strike me as a pretty inoffensive bunch on the whole.

[Huguenot]

I couldn't actually find any coverage that referred to the religious beliefs of these mindless thugs. Anyone point me in the right direction?

[Ridgley]

It looks like,we are all in some sort of agreement on this issue

[Keef]

Usually it's a couple of nasty bastards who leech on to a cause, shout loudly, and plant seeds of bad behaviour.

[Emerson Crane]

I find it strange that an organisation that is supposedly agaisnt cruelty and pain is ready to inflict the same on fellow human beings. Is it just me?

[Ridgley]

Good point, but you tend to find people like that will put animals first.