Animal Rights Activists on Usenet-Call to arms

[Michael Holloway]

ATTENTION NETTER RESEARCHERS:

	If you know the difference between animal welfare and animal rights 
and have been incensed (and maybe a little frighten) by the successes of 
radical animal rights extremists, now you have a chance to do something about 
it.  Call up talk.politics.animals on Usenet and shine some light into the 
darkness.  People who are simply curious, and ripe for being confused by 
antiscience propaganda, are reading this newsgroup for information on the 
"debate on animal rights".  What they get are the strange and twisted 
imaginings of PETA and ALF. 
	Remember: PETA isn't "entitled" to their own part of Usenet.  Every 
biologist who knows what to do with Internet newsgroups has every right, and 
I would say an obligation, to do what they can to make sure that the public 
misconceptions about the use of animals in research doesn't get any worse.  I 
think it would be wonderful if everyone who posts to bionet also posted to 
talk.politics.animals on a regular basis.  If you've been living with your 
head in the ground the last few years and still think that "animal rights" 
is some kind of esoteric, scholarly and polite debate then you have no idea 
just how bad things have become.  
	Below this you'll find a typical article in talk.politics.animals.
Unless you're used to being called names and generally insulted you might not 
want to respond to some of the broadsides that you'll get from the advocates.  
Their tactics consist of spreading fanciful distortions and baiting 
researchers to "debate" them.  If you have no tolerance for that sort of 
thing (I know I don't) perhaps you could simply post a copy of your 
institution's public statement on the use of animals in research.  From what 
I've seen, most universities have finally been forced to take positive stands 
to protect the work done on their campus'.  Simple distribution of them over 
Usenet, in an appropriate place like talk.politics.animals, is necessary if 
the public is ever to become aware of their existance.  
	If anyone is interested: the CFAAR (Coalition for Animals & Animal 
Research) Newsletter is a wonderful way to be kept abreast of the animal 
"rights" problem and what's being done to confront the activists.  Student 
membership is just $5, regular membership is $10.  The address is:
	
		CFAAR
		P.O. Box 8060,
		Berkeley, CA   94707-8060

	BTW, I'm just a lowly student member, greatly impressed by their 
newsletter.  If anyone involved with an active CFAAR chapter reads this I'd 
be very happy if you could E-Mail me.

From: spp at zabriskie.berkeley.edu (Steve Pope)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals
Subject: Re: The Moral Side of the Animal Rights Issue
Organization: U.C. Berkeley -- ERL
NNTP-Posting-Host: zabriskie.berkeley.edu

Most animal testing has nothing to do with saving human lives.  For 
example: the UC Berkeley school of optometry tortured and
killed thousands of kittens, for the purpose of developing 
the "radial keratomy" procedure that allows fashion-conscious 
individuals to avoid wearing corrective lenses.. this has nothing to
do with saving lives or even treating an ailment.  Or, at Letterman
Hospital in San Francisco, animals are exposed to the effects of 
bomb blasts, cold water immersion, etc. to see what happens.
And in addition, if your interest is in saving lives, why not divert 
some of the money spent on useless animal testing to providing
basic healthcare to some of the tens of millions of Americans
that need it?

The concept that animal testing is part of some lofty search
for cures to deadly diseases is a myth perpetrated by a greedy medical
industry run by a bunch of corrupt old-boys who pat each other
on the back and hand out research grants to each other, snuffing
animals in the process.  They make me sick.  If I thought that
they were acting responsibly I would not object to a sensible
level of animal testing, and I'm sure many others opposed to
testing fell the same way.  But, despite repeated warnings from
those who oppose the wanton and useless abuse of animals by the
medical industry, these incompetent medical industry refuses to 
adopt any reforms to their senseless behaivor, which wastes
both dollars and lives on a massive scale.  So the only thing left 
to do is to shut them down.



--  Steve