Animal Ag Laments: ALF Risked Killing Cows

Gosh, it's quiet around here... So quiet you could hear the sound of 14 cattle trucks being blown up.


And I bet if such a thing did happen the industry folks would name the act "terrorism".  I bet they'd for call for a lynching and a hanging.  Bet they'd say the offenders should be sent to prison or Gitmo - indefinitely.


But I never figured on hearing their concern over the cows!

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Now that's strange being that Harris Feedlot fattens and kills hundreds of thousands of cows every year... I wonder if this Kim person cares about any of those victims?

And what's the deal with sending the activists to the slaughterhouse to "see how this really works" --- I think they're very well aware of the process. We all are - And none of us likes it one bit.


If trucking billions of innocent beings to their wrongful deaths bothers you, the very minimum you can do is to not participate in their murders.  Others will chose to do more according to what their hearts decide. May we all work towards a more just world.


“War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.”  ~Author Unknown

Violence Justified - Against Legal Terrorism

This isn't the post I was going to write about direct action... But it will more than do for what point I was hoping to make.


Like most who seek compassionate alternatives in their lives I would never think of "forcing" anything on anyone.  In the first place, I know that any authentic changes people make must come from their own desire in order to be lasting.  Secondly... "force", destruction and violence just isn't my style. Oddly enough even before I became aware of hidden injustices that I was participating in... I still always thought myself to be a "peace-nik".  If there was conflict, I consistently sought out a rational way through it.
  
After all, violence is never rational...  Or is it?


Now there are a few occasions that I recall using physical means as protection... Once even against a large, vicious dog that was attacking my vulnerable dog Midas.  It hurt me to do that... I actually kicked the aggressive dog in the face for him to release his bite from my dog... I felt ill at the force that was necessary for me to use.  


Even earlier than that... As a tween I remember being over a friend's house whose father (drunk I suppose), took a belt to her in a wild fit of rage.  The strap clapped on her small body, even tinier than my own, when a giant, confident voice of indignation rose from within me.  With all the strength that my 70 pound body had, I grabbed the man's hand and demanded: "Stop! You're hurting her!"  I think he did out of shame...

I think many times injustice requires stern confrontation to put wrong doing in it's place.  In the defense of ourselves and of others there is a line we all have that will tolerate "No more!".  But with nonhumans it's different.  Those lines we all have, become obscured or erased - as these beings who we know are being violated in the most brutal ways - are "possessions".  And society's rules and laws say because they "belong" to someone, it is not any one's place to interfere with that "legal" ownership... No matter what they do to their "property".

But society has been wrong before... And not all "laws" are right.  So how is it that the best among us still do not come to the direct aid of innocent victims, labeled as "food animals", "lab animals", "fur animals", "production" or "entertainment" animals?  How and why do we remain civil with such atrocities going on?


I think I know the answer and it is found in part in these articles.  Ironically, the first - Do We Need a Militant Movement to Save the Planet (and Ourselves)? is co-authored by Lierre Keith the writer of the Vegetarian Myth. And the other is written by Mikey Z: Our way of life is the problem
In both articles the agreement is that most of us live comfortably where the risks and possible sacrifices incurred in "illegal" dissent might be more than most of us want to make... 


Perhaps Peter Young speaking at the 2011 Animal Rights Conference touches on some truth when he suggests we might not fight so hard for nonhumans because of unacknowledged speciesism... 

But some do engage in direct action in spite of the consequences:  Like Daryl Hannah, the SHAC 7,  Kumi Naidoo, Tim deChristopher, and less famous others...  And most recently it is Steve Hindi founder of SHARK who was assaulted a few nights ago - Hit by a vehicle whose driver was caught attending the shameful Berk's County Pigeon massacres.  This is not the first time Hindi has been assaulted.  Clearly animal rights activists risk personal safety, their very lives and liberty.  It's true... The blood shed goes beyond the nonhuman victims and to the activists themselves.


I hope that it is here that I can admit to sometimes being cautious for my own safety and that my courage lacks the follow through that I know the victims deserve.



But like many, what I do as an activist or what happens to me by being such, affects others in my life...  When you're alone - You can do what you want. When others love you - It's not that simple...  I can't and don't do what my heart tells me I should.  I stay within the laws even though I don't respect them... This I think for everyone - Is the hardest thing about knowing what justice is but not taking direct action to make it so. 


So... The point I wanted to make was that none of us really knows what will be the catalyst or the breaking point that lets us cross "that line" beyond lawful (peaceful) advocacy... But  for those who do - I hope we all support them as the heroes they truly are!