It seems congratulations are in order to In Defense of Animals: Nearly a year of picketing, spitting and paint-throwing outside Schumacher Furs has achieved results (for more on this story, see page 15). The store, which had allegedly battled back with signs and threats of its own, is finally hightailing it out of downtown. No longer will Southwest 10th Avenue be tarnished by the peddling of animal skins. Of course, some other location will now be tarnished by the peddling of animal skins. So downtown Portland loses a merchant, and Schumacher gets a parking lot. No price is too high for such progress.
Such is the warped logic of some local (and national) animal rights advocates who have dedicated themselves to the belief that extremism in the defense of fuzzy critters is no vice. But it is now a crime, thanks to President Bush's signing last month of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The law says that if you torch your local furrier or cosmetics-testing facility—or even suggest that the thought has crossed your mind—you will be spending some time in another sort of facility. So the moment couldn't be more ripe for Your Mommy Kills Animals, an evenhanded, wide-ranging documentary that examines how matters reached this sorry state on both sides of the furry divide.
The incendiary title is taken from a PETA comic book (shown above) that delights children with images of "a cute animal and a formerly cute animal," as comedian Drew Carey puts it after a horrified examination. But one of the shocks provided by Curt Johnson's debut film is the discovery that, in fact, PETA itself kills animals. A lot of them: Internal records show the organization (which declined comment) destroys more than 60 percent of the dogs and cats it takes in, a natural result of the conviction that we should give animals liberty or give them death. Mostly it's death.
Not every group comes off as such lethal hypocrites. The British-founded groups Animal Liberation Front and Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty both offer representatives who make an eloquent case for battling animal testing laboratories, and who identify themselves with a tradition reaching back to the abolitionist and suffrage movements. (Watching their teams chant "Puppy killer!" outside the homes of cosmetics investors, I half expected a chorus of "John Brown's bunny lies a-moldering in the grave.") Johnson follows the SHAC troops—including Portland native Josh Harper—as they battle federal indictments. Harper's story is particularly wrenching: He is serving a three-year sentence in Sheridan Federal Correction Institution for operating a website. Apparently, our government thinks this guy is the No. 1 terrorist threat to America.
But one of the first rules any lawyer learns is, bad cases make bad law. And if you've been running a website that publishes the home addresses of Huntington Life Sciences workers alongside celebrations of pipe-bombing, let me suggest you might have a bad case. Your Mommy Kills Animals paints a dire portrait of the state of American civil liberties, but it also makes clear that the protesters outside Schumacher Furs not only are failing to save animals—they're not doing your freedom of speech any favors, either.
Clinton Street Theater. One night only: 7 and 9 pm Wednesday, Dec. 6. $6. All ticket sales benefit the SHAC 7 support fund.
Chad Miller / Food Fight! Grocery
A lot of young people read your publication. I hope they realize it's a bunch of gray-haired baby boomers who are taking away their future, not their brave contemporaries. Free speech - use it or lose it.
However, for some of us facts still matter. Consider:
Fact: Local activists broke no laws in picketing Schumachers.
Fact: Bill Leonard remarked a majority of the blame for how things turned out rested on the Schumachers. Proving the clothes really do make the man and woman, they acted with little class and a loads of histrionics, calling 911 on dozens of occassions and threatening the legal protesters with physical harm.
Fact: The Schumachers, tied by greed to a dead industry, now want to invoke a bad law --AETA, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act -- and declare legal demonstrations the acts of terrorists. Luckily, they have found an ally in Mr. Mesh. I only hope that when speech Mr. Mesh approves of begins to feel the same authoritarian pinch we in the animal rights movement now face, his crash to earth doesn't knock his smirk from his face.
Until then he will likely continue to blithely on, floating on puffs of gas issuing from the same place his silly words emerge -- his ass.
It is my understanding that Josh Harper wasn't convicted for the website, he was convicted for giving a speech. A speech about sending "black faxes" to a company (a black fax is what it sounds like: a fax that's all black. It wastes toner and paper and, apparently, threatens the very foundations of our democracy). Mr. Harper's case was an excellent one. He was convicted for behavior that USED to be protected by the First Amendment. This behavior is now "terrorism" according to our government because it threatens the pocketbooks of the industries that use animals. Mr. Harper is now serving several years in federal prison for speaking out about his beliefs and encouraging creative, yet otherwise peaceful protest. As far as I know, Mr. Harper and the rest never encouraged physical violence against anyone.
Mr. Harper's behavior does not threaten our rights any more than the activities of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and their brethren did to threaten the rights of ethnic minorities. Attributing blame to the victims of government oppression is like blaming a rape victim for "dressing that way."
Attacking PETA for euthanizing unwanted animals is similarly ridiculous. I personally find euthanasia of unwanted companion animals troubling, but I ask you or anyone to propose a better solution to the millions of unwanted companion animals. PETA cannot afford to house these animals indefinitely just because some idiots decided they preferred to spend $900 on a purebred Chihuahua rather than $85 for the unwanted pooch at the shelter. Do you, Mr. Mesh, intend on adopting all of these unwanted animals yourself? No? What do you propose we do with them? Dump them on the street to starve to death?
I agree with you that having Schumacher's move out of downtown Portland is only moving the peddler of corpses of abused and tortured animals from one place to another. But it has accomplished a couple of things. It is a step towards making the horrors that go into such businesses economically unviable (yes, by typing those words, I have just violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism act). Mr. Schumacher isn't moving his business for free. It also helps show Mr. Schumacher and those like him that inhumane businesses like his are unwelcome in Portland. The dollar does not rule everyone; some of us prefer more ethical objects to worship. I can only hope that the activists continue their protests at the new venue.
Mr. Mesh, the next time that you decide to attack a group simply because you do not agree with their views, you should make a better attempt at disguising it with logical arguments and honest research.
Karstan Lovorn,
Attorney at Law