Letter from FoA to "Go Vegan, Texas" Radio
Noah Lewis of Friends of Animals sent the following response to Janice Blue of the radio show “Go Vegan Texas” after being informed just beforehand that Lee Hall’s appearance on that show, scheduled for 18 September 2006, had been postponed indefinitely due to interest in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) trial and other topics.
From: Noah Lewis
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 9:41 AM
To: Janice Blue
Subject: RE: Lee Hall
Hi Janice,
As you know, Lee Hall talks a great deal about the issues surrounding SHAC in Capers [in the Churchyard: Animal Advocacy in the Age of Terror], and Hall is quite knowledgeable about legal climate that led to the conviction and sentencing. Hall is a lawyer, and I think would make an excellent addition to your show today as Hall could help clarify the legal issues at hand.
Friends of Animals does have a particular position regarding SHAC that, while not commonly voiced within the animal rights movement, is probably a lot more prevalent than is commonly believed. People are simply afraid to speak out when web banners proclaim “Support the SHAC7 or you’ll be next” -- not exactly the way to foster dialogue within the movement.
Now that activists are facing years in prison is exactly the time when our movement must step back and assess what we are doing. This is not about an abstract debate about violence vs. nonviolence; this is about looking at the real consequences of our actions as they impact humans within and outside of the movement, and most importantly, the nonhuman animals themselves.
I’m not asking that you like what Lee Hall has to say or to endorse it, I’m just asking that, as a long-standing part of the animal rights movement, we get the opportunity to be heard in an animal rights forum. SHAC supporters certainly have their own perspective and biases, so it’s not as though we would be impinging upon a show that strives to be apolitical.
I hope that you will consider having Lee on today, or if not, that you will devote a later show to Capers and the issues raised therein. Below is a press release that you are free to read on air.
Sincerely,
Noah Lewis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
13 September 2006
PRESS ALERT: AS ORGANIZERS ARE SENTENCED IN NEW JERSEY,
FRIENDS OF ANIMALS SPEAKS OUT FOR NEW VISION
DARIEN, Conn., 13 Sept. 2006 -- Three animal-welfare organizers received prison sentences this week, with three more people to be sentenced shortly, in a case involving Internet publicizing of a campaign against an animal testing firm, its employees, and others thought to have some connection with the firm -- including, at times, their families.
The organizers of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA face years in jail over multiple charges, including interstate stalking; conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Protection Act in order to put Huntingdon Life Sciences out of business, terrorize its employees and harass and intimidate related companies and their employees; and conspiracy to use a telecommunications device to abuse, threaten and harass.
“The case is a product of the converging of the ‘war on terrorism’ with the Internet age and the interest of companies in managing activists,” said Lee Hall, legal director for Friends of Animals. Hall authored the new book Capers in the Churchyard: Animal Rights Advocacy in the Age of Terror, which discusses impatience and anger and their roles in slowing social change, and presents a radically distinct vision.
“Many valuable critiques have emerged about the government’s willingness to single out ‘animal enterprises’ for special protection,” said Hall, “and about the stifling of dissent. Less has been said about a positive vision for real change.”
“When principled activism changes to personal odium, wherever there exists even the appearance of condoning violence against persons, valuable activism is at risk, because industry and government will dismiss important ethical messages by pointing to the tactics of a few. And that is when, most ironically, organizers against animal testing themselves may become test subjects of the legal system.”
Hall added, “And whenever activism drops its educational focus and descends into a mire of personal threats, activism loses the empathy that motivates animal rights in the first place.”
While the broader progressive community hesitates to support organizers perceived as unpredictably dangerous, laws protecting companies have grown steadily stricter in the U.S., and in Britain, where the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign began. Simultaneously, our traditional protections for dissent are being eroded. The members and supporters of Friends of Animals, an international animal-advocacy group founded in 1957, oppose research and testing on any subject lacking the capacity to give meaningful consent, including nonhuman subjects.
