General
Notes from an animal rights conference
By Jim Beers
Jul 25, 2003, 19:44

After several requests by Conservation Force, an international sustainable use conservation organization located in Louisiana, I agreed to attend the annual animal rights meeting. The Conference ran from June 30 to July 5, 2001 at the Hilton Hotel in McLean, Virginia, USA.

John Jackson, Chairman of Conservation Force, believed that it was important for hunters and other sustainable use supporters to attend this conference just as animal rights representatives attended annual wildlife management meetings. This made sense to me. I was surprised to learn that no other sustainable use or hunting or fishing group planned to have anyone attend this meeting in a suburb of Washington.

As the five days passed, I discovered that no participants or attendees from any of the national conservation groups were to be found, here in their own backyard. To the best of my knowledge, no one else who questioned the goals or tactics of the animal rights movement was in attendance.

Those of you who hunt, fish, trap, wear fur, raise mink, sell fur or leather products, train animals, have pets, enjoy rodeos, enjoy circuses, live on ranches or farms, log timber or graze animals, use wood products, eat meat, eat eggs, eat cheese, eat wild fish and wildlife, eat seafood, attend dog races, support animal research for human treatments, support proactive fish and wildlife management for human benefit, use public lands, own guns, support the 2nd Amendment, wear leather, oppose terrorism, oppose intimidation, oppose physical threats, recreate in the outdoors with your families, love your children, want your religious institutions kept free from infiltration and manipulation, believe in the Constitutional freedoms of the USA, oppose the continued expansion of Federal power, oppose forcible establishment of rule by anarchy, oppose the efforts of the UN to regulate everything to do with fish and wildlife and guns throughout the world, and who love this nation and what it stands for should have been there. Organizations that represent your interests should have been there. Law enforcement organizations should have been there.

The people and groups that gathered at this luxury Hilton Hotel for five days made no bones that they are going to eliminate every traditional use of animals and many other American freedoms and traditions. They have been going about this incrementally for years. Since there have been no serious consequences of their activities, their boldness and arrogance have reached gargantuan proportions. They clearly believe and preach the radical reformation of the way we live, the way we relate to our government, and the elimination of most freedoms that we take for granted. They intend to change the relationship between mankind and the animal world that has existed for millennia.

This radical movement must be brought into the light of day. Their agenda, from mandated veganism to obtaining legal rights first for apes and then for all other animals, must be understood by all of us. The current process where bear hunting is voted out in one state and all of us say, "I don't hunt bears." Where wild Himalayan sheep are added to UN Lists and all of us say, "I will never get to the Himalayas." Where public land is locked up and we say, "I will never have to use that land." Where dog breeders are restricted to low numbers or forbidden to breed their dogs and we say, "I have a cat." This incremental process of dividing us and slowly taking away right after right, this must be exposed and responded to by all of us, including those vegans and disgruntled citizens who value freedom and America's promise.

The only way for me to convey the truly frightening experience of attending this conference is to describe what I encountered. I earnestly hope that the reader will be convinced to treat this movement with the serious consideration and public scrutiny that it deserves. If all of us don't pull together to maintain our freedoms and way of life, these people will surely turn us into a society that our forefathers would not recognize and in which we, and I ultimately believe they, would not want to live.

I can only report what I saw through the eyes of a 60 year old white male. These are also the eyes and ears of a Catholic wildlife biologist and ex-law enforcement officer who hunts, fishes, and understands the benefits of proactive fish and wildlife management. After a stint with the Utah Game and Fish, the US Navy, the Minneapolis Police Department, and 30 years in various locations with the US Fish and Wildlife Service I am what I am and I see what I see. All of these things are relevant to what I am about to report to you.

Although the First Amendment guarantees the right of free speech and free assembly, many of the things I saw and heard could only be characterized as inciting mayhem. Many of the people making presentations crossed state lines to get there and there were numerous inferences, suggestions, and encouragements to commit violent and unlawful acts of major magnitudes.

Arrival and registration

Walking through the parking lot each day revealed an abundance of bumper stickers. Most referred to veganism in varying intensities. The eventual imposition of veganism nationwide was the most common. Other stickers referred to resisting globalism, disrupting NAFTA, outlawing circuses, outlawing rodeos, stopping fishing, stopping hunting, stopping dog racing, protesting at Seattle and Quebec, intimidating the World Bank, and outlawing all fur and leather.

The exhibit area inside lay between the registration desk and the conference rooms. Passing through the exhibits revealed an incredible range of protest topics.

The following is a partial list of the handouts and publications:

• How the international chemistry industry is killing poor people around the world. 
• Why we must stop the war on drugs. 
• How the World Bank is being forced to meet the demands of protesters. 
• Why we should teach children not to be ashamed of their bodies. 
• How all religions were originally vegan. 
• Ending the use of animals in research, testing, and education. 
• Stopping the use of animals for meat, eggs, and dairy products. 
• Spiritual Communication with animals. 
• Using animal communicators. 
• What would Jesus eat today. 
• Stopping logging in the Philippines. 
• Why we shouldn't eat bananas, chocolate, or beef or use coffee. 
• Boycotting McDonalds, Macy's, Anheuser Busch, and the Back Bay Restaurant Group. 
• Why criminals start out as animal abusers. 
• What's wrong with leather, hunting, seafood, fur, meat, etc. 
• Ending Procter and Gamble testing on animals. 
• Internships for animal rights, indigenous rights, anti-sweatshop, and anti-fur. 
• Internship for direct action/civil disobedience.

There were more things here but space is limited. I mention these to give the reader a taste of the atmosphere at this conference.

Video presentations and sessions

Videos were constantly being shown. The following selections represent the flavor of those presentations.

• Igniting a Revolution - a sympathetic primer by radical environmental and animal activists on "ecotage." 
• Sexual Politics of Meat - Carol Adams, feminist-vegetarian author. 
• Animal Liberation: The Movie - ALF raids on British laboratories and factory farms. 
• What's Wrong with Hunting - by Buffalo Bills Coach Marv Levy. 
• Puppy Mill Expose - by actor Charlize Theron. 
• The Real Life of Circus Animals - by Ali McGraw. 
• Great American Meatout - by Ed Asner. 
• Money And Myths - How state wildlife agencies fail to protect wildlife. 
• The Burger King Campaign - by Dan Rather. 
• Australia Factory Farm Raids.

There were many others on trapping, chicken farms, the cowboy image, etc.

There were four concurrent sessions throughout the days. Here are selections from the program.

• When Is Killing Ok? (Attacking animals? Unwanted dogs & cats? Fetuses or babies?) 
• What Rights? Which Animals? (Should intelligence matter?) 
• Getting Attention (Legally) (Effective use of street demonstrations) 
• Getting Attention (Otherwise) (CDs, disruptions, banner drops, rescues, phone/web siege, destruction) 
• Animal Spirituality (Communicating with animals) 
• How Broad Our Ethics? (Can we justify lying, cheating, stealing, subordinating other social goals?) 
• Animal Victimhood (Commonality of oppression of animals, children, women, minorities) 
• Winning Hearts And Minds (Changing behavior through feelings and beliefs) 
• Your Son Or The Rat? (Whose life do we value?) 
• Role Of Violence · Direct Tactics (Economic and peer pressure, physical threats) 
• Enacting Federal Legislation (Issues, coalitions, legislators and committees) 
• How Can We All Get Together? (What are the opportunities and obstacles? What are the steps?) 
• Enacting State And Local Laws 
• What Price Solidarity? (When should we tolerate damaging tactics or statements by other leaders?) 
• What Price Animal Liberation? (How far should we go to liberate animals? What should be off limits?) 
• Medicine Campaigns (Huntingdon, Coulston, OPRC, Procter & Gamble, WWAIL) 
• Outreach To Women And Minorities 
• Companion Campaigns (Property, puppy mills, spay/neuter, no-kill, Korean dogs).

Things heard in the sessions

I could only attend one fourth of the sessions because there were four presented at a time in four locations. I can only say that those I did attend ranged from very old rhetoric about trapping and hunting to scary references to the violent change of our form of government.

There were reportedly over a thousand attendees. Many were my age and boasted about starting in the Vietnam protests. Many of the middle-aged attendees boasted of other protest movement experience on behalf of radical feminism, the environment, and oppressed workers and minorities.

About a third of the attendees were under 25. Many of these were heavily tattooed and made liberal use of metal rings through various body parts. My guess would be that half of them were attending their first such conference. In my opinion, they were being scrutinized by many of the sponsors and session instructors. They were encouraged to meet with instructors later in hallways and at dinner if they were interested in learning "more" about what was discussed and the things only alluded to. It appeared to be a bazaar for inducting young people into terrorist activities. Keep this in mind as you read the following excerpts from sessions which I attended.

General comments 

These selected comments are but a few of what I heard over five days. The more explosive sessions were avoided by the leaders and lawyers. Often hands were put over microphones and comments from spontaneous participants were not audible but caused considerable chuckling. I shudder to think about those things which they didn't mention but invited participants to ask about "in the hall" or "after dinner." The sessions held anywhere from 50 to 200 people, depending on the topic, and not once was anything questioned.

At one point I felt as if I was attending a communist training program back in the 50's or 60's for a cadre of insurgents to be sent into a country to be subverted. Some are trained to control the media, others to influence politicians and control bureaucracies, still others to control religion and schools. Demonstrators were to disrupt things, and others to do the "other things" that ultimately underpin all the rest. Frightening is too weak a word to describe what it is like to watch this take place in a luxury hotel in a free country.

On tactics 

• I've been arrested six times and I still teach at my University. 
• Some places like San Francisco will never prosecute you for anything. 
• Put bricks through windows to intimidate wives and children. 
• Baseball bats when they pull into their driveways have a way of discouraging people. 
• Sometimes you have to "blow shit up." 
• Some people should be "blown up." 
• Bomb threats at key moments in England have won the day for us. 
• Harass business acquaintances on the golf course. 
• Break up stockholder meetings and company parties. 
• Here's how to find out where people live. 
• There is "other" stuff that I will be glad to tell you about in the hall or after the dinner. 
• Break-ins, destroying property (fire, etc.) are all justified since society refuses to protect animals. 
• Make things as costly as you can. 
• Propagandize and energize the young, especially radicals in their teens and twenties who will take risks. 
• Institute demonstrations and maximize disruptions and publicity. 
• Use "comely" people as spokespersons and always appear rational and reasonable. 
• Coordinate harassment by any means that destroys key businesses, business leaders, and other opponents. 
• Lying, cheating, destruction, and "anything else" are justified since society won't listen and the laws are against us. 
• Women and blacks had to chip into men's rights. Now animals are chipping in also. 
• "Person" is not just humans. 
• The privilege of "whiteness" equals privilege over animals. 
• Attack history notions and focus on our progressive enlightenment on all these matters. 
• Break up traditions and change the status quo so that we are in charge. 
• Disrupt lawmaking that threatens us at any level. 
• White males must be suppressed. 
• The Huntingdon Life Sciences model from England can serve American activists as an example of what to do. 
• No one owns a pet. We are guardians only. The whole man/pet relationship needs to be revamped.

NOTE: There were many comments about cockfighting in states that still permit it, dog racing, meat, eggs, dairy products, animal research, and other matters that resemble the foregoing but are simply redundant and too much for this already extensive report.

On hunting 

• New Jersey is running out of kids indoctrinated to hunt.
• Training kids with guns endangers everyone. 
• Stress issues that divide hunters like "canned" hunts. 
• Dog hunting and baiting also divide hunters so use these topics. 
• Hunters are already divided, keep dividing them.
• Oppose all right to subsistence hunting by indigenous people. 
• Use kites, recordings, bullhorns, and "other" things. (This last comment brought a titter of laughs from many of the young people.) 
• Hunters want to kill bears in New Jersey and we saved the bears. 
• Hunter Constitutional Rights at the state level are funny. They are a placebo to hunters and just put control in state legislatures which we will soon control. 
• The restrictions on ballot initiatives in Utah must be fought anywhere that they pop up. 
• Hunters are getting old. Pretty soon they will just disappear. 
• We are successful in getting to children early in school so they learn to hate hunting. 
• We need to work more with the UN to bring more animals under their control.

On fishing 

• PETA has cracked the wholesomeness of fishing. This will deter families and help us with the wholesome labels of other animal uses. 
• Always deal with sport fishing and commercial fishing bans separately. 
• Fishermen are tools of international businesses. 
• All killing of fish must be stopped. 
• PETA is proud to be forcing the Boy Scouts to drop their fishing and wildlife management merit badges. They are proud to be in solidarity with others who are trying to change that indoctrination organization.

Trapping and fur

• Confront anyone wearing fur and intimidate them. 
• Use any tactics to put fur stores out of business. 
• Confront people wearing fur trim. 
• Embarrass fur wearers in front of their friends and at places where they wear fur. 
• Personalize the animals to children and the public. 
• Trappers are dying out. 
• The propaganda about animal control is all lies. No animals need to be controlled. 
• Predators must all be protected and allowed to spread everywhere. 
• Europe and especially England is way ahead of us here. The Labor Party is very sympathetic.

On circuses and rodeos 

• Cowboys are all sissies. Confront them and they run. 
• Take concealed videos to circuses and try to get footage of what goes on. 
• Get local ordinances passed that make it more expensive and more difficult to put on performances. 
• Identify and support local law enforcement vegans and sympathizers.

On politicians 

• Since industry bribes politicians, anything we do to get political support is good.
• Our new PAC will be an umbrella for all of us to give money directly to those we favor and to defeat those who are not our friends. We look forward to a large PAC. 
• Eighty percent of the people are "assholes." 
• If we can control 11% of the voters we can win control. 
• If 2% of the voters are ours, we can succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

On federal controls

• The Animal Welfare Act is the vehicle for expansion and amendments that we had hoped it would be. 
• The Federal Bear Protection Act proposed by Senator McConnell (R- KY) will transfer control of bears from the state to the Federal government. 
• We control the Federal Congress and the Federal bureaucracy now. In a few years we will control the state legislatures too. 
• Get supporters in Federal agencies and work together. 
• We need Federal laws over dogs and cats. 
• Training dogs for security, hunting, and performing must be controlled by the Federal government. 
• Most Federal legislators are pro-animal rights and soon most state legislators will be too. 
• Federal controls break the back of the state fish and wildlife agencies that are pro-hunting. 
• State agencies are enemies.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to John Jackson of Conservation Force for having the persistence to have me attend this conference.

Everyone who reads this should share it with your family, your neighbors, your associates and everyone else you come in contact with each day. All of us, whether or not we are concerned directly with one of these animal issues should understand what is happening and protect the traditions and rights of all of us, whether or not we are an absolute majority. Allowing these tactics and organizations to succeed threatens all of us in every way.