Anyone who has read me for any length of time knows my love of animals. I have been a part of several animal rights movements over the years, some in their infancy. As a youth I threw red paint at a rich lady as she exited a fur store, and participated in the liberation of laboratory test animals from a facility that has since been absorbed into Proctor & Gamble R&D. In college I was forcibly escorted out of a local Kroger food chain for repeatedly taping photographs of netted and murdered Dolphin onto the shelves of tuna fish and for handing out leaflets asking consumers not to eat tuna and demanding that fishermen stop the brutal torture of innocent Dolphin caught in their nets. I have rescued dying dogs from parked cars and trucks by bursting out windows. I have infiltrated Pit Bull fighting rings and tipped authorities off as to when and where this horrible �sport� was going to take place. I have taken photographs of Fighting roosters forced to spend their entire existence within three feet of a plastic drum cut in half that baked them under the sun, and distributed the photographs to media outlets.

I volunteer at my local animal shelter, and donate when I haven't the time to do so. I even mark one dollar bills with a stamp of a �bloody paw print� that represents the millions of unwanted, lab tested, and any and all cases of animal cruelty.

I have done other things that I shouldn't have nor should I mention. Thirty years ago there was no Internet, or any easy way for like-minded people to communicate thoughts and ideas. There are many people like me that because of lack of a knowledge base, released animals to the �wild� only to ensure their deaths. Most animals, having lived their lives within the confines of a wire cage, cannot survive in it's native habitat, having relied on it's human captors for substance its entire life. That's a sad fact I have to live with.

Today, I believe, with all my heart, that an educated public is the key to ending animal cruelty in all of its horrid forms. In the past, in a more primal and media sheltered environment, a more aggressive means of liberation could be, in my opinion, justified. Thirty years ago it was necessary to gain public attention as well as media attention by physical liberation. Some of our peers wished to continue on a far more destructive path of attention getting. Arson and other forms of property destruction became their tools of choice. At the onset I agreed to this, �By whatever means necessary� attitude, but by 1980 I chosen a different path.

It was in 1979 that a splinter group of my committee revisited a former liberation site with the intent on complete liberation of occupants, and total destruction of the property in its entirety. An empty sugar bag led the investigators to fruition as if following a trail of crumbs back to Hansel's house. It wasn't the fact that they were caught that made me change my ways, but rather the ensuing public opinion of these kids. Lost was the reason for the raid, and replaced with a message of �Anarchist� looking to cause trouble for the sake of trouble. The entire thing, in my opinion, was for naught, in fact, I think it was a huge waste! Change was in the wind.

These splinter groups then splintered and went on to form what you now see as ALF (Animal Liberation Front) and ELF (Earth Liberation Front). If these groups have a parent group, then that would be PETA (People for the ethical Treatment of Animals). Founded in 1980 and based in Norfolk, Virginia, PETA is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c) corporation with 187 employees, as of April, 2006 and funded almost exclusively by the contributions of its stated one million members.

At the start, I genuinely believed that people like myself, and other animal lovers nationwide, finally had a voice of a non retaliatory nature in PETA. I remember thinking my freshman year of college how �...the work of good intentioned people had not been for naught, and that an educational response was finally taking place in America� (An excerpt from my personal diary, September, 1980).

I am sad to write here today that the very thing I thought was going to be the answer to animal rights in the United States, indeed, the world over, has  become... to use Ingrid Newkirk's (President of PETA) own words (referring to Pit Bull Terriers) �Controlling an animal as deadly as a weapon�. (Emphasis placed by this author).

To put it bluntly, I find it nearly, if not impossible to see where PETA ends and the aggressive ecology terrorist groups begin. That's a definite line in the sand, I know. I tried to ignore the over aggressiveness and shortsightedness of violence (or the support thereof) of PETA for the last ten years really. I am afraid, however, that while standing up for and, yes, even supporting PETA financially, our eyes have been averted for much too long. The thing I helped create has gone out of control. (While I never sat in on any meetings to form PETA, I indirectly supported it through one group or another, or as of late, contributed to it directly. I claim no part of its formation directly.)

Here are my fundamental beliefs in as far as animals are concerned; I believe that ALL animals, regardless of species or breed, have as much, if not more, right to existence. I believe that ALL animals, regardless of species or breed have as much right to representation as do humans, if not more so due to their inability to represent themselves in a manner recognized by our current judicial system. It is my belief that any person or persons found guilty of animal cruelty be deemed guilty of a felony and assigned all rights and privileges accorded to that class of citizen. It is my belief that title of �Highest level in the Food Chain� does not give any rights or privileges to humans that are not already accorded to any species of animal, in that we are animals as well. The fact that we are far more advanced intellectually (at times I wonder the validity of that statement) does not give us untethered command and/or ownership of the animal kingdom, but rather, the keepers thereof. It is in that spirit that I ask, is the worth of a mouse, or any creature for that matter, not the equal of a man? Does the mouse not posses the sense of contentment or fear? Can the mouse not feel the warmth of the sunshine? Does a mouse not scream out at the snap of bone as does human? If you cut that mouse, will s/he not bleed? When that mouse dies, is it not dead, nonetheless as are we? Are we not as one? (Excerpt from a 1985 diary).

What has changed my opinion of PETA? Have you ever heard the term, �Good intention, bad judgment.�? Maybe you heard your parents say it on more than one occasion. I feel that is what has happened to PETA. How can this group show you wonderful photographs of children with adopted (rescued) pets, all the while supporting BSL (Breed Specific Legislation)? Here, in Ingrid Newkirk's own words;

Ingrid Newkirk

San Francisco Chronicle 6/8/2005

Is it Ingrid Newkirk's agenda to wipe out an entire breed of animal because she has an irrational fear of Pit Bull Terriers? It would appear so to the average idiot! This makes exactly as much sense as blaming the firearm for a wrongful death during the commission of a robbery! It is not the animals fault. Why not go after the real criminal here, the breeder or owner (or both) that caused this animal to have such temperament. Any veterinarian will tell you that, with extreme exception, temperament is a learned response with environment and treatment playing the biggest role in how the animal reacts to the world around him or her. Killing off the Pit Bull Terrier is akin to burning the entire library down because, �One of those books might be bad!�. Why on earth is a person whom has dedicated her life to the preservation of animals (even before humankind in some cases) willing to destroy even one animal unnecessarily? Now matter how you try and serve this up to me, this is wrong, and the fact that a group that has done such phenomenal things to promote the adoption of sheltered animals and stop animal cruelty saddens me terribly.

I cannot just walk away from this topic without at least opting for some assimilation of proposing a logical solution for the Pit Bull Terrier. While it seems so very obvious to me, but apparently is not to others. To start with, immediate criminal charges for persons found guilty of �training� these or any other breed of animal for the purposes of fighting. Class A felonies for those sponsoring a fight, or even profiting from it. It might seem an intimidating task to determine who is and is not �fight training�, the signs are fairly obvious. Signs that immediately come to mind are ads that have puppies for sale. More likely than not, a mention of AKC will not be mentioned, but will state that, �Mother is good fighter.� Were I AC (Animal Control) I'd be all over that! Since this an underground �sport� (pardon me, whilst I vomit!)the local paper will probably not be used, instead they use the Internet and sites like Craig's List to locate each other. At times they will use elementary code words to try and cover up these atrocious activities. After all, these people probably aren't the brightest the world has to offer.

In June of 2005 two PeTA staffmembers were convicted of animal cruelty They took dogs from animal shelters and killed them, then dumped the bodies in a grocery store's dumpster. Among the dead bodies authorities found a mother cat and her two �very adoptable� kittens. They were taken by the two individuals representing PETA from the Ahoskie Animal Hospital, veterinarian Patrick Proctor said. �These were just kittens we were trying to find homes for,� Proctor said. �PeTA said they would do that, but these cats never made it out of the county.��

PeTA Kills Animals?

In 1991, PeTA had a non-human animal �sanctuary� called Aspen Hill where it killed healthy rabbits and turkeys. PeTA said it did this because it wanted to spend the money that would have been required to house the rabbits and turkeys on its other campaigns. At the time, PeTA�s budget was over six million U.S. dollars per year.

The �Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF)� found documented proof that from 1998 to 2004, PETA had killed nearly 12,500 dogs, cats, and other �companion animals�.

Maybe its just me, but am I the only one that is left with a bad taste by all this?