{"id":757605,"date":"2019-06-30T08:03:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T12:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=757605"},"modified":"2019-06-30T08:16:27","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T12:16:27","slug":"ingrid-newkirk-the-unlikely-extremist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=757605","title":{"rendered":"Ingrid Newkirk: The Unlikely Extremist"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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At 70, Ingrid Newkirk presses on, fearless, driven, unshakeable in her determination to fight human supremacism and end the barbarous era in which we live. It is an era that damns humanity, she says.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

MARTIN FLETCHER:<\/strong> ‘Ingrid Newkirk, who turned 70 in June, is Peta\u2019s founder and president, and it is just possible that she will one day be remembered as the campaigner who did for animals what William Wilberforce did for slaves… In the 39 years since she launched Peta with four friends in the basement of her Maryland home, Newkirk has turned it into the world\u2019s largest \u2013 and most controversial \u2013 animal rights organisation, with 6.5 million members and supporters, 480 full-time staff, an annual budget of $60m, a dozen offices around the world and a mantra that reads: \u201cAnimals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment.\u201d Using undercover investigations, outrageous publicity stunts, advertising campaigns that set out to shock, and aggressive agitation, Peta has done much to end humanity\u2019s abuse of animals.<\/em><\/p>\n

It has all but closed down the fur trade, exposed the cruelty of factory farming, reduced the use of animals for research and entertainment, forced anti-cruelty legislation on to statute books and fostered alternatives to food and clothing derived from animals… Once regarded as an extremist fringe group that the FBI suspected of \u201cproviding material, support and resources to known domestic terrorist organisations\u201d, Peta is today in serious danger of becoming mainstream, as environmental and health concerns align with those of animal rights to boost vegetarianism and veganism… \u201cTo animals all humans are Nazis,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m ashamed of many humans. I have a lot of human heroes but the vast majority of people just need to wake up”…<\/em><\/p>\n

Peta\u2019s modus operandi is straightforward. It collects documentary and photographic evidence of cruelty, either by infiltrating factory farms, slaughterhouses, research laboratories and testing facilities, or with the help of disgruntled employees. It presents that evidence to those responsible and, where possible, suggests alternative methods or products not requiring animals. If rebuffed, it moves to more militant action, which is where Peta really generates controversy. It mobilises its supporters to picket, boycott and buy shares in companies so they can attend their AGMs. It posts harrowing videos online. It uses celebrities. It stages publicity stunts…<\/em><\/p>\n

Critics, including other animal rights groups, say Peta goes too far, that some of its attention-seeking methods are so shocking they drive potential supporters away… Newkirk is unapologetic. She readily admits to being a \u201cpress slut\u201d who courts publicity because, she says: \u201cYou can hand a leaflet to someone on the street, but if you can tell the facts by showing a video or getting a picture in the paper there will be a lot more eyes on it.\u201d The images are shocking because our treatment of animals is shocking, she argues. People have to be confronted with the truth to shake them from their complacency…<\/em><\/p>\n

Newkirk also supports the Animal Liberation Front, a guerilla group that forcibly seizes animals from laboratories and farms, and has on occasion been accused of targeting scientists with letter bombs and incendiary devices. She wrote a laudatory book about the group, which the FBI regards as a terrorist organisation. \u201cViolence to life would be a problem, but I wouldn\u2019t mind razing a building if it was used as a terrible place to torture living beings. That doesn\u2019t bother me at all,\u201d she says… But she has also become, inevitably, a figure of hate to some. She regularly receives online abuse, including death threats. Asked if she has any form of protection, she replies \u201cmaybe\u201d but will not elaborate…<\/em><\/p>\n

And so Ingrid Newkirk presses on \u2013 fearless, driven, unshakeable in her determination to fight \u201chuman supremacism\u201d and end the \u201cbarbarous era\u201d in which we live. It is an era that \u201cdamns humanity\u201d, she says… She has no intention of retiring now that she has turned 70. \u201cToo much work to do,\u201d she says… Ingrid Newkirk hopes that, a century from now, the world will regard the way we treat animals today with same horror with which we regard slavery. \u201cPeople will say \u2018Did they really do that to animals?… I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a chance that will happen\u201d.’<\/em> SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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