Huntingdon Firebombing.Boooooooooooom
Date: 9/2/00
From: b.ob@accesinternet.com  (J. Walter Plinge)

Listening to the interview on the Today programme this week between one of ALF's representatives and James Doherty, following the fire-bombing of the vivisection employee cars, I was struck by the high moral ground taken by J. Doherty, where he seemed almost at times to chastise the ALF speaker. Thanks to James Doherty's failure to get beyond his self-styled reactionary mode and draw out some of the factors that were relevant to this criminal act of fire-bombing, that is, the nature of the work these employees are evidently willing to perform on a daily basis, the interview left the listener with the impression that the protestors were probably no more than brainless hooligans without principles. It seems to have escaped him that mutilation and torment inflicted on animals in cages has a deep effect on many people. It made me think back to the heated debates I've had with "anti-abortionists" (as if the rest of us were "pro") where they could somehow get from my concern for preventing women's rights from slipping back 100 years to a person who must enjoy slaying fetuses. I could no more perform an abortion than I could fire bomb a car, but my insistence that I found the act of killing a fetus horrifying, despite my stance, fell dead at their feet, unrecognized. In the same way I understand the ugly mayhem of fire bombing cars, but to those of us who can relate to the suffering that goes on behind the locked doors of grubby vivisection labs, THAT is the real ugly mayhem.

James Doherty's interview with John Major the next day on the same issue distorted the situation even more. Major postulated that these victims (the employees, that is, not the animals - they didn't get a mention) were "decent people like you and me" going about their business. Maybe like you, Mr. Major, but not me. Sorry. I don't identify with any individual who can choose an occupation bordering on psychopathy. You also got it wrong when you asserted how animal experiments succeeded in putting an end to "polio, whooping cough, diphtheria. . ." Before you accept so unquestioningly the propaganda of the vested interests of those who clearly doubt their capabilities to come out into the open and perform their agenda via more modern methods such as in vitro experiments, before you accept the testimony of those who prefer to lock themselves away with the outdated methods of barbarous pursuits on animals, usually with very questionable results, I advise you to take the time out to search for the facts yourself. Here's one: Did you know that it was Dr. Sabin himself who said that finding the anti-polio vaccine was severely hampered by the prolonged and useless experiments on the monkey? If you cannot find the time to educate yourself on the topic, do not presume to mislead an intelligent audience by posturing on the subject.. How on earth can you or any other politician who misleads the public expect a normal, honest debate on the issue. You leave activists with no other choice, since most people prefer brains rather than bullshit.

A final comment: the difference between the bland, easy-going deference of James Doherty, the experienced journalist, to J. Major, and his bristly, righteous indignation with the ALF speaker was reee-eelly depressing. . . .

Barbara Langford c/o b.ob@accesinter.com

P.S. ALF: If you have the e-mails of the Today programme and John Major (I don't) you can forward this if you see fit.