"Meat Is Murder" Dr. Jerry Vlasak reminds the media

Jerry Vlasak turned the animal rights world on its ear when he suggested that animal research scientists might be killed.
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You can call him "terrorist," or you can call him any other ugly word that comes to mind. It won't matter a bit. Since 2003, Los Angeles-based physician and controversial animal-rights activist Dr. Jerry Vlasak has been called that and worse. And it's not about to get better, as Vlasak appeared before Congress this year and said that killing research scientists was "morally justifiable" in the name of animal rights.

"I'm thick-skinned by now," Vlasak says. "I'm willing to take the criticism, the heat, if that's what's necessary for those who abuse animals to know that it's wrong. The people who are most critical are those who make their living off animals. People won't stop if we ask them nicely."
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Also, he was recently blasted by Congress for being the spokesperson for a movement the FBI now calls the "biggest domestic terror threat."

Shortly after his congressional testimony, Vlasak appeared on a 60 Minutes segment, titled "Burning Rage," reiterating his charge that scientists face death. "I think people who torture innocent beings should be stopped," he declared. "And if they won't stop when you ask them nicely, [and] they won't stop when you demonstrate to them what they're doing is wrong, then they should be stopped using whatever means necessary."
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Vlasak was born in Austin, Texas. The first glimmers of radical animal rights activism began to take shape in the early '90s, when he noticed that his patients were sick because of what they ate. "I was practicing surgery and doing a lot of work with cancer and gall
bladder disease and noticed people were sick because of what they ate. I began to realize that a meat-based diet is responsible for premature deaths in our society."

After reading books like John Robbins's The Food Revolution, he began changing his practice. "I realized from a health standpoint that it was wrong to say to my patients, 'Yes I'll take off your breast' without telling them how to change their diet. And a lot of them said, 'Why didn't another doctor tell me?'"

Vlasak insists that he would never be violent himself – as a doctor, he points out that it is his duty to save lives. And, he says, reactions to the 60 Minutes segment were mostly positive. "A handful of people said they didn't agree with me and didn't want to associate with me. But it was easily running 20 to 1, supporters vs. detractors. I received hundreds of e-mails in support of my message.