I believe that is right. Some of my scientific colleagues and their families have been subject by activists to a level of stress that would be regarded as intolerable if inflicted on animals.
Indeed. It must be terribly distressing for honest academics pursuing their vocations to be set upon by hateful blinkered activists.
Asshole.
IIRC, the animal rights "activists" are the people protesting, eg, Huntingdon Life Sciences. Apart from demonstrating outside people's houses with pictures of dismembered animals taken from elsewhere in the world, breaking windows, assaulting members of staff, etc, they almost certainly share membership with the crowd sending letter bombs, razor blades, etc to biologists at Oxford Uni. They've also picked up an amusing habit of subscribing shareholders, workers and people sharing the names of the above to various mailing lists, ordering goods in their names, and arranging for them to be sent child pornography (IIRC, as well as the usual kind). And, of course, with the phone calls. So yes, quite a few scientists, and innocent bystanders, have been subject to horrific abuse by "activists".
Posted by: Ben Sheriff on July 14, 2002
I'm not denying they have been. And I'm sure it's terribly stressful. Context, Ben, context.
Posted by: Moira on July 14, 2002
"I believe that is right. Some of my scientific colleagues and their families have been subject by activists to a level of stress that would be regarded as intolerable if inflicted on animals."
This quote nicely demonstrates my animal rights axiom: "To be successful at animal rights activism, it is first necessary to convince yourself that humans are not animals."
Posted by: Dean Douthat on July 21, 2002