Monday, September 21, 2009

AR Activist Says Friends, Not Food

Activist says friends, not food
Animal rights protestor speaks out

By Jennifer Dorval
University of Central Florida

Published: Sunday, September 20, 2009

Gary Yourofsky is very familiar with the inside of a prison cell.

His passion for animal rights has landed him in jail 13 times and banned him from five different countries.

Yourofsky, the founder of Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow, a non-profit animal rights organization, asked students to “remove the blinders” from their eyes while giving a two-hour presentation on what he described as the “worst Holocaust in human history.”

The event, hosted by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and Sigma Alpha Pi, gathered more than 100 students in the Student Union’s Garden Key room on Friday afternoon.

Yourofsky asked students to place themselves in the position of animals and start to view the issue from their point of view — as victims.

“If you are not a victim, don’t examine it from your point of view, because when you’re not the victim, it becomes really easy to rationalize and excuse cruelty, injustice, inequality, slavery and even murder,” Yourofsky said. Read More

It’s always interesting to see what the most radical animal rights activists are saying about animal agriculture. I really wish more people could hear just how crazy and irresponsible these people are. The real concern about an event like this is the fact that the University of Central Florida is presenting a speaker, who has been jailed 13 times, as an expert in animal agriculture. If they want to learn about animal agriculture, there are plenty of hard working, honest family farmers and ranchers that would be happy to visit with them.

1 comment:

Bea Elliott said...

I happened to have attended this presentation by Gary Yourofsky and really, I've never met a more kind or gentle person than he. His message is not about violence or even about "law breaking", but rather one of compassion.

And on the point of "crazy and irresponsible", seems that needlessly slaughtering 10 billion animals a year might just be that.

There is no doubt that there are "hard working, honest family farmers". Equally true however, there are also good, dedicated people who wish to be the voice of innocent victims caught in the grip of human ignorance and greed. Putting ones self in the skin of the oppressed is a truly eye opening experience.

The audience had some valid, thoughtful questions regarding otherwise hidden truths about disposing of male chicks, artificial insemination, seperating cows from calves, keeping pigs in cages, the waste lagoons, pharmacuticals, human health issues and so forth. The crowd certainly got an education of the the meat business - that's for sure. It's amazing how these practices were kept such a secret for so long!

I would highly recommend Gary's lecture and plan on bringing even more friends next time he's in my area... The best part is he offers a reasonable and easy solution to all the injustices and unpleasantness of flesh eating - simply "go vegan". And if I hadn't done so years ago, I certainly would have after listening to his sound and compassionate reasoning.