PETA has settled a lawsuit (perhaps to avoid discovery where its files would have been thrown open to lawyers), and agreed to a court order not to infiltrate a medical testing company it had been seeking to harm. The order lasts for five years. Suing animal liberationist harassers—but only when the suit is justified—could be an effective tool to keep the movement within proper parameters. In a free society, liberationists obviously have the right to try and persuade us to become vegans and stop animal testing. But they don’t have the right to coerce that result. Hopefully, spankings by the law—civil in the case of PETA, criminal against terrorists like SHAC and the ALF—will convince animal liberationists to stay within proper legal parameters.
One post script: In 1997, Huntingdon Life Sciences obtained a similar non infiltration order against PETA. It wasn’t too long thereafter that SHAC began its terrorist campaign of tertiary targeting—terrorism which PETA adamantly refuses to condemn.
Time is short, so I’ll be direct: FIRST THINGS needs you. And we need you by December 31 at 11:59 p.m., when the clock will strike zero. Give now at supportfirstthings.com.
First Things does not hesitate to call out what is bad. Today, there is much to call out. Yet our editors, authors, and readers like you share a greater purpose. And we are guided by a deeper, more enduring hope.
Your gift of $50, $100, or even $250 or more will bring this message of hope to many more people in the new year.
Make your gift now at supportfirstthings.com.
First Things needs you. I’m confident you’ll answer the call.
