Another (Barely) Veiled Threat of Murder by a Notable Animal Rights Radical

This comes very close to an outright death threat—without quite being one. An animal rights terrorist supporter named Jason Miller has strongly hinted that a UCLA animal researcher could be murdered, and indeed seems to hope that it will happen. From a preface to his piece against animal research in Thomas Paine’s Corner:

I’m dedicating this piece to the courageous animal defenders and rescuers comprising the ALF, the Justice Department, the Animal Liberation Brigade, and the other militant direct action groups who are taking the fight to vivisectors and the rest of their ilk comprising the animal exploitation complex. Given the relentless nature of the systemic torment and slaughter of millions of other sentient beings that take place day after day, violent responses from nonhuman animal lovers are inevitable and are a morally acceptable means of extensional self-defense on behalf of the voiceless, defenseless victims. As my close colleague, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, surmised—-and I back him 100% on this—-the assassination of a vivisector or two would probably save millions of nonhuman animal lives. And given the escalating situation at UCLA, who knows what may happen?

Employing myriad tactics and strategies, those of us pursuing empty cages will prevail, and, as another steadfast ally of mine, Dr. Steve Best, stated in a speech he gave at Oxford in 2005, “wipe vivisection off the map.” I yearn for that day.]

A little while back, Best, wrote an essay entitled, “It’s War” published in the book Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?, stating in part:

More and more activists grow tired of adhering to a nonviolent code of ethics while violence from the enemy [presumably, he means against animals] increases. Realizing that that nonviolence against animal exploiters in fact is a pro-violence stance that tolerates their blood-spilling without taking adequate measures to stop it, a new breed of freedom fighters has ditched Gandhi for Machiavelli, and switched from principled nonviolence with the amoral (not to be confused with immoral) pragmatism that embraces animal liberation “by any means necessary.”

A new civil war is unfolding—one between forces hell-bent on exploiting animals and the earth for profit whatever the toll, and activists steeled to resist this omnicide tooth and nail. We are witnessing not only the long-standing corporate war against nature, but also a new social war about nature...

This is very scary stuff. And I worry that it presages an era in which civil discourse, comity, and the rule of law will be under concerted assault on many fronts.