Animal Rights Fanaticism: Threatening an Olympian Over Fur

Animal rights is such a peaceable movement—at least that is what its adherents insist. Yet, personal threats by animal rights fanatics have so unnerved an American Olympian, he is afraid to stay at a hotel.  From the story:

U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir says he received threats from anti-fur activists that made him fear for his safety, causing him to scrub any plans to stay at a hotel while in Vancouver for the Olympics. “I felt very threatened,” he said Saturday. “I’m not allowed to say how everything got through, but my agent got letters and faxes and e-mails. I got letters at the ice rink, somebody found my phone number. “All these crazy fur people. Security-wise, to stay in a hotel would be very difficult. There have been threats against me. I didn’t want to get hurt.”

Weir almost acquiesced to the threat but then realized there was no reason for him to yield to their values rather than follow his own:

Weir was criticized by animal-rights activists after he donned a costume in nationals with white fox fur on the shoulder. He said after the event that he would wear faux fur in the Games, but has since changed his mind. “It was not because I was pressured to change it, but because I don’t like faux fur,” Weir explained. “I didn’t change the costume, I’m just switching back to another costume.”

A nice bit of courage that.  Giving in to intimidation would only increase the brown shirtism that too often is a hallmark of animal rights advocacy.

What could drive people to threaten the safety of a human being over fur?  A belief in the moral equality between animals and humans, to the point that rightists believe that wearing fur is as evil as wearing human skin.  For more details, see my about to be released book—shipping to stores as I write this—A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement.