|
Carnivorous
cruelty
by CHRIS BARRY Photo
by Jason Felker
Mirror:
Why do you think so many people hate PETA so much? Ingrid Newkirk:
Well, nobody likes to be told that anything they’re doing is unkind
or unethical. People don’t want any of their old familiar habits
to be challenged, do they? But you have to break that down and work
on people’s better instincts. M: How do
you respond to people who say that it is only natural for humans to
eat other animals? IN: I think
that’s just a throwaway line, because most people don’t really
care if they are being true to their original nature. Otherwise, we
wouldn’t be wearing clothes and driving cars, but out picking berries
and eating bark. If you study anthropology—which most people don’t—and
you start to learn about our intestinal structure, our teeth, our digestive
system, our mouth structure, you begin to realize that maybe we aren’t
meant to be eating animals after all. M: Is there
no middle ground as far as meat-eaters and PETA are concerned? IN: Well,
we have a saying here that we have our heads in the clouds but our feet
on the ground. We are happy with any change that is positive. One step
is better than no step. If people only have one vegetarian meal a week,
and that’s new for them, then this is wonderful. We applaud that.
But we are of course trying to get people to see animals as sentient
beings, as other individuals, as other nations, as other cultures with
other languages and interests. Creatures with the same fundamental interests
as ourselves—that is, not wanting to feel pain, enjoying life and
not wanting to die. Just like us. M: Do you
think it’s a matter of education or that many people simply don’t
care about the welfare of other species? IN: I think most people are decent and kind but as a species we are fairly lazy and convenience-oriented. Back when I was a little girl I remember my father taking me out with my dog to the golf course, and, as a flea-killing thing, he decided it was a good idea to cover my dog in DDT. I just remember this great big white cloud. And, you know, he was a learned, intelligent man but nobody had gone public at that time about the dangers of pesticides to the environment and animals. You just trusted they were okay. The government sprayed fields with it, you could buy it in the stores. It really is an abysmal ignorance that we have. But bit by bit you hear things, learn things, and the more information a person has the more compassionate and intelligent their decisions can be. I think if he were alive today my father would be absolutely mortified looking back at that incident.
Laboratory waste M: Vivisectionists
often claim that certain experiments can only be effective if performed
on living creatures and that the animal rights lobby has no understanding
of the scientific process involved. How do you respond to this? IN: Listen,
it’s important to note that very, very few experimenters use animals.
They are the minority in the whole field of research. But we’re
still talking about billions of animals every year. It’s not that
we are naïve, but what frightens the experimenters—and remember,
I used to inspect laboratories for the government—is that we find
out too much about the complete rubbish, wasteful spending and cruelty
that goes on in these labs. Why is such a pittance being spent on discovering
the causes of disease, prevention or on promising technological advances
when they are siphoning off that money, for the umpteenth time, to stick
electrodes into some monkey’s brain and plug him into a wall, or
to burn a cat and see what reaction they get? There is almost no oversight
to these procedures. Just these little rubber stamp committees, mostly
composed of peers, who don’t really scrutinize anything. M: You guys
have taken a lot of heat lately for allegedly supporting occasionally
violent organizations like the Animal Liberation Front. What’s
up with that? IN: Well, it’s not like this is anything we are trying to hide. About three times in our 21-year history we have thought it was a good idea—and still do—to defend some very good activists who have done some decent things for animals and who have happened to get into trouble. One of those people is Rodney Coronado, who is a very committed Native American animal rights activist and a decent person. He did something [firebombed a research facility at Michigan State University] that put him in prison for three-and-a-half years and I think that if we hadn’t provided him with a good legal defence he wouldn’t be back out doing productive things in the community again—like the good person that he is. We are very happy to have done that.
Political sex
and sanitized slaughter M: Do you
not find it endlessly nauseating that PETA is constantly being accused
of sexism in order to promote their agenda? IN: [Laughing]
Well, as a feminist for more years than most of the people who criticize
us, I find it a little bit annoying sometimes, but I also respect the
fact that people who feel this way are struggling with something that
they feel is important to protest. I don’t think our approach is
wrong. These women really need to respect other women who don’t
think as they do. Nudity can be used for gratuitous sex if you like,
or it can be used for political sex. M: I keep
hoping you guys can convince Rue McLanahan or Betty White to participate
in the naked campaign. Man, and if you could slip Bea Arthur in to the
mix that would be fucking incredible! IN: [Laughs]
Keep hoping. M: Do you
ever consider the enormity of the task facing you, get totally discouraged
and just want to give up? IN: No, because things do change. If you look at the human rights movement, it’s been terribly slow. If you look at some of the things human beings have done to each other historically, we’ve come a long way. But I think that North America is the worst place on earth with respect to cruelty towards animals because it is not generally right in front of you—like, say when I was growing up in India, or Taiwan, any of these places where you can see animals starving and being beaten right on the street. But the sheer volume in the U.S. is overwhelming. Americans eat a million chickens an hour. Most people won’t even think about a chicken but a chicken certainly feels every bit as much pain as a dog. No developing country can compete with the volume of abuse that takes place here in North America. It’s just that our abuse is all sanitized, hidden away in a corner. Nobody goes to a laboratory, nobody goes to a slaughterhouse, no one goes to the trap lines. We’re all sanitized. In other countries the degree of cruelty is no worse, but the volume is far less.
Choose life M: So do
you honestly believe it’s only a matter of time before people develop
an increased respect for other species? IN: Hopefully.
Of course, the enemies are obliviousness, being oriented to convenience
and laziness—simply not caring to make a change. And it really
doesn’t take much to make a change, but it’s so very easy
to be indifferent. Essentially, that’s where PETA’s job comes
in and the real reason we exist. That is, to do the homework and make
it extremely clear to everyone that every single day, with almost everything
you do, with anything you buy, anything you eat, anything you wear,
anyway you choose to amuse or educate yourself, you do have a choice.
And please just let us show you what those choices are—and then
you decide for yourself how you want to proceed. At which point the
proof is in the pudding whether people are indifferent or not. Small
things help. You know, buy the shampoo that wasn’t tested on animals.
Take a minute and check the label on the back of the bottle. Try a veggie
recipe and take a minute to see if you like it. You may well find you
like it more than the muck you’re eating now. Hey, can you mention
our Web site in your article? M: I suppose
so. IN: Okay, it’s www.peta.org. Thanks so much. :
|
Since
co-founding People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 21 years ago,
Ingrid Newkirk has emerged as one of the shining lights of the animal
rights movement. Through the use of shock tactics and a continuing series
of controversial media campaigns, Newkirk and PETA have been able to
effect change where other animal rights activists have failed miserably.