Teresa Wiltz’ recent story about the fur industry (Tempo, May 16) was fair and well-balanced. In it, she quoted one designer who expressed a fear of harassment by animal-rights activists.
She also quoted Peter Wood of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as saying, “We’re going to come after you.”
It is a sign of PETA’s flawed, anti-human value system that they have resorted to intimidation and harassment as a means of accomplishing what they were unable to accomplish by peaceful means. We live in a time when more and more extreme groups are resorting to violence as a way of imposing their views on the rest of society.
Every time we cave in to this type of coercion, we strengthen the hand of those who have engaged in it. People who value personal freedom and the right to choose one’s own lifestyle should categorically reject the animal-rights rantings of groups like PETA.
There is no question that responsible people should be concerned about animal welfare. But that’s not what PETA is about. Their goal is not animal welfare but a world in which the lives of mice, rats and ants take precedence over human needs.
No matter how much PETA uses the tactics of intimidation and coercion, they will never sell that value system to thinking people.
