Anal Electrocution, It’s Better Than Freedom
I tried writing this post in myriad ways. I tried hypotheticals, what-ifs, changing “captive mink” with “cute puppy”. None of it worked. Bear with me, here.
Activists in Greece recently released 50,000 mink from two fur farms, resulting in at least 1.27 million dollars of damage.
I don’t have problems with releasing mink from fur farms. I repeat, I do not have any problem with releasing mink from fur farms. Even non-native mink. Even in Greece. Even if only 1% survive to reproduce. Even if they end up facing the same fates as native wild animals – starvation, predation, car hits.
I used to feel differently. I used to trot out the same arguments , oh how I cringe now, as the fur industry. Released animals would wreak havoc. They’d out-compete their native counterparts. They’d all get hit by cars and die. The world would stop spinning and life would cease to exist as we know it. I might as well have been the fur industry’s spokesperson.
Nevermind that mink escape, sans the help of the ALF, all the time on fur farms. Nevermind that non-native mink were imported to Europe for the sole purpose of fur farming, resulting in escapes and releases of non-native predators. Nevermind that released mink have more opportunities at survival and reproduction than their anally electrocuted, skinned alive counterparts. Nevermind that no mink = no money for fur farmers. Nevermind that what mink face in the wild are the same issues facing every wild animal, that predation, starvation, car hits, don’t only apply to released farmed fur-bearing animals. And please, mink are the LEAST of the concerns facing our planet.
Releasing animals from cages serves multiple purposes. It inflicts economic sabotage on the oppressor. That’s its biggest purpose. No non human to exploit, no money to make. It gives the animals, especially if they are captive wild animals, an opportunity to live. Simply live. And yes, die. Perhaps in horrible ways. Perhaps not. But no one will be clipping electrodes to their mouth or anus, no one will be taking sharpened knives and ripping skin from a feeling body. No one will be profiting off of their suffering or making money off of their bloodied fur.
I think it’s great to not buy fur. It’s awesome to boycott stores that sell fur (and leather and any animal product, if you want to be consistent). I’d love to see legislation banning the sale of fur. Yay to promoting alternatives amongst designers and fashion mavens. I welcome it all, we all should. And I also say hooray to direct action that results in economic damage to those who profit off the suffering of animals. No, I don’t support the intentional, malicious harm of humans, but if releasing mink result in less money for farmers, less fur for people to buy, go Team Mink.
Here’s my suggestion to animal rights activists who disdain the use of direct action to liberate non humans from exploitation: Keep it to yourself. Okay, not fair perhaps. Frame it differently. “I am glad the mink are free, and I will continue to encourage changing behavior to better address the horrors of the fur industry.” Don’t do the work of the National Fur Breeder’s Association or the Fur Commission for them. Don’t spout the same rhetoric as the exploiters and oppressors. It serves no one but them.
Stephanie Ernst
Marji
Kelly G.
Deb
Mary Martin
wonderfully written article. :)
Would you mind reading it aloud(or letting me read it)for mah podcast? :]
Hi, you are welcome to read it aloud for your podcast. :)
The ALF guidelines are precise about safeguarding both nonhuman and human life. But the rhetoric of the fur industry has inevitably duped some animal activists. They’ve become blind apologists for the fur farmers and retailers.
Look at archived news footage about the ALF from the 1980s. Reporters would state that animal activists liberated animals and damaged property. Now, the industry shapes the media and how we view liberation. The pervasive rhetoric maligns activists as environmental terrorists and their brave acts of liberation as acts of domestic terrorism. Industry propaganda would have us believe that altruistic individuals taking action in the name of the ALF are similar to Charles Manson or Timothy McVeigh rather than to Harriet Tubman or Ernesto Guevara. However, no one who identifies herself or himself with the ALF is electrocuting, skinning alive and taking someone’s life. Compounding the problem of rhetoric is that our culture places too much emphasis on protecting property, even if they’re instruments of torture. Of course, that mink themselves are considered property obscures the fact that they’re individuals born with an inherent right to live free.
My hope is more activists continue to defy rhetoric and to speak up for what’s right as you’ve done here.
When kindness is outlawed, only outlaws will be kind.
Was directed here from a link on Facebook. Well said. I fully support the idea that an animal in these conditions should be liberated for the chance to die in nature and be part of the natural cycle.
My first thought, unfortunately, goes to legalities. Of course it’s illegal to set mink free. But is it true that activists taking such direct action can now be tried as terrorists in the US? I’ve heard some pretty insane stories. I’m pretty sure the stipulation is that anyone causing financial effect on a business by picketing or direct action can be tried as a domestic terrorist. Then, being tried as a domestic terrorist could result in life imprisonment under the patriot act.
That’s some scary stuff.
Anyway, I’ve admired people who take direct action. I’ve never been a member of groups using those methods. I’ve been in the rescue/sanctuary camp for many years, but enjoy the radical liberation lore. Nowadays, seems the risk associated with animal liberation is so incredibly high.
All the more reason I appreciate organizations promoting and working toward legislation to cut the problem at the source.
d.
Deanna,
Yes, it is true that activists can be tried and are being labeled terrorists. Check out a first hand account here, at the mainstream Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-stepanian/discovery-channel-gunman-_b_706073.html
Also, check out the Equal Justice Alliance, which deals with the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), the vehicle for prosecuting activists. http://www.noaeta.org/
THANK YOU. Thank you for being a normal (okay, normal enough), average person who is unabashedly in support of releasing minks from cages. Maybe if more of us stand up and explain why, more people will feel comfortable supporting direct action in public. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“But the rhetoric of the fur industry has inevitably duped some animal activists. They’ve become blind apologists for the fur farmers and retailers.”
Perfectly put. I was duped. I bought into their “protectionist” arguments – oh, the animal rights people are so stupid cause the minks will just die anyway and won’t that be horrible! I don’t think I really thought about it, either. I think I was scared and cowed by all the rhetoric about violence and extremism and terrorism to really think. Yes, direct action has it’s problems, but they certainly have nothing to do with the arguments supplied by the industry.
Let’s assume that the slaves were humans, and the mink farm was a plantation, would anybody criticize those who liberated human slaves even if some, or many, of those who were liberated drowned in the river bordering the plantation, or froze while hiding from the slave owners in the forest, or broke a foot while jumping the fence? This anti-direct action criticism is confused from the first moment, and clearly speciesist.
Great comment. I agree 100%!
I was in commenter Jennie’s old camp and am now leaning toward her new camp, if not all the way in it, thanks to your post, Marji.