Allyson Jones-Brimmer is the Director of Industry Relations
for the Animal Agriculture Alliance, and was once a member of the Western
Equestrian Team at Cornell University. She spoke recently at Penn-Ag Poultry
Council’s Annual Meat and Egg Meeting about the title topic. “We were formed
over 30 years ago because we realized that the ag industry and farmer’s and
rancher’s livelihoods were being put at risk because of groups attacking the
industry; they used a lot of different tactics to put a negative spin on animal
agriculture, which they are still doing today, using different methods to put
you all out of business.”
Jones-Brimmer says her group is tracking over 100
organizations that are engaged in these types of missions. They are primarily
animal rights organizations whose credo includes a bias against animals being
used for food, entertainment, medicine, research, labor… anything like that.
Extreme environmental groups are also focusing on antibiotics and other
consumer issues, and using similar talking points. “We are tracking all of them
as well as the resources they share,” she says. “The Humane Society of the
United States is often seen, because of the fund-raising they do, as an
organization that helps cats and dogs. They are often viewed as an umbrella
organization over your local humane societies, but they aren’t really that.
They have a very strong vegan mission, and they work with more radical groups
like PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals], the Humane League and
Mercy for Animals, which are openly and outwardly promoting that vegan
mission.”
These groups have a lot of money to carry out their varied
but unified agendas. AAA estimates a combined $500-million is being used to
change your opinion. That figure comes from the tax reporting from several of
the groups. The website for Mercy for Animals also shows legions of young
people, many of them volunteers, carrying signs that forward the cause. MFA’s
home page has a photo of a man named John Sally whom they quote as saying “If I
were a factory farmer, I’d lose sleep knowing that Mercy for Animals was out
there.” A girl in a panel next to Mr. Sally, Kat Von D, is quoted as saying “I
love MFA because they are one of the most inspiring organizations doing so much
good work for farmed animals. The world wouldn’t be as amazing as it is without
them.” AAA sends representatives to the annual meetings of these groups to try
to get a ‘behind the scenes’ look at what they are focusing on, what tactics
might come into play, and what strategies to prepare for. The Alliance, says
Jones-Brimmer, has harvested some quotes over the years that underscore this
vegan mission:
• ‘We are preying on emotions to push our vegan agenda. We
do not give our consent to enslave meat, we do not give our consent to murder.’
– David Coman-Hidy, The Humane League, National Animal Rights Conference 2016
• ‘My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture.’ –
John (J.P.) Goodwin, HSUS, quoted on AR-Views discussion board
• ‘All farms are factory farms, no matter the size.’ – Hope
Bonahec, United Poultry Concerns
If you think any of these statements are extreme, you’re not
alone. “They are really starting to get more extreme,” Jones-Brimmers says. “It
has been a long time since we tracked terrorist-type activities, like people
setting barns on fire or harassing people in their homes. But lately, it is
getting more disruptive, professing confrontation,” things that are again
security concerns, not to mention just plain obnoxious. Undercover employment
and videoing is a tactic that’s been around for a while, cyclically it seems.
“Either they are taking normal practices that are good for the animal out of
context,” she notes, “or there is actually abuse going on that they let happen,
and they do nothing to stop it because they are there to photograph it or take
videos of it.”
Generally, such videos are selectively edited and used with
other unrelated footage from other farms to present fake news of farm
evil-doings to a susceptible and unaware public via YouTube, Facebook and other
social media.
Another tactic, this particular one, held in May of last
year, is known as Open Rescue. Busloads of people, totaling about 500,
descended on a California egg farm to “protest.” Citing a piece of California
‘legislation’ as a justification for being there, between 40 and 50 of the
protesters entered the farm and its barn and stole some chickens. This lasted
for three hours, and even law enforcement was puzzled by what was going on.
Forty of them in this scenario were arrested, but “this doesn’t really matter to
them because they are willing to go back and do it again,” Jones-Brimmer says.
“It happened again but the next time police were there. One protester complaint
after emerging from a chicken house was “these chickens have no food!”
But, she says, “stop and think about this. If you’ve never
seen the inside of a chicken house, would you see food there? This is what
we’re up against; this is where ag education is happening.”
The demonstrators set up an animal care tent with a Red
Cross symbol on it and took some chickens over to the tent to be treated for
whatever treatments are used for chickens that have nothing wrong with them.
