A DECLARATION OF WAR ON VIVISECTION

Speech by Tom Regan, April 22, 1988

If they, the uncompassionate, propagandised, or just plain evil advocates of animal abuse and murderous human and non-human fraud, try to label you as extremist, emotional or a misanthropic terrorist – here’s what you tell them…

A speech by Tom Regan. Presented on World Day for Laboratory Animals. Los Angeles, California. April 22, 1988.

We are gathered here today to declare war on vivisection!

Our shared goal is not to reform this great evil but to abolish it, completely! It is not bigger cages we want, but empty cages! Anything less than total victory will not satisfy us!

The position we hold – the abolitionist position – is often said to be “extreme”, and those of us who hold it are said to be “extremists”. The unspoken suggestions are that extreme positions cannot be right, and that extremists must be wrong.

But I am an extremist when it comes to rape – I am against it all the time. I am an extremist when it comes to child abuse – I am against it all the time. I am an extremist when it comes to sexual discrimination, racial discrimination – I am against it all the time.

The plain fact is, moral truth often is extreme, and must be. For when the injustice is absolute, one must oppose it absolutely. And the injustice of vivisection is absolute. Which is why we are here today, to declare war on vivisection!

Another thing we are said to be – those of us who are abolitionists – is emotional. I mean shame, shame, shame. We actually have feelings. Like, don’t dare love someone. Don’t dare sympathise with somebody. Don’t dare care about another’s hurt or loss. Don’t dare feel anger or rage because others are the victims of injustice. I mean, grow up! Move over Mr. Spock.

All of this, of course, is utter nonsense. A life without feelings and emotions is the empty shell of a human life, not even a human life at all. Of course we know this. Even the apologists of vivisection know this. I mean, I’ve seen some of them get mightily heated-up: red of face, swollen of tongue, apoplectic of complexion, cardiac of heart, screaming of voice, thumping of fist, wide of eye, on-end of hair…and wet-of-pants angry!

So enough of this self-righteous denunciation of emotionalism. It’s time to understand that strong emotions – real deep anger, real deep rage, real deep hostility – are perfectly natural feelings to have in the face of real deep injustice. Which is why we are gathered here today, to declare war on vivisection--and we will not be satisfied with anything less than total victory!

Yet another thing we are said to be – those of us who are abolitionists – is…ignorant. I mean, we don’t know nuthin’. Ask us about DNA, we think you’re referring to some national rifle lobby group. B12? That’s a number what gets called in Bingo, ain’t it? In vitro-research? That’s something funny those Eye-talians are doing to get their wine to taste as good as Made-In-America ripple. I mean, what we’re talking about here is your basic Stone Age ignorance.

I love this part of our group portrait – the vivisection industry’s picture of us – the picture they pay hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to put out in the media. The reason I love it is because it is so demonstrably false – you have to wonder if these people live on another planet.

Don’t these people know about the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine? Don’t they know about the Medical Research Modernisation Committee? Don’t they know about Veterinarians for Animal Rights? Or Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? Or the 750 practicing physicians in the state of California who have denounced vivisection categorically?

Don’t these people know about the philosophers Peter Singer, Steve Sapontzis, Bernie Rollin, Susan and Lawry Finsen, and Sidney Genden? Don’t they know about the theologians Andrew Linzey and John Bowker? Don’t they know about the legal theorists David Fauvre, Christopher Stone, and Gary Francione?

Don’t the paid-for apologists of vivisection ever come out of their cushy offices to see what’s going on in the real world? Don’t they understand that all the people and all the groups I’ve mentioned – representing the best, the most gifted the most informed minds of our generation – are speaking out against vivisection? Which is why we are gathered here today to declare war on vivisection! And we won’t be satisfied with anything less than total victory!

Misanthropic…that’s another thing we are said to be. That’s a $100 word that means…we don’t like anybody. Not our mothers or fathers. Not our husbands or wives. Not our sons or daughters. Not our friends or lovers. Not even Mother Theresa or Bishop Tutu.

What we love are …Lassie and Bambi…animals. And only animals. Which is why we want to stop research on animals, according to the medical industrial complex. According to them, nothing would please us more than to have more and more human beings suffer, more and more human beings die.

Who are these people who think they can get away with misrepresenting the truth? Don’t these people know about Tom and Betsy Gidiz – Betsy committed in her professional life to helping the elderly, Tom a medical doctor helping people of all ages? Don’t they know about Dr Bob Greenberg, a pediatrician, who works to keep young children healthy? Don’t they know about David and Courtney Amman --- David a school principal, Courtney, a public school teacher? Don’t they know about Shelly Shapiro, who works in the emergency room of a major hospital and who does voluntary work counseling rape victims? Don’t they know about Marly Cornell, who has taken her own experience with her spina bifida daughter, Cody, and used this as a vehicle for helping other parents whose children are physically or mentally disadvantaged?

These are the people who are the real heart and soul of the animal rights movement – people who stand as a part of, not a part from, the human rights movement. These are the people who work to promote good and eliminate evil whenever it raises its ugly head. Which is why we are gathered here today, you and I, to declare war on vivisection! And we will not be satisfied until we’re gotten every animal out of every cage in every laboratory!

Of course, what’s really ironic is how accurately the medical industrial complex describes itself in efforts to describe its critics. Consider the charge of ignorance.

When we find out that 34% of post mortems reveal that the now deceased victim was misdiagnosed: 34% were being treated for diseases they did not have, 34% were not being treated for the diseases that killed them.

When we find out that 60-80% of the 250,000 coronary bypass patients, who undergo this surgery annually in the US, gain no increased life span when compared with patients who forego this radical surgery.

When we find out that of the 900,000 caesarian deliveries performed in 1986 – a full 24% of all infant births – at least 50% were unnecessary.

When we find out that of the 120,000 pacemakers implanted during that same year, more than 50% were not medically indicated.

When we learn all this, even the most trusting among us must begin to understand where the charge of ignorance really fits. All some people need to do is look in the mirror.

What is true in the case of ignorance also is true in the case of compassion. When we find out where the truth lies, we find out who lies. Come on, let’s be honest!

If the medical industrial complex really was as compassionate as it wants us to believe it is, it would be out front leading the parade to make essential health care available to everyone! But it’s not out front leading the parade; it’s not even in the parade. The last thing the medical industrial complex wants is something other than a profit-driven industry.

And just in case you think I exaggerate, just in case you think the medical industrial complex is the health care industry’s version of Mr. GoodWrench – consider that the United States is only one of two so-called “democracies” in the world that does not guarantee necessary health care to each and every citizen, regardless of age, regardless of income, regardless of race. Only one of two. The other “democracy” is . . . South Africa.

The evil of apartheid is cut from the same defective moral cloth as vivisection. Both represent the pattern of special privilege over fairness, custom over justice, power over respect, greed over compassion.

Which is why those of us that are gathered here today are united not only in our opposition to apartheid in South Africa but also in our opposition to apartheid in medical science and medical research. Today we declare war on vivisection, and we will not be satisfied until every animal is out of every cage in every lab!

Terrorists…terrorists…terrorists…

That’s the new buzzword the medical –industrial complex uses to describe animal rights advocates. We’re no longer little old ladies in tennis shoes. Today we are young thugs in face masks, armed with torches and cans of spray paint, out for a Clockwork Orange evening of fun and games.

You’ve got to hand it to the vivisection industry’s PR people; they certainly know how to work an image to their best advantage. The problem is, the image doesn’t correspond to reality. The basic philosophy of the animal rights movement is “Learn, baby, learn!” not “Burn, baby, burn!”

Learn the truth about how your tax dollars are spent.

Learn the truth about the callousness and lack of compassion that characterises so much of the medical industrial complex.

Learn the truth about how ignorance and greed find a happy home in the medical community.

Learn the truth about how animals are being treated and why the public health system is not being served by this science of death.

Because responsible people in the media are beginning to learn the truth something profoundly important is happening. There is a great awakening occurring. The animal rights movement has seized the initiative and is gaining momentum! Our time has come! We’re declaring war on vivisection! And we will not stop until we have every animal out of every cage in every laboratory!

This call to arms – this declaration of war – is not a call to violence. It is a call to peace. The use of violence never really changes anything, only the identities of the agents of violence. Morally, violence is indefensible; tactically, it is unwise.

The means we must use to wage our war are those shaped and proven by Gandhi and Martin Luther King: The weapons of nonviolence, but with a few differences.

Precisely because those whose interests we represent (the tens of millions of animals in laboratories) are unable to tell us what is being done to them.

Precisely because the government inspection mechanisms for assuring compliance with the law have been show time and time again to be inadequate.

Precisely because of these considerations it has been necessary for some in our movement to enter labs illegally – there to document the waste and the evil of vivisection done in the name of science.

Just two things are to be said here:

First: Thank God for the Animal Liberation Front! Thank God for Last Change for Animals! Thank God for Band of Mercy! If it had not been for your courage and your skill, those of us assembled today would not know what to do. We owe you, and we thank you.

Second: Illegally obtained exposes of laboratory atrocities will continue. And they will continue as long as the medical industrial complex refuses to allow unannounced inspections of labs by people from the animal rights movement. Until that day comes, I think it is true --- and this is not a threat, this is a fact --- that every lab in every research facility is in jeopardy of an announced inspection . . . and I don’t mean one done by the government! Because this is war! And we’re not going to be satisfied until every animal is out of every cage in every laboratory!

Some people may say we are asking for too much when we ask for an open door policy concerning lab inspections. Certainly it will take a great amount of pressure on the vivisection industry to get them to let some sunshine in. But there are some glimmers of hope. Edwin Allen. Remember the name. Edwin Allen is the Judge who recently heard the case involving a break-in at the University of Oregon. Judge Allen got a crash course in animal abuse when he was judicially obligated to watch such films as ‘Unnecessary Fuss’ and ‘Britches’. He didn’t like what he saw.

“We have some evidence here”, he writes, “as to certain things which have been done which were disturbing to me…Those activities in the labs should be free and observable to any member of the citizenry. It would be highly appropriate”, Judge Allen writes, ‘to have these facilities open to the public.” Open to the public! Right on, Judge Allen! That’s what I say. Help us to get our message out.

Know this: there is room in our army for more than the Judge Allens. Anyone and everyone can join, including many otherwise good, decent people who currently are in bondage to the medical industrial complex. We welcome you into our ranks, if you will but quit the evil that is vivisection.

To all of you good, decent people currently in the vivisection industry, therefore, we issue this healing call: Lay down your weapons. Lay down your scalpels and prods. Lay down your Pavlovian slings and restraint chairs. Lay down your stereotaxic devices and your rodent guillotines. Lay down your wires that shock and plates that burn. Lay down your tanks that drown and chambers that deprive. Lay down your sutures that blind and vices that crush. Lay down these weapons of evil and join with us, you scientists who are brave enough and good enough to stand up for what is just and true.

We welcome you into our ranks – ranks that have known the likes of Plutarch and Ovid, Horace and Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates, St Francis and Leonardo da Vinci, the poets Shelley and Browning, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, Colette and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi, C.S.Lewis, Mark Twain – join with us on this historic day when, in concert with thousands and thousands of others throughout the world, we declare war on vivisection!

We will not rest—we cannot rest—until every animal is out of every cage in every lab. We can do this! We shall do this! The day will come when all the cages will be empty, when all the animals will be liberated, when all decent, compassionate people can shout with joy, echoing Martin Luther King’s famous words: Free at last! Free at last! Free at last!