SHAC AMERICA
The Pamelyn Ferdin Interview
Interviewed by Claudette Vaughan
Pamelyn Ferdin is President of SHAC America. In between being at court to face charges for a quaint old law called “focused picketing”, Pamelyn shared her thoughts with us on SHAC7 court case, the terrifying life of a pound animal and her life as a animal activist and partner to Jerry Vlasak.
 Abolitionist: What constitutes ‘activism' to you?
Pamelyn Ferdin: Activism to me is taking one's demands and/or grievances regarding issues of animal oppression, disenfranchisement, exploitation, torture and abuse right into the streets; right into the faces of those who are responsible for it, and the one ones who can stop it. I believe that activism is getting ones hands dirty, being in the trenches. Advocacy is writing letters, signing petitions, calling and asking companies to stop testing on animals, etc. But “activism” is something more; it's loud and boisterous protests in order to force the public to confront issues they don't have the time, interest or compassion to notice. Some people say that just being vegan is activism, but I don't buy it. Activism is changing others, breaking through barriers of those whose hearts are full of stone. Veganism is something one does for oneself and the animals; but if you are simply vegan and not out there in the streets demanding change, then I don't define that as activism-I define that as being hippy dippy, and thinking that change will come through crystals and your own aura! Abolitionist: Has the man-on-the-street in the US bought the terrorist tag the government has labeled animal rights/liberation activists?
Pamelyn Ferdin: I believe that since George Bush, aka “shrub” has been in office, there has definitely been a huge change in perception by a vast number of people here in the US. But it's not only the fault of George Bush and his henchmen, along with a media who have become lackeys on behalf of government propaganda, it's also the American citizens themselves who are to blame. They have become spoiled, fat, lazy, apathetic and selfish. They have a paradigm of “What's in it for me?” They have all, including most African Americans and those of other races, bought into the mindset that if you have enough “bling-bling”, drive an expensive car, have the trendiest clothes, then that is what happiness and success is all about. It's absolutely disgusting to me and quite worrisome, because these shameful American values are being exported to countries such as the UK and elsewhere. Another group of Americans that is really growing since Bush took office are the religious right folks, who are also spoiled, fat, lazy, apathetic and selfish--but deeply conservative as well. So maybe they don't desire the same types of material processions the more “liberal” Americans desire, but it's the same basic disease. Instead of needing to have the latest in trendy clothing, a religious-right mother, for example, might feel that attending the most popular church and making sure her kids are on the football team or cheerleading squad is what success and happiness is all about. Oh, and of course making sure no gays get married in her state!
The basic disease, however, that most Americans have in common, is a disease known as “fear” of having to share what they have and their possessions and standing with others beings. They simply don't want to share. They want to indulge themselves and continue to want, want, want—but don't care about others; especially those of a different race, class or species.
But, having said all that, there is a sense that it's beginning to shift. The pendulum may be slowly but surely starting to swing the other way. I hope that's the case, I really do. Abolitionist: Is this a witch-hunt against SHAC7?
Pamelyn Ferdin: There is a witch hunt against anyone in the States or even abroad who is being effective on behalf of a cause that threatens someone's profits. The SHAC campaign has been very effective world- wide, and whenever a campaign to change something that will force people to have to alter what they are used to doing, there is a backlash. Animal Rights campaigns that are effective are the most threatening because many of the campaigns target companies making billions of dollars off the exploitation, oppression and torture of animals. But it's not just the SHAC campaign, our local grass roots campaign here in Los Angeles ( ) has been harassed, taken to court numerous times, and sued repeatedly by the city simply because we are exposing the six city animal “shelters” for the Death Camps they truly are. And look at SNGP and the Oxford campaigns. It's not so much the government is focusing on SHAC per se, they are focusing on any effective campaign for animal, human or environmental rights.
Abolitionist: Is activism dead in the US? Should 1 st world activists throw off the straitjacket of romantic notions regarding activism and join the un-chartered waters of political agitation as opposed to, say the luke - warm, safe and shallow waters of animal welfarist “campaigning”?
Pamelyn Ferdin: I don't think that you can call yourself an activist if you are not participating currently in political agitation. The warm, safe and shallow water of animal welfarism or advocacy is something that drives me crazy, and to be honest makes me a bit disgusted. It's like saying, “I really want change, but don't want to risk anything to make it happen.” I don't have time for people like that; we in Animal Defense League-Los Angeles call them “time wasters!” Abolitionist: Rapidly growing numbers of dissidents, varying diversifying focuses of their dissent and steadily escalating commitment and militancy of their tactics threatens and derails power elites. What is it like being a dynamic activist in the US today?
Pamelyn Ferdin: I have definitely noticed a much more restrictive and unconstitutional paradigm in the US then when I began my activism in the early nineties. The government is trying to scare activists here like never before. This will definitely begin to separate the “wheat from the chaff” so to speak. To be an animal rights activist in the Bush era, which I like to call “post-constitutional Amerika” it takes activists who are not only determined and passionate about the cause, but willing to risk trials, false charges, being smeared in the media and going to jail. But passion is a currency that trumps money and power. So I believe our passion will prevail. But, it not only takes passion, but relentless tenacity. I'm like a snapping turtle; I just can't give in when I know what is happening to animals in this world. I take a lot of my personal inspiration from the UK activists . They are the most persistent and extraordinary activists I know.
Abolitionist: Where must the locus of change lie if the animal rights/liberation movement is not to be swept aside with the rising intractable human problems of the world such as poverty, hunger, the violation of human dignity and rights, war and violence, economic oppression and political persecution etc?
Pamelyn Ferdin : As long as there are human beings walking the earth, there will be poverty, hunger, the violation of human dignity and rights, war and violence, economic oppression and political persecution. We humans are the most evil and sadistic beings to have ever walked this earth. Humans are like the cancer cells that have taken over an incredibly fragile system called Mother Earth and we are replicating so fast, we may cause the death of her. So, I can only hope, that nature and Mother Earth have something in store for us humans, and that some day something huge will occur and that the balance of the Earth will be restored. But until that time, I just keep plugging away trying to do the best I can for the animals who have a chance to feel the sun on their faces and the wind at their backs. That's all I can do before I die. It's the road I've chosen I just try and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Like the Penguins in the movie March of the Penguins-they are totally focused on plodding along the seventy mile trek in the bitter cold without any food, determined to make it to their goal. Some die from cold or lack of food, but none of them ever turn back. I don't have it as hard as those Penguins, but I like to think of them when I'm plodding along, just trying to put one foot in front of the other, hoping and determined to reach my goal.
Abolitionist: PeTA's pro-killing stance on thousands and thousands of pound animals parallels in a non-speciesist world, that of old homeless men in shelters. It's not a money-spinner and its not perceived as glamorous so it's ignored. In a pound animals case they are exterminated without little fore thought. What are our views Pamelyn?
Pamelyn Ferdin: How dare PETA or anyone else take a homeless animal and against their will, kill them. Our www.StopTheKilling.net campaign here in LA is trying to change the paradigm of the “catch and kill” mentality that is rampant at animal “control” facilities here in the States, to one of NO KILL. An individual like Nathan Winograd of www.NoKillSolutions.com is the first of his kind to begin to change this outdated archaic “catch and kill paradigm” within the shelter system. As an insider, Winograd has gained the credibility and admiration of thousands by implementing policies and protocols that are taking shelters towards NO KILL like no one has ever seen before. But it takes animal rights activists to demand this change in their own localities. Once the demand is there, hopefully they will contact Winograd and begin to make the changes necessary to stop the killing.
My views on homeless companion animals are so strong, it spurred my idea to launch the first campaign in the US, which is using militant animal rights strategies and tactics, to stop the killing of cats, dogs, puppies and kittens and other animals imprisoned inside our six Los Angeles animal “shelters”—virtual Death Camps for lost, homeless or feral animals. I always thought that if we as a society can't even stop the killing of man's “best friend”, then how on earth can we ever stop the killing of animals like pigs, cows and chickens? We haven't done a very good job at making this a No Kill nation for companion animals and I believe it's because we have allowed the welfarists to determine how we deal with this issue for far too long.
And PETA isn't helping with their view that it's better to be dead than homeless. I wonder how homeless people would feel if they were picked up, imprisoned for four days in a cage and then dragged to a kill room where three people have to hold them down while they inject poison into them. Well, this is what happens to over forty thousand healthy, treatable cats, dogs, puppies, kittens and rabbits every single year in Los Angeles alone. It's time we said the killing must stop once and for all. We need to focus on the big picture, and stop the killing of homeless, lost and feral animals right now. Rescuers shouldn't have to be in crisis mode all the time, rushing into city shelters and bailing out animals who are going to be killed. Rescuing animals one at a time is a very noble thing to do, but we must stop all the killing. Rescuing one animal at a time is like trying to clean up a rainstorm with a paper towel. We need to get to the root of the problem and simply STOP THE KILLING period
Abolitionist: How will we win new gains along the road?
Pamelyn Ferdin: By being tenacious, persistent, and creative. We may not have the money the opposition has, but we have the tenacity, persistence, creativity, and beyond all, compassion, that they DON'T have. Of course we also have to be willing to sacrifice our comfort level. This movement isn't a game, it's not a social scene and it's not a party. It's tough and it takes individuals who are willing to take huge risks for another being who isn't even of their own species.
Abolitionist: Your husband and fellow activist Jerry Vlasak has just completed a 15-day hunger strike for the Canadian seals that are being clubbed to death in Canada. How is he and what was his experience there?
Pamelyn Ferdin: When I saw Jerry come off the plane after not eating for fifteen days, I was pretty stunned; he looked really gaunt. I didn't want to say anything; he's a thin guy to begin with, but I felt sorry for him. The next morning when he had to wear a belt so that his pants wouldn't fall down around his ankles, we both had a good laugh. I obviously was very proud of him. He was the only one of the eleven anti sealing activists who turned himself in to serve jail time and he did so because he wanted to get publicity for the seals being killed at that time in Newfoundland. Since he is banned from going onto the ice in Canada for three years, he wanted to do his part to bring negative attention to the seal slaughter that goes on every year in North East Canada. He got a lot of publicity for the seals while in jail on a hunger strike. What touched me the most after hearing about his experience in the Prince Edward Island jail, was on his last night in the jail, all the inmates in the pod Jerry was in, toasted him at dinner in the cafeteria letting Jerry know how proud they were to have shared a pod with someone so dedicated to opposing the seal kill. While Jerry was in jail, he taught his jail mates all about Veganism and tried to recruit them to protest the seal slaughter next year. So, who knows, maybe some of them will be out on the ice floes next year!
Jerry is really my inspiration; he has such strong convictions and is very brave, yet very humble at the same time. He has taught me many things, one of which is staying focused and not getting involved in all the “drama.” There are some activists in the US who have tried to obstruct and put down the North American Animal Liberation Press Office along with the press officers —Jerry being one of them. But Jerry just stays the course and doesn't let their immaturity or jealousy affect him one bit. Jerry just keeps his eyes on the prize and never spends one second thinking about their nonsense. NAALPO at www.animalliberationpressoffice.org is to me one of the greatest vehicles to spread the message of animal liberation world wide, and I am proud that Jerry is a part of it.
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