In New Zealand, porcine protectors chained themselves to the back of a bacon delivery truck to protest factory farming. They're accusing a bacon company of being responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of pigs yearly. Kind of goes with the territory, no?

Pigs, chickens, calves raised for veal....they're just so many economic units. If I want free-range chicken, I can buy it, and I often do. Because I like the taste better. But some people want to pay four dollars for a fryer, not nine. So-called "factory farms" aren't pretty, but it's a slippery slope when we begin to talk about the feelings of things we eat; for plants have feelings, too.

Nonetheless, youths seeking to gain political maturity often turn to animal rights activism. Now, the battered and deep-fried chickens of Carrboro, North Carolina; soon again, jihadists in U.S. military prisons. The moral authority of the meat-eating imperialists shall ever be at issue! Forward, comrades!

Animal rights protests hardly stop at supermarket fare, though. In L.A., the big dust-up lately has been over euthanasia of unclaimed strays held by the city. The controversy sparked some detestable behavior by animal rights protestors, and led to the new mayor's weak-kneed dismissal of his animal services chief. From an editorial in today's L.A. Times, titled, "Animal House:"

With the messy firing of Los Angeles Animal Services general manager Guerdon H. Stuckey, the extremist protesters who mounted a demoralizing battle against him got their way, and more. They got an Animal Services Department that will be further weakened and divided by revolving-door leadership. They also stained Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. No matter what the reasons for his dismissal of Stuckey, he will be seen as capitulating to people who express their disapproval with smoke grenades, bomb threats, midnight telephone "pranks" and vandalism at the homes of Animal Services employees and public officials. Villaraigosa's appointee to replace Stuckey, former New York animal services chief Ed Boks, comes to the job knowing that if he does something to which the radical Animal Defense League and an even more radical underground group, the Animal Liberation Front, object, his home too may be targeted. Welcome to the neighborhood.

As if to somehow show they won't be pushed around TOO much, the city has filed 14 misdemeanor conspiracy charges against the animal rights activists for various alleged threats and mischief against city employees. They should have done it much sooner, and made clear that if people can't care for stray pets, and not enough people will adopt strays kept at city expense, then the city is entirely right to euthanize them. Animal rights have a lot to do with the responsibilities of private individuals. Government cannot, and should not, serve in loco parentis for stray dogs, cats, and ferrets.

Nor should wolves be given a pass, especially if state biologists say they need to be culled, and no matter what howls of protest ensue. As it turns out, Friends of Animals has stopped its "howl-ins" to protest Alaska's predator management program targeting a small percentage of the state's wolf population. There are an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 wolves in Alaska, and the state has been culling about 400 a year to protect moose and caribou populations.

...said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, based in Darien, Conn..."If the boycott was designed to get (Alaska Gov. Frank) Murkowski to sacrifice an attitude, it didn't happen."

I'm so glad that Ms. Feral - of a group based in Darien, Conn. - is able to speak to the plight of Alaskan wolves.

I like wolves, too. They make great coats.

Coming soon at Rosenblog.....Veal bacon: where do YOU stand?

TECHNORATI TAGS: ANIMAL RIGHTS, LOS ANGELES, ALASKA, NEW ZEALAND, NORTH CAROLINA

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at December 19, 2005 01:46 PM