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Gary Yourofsky in the News

This page contains an archive of over 100 news stories and articles relating to Gary Yourofsky, including editorials and letters-to-the-editor written by Gary, as well as profiles, quotations, photos and captions, and other items that appeared in print media between 1996 and the present. On this page the articles are arranged in ascending chronological order.

To read articles for a particular year, just click on your chosen category from the list below. The "Back to List" link at the bottom of the page will return you to this list. You can also follow through each of the sections in order by clicking the "Next Section" link at the bottom of the page. To view these articles arranged according to topic, visit this alternate Archives page.

Articles from 1996

Americans Need to Re-examine Cruel Practice of Animal Testing

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on July 15, 1996.

"If one human life is saved because of animal experimentation, then the pain and suffering and death of the animals is justified." The truth of that statement hinges upon its antithesis. What if one human life was lost, ruined by injury or never saved because of animal research? Would everyone still support the indignities that take place behind closed doors at our universities, medical research facilities and pharmaceutical corporations?

Today, the public is being duped into the belief that animal experimentation is safe for humans, and vivisection—a live autopsy done on animals—is the only way to advance medicine. However, that is not the case. Scientists have developed cellular, molecular and mathemetical alternatives without the use of animals, and prefer to use non-invasive, human-based clinical studies.

But the alternatives continue to be underfunded and rejected by the status quo because vivisectionists are fighting for billions of dollars in federally funded money. The 1996 budget of The National Institutes of Health, the nation's largest animal research facility, is well over $16 billion.

Irwin Bross, Ph.D., and retired director of biostatistics at Roswell Memorial Institute in New York, has confirmed that animal-based cancer research over the last 40 years has been a failure.

"Not a single new drug for the treatment of human cancer was first picked up by the animal model system," Bross said. "The results of animal model systems for drugs or other modalities have done nothing but confuse and mislead the cancer researchers."

It is clearly evident that we are being deceived by animal experimenters. However, the non-vivisectionists who know the truth behind animal experimentation and aren't afraid to expose the fraud are questioning the medical community. Where are the cures you've promised? Where is the cure for cancer, muscular dystrophy and AIDS?

I urge everyone to re-examine the unscientific and unethical processes inherent in animal experimentation. The simple fact remains evident: We are not anatomically or physiologically identical to a mouse, cat, dog, pig or monkey. So why would we depend on test results received from those species?

And we should be shocked that the medical community equates our well-being with those creatures. In science, being similar doesn't count. Being almost sure doesn't mean much to the dying, uncured victims.

Should Bear Baiting, Use of Dogs Be Banned?

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on October 14, 1996.

Are you fed up with all the hunters telling you to leave wildlife management decisions up to the experts at the Department of Natural Resources? Enough already! If everyone hasn't figured it out by now, the "experts" at the Department of Natural Resources are not experts. They're hunters. Their friends and families are hunters. And hunting pays their salaries.

So, since one of their two goals is to preserve current unscientific bear hunting practices—even though bear baiting and the use of dogs in hunting is unethical and ignominious—it shouldn't surprise anyone that goal number two is to keep decisions about hunting out of the public's hands.

When did killing more animals, and killing them more easily, become sound wildlife management? If they were unbiased and sincere about protecting wildlife, they would be preventing habitat encroachment, poaching and hunting altogether.

According to any authentic wildlife expert who doesn't have to worry about pleasing special interest groups, the truth is that hunting causes overpopulation.

For instance, if hunting wasn't practiced, then there would be an even ratio of male (buck) and female (doe) deer. So, without hunting, a sample group of 10 deer would consist of five bucks and five does. Since each doe can have up to two offspring, then the maximum number of babies born in the sample group is 10.

So, hunters kill the bucks a majority of the time and not the does. Why? Because females make babies. And, due to hunting, the sample group of 10 deer is now at a disproportionate level. Instead of five bucks and five does, there is now (on average) one buck and nine does. That means a maximum number of 18 offspring could be produced. Multiply the extra eight babies for every sample group of 10 deer and there you have it. An overpopulated herd so hunting can continue.

Lynn Rogers, Ph.D., and retired wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, says humans and bears can co-exist peacefully. "The residents of Hemlock Farms, Penn., share their seven-square-mile town with over 20 black bears. That's three bears per square mile, a higher density than is found in any national park."

We should be outraged that the people making decisions on the welfare of animals don't care about animals. The DNR must stop kowtowing to the hunting coalition. The DNR needs to do what it should have been doing for years—protecting our wildlife from killers and protecting our habitat from development.

The public is sick and tired of placing any governmental decisions in the hands of biased individuals. We have the right to say what happens to these precious animals. Michigan residents should vote yes on proposal D and no on G.

Arrival of Hunting Season Brings Pleasure and Distress

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Post (Oakland University's school paper) on November 13, 1996.

The forest was quiet and serene as the sun attempted to shine through countless trees. A panoply of animals roamed peacefully. A hunter, claiming to love and respect animals, waits in a tree blind with his Winchester high-powered rifle. An altruistic animalitarian (sic), who also claims to love and respect animals, stands motionless by a tree with his Minolta X-700 camera.

A buck trots along foraging for berries. He stops at some brush. His large brown eyes, moist black nose and tan-colored fur embellish his presence.

The animalitarian is content witnessing a living, breathing being in its natural habitat. He snaps a round of shots from his Minolta. He leaves and realizes that humans aren't the only creatures on earth; they just act like it. Co-existence and respect for life are essential to kind, compassionate humans.

But wait! The hunter sees the same creature. He recognizes nothing but the buck's inferiority to humans. A tasty venison burger is on his mind. His heart races for the thrill of the kill. He aims his Winchester at the deer's heart. The buck is clueless to this frightful act because the hunter is hidden. One shot is fired. Bam! The buck takes it in the chest. He falls and drags himself a few hundred feet before dying.

The hunter is content. He has taken a life, but not one of his own. He feels no remorse. His abstruse mind-set is inexplicable. He has never heard the poignant quote from Thomas Edison: "Non-violence leads to the highest ethics which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are all still savages." Nor has he heard from the benevolent Gandhi: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Unfortunately, hunters have been nourished by a society that fails to acknowledge the innate freedoms that every being deserves. The right to make decisions about your own body. Rights that are not open to debate. Yet, humans miserably fail to extend these rights to non-human animals. And, since animals cannot speak human languages, altruists will speak for them. No, they do not want to be murdered while roaming in the woods with their families. No, they do not want to be slaughtered over a pile of jelly doughnuts.

Furthermore, the Department of Natural of Resources (DNR) in Michigan, or any other state's resource commission, is reluctant to tell people the truth about hunting. Hunting causes overpopulation. Hunters always say that deer are overpopulated, and they hunt to keep the population down. Then how come the population never gets under control?

If hunting wasn't allowed, then there would be an even ratio of male (buck) and female (doe) deer. So, without hunting, a sample group of 10 deer would consist of five bucks and five does. Since each doe can have up to two offspring, then the maximum number of babies born in the sample group is 10.

However, now that hunters have landed positions in the DNR and are forced to please the hunting coalition, they must keep the herd overpopulated. So, hunters kill the bucks a majority of the time and not the does. Why? Because females make babies. And, due to hunting, the sample group of 10 deer is now at a disproportionate level. Instead of five bucks and five does, there is now (on average) one buck and nine does. That means a maximum number of 18 offspring could be produced. Multiply the extra eight babies for every sample group of 10 deer and there you have it. An overpopulated deer herd and hunting season can continue on schedule.

Another fact to consider in the scandalous overpopulation methods employed by the DNR is the issue of deer-car accidents. If hunting controlled the herd, then how come deer-car accidents rose from 35,000 in 1975 to more than 60,000 in 1995? Hunters have been killing an average of 300,000 deer each year. That's 2.7 million over the last 20 years. Deer-car accidents should be decreasing, right?

Then, there's the pesky issue of habitat destruction and human proliferation. Not to mention the fact that humans have made wolves, natural predators of deer, an endangered species.

If given a chance, and some space to live, animals can co-exist peacefully with humans. In the Nov/Dec 1996 issue of Animals magazine, Gary Alt, who headed a 1996 bear-tagging study for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said, "Nothing has impressed us more than their (bears') incredibly unassertive behavior. We've been shocked at how wild bears can adapt to high human densities..."

In the same issue, Vermont bear biologist Forest Hammond informed readers of the following statistics: "Since the turn of the century (1900), fewer than 30 people have been killed by black bears in all of North America. Compare that toll with the 5,000 people killed by bee stings and 2.5 million people killed by other people during the same period."

Who is the aggressor—animal or man? The sincere words of British naturalist Charles Darwin: "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of humans."

So who loves and respects animals? The hunter or the altruist?

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Articles from 1997

Stop the Killing of Endangered Species

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on February 22, 1997.

A fragile colony of endangered butterflies has received a temporary stay of execution because of funding problems with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).

Initially, a 1.5-mile section of US-31 was scheduled to run through Blue Creek Fen in Benton Harbor—home to the Mitchell's satyr butterfly—around late 1997 or early 1998. But according to Al Westover, regional analyst of MDOT, the $144 million freeway expansion of US-31 has been delayed until at least 2006.

The Mitchell's satyr butterfly was given full protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1992 because only 264 satyrs are known to exist in the US at 12 different sites in Michigan and Indiana. Blue Creek Fen in Benton Harbor is the second largest US colony with 52. Worldwide, no more than 2,000 are known to exist.

After the highway construction reaches Blue Creek Fen, the U.S. population of Mitchell's satyr will drop below 200. Then the satyr will soon join the immutable death list of many other animals that man has extirpated.

Yet the Mitchell's satyr isn't the only endangered species imperiled. And it's possible that court decisions in favor of animals like the spotted owl and snail darter might be as rarely seen as the endangered animals themselves.

Presently, the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, a group of congressman who support big business, development and hunting of endangered species, is trying to eviscerate the ESA. The caucus has reckless disregard for animals and the environment and is being spurred on by Senators Don Young, R-Alaska, and Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, co-chair of the committee.

In a 1995 Animals magazine interview, Young said, "environmentalists are nothing more than a self-centered, waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating intellectual bunch of idiots."

Meanwhile, Murkowski is leading the effort to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling even though the oil sought there would only supply the US for 200 days.

The Arctic refuge is one of the last untouched ecosystems in the world and void of man's pollution at the moment.

Over the last 100 years, it is impossible to conceive the irreparable damage people have inflicted on the earth. Animals have been extirpated, plants effaced and the environment battered because of human proliferation and carelessness. People have yet to develop and comprehend the basic foundations of equity and reason. And, until that day arrives, a number of living beings will be killed off in the name of the almighty dollar.

Jail Bond Set at $10,000 for Student Activist

By Suzy Scholz

The following story appeared in The Oakland Post (Oakland University's school paper) on April 16, 1997.

OU student and animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky was released last Thursday from Chatham County Jail in Ontario, Canada. He posted a $10,000 bond after spending more than a week and a half behind bars.

Yourofsky, along with four other Michigan residents, had been jailed since March 30 for allegedly breaking into the Ebert Fur Farm and releasing 1,500 minks in a protest against the fur industry.

The five accused are now free after posting the bond. This was about $7,500 American dollars. The activists are due back in court for another appearance on April 25. The decision on bond came Wednesday about 5 p.m., after Chatham Justice of the Peace Elaine Babcock heard testimony. However, Yourofsky and the other accused were not released until Thursday because the offices had already closed for the day.

Yourofsky faces a maximum of two years in prison on charges which include mischief and conspiracy for breaking and entering. Co-owner of Ebert Fur Farm, Tom McLellan, estimated monetary losses at $500,000. Additionally, Ebert Fur Farm was raided two weeks prior to this incident, at which time, according to McLellan, 400 minks were released. A group named the Earth Liberation Front took claim to the event shortly later in a letter to the Toronto Sun.

Early news reports had stated that police believed the five were affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front and involved in the prior incident. Yourofsky, however, denies involvement. "I have no affiliation with Earth Liberation Front or any law-breaking human rights or animal rights group. I am simply a true humanitarian who opposes every form of oppression and discrimination," he said in a prepared statement.

Yourofsky has been actively involved in fighting and education about animal rights. He is president of ADAPTT, a non-profit animal advocacy organization which publishes a monthly newsletter.

ADAPTT's mission statement reads, in part, "We are uncompromisingly opposed to the so-called sport of hunting and the wearing of animal skin, mainly fur, but also including leather, wool, silk, down, etc. Plus, ADAPTT supports the eventual phasing out of animals for food consumption."

Yourofsky could not comment on the specifics of the case. However, in a statement to The Post, he said, "I am a true humanitarian who opposes the worldwide, ignominious philosophies of injustice and inequity...It is beyond absurdity and more along the lines of insidiousness that the media, the courts and a large portion of society would label a true humanitarian as a terrorist! A comment of that nature is an institutionalized, discriminatory malapropism."

Jail Made Him Feel Like Caged Mink

By Larry Perl

The following story appeared in The Mirror (Royal Oak, Mich.) on April 24, 1997.

Gary Yourofsky doesn't deny that he broke into a Canadian mink fur farm Easter Sunday and freed thousands of the caged, furry animals. After 10 days in jail, he thinks he knows how the minks must have felt.

Until his family posted a $10,000 cash bond last week, Yourofsky, a 26-year-old animal rights activist and former Royal Oak resident, had languished in a crowded cell in Chatham, Ontario, about 90 minutes from Detroit's border. He and four other suspects from the Detroit suburbs were charged with breaking and entering and mischief.

Newspaper articles depicted them as mink freedom fighters, and as animal rights terrorists.

Yourofsky says Justice of the Peace Elaine Babcock made them post a high bail because she was afraid they wouldn't return to Canada to stand trial, but she gave a Michigan man accused of two counts of sexual assault a $1,000 bond [a few weeks earlier].

He says there were 25 people in his cell, 14 beds, one shower and two toilets.

"I was no more than an animal in the zoo. It wasn't pleasant" and it reinforced "my empathy and understanding of what these animals go through," he says.

He argues philosophically that death in the wild is a better fate than anal electrocution on a mink farm. "I have videos," he says. "I can come over and show you."

Yourofsky's group ADAPTT is based in Royal Oak. He lives in West Bloomfield with his mother, who he says has been totally supportive.

Another defendant in the case, Patricia Dodson, 48, is a resident of Royal Oak. Yourofsky says Dodson is active in the organization Humanitarians for Animal Rights Education (HARE). The other three are Yourofsky's uncle, Alan Hoffman of Roseville; Farmington Hills resident Robyn Weiner, 25; and Hilma Ruby, a 59-year-old resident of Rochester Hills.

Yourofsky is a full-time journalism student at Oakland University and the host of a weekly radio talk show on WPON 1460 AM.

He says he started ADAPTT so he could write a newsletter and be independent from other animal rights groups. He says he is not affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front or any other "law-breaking human rights or animal rights groups." He says, "I am simply a true humanitarian who opposes every form of oppression and discrimination."

When Yourofsky returned home from jail last week, he learned that one of his three dogs had died of a stroke. He had already lost his beloved Bourbon a few months earlier, and he came home to find that Brandy had passed away, too. Rex is the only one of Yourofsky's dogs still alive.

"I feel like Job in the bible. Everything has been taken. I lost my dog. I lost my freedom," he said.

Yourofsky said two of the five defendants gave police in Chatham confessions, but he wasn't one of them. Friday, they'll head back to Ontario, where a judge will set a trial date. Yourofsky is reluctant to talk about the case while it's pending. However, he thinks the mink farm owner exaggerated how many minks died from exposure to the cold after their release.

Yourofsky also challenges many people's assumption that releasing the animals led them to freeze to death because they were raised in captivity and were too tame to survive in the wild. "It's absolute rubbish," he says. "Minks are wild animals."

Activist Fights for Rights of Animals

By Mike Martindale

The following article appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on May 16, 1997.

In the sci-fi film 12 Monkeys, animal rights activists break into a zoo and free lions, elephants and other exotic animals from their cages.

Small wonder that the 1995 thriller is a favorite of Gary Yourofsky, one of five Michigan residents now facing charges of sneaking onto a Canadian mink farm last month and releasing 1,500 minks.

"That (12 Monkeys) is a great film, I really enjoyed it," said Yourofsky, who contends animal rights are the next civil rights issue to be advanced by society.

"Animal rights is the logical next step," Yourofsky said in one of the first interviews he's granted since his arrest. "Just like women's rights, the rights of blacks and other minorities," the 26-year-old Oakland University journalism student said. "It's just a matter of time before we all realize what we are doing to animals is wrong."

Authorities say the West Bloomfield man and others cut through wire fences at Ebert's Mink Farm in Chatham, Ontario, on Easter Sunday and opened the cages of minks being raised for the fur industry. The farm's owner, Tom McLellan, pegged the losses at the farm, about 60 miles East of Windsor, at around $500,000.

Yourofsky declined to discuss the specifics of crimes he and four others are charged with—burglary, mischief over $5,000 and possession of burglary tools—but says the claims are "highly exaggerated."

Also charged are Alan A. Hoffman, 47, of Roseville; Patricia M. Dodson, 48, of Royal Oak; Hilma Ruby, 59, of Rochester Hills; and Robyn R. Weiner, 25, of Farmington Hills.

All five are free on bond and set to appear today before Chatham Justice of the Peace Elaine Babcock for a pretrial hearing. No trial date has been set.

The case is considered serious and perhaps a benchmark for the nervous, multi-billion-dollar fur industry. It also may set a standard for handling of fur protesters, whose activities are on the rise on both sides of the border.

Chatham Prosecuting Attorney Paul Bailey referred to the defendants as "eco-terrorists" and McLellan, owner of the farm where the damage occurred, said he felt like he had been a victim of an American "invasion."

The charges are punishable by up to 14 years in prison. At one point last month it was questionable if the five Michiganders would even be allowed to post bond. "They've tried to make us out as extremists and part of some international terrorism organization who would never return to court," Yourofsky said.

"They let us sit in jail for 10 long days last month trying to prove we were part of some group ELF (Earth Liberation Front), which I've never even heard of."

Investigators said ELF bragged on the Internet that it broke into the mink farm in March. Other animal rights groups—Yourofsky said there are hundreds—promote disruption and destruction of fur farms and fur dealers in violation of law.

Though Yourofsky noted that Canadian authorities were not unkind ("we got vegetarian meals every day") he has no desire to spend another day behind bars. Still, he stressed, his jailing has not destroyed his passion for animal rights.

"If anything, spending 10 days in a jail—I was a human animal in a cage—has strengthened my feelings," he said. "I don't want to spend another day locked up, but I'm prepared to go to prison if I have to."

Yourofsky and the others have been critical of hunters, furriers and others who profit from animals—including circuses and rodeos—or use of them for the inhumane testing of products. But before Easter Sunday, they also were known as otherwise law-abiding citizens.

Yourofsky is president of ADAPTT, a nonprofit animal rights group based in Royal Oak. He also has a weekly radio program on WPON 1460 AM.

Weiner is a social worker, Dodson and Ruby were associated with Humanitarians for Animal Rights Education (HARE) and Yourofsky's uncle, Hoffman, is a truck driver.

During incarceration, Weiner and Hoffman both reportedly made statements to Ontario Provincial Police implicating themselves in the incident.

Meanwhile, Yourofsky struggles with a logic he says he can't understand. "How can it be a crime, punishable by prison, to free enslaved animals, yet it's perfectly all right to enslave, torture and kill them."

Animal Rights Advocates Object to Gay Rodeo

By Gary Yourofsky

The following letter-to-the-editor appeared in Between the Lines in June 1997.

One of the most disturbing facts about rodeos is that a group of gay people—who are a discriminated minority—have started their own rodeo. And now that group of gay people have teamed up with the ones who discriminate against them in order to discriminate against animals; a completely thoughtless act on the part of those individuals. For the record, the animal rights community is the only across-the-board anti-discriminatory movement in existence. We fight injustice and inequity whenever it rears its ignominious head. We support the rights of every oppressed group and that includes gays! So why can't the gay community return the respect by condemning and boycotting The Gay Rodeo and destroying one form of animal exploitation. Let's work together to end the maltreatment of all beings.

(No Title)

By Gary Yourofsky

The following letter-to-the-editor appeared in The Detroit News on June 13, 1997.

I was irate that The Detroit News quoted a blasphemous comment from an angler in the May 29 article "Anti fishing crusaders find anglers aren't biting." Fisherman Leon Meaux said, "Jesus was a fisherman." But Jesus was not a fisherman. In Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17, Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, "Come and follow me. And I will make you fishers of men." He didn't say that He would make them fishermen. And at no point in the Bible did He ever say He had plans of engaging in any occupation that killed any living being. Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher, an orator, a healer, a miracle worker and a savior. And these jobs encompassed one goal: Giving His life for all of creation. And that includes animals.

Treat All of God's Creatures Equally

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Macomb Daily (Mich.) on June 18, 1997.

Joseph Perkins' May 21 column, "Rabid fringe pushes animal rights," was egregious. The prose was tainted with erroneous facts and assumptions. I'm not surprised, however, by Perkins' ignorance and hubris.

Let me briefly describe myself. I run a nonprofit animal rights group called ADAPTT. Moreover, I am a true humanitarian who cannot be deceived by society's prevarications, which are driven by money, power and dominance.

The column's first mistake was the failure to understand what Ingrid Newkirk said about animal experimentation. Besides explaining that all beings suffer alike, she was describing the biomedical community's credo for its fraudulent justification of vivisection. Since animal researchers believe that vivisection can benefit humans, the biomedical establishment is saying that a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.

Second, the story claimed that the polio vaccine was developed with monkeys. But the vaccine, invented in 1944, failed to destroy the artificially induced, polio-like symptoms that were re-created in the ensuing rhesus monkey experiments. In turn, the public was denied the vaccine until 1954 after Salk and his medical team realized that rhesus monkeys were anatomically, physiologically and immunologically different from humans. How many lives do you think were lost to polio during that wasted 10-year span?

Third, if anyone even considers chemotherapy to be a successful procedure, the technique was developed and refined through the true scientific methods of human-based clinical research, computer and mathematical models, and cellular and molecular biology.

Fourth, heart by-pass surgery was developed with the aforesaid methods and years of human trial-and-error operations.

Moreover, animal testing has not contributed one valuable piece of information relevant to a human, ever. Since animals don't get human diseases and humans don't get animal diseases, vivisection cannot work.

Since columnist Joe Perkins claims to be an informed journalist, then why doesn't he ask true scientists about medical inquiries? Instead he quotes Newkirk and uses PETA as a generic animal rights term like most people use the terms Xerox and Kleenex.

Furthermore, it is utterly despicable and downright ignominious that an African-American would be so condescending toward the subjugation of animals. As a Jewish person whose people were enslaved and murdered in Nazi Germany, I never want to see any sentient being put through a similar atrocity. Perkins and all African-Americans should feel the same about putting sentient beings through the manacles of slavery.

And don't misconstrue the aforementioned point. Animals are not more important than humans. But everyone must understand that importance and a comparative worth analysis are irrelevant to the way animals should be treated in this society. Simply put, all sentient beings deserve to be treated as equals.

If people want to learn the truth about animal rights, they should open their eyes and ears, feed their heads and not be embarrassed to admit that their lifestyle supports a cruel, pernicious industry of animal exploitation.

Geese Roundup Ruffling Feathers

The following paragraph was part of an Oakland Press (Mich.) article on June 26, 1997 about the killing of Canada Geese.

Gary Yourofsky, an animal rights advocate arrested recently for allegedly freeing caged animals from a Canadian mink farm, is also disturbed. "Since when does defecation carry a death sentence?" asked Yourofsky. "They claim geese are a nuisance to people, but the DNR has proven once again it is nothing but a nuisance to animals."

The following headline, photograph and caption appeared in The Detroit News on July 4, 1997.

Animal rights protesters try to derail Wienermobile tour

Activists say a contest to sing Oscar Meyer's jingle lures kids into promoting cruelty to pigs

PHOTO: Yourofsky talking to a man with his young daughter

CAPTION: Gary Yourofsky, a member of ADAPTT, passes out literature to John Saab and his daughter, Gabrielle, at the Oscar Meyer Wiener's promotional tour Thursday at Super Kmart in Sterling Heights.

Help Stop Aid for Trophy Hunting

By Gary Yourofsky

The following letter-to-the-editor appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on August 17, 1997.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is using $28 million of our hard-earned tax dollars on a program known as Campfire, which promotes trophy hunting of African elephants, leopards, lions and other threatened species in order to generate revenue for rural villagers in Zimbabwe. USAID was also a leader in the effort to weaken international protections for elephants and to reopen the trade in ivory last month. The Humane Society of the U.S. firmly believes that this recent move to downlist elephants will once again invite poachers to conduct their deadly campaigns to steal elephants' tusks. Campfire also owns more than 10 tons of stockpiled ivory and will earn over $1 million off its sale to Japan. All residents who are concerned about this situation should contact their U.S. representative and ask them to support the Fox amendment to HR 2159. The amendment will ensure that no tax dollars go to trophy hunts or to promote trade in ivory or rhino horns.

Pig Roast Protest

Members of HARE & ADAPTT Educate

By Jeannee Kirkaldy

The following article appeared in The Oakland Post (Oakland U's school paper) on September 10, 1997.

Party goers weren't the only people who showed up at Sigma Pi's annual pig roast. Members from both ADAPTT and HARE were present to protest. Gary Yourofsky, president of ADAPTT and OU student, organized the protest.

Yourofsky said, "Cooking a once-enslaved tortured pig, who was either hit over the head with an ax handle or had her throat cut with a 16-inch blade, is immoral and unjustifiable. I find it very strange that people can sit around and have a party in front of a dead pig."

Eleven people were in participation in the protest. Yourofsky felt overall the experience was positive and said people were interested. Dean of students David Herman said part of being a college student in a university environment is learning about different points of view and felt that by the protesters being there, the pig roast was also turned into an educational experience.

From 7-9:30 p.m. the protesters handed out literature concerning vegetarianism and factory farming. An estimated 300 pieces of literature were handed out to people who were coming and going, said Yourofsky.

Yourofsky said he wants to reach people and felt confident that he did get through to a couple of students. The signs that were carried had a visual image of pigs hanging upside down which is called "hoisting and shackling" and a phrase across the top that read "animals are not ours to eat."

Yourofsky explained "hoisting and shackling" as an assembly line technique used in slaughterhouses mostly to kill cows and pigs by hanging them upside down by one leg and then cutting their throats.

"There's nothing more evil on this earth than a slaughterhouse as far as I'm concerned," said Yourofsky. The industry itself has a lot of money to lose, said Yourofsky. "All we (animal rights activists) want is peace for the animals," said Yourofsky. "We gain nothing."

Although food for vegetarians was available at the pig roast, "having veggie food available at a pig roast is like having Jesse Jackson speaking at a KKK rally. It's incongruous. It's obscene. And it doesn't bring that brutally murdered pig back to life," Yourofsky said.

Sigma Pi president Aaron Malgeri said, "Overall, the protesters didn't disrupt the event and I was appreciative that they were so peaceful in expressing their viewpoints." Malgeri added that Sigma Pi is planning to host a pig roast every year. It's a great opportunity for the university, not only for Sigma Pi, but also for the students because it shows there is life on campus.

The bottom line, Yourofsky said, is that it's not OK the way we treat animals."

Activist Calls for Boycott of Well-Known Circus

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Post (Oakland U's school paper) on September 24, 1997.

The Joe Louis Arena will be hosting a house of horrors beginning October 1, even though Halloween won't arrive until the 31st.

Dozens of enslaved and mistreated animals will be hauled in for five days of deplorable performances courtesy of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey animal-oriented circus.

However, by engaging in an animal-based circus, the Ringling Bros. will be in direct opposition with its own propaganda. Attempting to provide pleasure to children is magnanimous. Yet, torturing animals to accomplish that goal is despicable.

Most people are unaware of the violent, exploitative and immoral aspects of the circus. However, the horrifying images of chained elephants, lions and tigers being buffeted with blackjacks, iron bars, hooks and whips are etched on my mind. These malicious acts have been caught on video, and I have watched them until nauseated.

Of course these pictures are off limits to the public, so the spin doctors at Ringling can disseminate the duplicitous lie that circuses are fun and family-oriented.

Everyone must understand that circus abuse is rampant. In fact, it's a moot point. Brutality is the only way to train a wild elephant, lion, tiger or bear. The pride must be beaten out of these majestic creatures. Then, and only then, will they acquiesce and perform stupid tricks for the public.

Even Henry North Ringling stated the truth about circuses in his book The Circus Kings. "It is not usually a pretty sight to see the big cats (lions, tigers) being trained. ...When the trainer starts off they are all chained to their pedestals, and ropes are put around their necks to choke them down and make them obey. All sorts of other brutalities are used to force them to respect the trainer and learn their tricks. They work from fear," Ringling stated.

Furthermore, physician, philosopher and Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schwietzer once said that exhibiting trained animals is abhorrent. "What an amount of suffering and cruel punishment the poor creatures have to endure in order to give pleasure to men devoid of thought."

It's quite ironic that I've never turned on The Discovery Channel and viewed a documentary of elephants in sequined accessories standing on one leg upon pedestals in the jungles of Tanzania or the wastelands of Asia. Also, I've never seen the lions and tigers of Namibia jumping through rings of fire in order to occupy their leisure time. North American black bears in yellow tutus riding tricycles are noticeably absent as well.

There are no angels in a world of demons. So the public should not think that only smaller circuses do the abusing and not Ringling Bros. The animal rights community has videos which clearly show Gunther Gebel-Williams, Ringling's head elephant trainer, and others hitting and abusing elephants.

The Elephant Alliance in La Jolla, California has documented 22 circus-related deaths since 1990, including the 1993 killing of the head elephant trainer at Ringling Brother's breeding compound, and 19 circus elephant deaths since 1994. Plus, The Alliance has a copy of an official USDA report citing Ringling Bros. for 83 violations from 1990-93 of the Animal Welfare Act.

The animal rights community does not want to eradicate circuses. We only want the animals taken out so the circuses can be all human, like the Cirque du Soleil.

If animals are ever freed from the circus, the animal rights movement only gains justice. Meanwhile, Ringling Bros. would lose tens of millions of dollars if animal freedom is ever achieved. Boycott the "Greatest Show on Earth" and demand justice.

Circus Promotes Animal Abuse

By Gary Yourofsky

The following letter-to-the-editor appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on September 26, 1997.

The Joe Louis Arena will be hosting a house of horrors beginning October 1, even though Halloween won't arrive until the 31st. Dozens of enslaved and mistreated animals will be hauled in for five days of deplorable performances courtesy of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey animal-oriented circus.

Most people are unaware of the violent, exploitative and immoral aspects of the circus. However, the horrifying images of chained elephants, lions and tigers being buffeted with blackjacks, iron bars, hooks and whips are etched on my mind. These malicious acts have been caught on video, and I have watched them until nausea sets in.

Everyone must understand that circus abuse is rampant. Brutality is the only way to train a wild elephant, lion, tiger or bear. The pride must be beaten out of these majestic creatures. Then, and only then, will they acquiesce and perform stupid tricks for the public's amusement.

Activist Stages Protest Outside Circus

By Mike Martindale

The following article appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on October 2, 1997.

To most people, circuses conjure up images of laughter, excitement and good old-fashioned family fun. But to animals rights advocate Gary Yourofsky these events are more often frightening exercises in animal abuse.

"I've never turned on The Discovery Channel and seen elephants in sequined accessories standing on one leg on pedestals in the jungles of Tanzania," said Yourofsky, president of ADAPTT. "That's because animals don't do stupid tricks in the wild."

Yourofsky, who has organized an informational protest outside the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performances this week at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, has protested animal rights in several forums.

Earlier this year, the Royal Oak resident was arrested at a Canadian mink farm, where hundreds of minks were released. A preliminary trial in that case is set for Nov. 6.

"We're not against circuses," he said. "Circuses are fine as long as they're all-human circuses, not efforts to exploit animals for profit."

Yourofsky said animals are often trained by being clubbed, chained or hooked into submission by their keepers and then kept in inhumane, cramped quarters that may result in injury and death.

He is not alone in his criticism. A California-based group called The Elephant Alliance campaigns against what it describes as inhumane treatment of elephants. Director Florence Lambert said statistics show that 21 circus elephants have died in the past three years, three from tuberculosis. The group also has literature showing that Ringling and other traveling circuses are regularly cited for violations of federal regulations and the Animal Welfare Act.

The group examined reports from the USDA and from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and found 83 violations of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus between August 1990 and October 1993. Besides feeding and medical violations, inspectors frequently found animals were denied enough space or exercise.

What Sayeth The Wise Hunter To The Young Boy?

By Gary Yourofsky

The following satirical editorial appeared in The Oakland Post (Mich.) on November 19, 1997.

Boy: O Wise Hunter, how can I learn to respect animals and to respect life?

Hunter: Buy a rifle and get a hunting license. Then hunt down the animals and kill them.

Boy: And that will help me attain a respect for animals and for life?

Hunter: Yes, of course it will, boy. Plus, if you go hunting with your father or your grandfather, then you can really bond with them.

Boy: But couldn't I bond with them at a baseball game or at an amusement park?

Hunter: I guess so. But then you couldn't kill anything.

Boy: O Wise Hunter, what happens to some of the deer during the winter?

Hunter: Well, some of the weak ones starve to death. And that's a very cruel way to die. So—instead—hunters shoot some deer, cut off their heads for trophies, dismember their bodies and eat their flesh in order to save them from the cruelties.

Boy: But, uh, uh, how come hunters never shoot starving deer, only big healthy ones?

Hunter: Uh, uh, uh, boy. Now you just keep quiet about that.

Boy: And another thing, Wise One, if hunters were really concerned about starving animals, wouldn't they feed them?

Hunter: Let me get this right, boy. You're saying that we should be feeding starving deer—instead of killing them? But...

Boy: Is it true, Wise Hunter, that deer-car accidents have more than tripled over the past 30 years?

Hunter: Well, uh, yeah.

Boy: But I thought hunters killed deer in order to reduce the herd so deer-car accidents would decrease.

Hunter: Well, uh, you sure ask a lot of questions, boy.

Boy: O Wise Hunter, how come the Department of Natural Resources always promotes the killing of animals?

Hunter: Well, just between you and me, the hunting community and the DNR are allies. You know, real good buddies.

Boy: You mean most of the people who work for the DNR hunt?

Hunter: Yes, of course, boy. And those fees from the hunting licenses—around 90 percent of that money goes toward the hiring of DNR officers and the marketing of programs to recruit young people, like yourself, into the hunting community.

Boy: What about the commission that oversees the DNR in Michigan?

Hunter: You mean the Natural Resources Commission?

Boy: Yes, Wise Hunter.

Hunter: Well, uh, eight of the nine commissioners 'live to hunt and hunt to live!'

Boy: Ohhh. You mean, people who hunt make decisions about the fate of wild animals?

Hunter: Now, now, boy. You just keep that bit of information to yourself.

Boy: Would hunters ever try to conserve some of the land if they couldn't hunt on it?

Hunter: Let me get this right, boy. You mean, we should just conserve some of the land and some of the animals that live on that land for the heck of it. With no killing. Uh, that would be a pretty kind gesture of humanity.

Boy: I know, Wise Hunter, I know.

Hunter: Well, uhhh...

Boy: O Wise Hunter, how can I help advance the, uh, sport of hunting?

Hunter: Tell people to have compassion for hunters.

Boy: You mean tell people to have compassion for those who have no compassion?

Hunter: Yes, boy.

Boy: But, uh, wise hunter, these things you say make no sense.

Hunter: I know, boy, I know. But if we say these things enough, the public will eventually believe us and then they will make sense.

Boy: Ohhh!

^Back to List |Next Section >>

Articles from 1998

Circus is Torture for Animals

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Mirror (Royal Oak, Mich.) on March 5, 1998.

The Michigan State Fairgrounds will be hosting a house of horrors beginning Friday, even though Halloween is seven months away. Dozens of enslaved and mistreated animals will be hauled in for 17 days of deplorable performances courtesy of the Shriners and their animal-oriented circus.

Most people are unaware of the violent, exploitative and immoral aspects of the circus. However, the horrifying images of chained elephants, lions and tigers being buffeted with blackjacks, iron bars, hooks and whips are etched on my mind.

Animal abuse in the circus abuse is rampant. In fact, it's a moot point. Brutality is the only way to train a wild elephant, lion, tiger or bear. The pride must be beaten out of these majestic creatures. Then, and only then, will they acquiesce and perform stupid tricks for certain people's amusement.

Even Henry North Ringling stated the truth about circuses in his book The Circus Kings. "It is not usually a pretty sight to see the big cats (lions, tigers) being trained. ...When the trainer starts off they are all chained to their pedestals, and ropes are put around their necks to choke them down and make them obey. All sorts of other brutalities are used to force them to respect the trainer and learn their tricks. They work from fear," Ringling stated.

Florence Lambert of The Elephant Alliance in La Jolla, California has documented 23 circus-related deaths since 1990 and 20 circus elephant deaths since 1994. Dozens of other lion and tiger deaths have been documented, as well.

In fact, last month a Ringling Brothers animal trainer shot and killed a tiger after the abused animal tore the scalp off of another animal trainer in front of an audience. Plus, earlier this year, a baby elephant named Kenny died under Ringling's tyranny. Details of the death have been hard to extract. In May 1997, Wayne Franzen of the Franzen Brothers Circus was killed by one of his abused tigers in front of 20 children at the St. Benedict Catholic School in Carrolltown, Penn.

In addition, Lambert verifies that over 300 injuries occur every year at circuses all across America. Last year, at one of the Shrine Circus performances in Grand Rapids, a 2-year-old girl had the tip of her finger bitten off by a caged bear. That accident and others could have been avoided if circuses would free their imprisoned animals and go all-human like the radiant Cirque du Soleil.

Understand, animal rights activists are not driven by the potential for economic gain. The animal rights movement only gains justice if animal freedom is ever obtained. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of corporations and individuals stand to lose hundreds of billions of dollars if the latter is achieved. So, who are you going to believe?

Animal Rights Activists Protest at Shrine Circus

By Jennifer Dixon

The following article appeared in The Detroit Free Press & News on March 7, 1998.

Two animal rights activists locked themselves to their car at the entrance of the state fairgrounds Friday, blocking traffic for nearly an hour on the opening night of The Shrine Circus.

With his neck connected with a bicycle lock to the axle of his 1992 Toyota Corolla, Gary Yourofsky shouted that "animals don't do stupid tricks in the wild" and are abused by the circus. Tiiu Ruben knelt silently with a U-shaped lock around her neck and the passenger-side door frame.

After about 40 minutes, firefighters cut through the locks. Police led Yourofsky and Ruben away in handcuffs—but not before an officer snapped some photographs. "Of course, it's illegal," the officer, who didn't give his name, said about the protest. "But it doesn't mean it's not a Kodak moment."

Police said Yourofsky, 27, an Oakland University journalism student who lives in Royal Oak, and Ruben, 23, a graphics designer from Ann Arbor, would be charged with disorderly conduct and released.

Yourofsky is president of ADAPTT. He said he locked himself to his car to call attention to the "oppression, discrimination and cruelty that is hurled upon defenseless animals."

Antoinette Pressley, who was at the Fairgrounds entrance with her three children called the protest "a little bit extreme."

Said Shriner Kirk Trail of Redford, who collected parking fees: "It's pretty stupid. It messes up everything for the whole public that wants to come and see the circus, and they're late for the show."

Animal Activist to Go on Hunger Strike

By Tania Prepolec

The following article appeared in The Oakland Post (Oakland U.'s school paper) on April 15, 1998.

Hunger pangs and a jail cell won't be enough to deter OU student Gary Yourofsky from attempting to eradicate what he believes are "premeditated murderous acts committed against animals."

Yourofsky, one of five activists charged with breaking and entering for allegedly liberating 1,500 minks from Eberts Fur Farm in Blenheim, Ontario, last April, will be facing trial in Ontario this June.

Yourofsky, journalism senior, is the president and founder of ADAPTT, an organization focused on animal rights. If convicted, Yourofsky will conduct a 30-to-40 day hunger strike "to protest the everlasting torture that animals endure on a daily basis," he said. Throughout the strike, Yourofsky's only sustenance will be water. If acquitted, he will still conduct a 7-day strike in honor of Josh Ellerman, a 19-year-old activist recently sentenced to 35 years.

I want people to acknowledge the seriousness of the strike...not for me, but for the animal rights movement which has stagnated, he said. "You need something of this caliber in order to get people's attention," he added.

Currently, Yourofsky is in the process of recruiting activists nationwide for participation in the strike. With the help of conventions, newsletters, word of mouth and the Internet, he has received commitments from 40 people. That represents 10 states, he said.

By June, he'd like to have at least one representative from every state. "People may select a 1-to-7 day strike in accordance with my possible 40-day strike," he said. "Drinking fruit juice will be permissible for participants," he added. "I hope this action will be the catalyst to ignite and invigorate the movement."

Although he hasn't consulted with a doctor, Yourofsky believes that his health, veganism, determination and his mindset will get him through the 40 days. "I won't stop if my health fails," he said.

However, if he falls unconscious, people will have the right to step in and force feed him, he said.

A major goal is to bring attention to the five methods of death practiced at fur farms: Gassings, anal electrocutions, genital electrocutions, neck-breakings, and toxic chemical injections.

Another goal is to abolish the fur industry. "Our philosophy doesn't include making conditions better. It's time for abolition," he said.

Speaking on Behalf of Fellow Animals

The following headline, photograph and caption appeared in the Sterling Heights Sentry on July 15, 1998.

Group Protests Vivisection

By Mary Morgan

The following article appeared in The Ann Arbor News on August 23, 1998.

Burning articles on animal vivisection and carrying banners, about a dozen activists protested biomedical research on primates at the U. of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor Saturday afternoon, part of a nationwide protest in 14 cities.

"There are animals languishing and dying in cages at the University of Michigan, and everyone's walking around like everything is OK," said Gary Yourofsky, a Royal Oak resident who organized the event.

Protesters from the Coalition to End Primate Experimentation gathered outside the Medical Science Building III, located at Catherine Street and Zina Pitcher Place in the UM Medical Center complex.

The group hoped to raise awareness about vivisection—operating on living animals—and other types of animal research, Yourofsky said.

They passed out literature to about 30 people who passed by, but were disappointed that there weren't more people on campus, he added.

UM was targeted because of several researchers—including James Woods, Henry Mosberg and Gail Winger—who do experiments on primates and other animals, Yourofsky said.

Hoping to draw attention to their protest, Yourofsky burned papers describing how to conduct vivisection. Two officers from the UM Department of Public Safety requested that he put out the fire, which he did.

Demonstrators were peaceful, said Sgt. Jane Conners of the DPS. The event lasted about 50 minutes, she said. Animal rights activists hold protests about once a year on campus, Conners said.

Activists Disrupt Fur Store Business

By Brian Harmon

The following article appeared in The Detroit News on September 10, 1998.

A trio of animal rights activists besieged a Bloomfield Hills fur shop Wednesday, chaining themeselves to fixtures inside and outside the store during lunch hour.

Gary Yourofsky, 28, of Royal Oak, used a bicycle u-lock to moor his neck to the rear wheel axle of his burgundy 1992 Toyota Corolla, which was parked on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to Dittrich Furs. His objective: "To call attention to the bloody business of fur."

"You're illegal," a store manager barked at Yourofsky, while Bloomfield Hills police and fire officers worked to cut the activists loose. "We want to conduct business."

Yourofsky—president of ADAPTT—was joined by Marie Mason of Hamtramck, who locked her neck to the door handles of the store entrance, and Laura Rogers, 33, of Royal Oak, who locked herself down inside the fur store.

The three were freed within an hour, handcuffed and ticketed for trespassing. Within hours, they were released from police custody.

CAPTION: Gary Yourofsky, 28, uses a bicycle U-lock to moor his neck to a rear axle of a car.

"They have an agenda. It's not our job to judge," Sgt. Ken Forst said. "It's just our job to assist in the situation and make sure nobody gets hurt."

Yourofsky said Dittrich was targeted because the store is sponsoring a fashion show tonight, from which proceeds will go to Children's Hospital of Detroit. "We have asked Children's Hospital not to accept the money. They should not accept unethical funds," he said. "This is blood money. There are better ways to raise money."

Yourofsky said mink, chincillas and foxes are brutally killed in order to make fur clothing. His crusade for animal rights has gotten him arrested at least twice before. Earlier this year he was arrested for protesting the "enslavement of bears and elephants" in front of The Shrine Circus at the Michigan State Fairgrounds. Last year he was arrested along with four others in Blenheim, Ontario, for setting free more than 1,500 mink from a mink ranch.

Where Have All the Activists Gone?

By Gary Yourofsky

The following article appeared in Federation Focus, the newsletter for the Michigan Federation of Humane Societies and Animal Advocates, in Autumn of 1998.

As nonhuman primates languished in tiny cells at the University of Michigan's insidious animal research laboratory, only 10 state activists protested their unjust incarceration and eventual murder. Frankly, the 10 humanitarians were disheartened and perplexed with the Saturday, August 22, turnout. In fact, the weekend event left protesters wondering, "Where have all the activists gone?"

The Coalition to End Primate Experimentation (CEPE) coordinated 14 national demonstrations to demand freedom for all enslaved animals and an immediate end to the malicious practice of vivisection. However, if so few congragate in unity, it is difficult to attract the needed media to conquer the exploiters and all of their egregious fallacies.

Fifteen Michigan outlets received press releases, yet only three covered the informative event.

James H. Woods, head of UM's animal research regime, wasted nearly $2 million last year forcibly injecting cocaine and alcohol into primates. The university has been conducting comparably unscrupulous protocols for nearly 20 years. Yet, Woods and his execrable cohorts will never be able to recreate—in nonhuman primates—the stress, fear, confusion and hopelessness that drive human primates into chemical addictions. Woods and the entire UM vivisection brigade are the epitome of abhorrent duplicity.

I torched a stack of UM vivisection books when WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) and The Ann Arbor News arrived. I also conducted a phone interview with WJR-radio before the book burning and gave the following statement to the media trio: "Vivisection is a base, depraved and unscientific form of medical research. It is impossible to extrapolate information from one species and make it relevant to another species. Animal researchers are not medical doctors—I repeat not medical doctors. They are spin doctors. Malicious spin doctors trained solely in the abject art of torturing and killing animals, and lying to the public about the benefits of their bloody business. Every ounce of vivisection data can easily be quashed. Yet, the animal researchers remain obdurate and unwilling to use the myriad forms of true scientific research techniques. Instead of learning and employing human-based clinical research, epidemiology, cellular and molecular biology, autopsy and biopsy research, computer and mathematical models, case studies, human-based DNA and genetic research—and, most importantly, trial-and-error methodology—they continue to bathe in the blood of their archaic and barbaric practice. It's high time for all humanitarians to rip the sheath of impunity from these violent and vile experimenters. Animal researchers haven't a wisp of compassion nor a drop of remorse for their merciless and wanton acts. Therefore, in order to prevent more unadulterated cruelty from entering this world, we are torching some UM vivisection books that do nothing but teach young medical students how to mutilate and murder animals with a cold and calculated premeditation. In the poignant words of humanitarian George Bernard Shaw, ‘Those who won't hesitate to vivisect, won't hesitate to lie about it as well.'"

The other protests occurred at UCSF, UCSD, SUNY, U. of Washington, U. of Wisconsin, U. of Minnesota, UK, HU, Emory, Medical College of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson U., Oregon Health Sciences, and the NIH.

Please make a concerted effort to attend protests in the future. The animals need actions, not excuses!

Animal Activists Greet Circus With Proposal to Ban It

By Kim North Shine

The following article appeared in The Detroit News & Free Press on October 10, 1998.

This year hasn't been so great for The Greatest Show on Earth: Three circus animals died, a settlement was reached with federal animal welfare regulators and a growing chorus of controversy greets the show in every town.

Detroit will be no exception today and Sunday as The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus draws large crowds and loud protests to Joe Louis Arena.

And what's going on quietly, with the endorsement of Detroit Zoological Institute Director Ron Kagan, is the circulation of a proposal to ban live animal acts in metro Detroit. Hollywood, Fla., is believed to be the only US city to ban animal shows.

City officials in Ann Arbor, Fraser, Hamtramck, Oak Park and Ypsilanti have been sent the proposed ordinance, drawn up by Livonia attorney Matt Savich. The measure, accompanied by a letter from Kagan that encourages an end to the "constant travel, daily and prolonged chaining and rigorous physical training" of elephants, has not been debated by public bodies.

An animal rights group, ADAPTT, which worked on the proposal, plans to distribute it in other metro Detroit cities. ADAPTT also is proposing that cities welcome human-only circuses.

Kagan wrote, "We also believe that animals should not be used in demeaning and degrading ways, such as the case when animals are forced to perform. We are part of nature, and reducing an animal to a caricature only perpetuates distorted views and attitudes about animals. Finally, there is the serious issue of public safety with regard to elephants. Numerous injuries and deaths (both to people and elephants) have occurrred when they are forced to perform."

Kagan said Friday that it is nearly impossible to keep the animals healthy and calm as they constantly travel and are forced to perform.

Kenny, an elephant calf, died of a gastrointestinal infection in January. Last month a settlement was reached in the elephant's death between Ringling and the USDA, with the circus agreeing to pay $10,000 to an elephant sanctuary and $10,000 for elephant disease research. Also last month, Gypsy, a sea lion, died in her cargo box of an apparent infection. In January a 350-pound Bengal tiger named Arnold was shot to death in his cage by the brother of a trainer Arnold had attacked.

With showgoers watching, the tiger seized the trainer by the head as they posed for a photograph in St. Petersburg, Fla. The trainer is recovering from a brain injury.

Last summer the city zoo in Albuquerque confiscated animals from a circus after police found an elephant dead inside a hot trailer.

"If more zoos would take the stand that circuses are absolutely not educational and not in the best interest of the animals, there would be a lot less suffering," said Pat Derby, director of Performing Animal Welfare Society, a California sanctuary.

Freeway Banners Take up Dilemma of Life and Death

By Tom Greenwood

The following excerpts appeared in the Commuting section of The Detroit News on December 4, 1998.

Sometimes the journey to work is more than just a commute. Sometimes it's an ironic ride that veers between our appetites for food and philosophy.

At the Warren I/75 overpass, there was another banner. Measuring 25 feet by 5 feet, it said: "Holidays are Murder on Turkeys." The banner was sponsored by PETA and ADAPTT. The groups were protesting the slaughter of turkeys—primarily during the holiday season—for human consumption.

I also located one of the turkey people. His name is Gary Yourofsky, a native of Royal Oak, and founder of ADAPTT. Earlier that day Yourofsky had picketed in front of the federal building in Detroit threatening to burn the British flag to protest vivisection in the country. The flag was spared. He also has been arrested four times for protesting the treatment of animals in circuses and rodeos and is facing trial in Canada for allegedly helping to release a couple thousand mink from a fur farm near Chatham in 1997.

Yourofsky said he was a banner bearer to tell commuters what a "vile and vicious holiday Thanksgiving really is."

"Christmas and Thanksgiving are masked in false benevolence in that 40 million turkeys are murdered for the holidays," Yourofsky said. "Not to mention Native Americans, which is another issue altogether."

Champion or Criminal? Royal Oak Animal Activist Faces Trial in Canadian Mink Release

By Kim North Shine

The following article appeared in The Detroit Free Press on December 7, 1998.

Gary Yourofsky has locked himself to fur coat racks, chained himself beneath cars to block the circus and stood unarmed deriding a gun-toting pigeon hunter—all in the name of animals. But don't call him an animal lover. "It's not about loving animals. It's about fighting injustice," the Royal Oak resident says. "My whole goal is for humans to have as little contact as possible with animals."

His fight against what he believes is animal abuse by businesses such as circuses, research labs and furriers has made him enemies and he's been arrested four times. Yourofsky, 28, could be facing his toughest penalty yet, in Canada, when he goes on trial in Chatham, Ontario, March 1. The possible punishment: 12 to 18 months in prison. In the US he only has been sentenced to fines for his misdemeanor convictions.

He is accused of freeing thousands of caged mink from a Canadian fur farm in a middle-of-the-night break-in in April 1997. He and four other metro Detroiters were charged in the raid, which the Ontario farm owner said cost him $260,000.

Some of Yourofsky's cohorts reached pleas in return for their testimony, with the Ontario crown attorney, who has promised a prosecution that will tell US animal rights activists to stay out of Canada. But Yourofsky refuses to bargain. "To cooperate with an unjust system would be saying their position is right and mine is wrong, when the truth remains that animals are treated viciously and vilely," he said.

Some of his adversaries say he treats them viciously. Tom McLellan, owner of the raided Ebert's Fur Farm, said the world should be afraid of people who want to shut down legitimate businesses. "It's one thing to protest," he said. "But it's a whole other thing to destroy people's business and lives." McLellan lost 1,542 mink the night of the raid, 1,500 of them pregnant. At trial, McLellan expects the courtroom to be filled with outraged townspeople pushing for jail time. "If we don't, it'll set a precedent that we don't take this crime seriously," he said.

Arthur Bricker, owner of Bricker-Tunis Furs in West Bloomfield Township, whose store has been picketed and pelted with red paint, says Yourofsky "is dangerous and he distorts the truth. Prison is where he belongs."

But half hoping for a prison term, Yourofsky, an Oakland University journalism graduate, sees it as an opportunity to become an international champion of animals, changing people's minds about eating, wearing, hunting and entertaining with animals. The substitute school teacher neither eats nor wears anything derived from an animal. His dog Rex eats vegetarian dog food. And Yourofsky misses family holiday meals because he won't sit at a table with dead animals on it. He devotes nearly all of his energy to abolishing animal-supplied businesses.

"I'm in schools educating kids about animal enslavement, and I'm getting arrested. It all has to be done," he said.

His peaceful approach has won acceptance from mainstream animal professionals, including Detroit Zoo Director Ron Kagan. He has endorsed Yourofsky's proposal to ban circuses with animal acts, which Kagan said are cruel and even dangerous to spectators. For now, Yourofsky, who is a Michigan contact for several national animal rights groups, will keep moving the animal rights machine from his apartment.

The centerpiece of his operation is a 42-hole cardboard postman's box that he calls animal rights central. There are boxes for cloning, religion, zoos and aquariums. There's one for lethal research on live animals, which he most detests. There are boxes for rodeos, bears, chimps, fur/leather, Oprah Winfrey/beef, hunting and product testing. Across the room are videos for converting nonbelievers. "If I could show everyone this seven-minute video, I would change the world," he said.

A sociology class at Sterling Heights High School recently watched. The horrific pictures show foxes and chinchilla being anally electrocuted. Cows and goats are slashed across the throat, dying slowly in pooled blood.

Yourofsky likes to compare himself to the century's great social fighters, including Martin Luther King Jr. He can quote them from memory—for instance, Mahatma Gandhi: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." He predicts he'll lead the movement in Michigan, if not the Midwest, within a few years.

"Gary has a big ego, but I could see him playing a big role," said Scott Harris, president of the Michigan Federation of Humane Societies. "You need people in any social movement who will bring the issue to the forefront. Gary is doing that, and he's done it in a short time."

Two years ago Yourofsky made the drastic conversion to rid his life of animal products. Three years earlier he went vegetarian when his bond with his dog convinced him to show strict compassion for all animals. That's when he came up with an abolition list of businesses that rely on animals.

Through his nonprofit animal education organization called ADAPTT, he has a cadre of supporters who will carry out his plan of attack with militancy—civil disobedience, animal liberations and protests—and with public school programs, public service announcements and legislative changes.

Entire Fur Industry Vile, Whether Pelts From Dogs, Cats or Chinchillas

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Press on December 22, 1998.

After an 18-month investigation, the Humane Society of the US released appalling information about the fur industry's clandestine and worldwide dealings in domestic dog and cat fur.

Millions of Americans tuned in December 15 to "Dateline NBC" and watched in horror as an Asian dog furrier slowly skinned a German Shepherd alive. The brutality was swiftly condemned by the TV newsmagazine and a majority of Americans who empathized with our closest companion. However, virtually no one wanted to recognize the hypocrisy in not condemning the entire industry of fur.

What's the difference between coyote fur and dog fur? The thought-provoking animal rights adage "Why do we call some animals pets and others dinner?" can be slightly altered to rhetorically answer the first question: "Why do we call some animals pets and others fur coats?"

The continual demarcation of one sentient being over another is unethical and unjustifiable. Moreover, this arbitrary discriminatory mind-set only allows the relentless exploitation of nonhuman animals to flourish. The Humane Society report documented dogs and cats living in deplorable conditions waiting to be hanged, suffocated, bludgeoned or skinned alive.

Minks, foxes and chinchillas live and die in similarly hideous ways. Manual neck-breakings, mass gassings, drownings and toxic chemical injections are the standard killing techniques used on every fur farm. Plus, the snaring of millions of free-raoming animals—such as coyotes, cougars and wolves in vicious steel-jaw leg traps—is vile.

The Humane Society story should shock no one. The fur industry exists to profit off the deaths of fur-bearing animals—domestic or nondomestic. It is void of ethics, compassion and altruism. The animals rights movement exists to eradicate the injustice, iniquity and barbarity hurled upon our planetary companions. It has no money vested in the freedom of animals.

If the depraved forms of animal exploitation were abolished, however, tens of thousands of individuals and corporations would stand to lose hundreds of billion of dollars. Therefore, it is easy to understand why the myriad forms of animal murder, especially the bloody, nefarious and shameless fur trade, escape total condemnation.

Also, those guileful magicians who work for the fur industry's public-relations departments and entice the media with "fur-is-back" stories create a smokescreen of misinformation. The spin doctors manipulate sales figures even though the Sandy Parker Reports, a fur-trade publication, said fur farmers will cut back this season because of low pelt prices, an outbreak of distemper and fur-farm raids.

India's great leader Mohandas Gandhi once said: "The life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. The more helpless the creature is, the more it is entitled to protection from humans from the cruelty of humans."

Animal Rights Activist Won't Stand for Cruelty

By Mike Martindale

The following article appeared in "In The News" section of The Detroit News on December 23, 1998.

Who he is: Gary Yourofsky is an animal activist and substitute teacher in Pontiac. He's founder of ADAPTT.

His background: Yourofsky, 28, was born and raised in Oak Park. He graduated from Berkley High School in 1988 and Oakland University this year. He also graduated from Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts and attended Wayne State University. He has worked at a radio station and an interactive marketing agency. His mother, sister and stepfather live in Chicago. His father lives in Ferndale. He has lived with his dog, Rex, in Royal Oak the past two years. He found Rex at the side of the road after he had been hit by a car. Yourofsky began his activism through his savings. He recently appointed a board of directors and hopes to conduct some fund-raising.

Why he's in the news: Yourofsky is out front at most area protests against the use of animals for fur, experimental testing and circuses. In March he will go on trial in Canada for a 1997 raid on a mink farm.

What he says: "Animal rights is my life. There's not much else I do. I'm your average person. I like Seinfeld and Jim Carrey, but when it comes to cruelty to animals, I won't stand for that. If people had to see the inside of a slaughterhouse, I know they'd all be vegetarians. Animals exploiters do a wonderful job of keeping it out of sight. You never see the heinous atrocities."

Activist: Enforce Pet Laws

By James McClear

The following article appeared in The Detroit News on December 28, 1998.

Gary Yourofsky is on another crusade for lesser creatures, and is targeting Pontiac in an effort to protect animals during the winter. Yourofsky said he wants the city to revamp or better enforce its animal-control ordinance. He has volunteered to do the job that he claims animal-control officers are not doing, and he wants new legislation that would prohibit the chaining of dogs.

He said many dogs are chained outside in deadly winter temperatures, which occurred during last week's near zero cold snap with below-zero wind chills.

Pontiac officials were not immediately available to comment on Yourofsky's charges, but a meeting between him and Steve Manning, director of community development, is planned for Thursday, he said. Some of Yourofsky's complaints are echoed by the Michigan Humane Society.

With recent wind chills plummeting below zero, pets left outside can be in as much peril as humans, warned Michelle Mitchell, the society's community relations director. She advises that pets should be brought inside or provided with out-of-door shelters that will adequately protect them. The society further warned motorists to be wary of stray cats who might seek warmth by climbing into a vehicle's engine compartment. Knock on the hood or toot the horm before starting, Mitchell said.

In a spot check of Pontiac last week, Yourofsky, president of ADAPTT, accused the city of "absolute negligence" in enforcing its animal code.

"I saw dogs in absolutely deplorable conditions, without food, shelter and mostly without love," Yourofsky said. "The best way I can describe it was dozens of homes with living house ornaments...dogs on chains."

Yourofsky of Royal Oak is best known for the extreme means he has used in defending the rights of animals. He heads a 575-member organization that delights in disrupting sales at toney furriers. In April 1997 he went international in his protests by releasing minks from a Canadian breeder.

His Canadian trial will start in March. Yourofsky said he expects to be jailed for mischief and breaking and entering. He said he will refuse to cooperate with the crown attorney "or any corrupt system that allows animal atrocities."

Dog Fur Coat Story Not News to Industry Insiders

By Gary Yourofsky

The following editorial appeared in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, Mich.) on December 28, 1998.

After an 18-month investigation, the Humane Society of the US released appalling information about the fur industry's clandestine and worldwide dealings in domestic dog and cat fur.

Millions of Americans tuned in December 15 to "Dateline NBC" and watched in horror as an Asian dog furrier slowly skinned a German Shepherd alive. The brutality was swiftly condemned by the TV newsmagazine and a majority of Americans who empathized with our closest companion. However, virtually no one wanted to recognize the hypocrisy in not condemning the entire industry of fur.

First and foremost, what's the difference between coyote fur and dog fur? The thought-provoking animal rights adage "Why do we call some animals pets and others dinner?" can be slightly altered to rhetorically answer the first question: "Why do we call some animals pets and others fur coats?"

The continual demarcation of one sentient being over another is unethical and unjustifiable. Moreover, this arbitrary discriminatory mind-set only allows the relentless exploitation of nonhuman animals to flourish. The Humane Society report documented dogs and cats living in deplorable conditions waiting to be hanged, suffocated, bludgeoned or skinned alive.

Minks, foxes and chinchillas live and die in similarly hideous ways. Manual neck-breakings, mass gassings, drownings and toxic chemical injections are the standard killing techniques on every fur farm. Plus, the snaring of millions of free-raoming animals—such as coyotes, cougars and wolves in vicious steel-jaw leg traps—is vile.

The Humane Society story should shock no one. The fur industry exists to profit off the deaths of fur-bearing animals—domestic or nondomestic. It is void of ethics, compassion and altruism. Antithetically, the animals rights movement exists to eradicate the injustice, iniquity and barbarity hurled upon our planetary companions. It has no money vested in the freedom of animals.

If the depraved forms of animal exploitation were abolished, however, tens of thousands of individuals and corporations would stand to lose hundreds of billion of dollars. Therefore, it is easy to understand why the myriad forms of animal murder, especially the bloody, nefarious and shameless fur trade, escape total condemnation.

Also, those guileful magicians who work for the fur industry's public-relations departments and entice the media with "fur-is-back" stories create a smokescreen of misinformation. The spin doctors manipulate sales figures even though the Sandy Parker Reports (SPR), a fur-trade publication, said fur farmers will cut back this season because of low pelt prices, an outbreak of distemper and fur-farm raids.

SPR also said that some of the 440 US fur farms are expected to go out of business in early 1999. If the situation doesn't improve by the February auctions, others will sink, too.

Anyone who condones the lamentable industry of fur should call ADAPTT at 810-763-2715 or email DogmaDay@aol.com and request a 4-minute fur farming video. Then, if anyone still believes that any fur is acceptable, I suggest she or he reflect on the meanings of empathy, morality, honor and dignity.

India's great leader Mohandas Gandhi once said: "The life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. The more helpless the creature is, the more it is entitled to protection from humans from the cruelty of humans."

Activists Press for Pet Protection

By Karen Talaski

The following article appeared in The Oakland Press on December 31, 1998.

Responding to reports of extensive animal cruelty in the city, Pontiac officials are considering an ordinance to prohibit residents from chaining or caging animals. Animal Welfare groups are pressing Pontiac to improve its animal controls, especailly now that temperatures are dropping and pets face death when left outdoors.

"It's everywhere in Pontiac," said Marie Skladd, president of Michigan Animal Adoption Network. "I would say 85 to 90 percent of the pets in this city are being kept without food, water or shelter. Why can't the city of Pontiac be a leader in the state and try to clean this up?"

Skladd based her estimates on the weekly visits she makes to Pontiac neighborhoods. Her organization has patrolled Pontiac for nearly eight years, delivering free food, houses, straw for warmth and other supplies when they see animals in distress.

The problems range from pets being kept outdoors "like inexpensive burglar alarms" to a pit bull found Tuesday frozen to the ground, Skladd said. The dog had to be put to sleep.

For help, Skladd called on animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky. The 28-year-old Royal Oak resident is president of ADAPTT. Yourofsky is best known for a March 1997 raid on a Canadian breeder where he and four others released hundreds of minks. He faces criminal charges.

After viewing Pontiac's situation, Yourofsky said he stormed into Mayor Walter Moore's office to demand a change. "I'm not asking the city of Pontiac to become vegetarian. I'm asking them to care for their dogs," he said.

Since that initial meeting two weeks ago, Yourofsky has talked with the city's Community Development Director Steve Manning several times. On Monday Yourofsky submitted a draft "animal confinement" ordinance for the city's consideration.

Manning said the ordinace had merit, but it must be reviewed by the mayor and the city's legal department before any action is taken. He said he will work with Yourofsky on the details.

The ordinance would prohibit the restraint of any animal, whether on a chain or in a cage, in an inhumane or neglectful manner. Violators would have to forfeit their animals and face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to one year in jail or a $2,000 fine.

If adopted, the city would have 120 days to work with animal rights groups to ensure residents are informed. Yourofsky said he plans to meet with Manning again next week to review the ordinance.

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Articles from 1999

Keep Pets Warm, Safe During Winter Months

By Maria Burak

The following article appeared in The Roseville-Eastpointe Eastsider (Mich.) on January 13, 1999.

When the snow falls and the temperature drops, not only do human beings suffer from the harsh coldness of winter weather, but dogs, cats and others also are affected.

Animals often suffer from frostbite and even freeze to death because they are not properly cared for in the winter months. Because of this, several metro-area animal rescue groups have been educating pet owners and the general public with the necessary steps needed to keep animals safe and alive this time of year.

"The focus is on the animals being left out in the cold," said Gary Yourofsky, president of the nonprofit animal rights group ADAPTT. "It's cruel, inhumane and dangerous."

When an outdoor or indoor dog stays outside in the cold for longer than half an hour, it could suffer from frostbite or even freeze to death, Yourofsky said. "A dog cannot be kept outside in this horrible weather. I don't know why people would have a dog and then leave him out on a chain. He can freeze to death just like a human would. People have to take their dogs inside."

"We know people assume that because they have fur they'll be fine," said Marie Skladd, president of the Michigan Animal Adoption Network. "In the evening dogs need to be brought in, even those who live outdoors."

Yourofsky advises people to "definitely get involved" if they witness a neighbor leaving their dog out in the cold for long periods of time. The Michigan Humane Society, Michigan Anti Cruelty Society or your city's animal control division should be notified.

Along with dogs, stray cats also are victims of cold weather because they seek warmth and comfort in dangerous places. Stray cats climb underneath cars to find warmth and shelter in engine blocks. The cats can suffer from burns and even die if the car drives off while the cat is still in it. "Before you start your car, honk the horn or pound on the hood," Yourofsky said. "The cat will run away if he hears noise."

Stray cats also hide out in garages and crevices to stay warm and find food, Skladd said. She encourages people to call an animal shelter or rescue group if they find a stray cat that appears to be in "bad shape."

The salt used to clear driveways and walkways creates another problem for animals. "The salt is toxic, so make sure your pet's paws are clean and clean them off right away," Skladd said.

Through their respective organizations, Yourofsky and Skladd hope their efforts to save animals will make a positive impact on all pet owners.

"It's so important just to let folks know that accidents can be prevented," Skladd said. "If you've got pets, you must care for them."

Activist Protests Deer Shoot

Protester Calls for resignation of Humane Society Director for Not Opposing Park's Plan

By Michael Bencsik

The following excerpts appeared in The Oakland Press on February 13, 1999.

An animal rights activist picketed the Michigan Humane Society offices insisting the burgeoning deer herds in the Huron-Clinton Metroparks should be left alone. The park board approved preliminary plans this week to shoot deer to reduce the population at Kensington Stony Creek and Hudson Mills metroparks.

Gary Tiscornia, director of the Humane Society, said he opposed hunting the deer, but if deer must be killed to control the population, use of a sharp-shooter is considered a humane form of euthanasia.

"That was the last straw," said Gary Yourofsky, president of the animal rights group picketing the Humane Society facility on Auburn Road Friday. "Tiscornia is a deceptive sycophant and hereby condemned as a traitor to the animal protection movement," Yourofsky said. "The animal rights movement will accept nothing less than his immediate resignation."

Tiscornia couldn't be reached for comment on Friday.

Yourofsky said he will continue the protests outside the Humane Society.

"They want to save plants out there, but not the animals?" Yourofsky asked. "Nature will regulate itself. The only wildlife management that should be going on is humans staying out of the animals' area."

Dozen Turn Out to Protest Deer-Killing Proposal

The following headline, photograph and caption appeared in The Oakland Press on February 14, 1999.

Group Threatens to Block Deer-Kill Plan

By Dave Groves

The following excerpts appeared in The Oakland Press on February 19, 1999.

If the courts don't save hundreds of deer at Kensington Metrokpark, a group of local animal rights activists promised it will.

Gary Yourofsky, of ADAPTT, said the group will seek an injunction early next week against a preliminary plan to kill deer at Kensington, as well as at Stony Creek and Hudson Mills metroparks. "I can assure everyone that the deer in Kensington will not be shot," Yourofsky said. "The metroparks are going to lose this battle."

Park administrators hope to resolve a number of issues before a final recommendation for deer kills is made by the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Board of Governors in late summer. In Milford Township, they will need a temporary lifting of a 1991 ordinance that prohibits the use of firearms in and around Kensington.

Yourofsky, who said the injunction will be filed in either US District Court in Detroit or a circuit court, warned the animal rights group's fight will not end if the courts do not support its case. "If need be, we'll go back to civil disobedience," Yourofsky said. "We'll make it so difficult for them to kill the deer that they will not be able to do it."

Yourofsky was one of five Michigan people charged with releasing more than 1,500 mink from a southwestern Ontario mink ranch in March 1997. He faces charges including breaking and entering, theft and mischief. He will stand trial early next month.

Fur Protesters Arrested for Blocking Neiman's Door

STAFF WRITER

The following article appeared in The Troy-Somerset Gazette (Mich.) in its February 22-28, 1999 edition.

There's no law against protesting the wearing of fur, but don't try to do it on private property, or you'll end up in jail. That's what happened to five women on Saturday afternoon, February 20, when they were part of more than a dozen militant anti fur protesters from ADAPTT, a Michigan-based organization, which blocked the mall entrance to Neiman Marcus at the Somerset Collection.

Police responded to the incident at 12:09 p.m. and located the protesters in the store's lobby, reported Police Public Information Officer Lt. Steve Zavislak. Some protesters carried a banner and others carried picket signs. They were chanting slogans and heckling patrons wearing furs.

Five women, two from Ohio and three local women, however, had locked themselves together with a number of tube-type bicycle locks. Officers talked to the president of ADAPTT, Gary Yourofsky, who agreed to take their protest to the public sidewalk.

The five women refused to leave. "They understood our officers would arrest them if they would not comply," Lt. Zavislak noted.

It took nearly two hours to free the women from their locks. Neiman Marcus summoned a locksmith and officers tried to use bolt cutters to break the locks, which were substantial. After these attempts failed, firefighters from Station #3 responded with other equipment to open the locks.

Officers arrested the five females and they were charged with disorderly conduct, trespassing, and hindering and obstructing a police officer in the discharge of his duty. These are misdemeanors, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or up to a $500 fine. The bond for these charges is $150.

This was not the only protest against furs at a Neiman Marcus store. According to ADAPTT, two activists had to be cut out of their locks by firemen in Washington, DC, the day before. The store was closed much of the day and the furs were removed from the sales floor.

According to a statement to the press by ADAPTT's president Gary Yourofsky: "If Neiman Marcus president Gerald Sampson won't climb out of his abyss of callousness, then the animal rights movement will force him out with lockdowns and other nonviolent acts of civil disobedience."

The group is particularly upset by what it says are the "depraved methods" by which the 40 million animals needed by the fur industry are killed each year. ADAPTT vows to continue its protest.

A Proposed Resolution in Support of Gary Yourofsky

By Donald Perkins Esq.

The following proposal appeared in the State Bar of Michigan Animal Law Section spring/summer 1999 newsletter (Vol. 3 No. 1).

RESOLVED: In recent times some citizens, including some from Michigan, acting from motives of compassion and concern for the protection of animals, have committed nonviolenct acts of disobedience to laws, statutes, and ordinances. In some of these instances, property used in the exploitation of animals was deliberatley damaged or destroyed. These acts were committed for the purpose of protecting animals from cruel treatment and suffering at the hands of researchers, farmers, ranchers, and others who exploit animals for economic gain.

We recognize that throughout this nation's history, other individuals, acting from conscience in obedience to moral law, have similarly violated certain laws and ordinances. This was true for antislavery abolitionists before the Civil War, who helped slaves escape to freedom in violation of the Fugitive Slave Act which required that escaped slaves be returned to their legal owners. In our own time, these same principles of nonviolent disobedience to unjust laws have been applied by such individuals as the Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., both of whom were—as was Michigan's Gary Yourofsky, President of ADAPTT—sentenced to jail for their actions.

Today, because we see the animal protection movement as encompassing great moral truths of liberty, equality and kinship with all living creatures, both human and animal, we cannot condemn those individuals who, oftentimes at great personal sacrifice, act upon these moral principles for the purpose of relieving or preventing the suffering of defenseless animals. As lawyers, we recognize and respect the rule of law, but we note that law must ever rest upon a foundation of truth and justice. We cannot and do not, therefore, condemn these principled persons for their nonviolent acts to protect animals, even when their acts may be in violation of local, state, or federal statutes.

To Mr. Gary Yourofsky of Royal Oak, Michigan, now incarcerated in Canada for his role in freeing hundreds of mink from a ‘fur farm,' we extend our respect, admiration, and support.

The above resolution will be proposed for adoption by the Animal Law Section Council meeting in Lansing on June 12, 1999.

Animal Activist Swears Off Eating

By Kim North Shine

The following article appeared in The Detroit Free Press on April 28, 1999.

Animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky vowed a hunger strike Tuesday after he was sentenced to six months in a Canadian prison for releasing 1,500 mink from an Ontario fur farm in 1997.

The 28-year-old Royal Oak resident was also ordered by Ontario Superior Court Justice Anthony Cusinato to pay $34,298.06 in restitution to Ebert's Fur Farm in Blenheim, Ontario, which was damaged by Yourofsky and four other metro Detroiters in a predawn break-in.

After the sentencing in Chatham, Ontario, Yourofsky read a statement to the audience of mostly local farmers: "For every mink that ever languished in a tiny cage and was savagely murdered at Ebert's Fur Farm, I will go hungry. And for the 40 million other animals worldwide that have the skin ripped off their backs in a disgusting display of barbarity in the name of vanity, I will go hungry."

His hunger strike could make Yourofsky, a substitute schoolteacher and director of a program that teaches students about animal suffering, a worldwide martyr for the animal rights movement.

Activists nationwide won't eat for a week in support of Yourofsky, said Hanna Gibson of ADAPTT.

Tom McLellan, the second-generation owner of Ebert's Fur Farm, said he was angered by Yourofsky's lack of remorse. "He could care less what happened to us," said McLellan, whose family has closed one its fur farms from the property damage, loss of animals, and much-needed breeding cards that were stolen.

Yourofsky was convicted of breaking and entering to commit theft. Two other suspects finished 90-day sentences, and two were sentenced to community service in exchange for testimony.

Alan Hoffman, Yourofsky's uncle from Roseville, might have provided the most damaging testimony in Yourofsky's four-day trial, when he described the bumbled raid and getaway.

But animal rights groups will likely hail Yourofsky as a champion along with animal research lab arsonist Barry Horne of London, England, who ended a 68-day hunger strike in December. And as the animal rights movement swirls around its latest cause celebre, McLellan and other fur farmers will be on watch. "At least for now, we can sleep through the night," he said.

"The Summation"

By Gary Yourofsky

The following poem appeared in the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida's 10th anniversary newsletter in June 1999.

The videos I've seen
Heinous and malicious
Images of carnage
Evil and wicked
Abattoirs of horror
Slashed throats and severed bodies
Dismembered heads and hooves
Mass killings so ungodly
The fur electrocutions
Anal and genital
Gassings and neck-breakings
The scenes are unfathomable
Baby seals being clubbed
For their skins we shall beat them
Foxes in steel traps
A leg chewed off for freedom
Is it elegant and glamorous
A death sentence for their beauty
Or repugnant and loathesome
That's injustice and iniquity
A cow ovariectomy
Without anasthetic
A pig being scorched
Burn research is pathetic
Toxicity tests in a rabbit's eyes
A circus elephant is beaten
In chains he cries
A mouse convulsing from a lethal injection
A live cat embalmed and used for dissection
Our compassion, unfocused
In a skewed direction
Medical research need not vivisection
A baboon dazed in a head injury lab
Researchers remorseless
Three of them laugh
It's the humans, the humans
Most horrifying of all
Blinded by their actions
Deafened to the calls
The reprehensible acts
Which I will never forget
The sinful atrocities on God's pets
It's not inconvenient
To care is magnanimous
To save a life is honorable
To issue death is blasphemous
I cannot and will not stand by without choice
I'll decipher their cries and be their voice

Freed Animal Rights Activist Targets Metropark Deer Hunting

By John Wisely

The following article appeared in The Oakland Press on July 13, 1999.

Seventy-seven days in a Canadian detention center won't stop Gary Yourofsky from civil disobedience for animal rights.

"I can't wait to get arrested again," Yourofsky said Monday after being deported from Canada. "I was able to live—firsthand—the caged existence that animals go through."

The 28-year-old Royal Oak resident was jailed by Canadian authorities April 27 after being convicted of breaking and entering at an Ontario mink farm. Yourofsky freed 1,500 of the minks in the 1997 incident.

He was sentenced to serve 180 days but was released early and deported. "Two customs agents picked me up at the detention center and handcuffed me," Yourofsky said. "They drove me to the border and dropped me off on the American side."

He said he now plans to oppose the hunting of deer at metroparks, a plan that was approved last week.

"I'm going to be out there," he said. "I hope to have others with me, but I'll do it alone if I have to."

As part of his mink sentence, he was ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution, but has refused. "I won't pay money to a mink murderer," Yourofsky said.

Activist Risks Life, Liberty and Lawsuits to Protect Animals

By John Wisely

The following profile appeared in the The Oakland Press on August 1, 1999.

Gary Yourofsky has risked his neck for his beliefs. Last year the animal rights activist drove to the Michigan State Fairgrounds and stopped in the driveway. He crawled under his car with a U-shaped bicycle lock, slipped it over his rear axle and cinched it aorund his neck. "That way they can't move the car without breaking my neck," said Yourofsky, 28, Royal Oak. "Plus it makes it harder for them to get under there with the bolt cutters."

Detroit police took more than an hour to cut him loose, but Yourofsky had clogged the main fair entrance and captured attention for his animal rights agenda.

That protest and others like it earn him praise and scorn from people on both sides of the animal rights debate. Despite six arrests, one lawsuit and thousands of dollars in debt, Yourofsky continues. He currently is fighting animal-based circuses in Michigan and is working to prevent the killing of deer at Kensington Metropark.

Supporters argue that his passion is needed to give animals their rights. But opponents say he breaks the law and may do animals more harm than good.

"My experience with Gary and with people like him is that they do well in bringing attention to the animals," said Michael Killian, a former investigator with the Michigan Anti Cruelty Society. "But it's not necessarily viewed by the general public in a positive light."

Yourofsky traces his interest in animal rights to the early 1990s. His stepfather volunteered as a clown in The Shrine Circus and offered to take him on a tour. Yourofsky said he was shocked to see an elephant chained to a post with scars behind his ears. "I looked into the elephant's eyes and all I saw was sadness and despair," Yourofsky said. "There is no way to get wild animals to perform except to beat the pride out of them."

From then on, he began researching animal treatment. The more he learned, the less he liked. He believes speciesism is a form of discrimination that causes sexism and racism. "People say, 'they're just animals,' like they used to say they're just Jews or just blacks," Yourofsky said.

In 1996, Yourofsky founded a group called ADAPTT. The group, which claims about 1,000 members nationwide, hopes to stop animal use in medical research, product testing, circuses, rodeos and other forms of entertainment. Its members have been arrested for protests in Troy, Bloomfield Hills, Detroit and Canada.

Yourofsky operates the group from his studio apartment in Royal Oak. One bed, one chair, one TV and a laptop computer fill the room. Yourofsky shares it with his dog, Rex, a collie-shepherd he rescued after he was hit by a car. A shleving unit mounted outside the bathroom is crammed with newsletters and other ADAPTT literature. A bullhorn used to heckle fur wearers and other involved in the animal trade, hangs nearby. "This is animal rights central," he said. "I live and breathe animal rights. I want to speak the truth."

ADAPTT does not charge a membership fee. Yourofsky, who works as a substitute teacher in Pontiac, sends literature to anyone who asks. He publishes the church bulletin-sized newsletter whenever he can afford to send it out. "I've put over $10,000 of my life savings into ADAPTT," he said. "I owe credit card companies over $20,000. I'll probably have to declare personal bankruptcy in a few months."

Yourofsky practices a vegan lifestyle, which forbids using animals for food, clothing or other purposes. Inside his mustard-colored refrigerator is evidence: "A bowl of cherries, rice milk, soy cheese, vegetable-based food formed into bacon and turkey substitutes. "There is fake everything," he said. "I've seen fake ribs."

He is a tireless salesman for the vegan lifestyle. Two years ago, he persuaded his chiropractor, Robert Levine of Farmington Hills, to give up meat. "He gave me some information about the agriculture industry and overnight, I stopped eating 99 percent of what I was eating," Levine said. "Would I like to have him at dinner every night? Probably not. But I like Gary a lot. He's quite a rebel."

Others are less eager to be associated with Yourofsky even when they agree with him. Yourofsky wants to meet with Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer to lobby for a ban on animal circuses in the city. He hopes Detroit Zoo Director Ron Kagan can help him. "We have Ron Kagan's support," Yourofsky said.

But Kagan said he does not know Yourofsky well enough to say whether he supports him. Kagan has opposed animal circuses for years. "My issues are not founded on helping Gary," Kagan said. "They are about helping animals. I do think it's important for all of us to speak up and certainly he is a voice."

Yourofsky has a journalism degree from Oakland University and a habit of reading dictionaries in his leisure time. To ask him about animal rights is to trigger an avalanche of quotations from Gandhi, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., puncuated with words like "perfidy" and "pusillanimous." He also studied television and radio at Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts in Southfield. Yourofsky uses the media to amplify his voice. He sends out press releases announcing protest plans. He keeps his newspaper clippings in an art portfolio and displays them with the pride of a grandparent showing baby pictures.

Getting arrested helps attract media attention. Besides, penalties are usually minimal. "Will I pay a $100 fine for a front-page story? Absolutely," Yourofsky said. "I can't buy that kind of advertising."

Not all of his protests have been dismissed so easily. In March 1997, Yourofsky and members of his group released 1,500 mink from Eberts Fur Farm in Blenheim, Ontario. The owners caught the group and recovered most of the mink. But the episode disrupted reproduction and led to tiny litters. "That cost us over $300,000," said owner Tom McLellan. "We're running a legal business, we're not dealing drugs. It's been our way of life for years. He is going about it the wrong way."

Canadian courts agreed, and convicted Yourofsky of breaking and entering. He was sentenced to spend 180 days in a Canadian correctional facility, but was released after 77 days. He also was fined $35,000 but has not paid a cent. "I'm not paying mink murderers," he said.

McLellan has sued Yourofsky trying to recoup his losses, but he doubts he'll ever be paid. "The odds are pretty thin," McLellan said. "It bothers me that he basically got away with it."

Yourofsky's adversaries are not limited to fur farmers. He has publicly feuded with Gary Tiscornia, executive director of the Michigan Humane Society. Yourofsky called for Tiscornia to resign after Tiscornia agreed with a plan to allow deer hunting in Kensington Metropark. "We feel that interests of animals are best served by working within our legal system," Tiscornia said.

That's not good enough for Yourofsky, who doubts the state Legislature or Congress will pass laws protecting animals because agriculture interests have too much power. He plans to continue his protests, which have drawn wide notice. When he was in jail in Canada, he received letters of support from people as far away as New Zealand. They make up for the times he is branded a radical or a wacko. "I'm anything but a wacko," Yourofsky said. "Radical is great to me. If I don't make some people nervous, then I'm doing something wrong"

Billboard Rips Circuses for Animal Acts

By Kim North Shine

The following excerpts appeared in The Detroit Free Press on September 8, 1999.

The circus is coming to town, and an eye-catching billboard is here to greet it. More important to the people who paid for the sign, it will scream out a message to thousands of drivers along southbound I-75 near West Grand Blvd. in Detroit: "Chained, caged and abused for your entertainment. The circus sucks!"

Next to the words are three pictures: A caged tiger, a caged lion, and a chained elephant. Circled in red are the shackles around the ankle and a chain tethering the elephant to a wall.

A Royal Oak animal rights group, ADAPTT, raised $5,000 for the sign, which went up Friday near the Ambassador Bridge. "I truly believe without a doubt that the circus is an animal slavery enterprise. Animals endure vicious beatings, endless confinement with chains or cages, forced trickery and torturous hours of non air-conditioned transportation," said Gary Yourofsky, president of ADAPTT. Last year the group circulated a proposal to several cities asking that they outlaw circuses with animal acts. Detroit Zoo Director Ron Kagan endorsed that proposal, saying the travel and training of the animals is cruel.

Said Paula Witt, spokeswoman for the UniverSoul Circus: "We understand their concerns. Whether its people or animals, we are opposed to cruelty or mistreatment. ...And we support all efforts to monitor and regulate the treatment of animals." The circus starts today at Chene Park in Detroit and runs through September 19. Ringling Bros. comes to Detroit October 7-10. UniverSoul has never been cited by federal regulators for poor animal treatment; Ringling was cited last year by the USDA for the deaths of an elephant, a sea lion and a tiger.

Animal Rights Advocates Protest Circus in Detroit

By The Associated Press

The following article appeared in The Ann Arbor News on September 8, 1999.

The circus is coming to town, but one eye-catching billboard isn't giving it a warm welcome.

The billboard along I-75 near downtown, says, "Chained, caged and abused for your entertainment. The circus sucks!" It also shows a caged tiger, a caged lion and a chained elephant, shackles around their ankles and a chain tethering the elephant to a wall.

A Royal Oak animal rights group, ADAPTT, raised $5,000 for the sign, which went up Friday. The UniverSoul Circus starts Wednesday at Chene Park and runs through Sept. 19.

"I truly believe without a doubt that the circus is an animal slavery enterprise," said Gary Yourofsky, the group's president. "Animals endure vicious beatings, endless confinement with chains or cages, forced trickery and torturous hours of non air-conditioned transportation."

Last year the group circulated a proposal to several cities asking that they outlaw circuses with animal acts.

"We understand their concerns," Said Paula Witt, spokeswoman for the UniverSoul Circus: We are opposed to cruelty or mistreatment. ...And we support all efforts to monitor and regulate the treatment of animals."

Animal Rights Group Slams Detroit Circus on I-75 Sign

By The Associated Press

The following article appeared in The Grand Rapids Press on September 9, 1999.

The circus is coming to town, but one eye-catching billboard isn't giving it a warm welcome.

The billboard along I-75 near downtown, says, "Chained, caged and abused for your entertainment. The circus sucks!" It also shows a caged tiger, a caged lion and a chained elephant, shackles around their ankles and a chain tethering the elephant to a wall.

A Royal Oak animal rights group, ADAPTT, raised $5,000 for the sign, which went up Friday. The UniverSoul Circus starts Wednesday at Chene Park and runs through Sept. 19.

"I truly believe without a doubt that the circus is an animal slavery enterprise," said Gary Yourofsky, the group's president. "Animals endure vicious beatings, endless confinement with chains or cages, forced trickery and torturous hours of non air-conditioned transportation."

Last year the group circulated a proposal to several cities asking that they outlaw circuses with animal acts.

"We understand their concerns," Said Paula Witt, spokeswoman for the UniverSoul Circus: We are opposed to cruelty or mistreatment. … And we support all efforts to monitor and regulate the treatment of animals."

UniverSoul has never been cited by federal regulators for poor animal treatment. The Ringling Bros., which will come to Detroit Oct. 7-10, was cited last year by the USDA for the deaths of an elephant, a sea lion and a tiger. Deaths of circus animals and fatal attacks on their trainers are rare, as are animal rampages, circus leaders say.

Local Animal Rights Activist Protests Circus

By Amy Wettlaufer

The following article appeared in The Mirror (Royal Oak, Mich.) on September 16, 1999.

"The Circus Sucks," said a local animal rights activist in the form of a $5,000 billboard located off I-75 on West Grand Blvd. near the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.

Gary Yourofsky, Royal Oak resident and president of ADAPTT, said the billboard is the latest in a series of attacks by the group against the circus in the Detroit area.

ADAPTT is a nonprofit organization that strives to abolish the use of animals in medical research, product testing, circuses, rodeos and other forms of entertainment. The organization also opposes hunting and the wearing of fur.

Speaking of fur, in 1997 Yourofsky and several members of ADAPTT, released 1,500 mink from Ebert's Fur Farm in Blenheim, Ontario. Yourofsky was convicted of breaking and entering and served 77 days in a Canadian correctional facility.

The billboard, which went up last week and was paid for by ADAPTT, reads: "Chained, caged and abused for your entertainment. The Circus Sucks!" It includes three graphic photos of animals, including an elephant in chains and two exotic cats in cages.

The group also is staging a 12-day protest at the UniverSoul Circus, which is going on through Sunday at Chene Park in Detroit. The UniverSoul Circus is the first touring African-American owned and operated big top-style circus. Its animal acts include lions, tigers, elephants, chimpanzees and dogs. UniverSoul Circus claims to have a strong animal rights policy, but Yourofsky isn't buying it.

"You don't turn on the Discovery Channel and see elephants walking throught the jungles of Tanzania in sequined suits," he said. He said elephants are kept in chains between performances and lions, tigers and bears are kept in cages, a state he believes is not only cruel, but completely unnatural. "Elephants in the wild walk 20-50 miles a day," Yourofsky said.

Another aspect of a circus he finds troublesome is the surface on which the animals must perform. "Most circuses have their shows on concrete," Yourofsky said. "Most animals walk on a grassy terrain, and they need to walk on what they were meant to walk on—grass."

Several animals have died recently in circuses, including a baby elephant being transported to a circus in July, Yourofsky said.

Deaths during transportation happen because the semi-trucks or rail cars being used have no air conditioning or heat. And as well as being in complete darkness, elephants are left to stew in their own waste. Along with physical abuse, animals also are subjected to psychological abuse, Yourofsky said.

"After a few days of overbearing dominance and constant confinement, all circus animals begin to experience neurosis or exhibit some form of neurotic behavior," he said. "Elephants sway from side to side or rotate their heads in a constant circular motion. Lions and tigers pace back and forth in their pathetic little cages, and bears bite the steel bars of their mobile prisons and also sway and pace."

But the president and founder of UniverSoul Circus, Cedric Walker, says the circus' stance on the treatment of animals is in its animal rights policy. "The UniverSoul Circus' position on animal rights is clear," Walker said. "We are strongly opposed to any form of cruelty or mistreatment of animals."

The circus, which was established in 1994, has never been cited for any violations.

But Yourofsky said that as long as animals are being used to entertain for monetary gain, his work will never be done. "I do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week, out of the goodness of my heart," Yourofsky said. "People don't understand what you do if you do it for no monetary gain. Animal rights is one of the most unselfish movements around."

In October ADAPTT will protest the Ringling Bros. at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. In recent years, Ringling has known its share of controversy. In April 1998 the USDA charged Ringling with violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act after the death of an endangered baby elephant named Kenny.

For more information on ADAPTT, call 810-763-2715 or write P.O. Box 725, Royal Oak, MI 48068.

Clowning Glory

By Craig Pearson

The following paragraphs were part of a Windsor Star article on October 10, 1999 about the circus.

When the circus comes to town, it brings a host of familiar spectacles—goofy clowns, high-wire performers, trapeze artists, leaping tigers, standing elephants and angry protesters.

But the circus isn't all laughs