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 according to topic. To read articles on a particular topic, 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 in ascending chronological order regardless of topic, visit this alternate Archives page.
Click the link at right to view the accolades Gary has received from the Israeli press since 2012.
Profiles of Gary Yourofsky
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 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"
Taking it to the Limit
Driven by a Passion for Justice, Royal Oak Activist Does Whatever it Takes to Protect Rights of Animals
By Cathy Nelson
The following profile appeared in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, Mich.) on February 27, 2000.
This is part one of a two-part profile. Part two will be published next Sunday.
Although just 29, Royal Oak's Gary Yourofsky has already experienced more than many people will, or ever will want to, in a lifetime. He's picketed prominent businesses, chained his neck to the axle of his car, been arrested at least 10 times and spent 77 days in a maximum security detention center—all in the name of animal rights.
Yourofsky is founder of ADAPTT, a Royal Oak-based organization known for in-your-face tactics and an uncompromising stance against animal exploitation. Yet, by Yourofsky's own account, he's just a normal guy. "People find it hard to believe, but I'm kind of like everyone else. I'm pretty normal," said Yourofsky. "I enjoy Jim Carrey movies, I watch sports, I play guitar. I just will not tolerate cruelty to animals. I will not tolerate the way society treats them."
By all outward appearances, Yourofsky's life is not out of the ordinary. He shares a modest apartment with his roommate, Rex, an 11-year-old dog he found lying, paralyzed, on the side of the road. A collection of CDs, videos and books (Gerry Spence's "How to Argue and Win Every Time" is prominently placed at the front of one shelf) mixed with pictures of those closest to his heart—his 3-year-old twin niece and nephew, two dogs, Brandy and Bourbon, who've passed away, and Rex. Degrees from Specs Howard and Oakland University hang by the bathroom, not far from a picture of guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Yourofsky wears jeans with a button-down shirt and his manner is relaxed, even down right congenial.
But when Yourofsky speaks about animals, things change. An intensity surrounds him, his words come fast, yet firm, his arms wave often, and he barely stops to catch his breath between sentences. He liberally quotes Martin Luther King Jr. among others, using a vocabulary that could put an English professor to shame. (Knowledge garnered from another favorite hobby of his, looking up words in the dictionary and memorizing their meanings.)
For the last two years, he has been, arguably, the most recognizable and talked-about member of the animal rights movement in Michigan. Yourofsky's notoriety was heightened last year when he was sentenced to six months in prison for his part in a 1997 break-in at a Blenheim, Ontario, fur farm where 1,542 caged minks were set free.
The incarceration only heightened Yourofsky's commitment. Since his release from prison, he's protested circuses, fur stores and led a silent vigil in front of the home of someone Yourofsky calls a "a psychotic researcher" who conducts experiments on live animals.
Another brush with the law occurred in August 1999, when Yourofsky chained himself underneath his car and blocked the entrance to Detroit Animal Control Center. He was protesting what he called the center's "antiquated" use of gas chambers and its selling of animals to Wayne State University for experimentation.
It's not surprising, then, that words such as "radical" and "extreme" are often used to describe him. "I used to get upset at that," said Yourofsky. "Now actually I don't, because I know what it means. I guess it means you're too honest, too truthful, too uncompromising, too strong. I might find those to be good attributes."
There is, however, one thing he never wants to be called, and it's probably not what people expect. "I despise the term 'animal lover' because I find it to be derogatory...whenever you put the term 'lover' in front of something that you're fighting for, it's completely derogatory. It has nothing to do with that group, it has to do with loathing injustice."
Yourofsky wasn't always part of the animal rights movement. He was, only five years ago, a meat-eating, leather-wearing part of the general population. The child of divorced parents, Yourofsky grew up in Oak Park and Berkley with one sister, two years his senior. Hockey was his big love—in 1980 he was the number one goalie in his age group in Michigan. That year, his team placed second in a Lake Placid national tournament around the same time and place the US Olympic Hockey team skated to its "Miracle on Ice."
Still there were signs as to what the future might have in store. "I was always bucking the system," Yourofsky said. "I always had something to say. My friends would say 'You think you can save the world.' I'd never go into a situation thinking I couldn't change it."
Yourofsky's dreams were typical of many teenagers—he figured on being a rock guitarist or playing in the NHL. But, it was an incident during those same formative years that sent him on a much different path. Yourofsky's stepfather was working as a clown in The Shrine Circus and thought his stepson might enjoy going behind-the-scenes to see the animals. He couldn't have been more wrong.
"He took me backstage to see the elephants," remembered Yourofsky, emphasizing every word. "I saw them shackled in chains. I looked in their eyes and saw nothing but fear and hopelessness. I knew this wasn't right." Yourofsky has never forgotten the look in those elephant's eyes.
Driven by a thirst for knowledge, he began reading, studying and researching not only the animal rights movement, but civil rights movements throughout history. In 1995 he became a vegetarian, and, after attending a 1996 animal rights conference in Washington DC, went vegan. "The more I opened to the truth, the closer I got to the truth," he said.
While the circus experience may have started him down the path that now consumes his life, it was simple words from a friend that got him going full steam ahead. He said, "You're always talking about this stuff, why don't you do something about it, already?" Yourofsky's friend probably had no idea what he started.
It began with newsletters, phone calls, a protest here and there. It didn't take long before there were over 1,500 members.
"There's no denying once you meet Gary, you don't forget him," said Jim McNelis, who met Yourofsky five years ago and is now community outreach director for ADAPTT. "He makes a strong impression. He is a leader."
As membership expanded, Yourofsky saw the opportunity to reach more and more people. He never backed down from his straightforward approach, no matter what television station or newspaper was interviewing him, no matter who was watching or listening.
"I can't express in words what Gary means (to animal rights)," McNelis said. "The movement needed people like that. With Gary, there's no me-first. He's extremely committed, and passionate. Many people are not lucky enough to find their passion. He did."
Yourofsky's commitment meant a willingness to use what some would consider shocking tactics to get points across. ADAPTT recently drew attention for two graphic billboards it sponsored—one anti-fur billboard contained a grotesque picture of a skinned animal, another plastered the slogan "The Circus Sucks" next to a photo of a chained elephant—and a controversial television commercial featuring footage of fur farm animals being electrocuted.
"I know for me, that's what did it," said Yourofsky. "When I saw the videos, that's what pushed me over the age. When I read the literature, when I saw photos of cats with electrodes in their heads, of primates languishing in cages, when I saw elephants in chains. As far as I'm concerned, that's what's going to work." He turns to a quote from slave abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to make his point: "I will be as harsh as the truth and as uncompromising as justice."
Yourofsky also believes in exercising his First Amendment right to assemble—and will be joined by other ADAPTT members in doing so, at upcoming protests targeting local appearances by The Shrine Circus in March and The Royal Hanneford Circus in April.
Gertrude Hanneford, 68-year-old matriarch of The Royal Hanneford Circus, said while she's "grateful" for the concerns of animal activists like Yourofsky, her animals are not abused. "I've spent many many years and half of my life taking care of animals," said Hanneford, who's had the same three elephants for more than 20 years and drives the semi truck they travel in. "Most activists don't live with animals." She said her elephants are not shackled, but kept in free-walking pens and that conditions are "constantly" monitored by the USDA and animal inspectors.
Yourofsky said he's seen the pens Hanneford's referring to. "These areas are unsuitable for a two-pound toy poodle, much less an 8,000 pound animal that walks 20 to 50 miles a day in the wild. They're still incarcerated in an area they should not be."
Hanneford said protests, such as the one ADAPTT plans, don't hurt her business. "I never have any problems. I think we get along fairly good. I respect their concerns, but my conscience is good. I love my animals."
"Animals were not put on this earth for our entertainment," countered Yourofsky. "If she loves them, she'd release them to an elephant sanctuary."
Carrying a picket sign is an experience many Americans have had, but for Yourofsky, protests don't go far enough. He believes there's an extra step that must be taken, and he's one of only a few willing to do so. "One cannot achieve goals without civil disobedience. King and Gandhi went to jail for civil disobedience. It's funny how throughout time we place certain people on pedestals, like Dr. King, Gandhi and Malcolm X and rightfully so. But when they were around, people thought that they were crazy for going to jail for what they believed in and fighting the system."
Great leaders have often used nonviolent civil disobedience to facilitate change, according to Donald N. Perkins, a Mount Clemens attorney and member of the Animal Law Section Council of the State Bar of Michigan. "Nonviolent civil disobedience is part of the American tradition going back to the Boston Tea Party," said Perkins. "Those men today are seen as heroes. When we do achieve a cruelty-free society, it will be because of the actions of people like Gary."
"You cannot work within an unjust system," said Yourofsky. "You cannot change immoral laws with moral protests. As far as I'm concerned, you have to work outside of the unjust system and come back in it. You have to break the law to make new laws. Anyone who thinks it's silly or too much or extreme to go to jail doesn't understand what it takes to liberate an enslaved group."
Taking a Stand and Standing Alone
Animal Rights Activist Vows to Live and Die for His Cause
By Cathy Nelson
The following profile appeared in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, Mich.) on March 5, 2000.
This is the second half of a two-part profile on animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky. In part one, which ran on Feb. 27, Yourofsky talked about how his views were formed. Today, he discusses how they shape his life.
"I will gladly go to jail for this cause." Those are not empty words from Royal Oak animal activist Gary Yourofsky. On April 27, 1999, he proved it. That was the day Yourofsky was sentenced to six months in Elgin Middlesex Detention Center in London, Ontario, for his part in a 1997 break-in at Ebert's Mink Farm in Blenheim, Ontario. The break-in resulted in the release of 1,542 minks and the subsequent arrest of Yourofsky and four others.
It started out, according to Yourofsky, as a way to "liberate" the minks and "economically sabotage" the fur farm. It ended up as a time of betrayal and soul-searching for the man who's dedicated his life to the animal rights movement.
It was a quiet Easter Sunday evening. Yourofsky, along with his uncle, Alan Hoffman, and fellow activists Patricia Dodson, Hilma Ruby and Robyn Weiner set out with a plan to free as many minks as possible from the fur farm. The five were well aware just how dangerous and illegal their plan was. "Just because something is legal doesn't make it just," Yourofsky said. "If someone wants to liberate animals, there's nothing quicker than opening cages in fur farms or research labs."
Knowing the likelihood of at least one of them getting caught, the five made a pact. "If something happened that night, if certain people got away, then so be it." Each person had a specific duty to perform; Yourofsky's was to open the mink's cages—all 1,542 of them. It took him about one hour and 45 minutes, and even though his arms ached, he didn't stop until he was done. Physically exhausted, Yourofsky and his uncle then crawled on their hands and knees, "like we were in a war," 1.5 miles back into the town of Blenheim, where they called a cab. It wasn't long after the taxi picked them up and pulled on to Highway 401 that things began to go wrong.
That's where police pulled over the cab and took Yourofsky and Hoffman, who were covered in mink fur and feces, back to the station. Yourofsky refused to talk, but soon was being charged with burglary, mischief and possession of burglary tools. "Since we were never apprehended on the farm, someone had to place us there," he said. Yourofsky said he was shocked by who it was—his uncle. "He sold me out to save himself."
Yourofsky said Hoffman, along with Weiner, offered information on the incident in exchange for reduced sentences and, in doing so, broke the "code" of the animal liberation movement: never tell on another. "It hurt," Yourofsky said slowly. "I'm not upset they turned me in. What's breaking my heart is they sold out the animals. They sold out 1,542 mink that were given the chance of freedom that night." He said Ruby remained the only "solid activist who understood what it took."
While the owner said most of the minks freed that night died, Yourofsky said he was only shown proof that two died. He believes the rest survived. The owner of Eberts estimates nearly half a million dollars in damage was done; the farm has since closed.
For Yourofsky, the night of what he considers a betrayal was only the beginning of tough times. It was on the fifth day of a 10-day bail hearing, during which he was incarcerated, that Yourofsky received devastating news: his beloved dog Brandy had suffered a stroke and was dying. "I laid in my (prison) bed that night and said "I've got to get out and hold my dog one last time. I just have to," he recalled. Still, to have any chance of being released, Yourofsky would have had to apologize or offer information to authorities. "I couldn't bring myself to sell out the millions of animals that needed my strength, my commitment, my empathy." Brandy died while Yourofsky was still in jail.
Two years after the break-in took place, Yourofsky was sentenced to six months in a maximum security facility. Although he served only 77 days of his sentence, it was the most difficult time of his life. For the most part he got along well with other prisoners and the guards, and even his request for vegan food was accommodated. But, because Elgin is a maximum security facility, inmates were only allowed outside (courtyard) 20 minutes a day. For Yourofsky, the prison became a world unto itself.
"You're put inside four walls, and that's your world," he said. "Jail is such a desensitization. It's such a cold, stale, sterile environment. My mind actually shut down. I couldn't write or think clearly." What got Yourofsky through the ordeal was the amount of support he received. Letters from across the country, literally hundreds of them, came in and mail-call became the bright spot in his day.
"As I write this letter, tears fall because the wrong person is being punished—the man who took those animals lives should be there, not the man who freed them," wrote a woman from Woodhaven. An attorney from Novi wrote the parole board: "He is altruistic. He is a hero. He represents what is good about the human race."
"Gary follows in the footsteps of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez, all of whom have been imprisoned for their nonviolent beliefs," said a writer from Los Angeles.
One act that greatly touched Yourofsky was a proposed resolution in support of his actions put before the Animal Law Section Council of the State Bar of Michigan by attorney Donald Perkins. "I wanted to go on record as showing support within animal law for what Gary Yourofsky was attempting to do, which was stop the indefensible action of wearing fur coats," said Perkins, a council member. Perkins ended up tabling the motion because he felt resistance among the group for a resolution which, in effect, supported the breaking of the law. Personally, Perkins stood firm. "Gary was working for a higher purpose and that should take precedence over a technical violation of the law. There will be a time when the legal community will recognize obedience to laws is not the highest form of morality. Justice and compassion are the highest form of morality."
Yourofsky said it was people like Perkins who helped him remember why he was there. "I just told myself 'I'm an elephant in the circus, a lion in the zoo, a mink in a cage.' It would intensify my empathy. I would get mad and want to free the animals even more. I lived the life of a caged animal for 77 days. I experienced what they go through on a daily basis." The only difference, Yourofsky said, was he knew one day he'd get out.
Not surprisingly, the fur industry frowns upon acts like Yourofsky's and defends the industry's practices. "The measure of success for a farmer is how well they take care of the animals, not how poorly." said Teresa Platt, spokesperson for Fur Commission USA, an organization representing 450 mink and fox fur farms. "The animals need to be beautiful."
Yourofsky's response: "The animals are treated about as well as prisoners in Thailand. Keeping animals confined in a cage is not just inhumane, it's inhuman."
Platt said most mink are killed using carbon monoxide gas, but admitted many foxes are killed by anal electrocution while unconscious. Yourofsky said none of these methods are humane and that foxes are conscious during electrocution. "Not one animal in the history of humankind has ever been euthanized using lethal injection on a fur farm. The reason why brutal methods are used is because they are the cheapest methods possible."
Platt said farmers in the mink fur industry, with an estimated $80-120 million in annual revenue, are caring, rural people. "Do farmers think they take good care of the animals? They know they do," she said. "They love their animals. Animal rights groups don't jump into debates, but just attack. We don't solve things by terrorizing people."
"Does she think incarceration and denying freedom is equal to compassion and benevolence?" Yourofsky asked. "It's laughable for people who kill and exploit animals to say they care. It's preposterous. Terrorists are people like Timothy McVeigh. Animal rights activists are the true humanitarians. She is an animal terrorist."
Far from seeing himself as a terrorist, Yourofsky simply says he's someone trying to liberate an enslaved group. While in prison he wrote the following words: "What a pathetic life I must have led before I heard the cries of the enslaved and the tumult of the animal kingdom. Activism engulfs me." It also changed the life he had only a few years ago, before becoming involved in animal rights. He worked for a while as a substitute teacher, but admits he is now out of money and describes himself using the oxymoron "broke philanthropist."
Yourofsky's "new" life has also taken a personal toll. He said his mother still wears a fur coat, but calls his father, who lives in Ferndale, "the first one to understand."
He no longer gets together with family at holidays, due partly to his refusal to dine with anyone eating meat, and partly to the ridicule he's endured at past gatherings. "My family is no different than anyone else's. They don't understand animal rights. They probably think it's silly or misguided. I'm not close with my family. We don't talk much."
The problem he said is his insistence on talking about animal rights, met by just as strong a resistance on their part. "Frankly, I'm tired of discussing it with them. I've realized over the years, you have to throw away some people who don't get it."
To explain why he's willing to sacrifice so much, Yourofsky turns to a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: "There are some things so dear, so precious, so eternally true, that they are worth dying for."
"I think anybody who leads a life without a purpose, without trying to make the world a better place, is pathetic," Yourofsky said. "And that includes everyone from family members to someone on the street."
Although Yourofsky is willing to pay any price in the name of animal rights, he is also smart enough to know the fight is an uphill battle. "I don't see animal freedom coming anytime soon and it upsets me, it bothers me, it's frustrating, it's disheartening. I know most people have goodness inside of them. If I can just tap into that. I think that's the only thing that keeps me going."
Activist Devotes Life to Animal Rights (Toledo Blade)
Activist Would Give His Life for the Animals (Oakland Press)
By Jack Lessenberry
The following profile appeared in The Toldeo Blade and The Oakland Press (Mich.) on June 24, 2001.
Gary Yourofsky is not, he says, an animal lover. Never mind that virtually every waking moment of his life is devoted to fighting for animal rights. Never mind that he has been arrested more than a dozen times and served more than two months hard time in a Canadian prison for liberating mink.
No, he's not an animal lover. "I don't even like most animals," the outspoken 30-year-old said.
"Anyway, this isn't about loving them. It's about injustice. My goal is to free them. They are a disenfranchised group. They have the right to their own existence. They aren't ours to exploit. They exist for their own reasons."
Mr. Yourofsky, a slight, virtually bald young man with piercing eyes, has dedicated his life to fighting for what he sees as the world's greatest civil rights movement: Animal Liberation. Though he is of a generation that is virtually a stranger to political commitment, he is, cheerfully and proudly "an activist 24/7. This is what I do."
He isn't kidding. A large tattoo of himself wearing a hood and displaying the symbols of ALF, the Animal Liberation Front, adorns one forearm.
He isn't getting rich at it. Mr. Yourofsky is "in debt up to my ears. I owe at least $30,000 on credit cards," and gets by on donations. He lives in a tiny apartment with his ancient dog, Rex, and probably could fit all his worldly goods into his car.
Sometimes, he admits, he gets down, especially when he thinks about how much brutality there is, and how little progress he has made. But he has absolutely no doubt that what he is doing is right, and that his life would even be worth losing if it would help stop what he thinks is the most evil "ism" in human history.
"Speciesism. That is, the unfounded, unethical, and unprincipled view that the human animal has every right to enslave, torture, and murder the non-human animal."
Does he think that the life of a gnat, say, is as valuable as that of a person? He waves impatiently; he isn't going there. "What we must do is start viewing every cow, pig, chicken, monkey, rabbit, mouse, and pigeon as our family members."
"And we must be willing to do whatever it takes to gain their freedom and stop their torture," he adds. For himself, that means only nonviolent means. But Mr. Yourofsky doesn't condemn others who feel differently. "Do not be afraid to condone arsons at places of animal torture," he has written to supporters.
Matter of fact, if an "animal abuser" were to get killed in the process of burning down a research lab, "I would unequivocally support that, too."
He wasn't always out there. He grew up in the very suburban, mostly Jewish Detroit suburb of Oak Park. He ate meat, played guitar, and dreamed of someday being a goalie in the National Hockey League.
Then, one day in his early 20s, his stepfather, who was a professional circus clown, took Gary behind the scenes at the circus. He went up to an elephant and "saw nothing but fear and hopelessness in her eyes" and saw that she was chained and could barely move. "I didn't even know then how they are routinely beaten, to break their spirit. I just knew something was wrong." When they brought out dancing bears wearing tutus, he left.
That changed his life. He plunged into research on how animals are treated and mistreated; became first a vegetarian, then a more radical vegan. Though he had degrees in journalism and broadcasting, he decided to put his skills to work full-time for the animals. Five years ago, he founded ADAPTT (Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow) which now has, he says, 2,200 or so members.
Yes, he did once liberate precisely 1,542 mink from individual cages on a now-bankrupt Ontario farm, crawling through dirt and mink feces to do so. Yes, he chained himself to his car and blocked the entrance to Detroit Animal Control Center, to protest their gassing of unwanted animals and, worse, selling them to a university for experiments.
"Any real scientist will tell you we learn nothing of value by experimenting on animals. Nothing!" he maintained. "And even if we did, we've no right to do it."
Though he may be arrested again, what he really prefers doing is lecturing about animal rights. An articulate, compelling speaker, he is in increasing demand on the classroom and lecture circuit. When he's not doing that, he is heavily into other forms of "informational propaganda." Last fall, he successfully wangled $10,000 from PETA—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—and got a commercial attacking "the animal slavery enterprise known as the circus" on local TV 69 times.
What the future holds, he knows, is more frustration. Last winter, depressed over his economic situation and the enormous task, Mr. Yourofsky dropped out for two or three months, before gradually returning to the fray. Now, however, he is pumped and ready. If he gets tired, he remembers what he tells audiences: "Picture yourself in chains, swaying back and forth as someone whacked you over the head with an elephant hook. Then tell me you wouldn't want your supporters to do anything to obtain your freedom."
In the long run, he doesn't expect to see very much animal liberation in his lifetime. "I really think I will be assassinated," he said. One comes away with a feeling that if his own death helped further the cause, it might, for Gary Yourofsky, seem worth it.
Activist for the Animals
By Jack Lessenberry
The following profile appeared in The Metro Times (Mich.) in the July 11-17, 2001, edition.
Nobody, the old saying goes, should see either legislation or sausage being made. Gary Yourofsky thinks you need to know exactly where the meat for your sausage comes from, for the same reason you need to know about Auschwitz.
To him, they are exactly the same—or maybe your local slaughterhouse is a trifle worse; the Nazis usually didn't dismember their victims while many were still conscious. (No, Muffy, whatever they told you in kindergarten, they don't put Clarabell painlessly to sleep before grinding her up for hamburger. That would cost money.)
"Enslaving and killing animals for human satisfaction can never be justified," the bald, cheerfully intense 30-year-old argues. "They aren't ours to begin with. They belong to themselves only." Yet most of us "continue to believe that the human animal has every right to exploit, enslave and murder the nonhuman animal."
We murder billions of our fellow animals each year, and that's what he has dedicated his young life to fighting. Actually, he knows he can't do much to stop it, not in the foreseeable future, anyway. But he intends to raise our consciousness. That's why he has done jail time for "liberating" 1,542 mink from an Ontario fur farm, and been arrested more than a dozen times for other "random acts of kindness and compassion."
Frankly, when I went to interview Yourofsky I expected to meet a fanatic.
Afterward not only did I find him frighteningly sane and mostly convincing, I had the rather uneasy feeling that always comes when you realize that you are a hypocrite.
Like most liberals, I always have been very concerned with the public's right to know about legislation—and never thought about sausage, except when I had to read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and when it became clear that packing plant workers in sweatshops like Tyson Foods were severely endangered by their working conditions.
Duty and the Beasts
By Jack Lessenberry
The following profile appeared in Hour Magazine (Mich.) in the May 2002 edition.
Gary Yourofsky believes we are all living in a new Auschwitz. Make that a world a million times worse than the Nazi death camp. The way he sees it, the vast majority of us are participants in this Holocaust.
"Aren't humans amazing animals? They kill all kinds of wildlife by the millions, and then turn around and terrorize domestic animals by the billions," he says, tenor rising and falling, rippling between razor-sharp sarcasm and the confident tones of a man utterly convinced he possesses the absolute truth.
For him, the truth is that animals have the same rights we do. Yourofsky, 31, really believes that when we eat meat, drink milk and permit circuses, we are actively committing evil. "I don't eat anything that had a face, a mother or a bowel movement," he tells wide-eyed students in any class he lectures.
When one timid Wayne State student asks hesitantly whether people weren't meant to eat meat, the answer explodes off his lips. "Okay—pick up the first dead squirrel you find in the road, and eat it! Raw. Eat the face, the eyes, the hair, the toenails and the bacteria-laden organs. That's what real carnivores do."
He believes that eating meat is murder, and we're killing ourselves by eating it. Yourofsky argues that not only do we have no right to do experiments on animals but, against the weight of most scientific opinion, that no medical research done on animals ever can have validity for humans.
Hunters are sick people filled with hate and violence, "cowards who never fight those who fight back." Rodeos are obscene. Zoos are bad—pet shops, slave markets. Even a fish tank full of seemingly content neon tetras is a moral outrage, an "aquaprison." Never mind that such are likely to live longer lives and be far better fed than they would in some Amazon stream. In Yourofsky's view, they aren't ours to mess with. "This isn't about loving animals. It's about fighting injustice," he said.
Yourofsky rarely sugarcoats it. He doesn't show his videotape of a cow having her ovaries ripped out—without anesthesia—to elementary school kids. Otherwise, he's proudly, defiantly, deliberately, in your face.
A half-blind man wouldn't have any trouble picking him out of a crowd. His most arresting feature is a completely shaven, milk-white scalp above a scraggly beard and intensely burning brown eyes. Add to that a weightlifter's arms, usually poking out from a T-shirt. Immediately, your gaze is drawn to his right forearm, adorned with a large tattoo of a hooded figure—Yourofsky himself—cradling a bunny. The man's feet are definatly planted above the letters ALF. Animal Liberation Front.
"Abolition! Liberation! Freedom!" he says with a smile, displaying his tattoo as he eats an Ethiopian vegan meal with his hands at The Blue Nile in Greektown. Over the tattooed man and beast floats the Latin motto, Praesto et Persto—I stand in front and I stand firm.
"I got that right after I got out of prison for liberating mink from a fur farm in Ontario," he says proudly. He doesn't do "random acts of kindness and compassion" like that anymore. These days Yourofsky says he's not into direct action. Still, I expect that someday, someone will assassinate me."
Yourofsky says he has no desire to be a martyr. In his view, if he's murdered for the cause, it will be a sign that he's winning the greatest war in the history of evolution. And there are some who would follow him anywhere.
The first time I saw him, I said, "Uh-oh. Is he a skinhead, or what?" says Lana Mini, a 34-year-old writer who has been equally devoted to animal rights for longer than Yourofsky. That was six years ago, when she was doing a charity dog wash to raise money for her group, HARE (Humanitarians for Animal Rights Education).
Yourofsky came in with Rex, a shepherd mix he'd rescued (after he was hit by a car). He was just in the process of forming his own group, ADAPTT (Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow). Soon, HARE was defunct, and most of its members had joined ADAPTT. He and Mini found they had nearly identical views, and became friends. Mini went to visit him in his Canadian prison and waged a campaign to get him out of solitary in which he was placed when he went on a hunger strike. Yourofsky was in protective custody from the beginning because the hunters among the cons had threatened him. Today, she's executive director of the Michigan's ADAPTT chapter.
"He's intense," Mini says. "But he's also so convincing. He can talk to anybody. A few years ago, animal rights started as a mainly middle-to-upper class movement. Gary can reach minorities."
While in prison, he wrote: "What a pathetic life I must have led before I heard the cries of the enslaved and the tumult of the animal kingdom. Activism engulfs me. Activism is near. Activism is now."
Nobody who knew him back at Berkley High School would have imagined this. Gary Yourofsky was born August 19, 1970. His earliest love wasn't hamsters, but hockey; he was a prize-winning goalie in grade school.
Marci Culley, his first girlfriend, remembers a very "shy-boy" who had friends but wasn't part of any clique. "He had this mane of hair you would not believe," she says. Now finishing a doctorate in community psychology, Culley was shocked when she found out he's now bald. "I think his hairline was receding, and ashamed he was no longer a good Leo, he made the decision to shave his head and stay in control." Culley is also an animals rights supporter. She thinks the soft-spoken boy she knew has found his identity in a cause larger than he is.
It seems clear that even before he heard the cries of the animals, Yourofsky wanted to be heard. He took broadcasting courses at Specs Howard, then studied journalism at Oakland University. He was a normal hamburger-munching kid.
The defining moment came while he was still in college. His stepfather, who was a professional circus clown, took him behind the scenes at the circus. He went up to an elephant and "saw nothing but fear and hopelessness in her eyes. I didn't even know then how they are routinely beaten to break their spirit."
That night, he plunged into research on how animals are mistreated. He chained himself by the neck to the axle of his car to block the entrance to circuses. He got arrested, by his count, "13 times for random acts of kindness and compassion." Yourofsky gave up eating meat. The next year, in 1996, he became a vegan, abstaining from any animal products. Then he planned his greatest "action," the liberation of all those mink from a farm in Blenheim, Ontario. Crawling on hands and knees through mink excrement, Yourofsky and four other activists freed 1,542 of the animals. They were stopped by the police while making their getaway. Two years later, he was charged with burglary-related offenses and convicted after two of his fellow mink liberators turned him in.
The trial gave him a forum for his signature speech. "One day every enslaved animal will obtain their freedom and the animal rights movement will succeed," he said. Unmoved, the judge sentenced him to six months' hard time, though after 77 days Yourofsky was released and expelled from the country.
Owners of the mink farm, which has gone out of business, said most or all of the animals, unprepared for life in the wild, would have speedily suffered dreadful deaths. Yourofsky says they're lying.
"I'm following in the footsteps of other routine radical lawbreakers like Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Jesus," he tells a Wayne State class. "I'm here to uplift you morally. And to show you things you don't want to see. Then he puts in the first of a horrific series of videotapes that show where your meat and fur come from. Foxes are electrocuted anally; chinchillas get it in the genitals. Live cows are gutted. A conscious pig is tortured with a blowtorch in the name of burn research.
Slowly, almost unnoticed by the mainstream media, animal rights has been catching on across the country. One student who heard him started a satellite chapter in Tampa. Another started in Omaha. Then Ypsilanti, then Toledo. Students beg teachers to invite him. John Simicek, a special lecturer at Oakland University, has Yourofsky talk to his rhetoric classes. "Sure, there are some who think Gary is too harsh. But I think when it comes to the truth, you have to be up front," he says.
Yourofsky was a whirling dervish of animal rights activity, here lecturing, there disrupting, a deer hunt to tell one of the nimrods he'd be happy to take a bullet for Bambi. Though he has feuded with his fellow radicals at PETA, he got them to ante up thousands for anti-circus TV spots. Yet personally, he was falling apart. For one thing, he has no money. Being an animal rights revolutionary doesn't pay the bills. By last summer, he was more than $30,000 in debt. Then an attorney in California read about him, then got enamored. She invited him to come share her home. So Yourofsky moved in. And everything was perfect, except...
"There was no spark. Well, I think there was on her part, not mine," he says. By March he was still crashing at her place, but neither of them was happy about it. Reality hit when he had to wire his dad in Ferndale to send him $20 so he could buy gas. Depressed, he decided he'd had enough. Early in March, he sent a long email to all his supporters, announcing he was giving up and dropping out. Immediately, he got a flood of responses from dismayed suporters. He got a phone call, too, from PETA, the group most Americans associate with radical animal rights. They'd had their differences, but Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's head, wanted him out there. They offered him a salary to do just what he'd been doing, for six months. Yourofsky took it. For now, he plans to keep a new part-time teaching job in California—but to continue traveling and fighting for the animals.
"Picture yourself in a tiny cage waiting to be infected, surgically mutilated, blinded, burnt and killed. Picture yourself in chains, swaying back and forth as someone whacked you over the head with an elephant hook. Then tell me you wouldn't want your freedom now! Then tell me you wouldn't want your supporters to do anything to obtain your freedom!"
Yourofsky pauses, weary from a day of hunting for a landlord who wouldn't mind a tenant with supremely bad credit. "This is the way I live."
From Liberator to Educator
Man Who Freed Mink Now Lectures Nationwide on Animal Rights
By Lana Mini
The following profile appeared in The Observer & Eccentric (Mich.) on October 10, 2002.
Ever wonder what happened to the Royal Oak man jailed in 1997 for freeing 1,542 mink from a Canadian fur farm? Today he's one of the nation's most convincing and knowledgeable lecturers in the animal rights movement and works for the country's largest animal protection group, PETA.
Universities and high schools are clamoring for Gary Yourofsky. He's already spoken to students at Birmingham Seaholm High, U of M, UC Berkeley, Oakland University and Wayne State University. This week he speaks at Harvard, Purdue and soon Cornell. OU professor John Simicek invited him to lecture for his English and Rhetoric classes. "Yourofsky's passion about the necessity to unchain animals from the shackles of vile exploitation and oppression translates into a forcefully captivating presentation that's assertive, honest, documented and accurate," he said.
CAPTION: Gary Yourofsky speaks to students at Oakland University about animal rights.
Quick background: Yourofsky, who grew up in Oak Park, is a journalism graduate from Rochester's Oakland University. He's been arrested 13 times and says peaceful civil disobedience was also used by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Yourofsky, after all, is a civil rights activist for animals. Over the years we've worked together on a few projects and became friends. We took a rescued pig to his new home in Minnesota. We drove to the city of Hegins, Penn., to rescue birds wounded in an annual event where they were released one-by-one from cages and shot for so-called "sport."
Yourofsky and his girlfreind are vegans who neither eat nor wear animal products. He has locked himself at circus entrance gates and chained himself in front of fur stores to fight against animal exploitation. He served 77 days hard prison time for freeing mink, went on a hunger strike and was deported. At his trial, Yourofsky said, "If it is not a crime to torture, enslave and murder animals, then how can it be a crime to free tortured, enslaved and soon-to-be murdered animals?"
Today, though, no more jail. He's moved from liberator to educator. His speech begins with a thought-provoking paraphrase from author C. David Coats: "Aren't humans amazing animals? They kill all kinds of wildlife by the million—deer, birds, coyotes, cats, groundhogs and beavers. Then they terrorize and kill these animals to protect domestic animals and the feed of these domestic animals. Then, humans terrorize and kill domestic animals by the billion—cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys—and eat them. This in turn kills humans by the million because eating animal flesh causes fatal and degenerative health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease and many cancers. So then humans torture, terrorize and kill millions of other animals to search for treatments for these illnesses—which by the way will never work because animal research is unscientific. Elsewhere millions of humans are dying of hunger and malnutrition because the food they could eat—like corn and wheat—is being ised to feed the animals that most people eat."
I attended his lecture last month at Oakland U. which I've heard before. The students' reaction was the same as others. First they laugh. Then they watch videos of animals dismembered alive for food and the laughter stops. Then they debate to justify eating meat. At the end, each talk. Some go vegan. Others leave at least understanding the animal rights movement.
"Before I met Gary I was a vegetarian for health reasons. I had never looked into animal rights," Oakland graduate Meghan Bogden said. Now she's vegan and also an animal rights activist.
Years ago, Yourofsky went backstage with a family member who worked for the circus. He saw an 8,000-pound elephant swaying frantically, chained to the cement ground. At age 23 he had an epiphany. "From then on, I wanted to know what else was going on with animals. Common sense and decency took over from there. I became vegetarian and then vegan. I eat nothing that had a face, a mother or a bowel movement. What a pathetic life I must have led before I heard the cries of the enslaved and the tumult of the animal kingdom."
He also told students that he asked himself: "Who taught me that animals were put on this earth for food? Who taught me to disrespect animals and view them as mere commodities? Who stole my compassion, my empathy and my conscience? Who lied to me? Who instilled this vicious mind-set of human-to-animal exploitation as standard operating procedure?"
He quotes Dr. William Roberts, editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Cardiology: "When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh—which contains cholesterol and saturated fat—was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores."
Students ask if jail time impacted him. "I briefly experienced vicariously what a caged animal goes through. My empathy for every mistreated animal intensified." They also ask why he risked his own freedom to give the minks a chance for survival. He quotes from his courtroom speech: "Enslaving and killing animals for human satisfaction can never be justified. And the fur industry must understand that the millions of manual neck-breakings, anal and genital electrocutions, mass gassings, drownings and toxic chemical injections can never be justified."
He lectures to educate, partially because he doesn't believe the Animal Welfare Act of the 1960s protects animals. "The AWA allows people to enslave and murder all animals, even endangered ones if you apply for the proper permit. Enslave like this. Don't enslave like that. Kill ‘em this way. Don't kill ‘em that way."
Yourofsky is also a fighter for human rights. Speciesism, or valuing one species over another, is as callous as sexism or racism, he says. "Someday people will understand that speciesism is the root of all hatred, violence and discrimination. If we, as humans, want to survive, we must dole out rights, compassion, equality and simple decency to our planetary companions."
Gandhi proclaimed, "All throughout history, the way of truth and love has always won."
Yourofsky proclaims: "This planet should be a replica of the most beautiful place imaginable. A place where humans views animals in awe. And animals view humans with a curious aloofness."
Extreme Measures: Animal Activist Promotes the Freeing of Animals
By Dana Parker-McClain
The following article appeared in The Collegian (Fresno State's school paper) on February 12, 2003.
"The first form of hatred that human beings are taught is to eat the animal, mistreat the animal, hate the animal, view the animal as an inanimate object and a mere commodity," said Gary Yourofsky, animal rights activist and national lecturer.
As a participant in the upcoming "Revolutionary Activism: A Dialogue Between Activists and Academics" event, Yourofsky will discuss spirituality in environmentalism and revolutionary environmental activism. Yourofsky, who is paid by PETA, lectures in schools, colleges and universities across the nation. He fervently advocates the benefits of a vegan lifestyle, traveling to as many schools as time will allow.
A typical week for Yourofsky consists of five days on the road. He plans to lecture 70 times this semester. But the travel doesn't bother him. "I am the luckiest person in this movement by far," he said. "I am blessed that PETA is behind my work and fortunate enough to be able to deliver the message of animal freedom with passion and eloquence."
PETA is a nonprofit organization that believes animals are not disposable products for humans to eat, to experiment on, or to use for clothing or entertainment. Most of their efforts go to educating the public about animal rights and opening eyes to animal abuse that so often goes unnoticed in the world.
Yourofsky's eyes were opened in Detroit, at the age of 23, when he was invited backstage at The Shrine Circus. "I'll never forget standing face-to-face with an 8,000-pound chained elephant," he said. Her front left leg and back right leg were chained to the cement floor of the warehouse. She was swaying neurotically back and forth. I later found out that circus elephants' neurotic behavior is caused from being completely immobilized backstage when they are not on stage performing."
Yourofsky said he felt something was inherently wrong with the picture in front of him and began to dedicate time to learning about animal oppression. By 1996, Yourofsky founded ADAPTT, a grassroots organization, after attending The March for Animals in Washington, DC.
Arrested 13 times, Yourofsky received much notoriety for his role in the raid of a Canadian fur farm in 1997. That night Yourofsky, his uncle Alan Hoffman and three other activists freed 1,542 minks from Ebert's Mink Farm in Blenheim, Ontario. Yourofsky and Hoffman, covered in fur and mink feces, were later apprehended by police while riding in a cab.
Yourofsky found himself charged with burglary, although he refused to talk. He learned that his uncle and another activist, Robyn Weiner, had offered the police information in hopes of lighter jail sentences. The incident landed Yourofsky in prison, where he served 77 days of a six-month sentence in maximum security. Yourofsky's jail time changed his life, but said he doesn't hold personal grudges against his former cohorts.
"They let the animals down, not me. They sold out the enslaved mink for their own happiness. They are selfish, weak humans to me. I simply don't think about them at all any more," he said.
A statement on the Fur Commission USA Web site says, "Animal rights activists have launched a campaign to deny us the freedom to choose fur. They oppose the consumption of meat, reject the use of animals in medical research, view pet ownership as slavery. And their goal is to impose that value system on the rest of us."
But Yourofsky thinks people may not understand actions taken by animal rights groups due to selfishness. "People have a tough time understanding a group of people who act unselfishly, on behalf of animals who unfortunately are treated like property," he said.
"Just because certain tactics are illegal, does not make them the wrong pathway for achieving change," he said. "Just because certain tactics are legal, does not make them the best avenue for facilitating change. The quickest way to make an animal free is to open the cages and let 'em go, not to write your senator or hold a protest," he added.
Yourofsky will continue to speak in support of animal rights until people understand that "nonviolence through animal liberation is the only ethical and acceptable way to live on this planet."
Animal Rights Activist Changes Tactics But Still Stands Firm (Oakland Press)
Lonely Life of an Animal Rights Activist in the Midwest (Toledo Blade)
By Jack Lessenberry
The following excerpts appeared in The Oakland Press and The Toledo Blade on June 15, 2003.
Oak Park native Gary Yourofsky likes to call himself the "most radical animal rights activist in the Midwest." It is hard to disagree. He regards slaughterhouses and factory farms as the equivalent of Nazi death camps. He thinks zoos and aquariums are evil penitentiaries for innocent creatures who have done no wrong. Pet shops are slave markets. Restaurants serving meat are an atrocity. He passionately believes animal research is not only immoral, but also useless when it comes to human beings.
And he is convinced that meat-eaters are slowly poisoning themselves. "Aren't humans amazing animals? They kill all kinds of wildlife by the millions and then turn around and terrorize domestic animals by the billions," this muscular 32-year-old intones to college, high school and elementary classrooms all over the nation, voice rising with messianic zeal.
Nobody who meets him ever forgets him. Completely bald, he has pale white skin, round glasses, piercing brown eyes and a giant tattoo of himself wearing a mask and holding a rabbit, covering most of his right forearm. "Praesto et Persto," it says in Latin. It means, I stand in front and I stand firm, he explains.
That he does. For years, he's grabbed headlines by chaining himself to cars blocking entrances to circuses, leading demonstrations against furriers and staging other "outrageous acts of compassion." He did hard time in Canada a few years ago after "liberating" 1,542 minks from an Ontario fur farm. For years, he cheerfully predicted his own assassination.
But things have changed. Yourofsky has given up overt action and is devoting himself to the lecture circuit, speaking mainly in college classrooms across the country. That doesn't mean he has mellowed: "I am always supportive of people who do the right thing by taking unjust laws into their own hands. The quickest way to free an animal is not to write your senator—it's to open up a cage."
Trouble is, he no longer thinks such stunts do much good. "I think protest has lost its luster. Look at the war," he said. "Millions of people protested going to war, and the government said: 'So what. We don't care.'"
What he has decided to do instead is spend his life promoting veganism. "The average person eats 3,000 land animals in their lifetime. Every time I make a convert, I save that many animals," he said. He does seem to be developing a following. This year, he's given around 76 talks in 17 states.
That has led, he says, to a brisk demand for the basic version of his speech, "From Liberator to Educator," which he sells on CD, DVD and VHS for $10. (Contact him at GaryTofu@earthlink.net.) The video isn't for the faint of stomach; it is interspersed with scenes of animal atrocities in slaughterhouses, circuses and research facilities.
But he is, nearly everyone agrees, a powerful speaker. If his style is a bit closer to Joseph Goebbels' than to Winston Churchill, still, he generates nearly as much fan mail from professors as students. "Your presentation was an intense emotional experience both for my students and for me personally," Jennifer Keys, a sociology professor at Kenyon College, wrote after he appeared there this winter. "Academically, I think there was tremendous value in the students seeing the way a social activist frames an issue with powerful imagery and rhetoric. This was a perfect illustration of how a 'moral entrepreneur' can raise the consciousness of individuals and sweep them up," she added.
His own consciousness was raised a bit this winter, he admitted, when he spoke in St. Marys, Ohio, and managed to have a civilized conversation with a teenage pig farmer. It did not begin well—Gary started by screaming at the top of his lungs, "Why do you hate animals?" but after a while, they shook hands. "I remember thinking, 'Here I am with Greg the pig farmer, and I don't want anything bad to happen to this guy.'"
What he does intend to do is go on hitting the road, trying to make more converts to a vegetarian diet. It is a lonely life. For a brief time, he was on the staff of PETA but he found that too confining. So now he is just on retainer.
His only home is a couch in his retired father's suburban Detroit home. His only other immediate family is a 15-year-old shepherd mix named Rex, who is too elderly to travel much these days. He's had girlfriends but nothing permanent.
"I'm still looking for my vegan princess," he says, devouring cantaloupe, getting ready to take off for a lecture series in Florida. "But I can't seem to find her."
A wonderful speaker, a humane and sensitive man; or a radical activist who condones violence—next month marks the arrival of Gary Yourofsky, who will try to explain that to eat meat is to be part of a genocide.
By Naomi Darom
The following article appeared in The Haaretz (the biggest newspaper in Israel) on August 3, 2012. Here's the Hebrew version of the piece: http://haaretz.co.il/magazine/1.1792123.
Going to the circus is what led Gary Yourofsky toward his calling—fighting for animal rights. That was twenty years ago: Yourofsky's stepfather, who worked as a clown, was volunteering in the Shrine Circus that was collecting donations for children injured in fires. When the circus came to his hometown of Detroit, Michigan, he invited Yourofsky to a backstage tour. Yourofsky, then a 23 year old student, jumped at the chance. "Like most people, I too was blind, and it seemed exciting to me", he explains via Skype. "Then I went backstage. There I saw elephants scared and chained to a post, monkeys screaming in agony, and tigers pacing nervously from side to side in the cage. The cruelty of it stunned me. Suddenly it seemed more like a slave show".
Yourofsky started wondering about the animals whom he ate and whose skin he wore. Instead of staying to see the end of the show in Shrine Circus, he went home, located a slaughter house in his hometown and started frequenting it every day for six weeks. Security there was loose, and he was free to walk around as he pleased. "On the Slaughter Floor there was a glassless window. They were trying to air out the stench of death. I saw them hang pigs upside down, squealing—cutting them until there was nothing left". Those days he was still eating meat: but one day, while he was filming the trucks that were delivering the animals for slaughter, his glance fell on a pig glaring at him. "It was as if he were saying, why are you doing this to us? I did not have an answer. I began wondering—is the slaughter house the problem, or the pig who's being slaughtered there? I could not understand how when animals are killed, people look the other way, but if Jews were killed, everyone would be horrified. It would be the same for dogs or cats. But when it is cows, pigs or turkeys, people think it's fine. It's not fine".
It is no accident that Yourofsky, one of the most known activists for animal rights in the United States, is mentioning the Jews as an example. This example is not especially crafted for an interview to an Israeli newspaper. Yourofsky, a Jew himself, calls the slaughter house an "extermination camp" and the trucks are "concentration camp trucks". He often quotes Isaac Bashevis Singer—a holocaust survivor and a vegetarian, wrote in "The Letter Writer", when the main character Herman Gombiner, whose family was killed by the Nazis, while thinking about a mouse he befriended and whose death he thinks he caused, eulogizes in sadness his friend: "They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an Eternal Treblinka".
Charles Patterson, a historian who studies the holocaust, wrote in 2002 a book titled "Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust" in which he claims that inspiration for genocide, slavery and mass torture comes from the treatment of animals. There is more here than a mere provocation, Yourofsky argues; most people are guilty of Speciesism—discrimination not based on race, but on species: indifference to the fate of animals, simply because they are not human.
From Yourofsky's perspective, he is a freedom-fighter and the year is always 1939. Perhaps the Jewish obsession for WW2 is what makes him so successful in the smallest country in the Middle East. If no one has sent you the link to "the best lecture you will ever hear"—a lecture given in 2010 in Georgia Tech, where Yourofsky offers his view on the killing of animals, and attempts to convince the audience to become vegan—it is only a matter of time before you will find it on your Facebook feed.
Over 336,000 people have already seen it in Israel—more than in any other country, except for the United States. Only in Israel, celebrities of all kinds stand in line to praise Yourofsky, and his influence on their lives. "It is important that everyone see this lecture, its effect is amazing!" says Miki Haimovich on the site hosting the lecture and uses her quote to promote the agenda against the consumption of meat. "This lecture rattled the foundations of my soul...this guy is so intelligent, charismatic and inspiring. I was devastated how blind I had been." says Achinoam Nini.
Yourofsky is arriving in Israel on September 5th and will stay until September 14th. Every day he is expected to give two lectures along with a few large events. He will appear in high schools, universities and public venues. This is his first time lecturing outside of the United States. "You know, I don't really understand why it works so well in Israel", he says, "but I find that people that were oppressed or have a historic recollection of this—Jews, Blacks, Women—respond better to the lecture, they understand what it means to be tortured cruelly, to be treated like you are nothing".
The apple and the rabbit challenge
Yourofsky is a charismatic speaker. An hour of watching the bald man wearing a white shirt and shorts, talking in a quick pace sipping a bottle of water, passes quickly and is not boring even for a second. He is reminiscent in the strength of his conviction of religious preachers, the way that he pulls on the heart strings evoking empathy, shock and shame one after another. He opens with the commandment "thou shalt not kill", goes on to comparisons to slavery and eventually gets to the holocaust of course. The entire speech is framed by the theme of cruelty towards animals, and universal moral dilemmas.
He however does not forget who the audience is. "I understand your lifestyle", he emphasizes, "it was once mine. Twenty years ago I even owned a fur coat". He stresses that he understands what he refers to as an "addiction to meat, cheese, eggs and milk", and asks from his audience only one focused change; you don't have to make a big change; "you can keep your friends, your political views, your patriotism, you can still watch your favorite television shows". He shows horrifying videos taken at slaughter houses and cattle ranches, and recommends soy burgers and soy dogs. "If you think people are carnivores, take a two year old baby and put an apple and a rabbit in his crib", says Yourofsky, "if the baby plays with the apple and eats the rabbit—I will come back here and eat a steak sandwich".
I finished watching the lecture with a sense of shock and felt sick, even though a bit later I heated up some meatloaf. But the sounds and sights had stuck with me for much longer, especially the question, towards the end of the lecture—"what is your excuse now?"
Very few of the viewers are aware that the kind man with the glasses and shorts, is a radical activist that was arrested 13 times and imprisoned for 77 days at a maximum security prison, after breaking into a fur farm and freeing 1,500 minks, was tagged "an international terrorist", and banned from entering Canada and the United Kingdom. Most of his fans, certainly the Israelis, would not associate him with the following sentences, given in an interview given to the Abolitionist in 2006, "Every woman ensconced in fur should endure a rape so vicious that it scars them forever. While every man entrenched in fur should suffer an anal raping so horrific that they become disemboweled".
Needless to say, that these sentences and the entire quote are repeatedly quoted in every story about Yourofsky: and that the North American Fur Association made sure it would appear in every search that is related to Yourofsky in Google. This despite that fact, as Yourofsky insists on mentioning, that it is only one quote from over 40 articles he has written.
In our conversation Yourofsky seems slimmer than in the Georgia Tech lecture. He sits on the couch in his apartment, while his wife Erika walks around the room. He is nice and kind, though the pain and passion are apparent every time he speaks of animal suffering. He does not deny the violent death he wishes upon all that are involved in the fur, meat, milk or egg industry—or upon those who eat or wear animals.
"I don't believe that anyone really objects to violence in every situation", he explains. "No one objected when the allies entered the concentration camps and killed Nazis. You can't go to the Nazis with signs, you have to go at them with guns. If someone is kept in a concentration camp, killed or captured—it's self defense. You can kill. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good men do nothing. I am not happy about needing violence to achieve this, but there is a myth that love prevails over hate. It is not true".
"The chickens didn't commit a crime. They are killed because they are a commodity. Sometimes I think that the only way to destroy Speciesism is to make sure that bad things happen to bad people. Anyone who pays for fur, needs to be anally electrocuted with a pole—just like the way they kill foxes. But please remember that I never committed an act of violence".
Why use such violent rhetoric? It could distance people from your cause.
"Until now the rhetoric didn't affect the activism—the lecture has already been translated into 27 languages. People appreciate the fact that I am not a liar and not a politician. The truth is. Violence is an appropriate tactic, but not always. I'm not asking people to blow up McDonald's".
If it is so effective, why do you give lectures instead of using violence?
"So far I find education is more effective. But maybe one day I will, I don't know. I'm frustrated. There are people who only want to fight me. Right now I am affecting more people through lectures".
"I hope you will not focus too much on this", he later writes me in an e-mail a few days later. "The issue is the violence caused by the meat eaters, fur wearers, scientists vivisecting animals, hunters, etc. Don't judge people like me who are trying to stop a holocaust, but those who started it and take part in it (meat eaters) and actively defend a violent genocide".
My mother is a holocaust survivor. The comparison you make to the holocaust is very troubling to me, especially when in Israel it is used far too lightly.
"The comparison is valid. In America today, thirty million innocent animals are killed each and every day. That's five times the number of Jews who died in the holocaust. It is the longest-running genocide in human history. We brand the animals. We deprive them of life, liberty, freedom, put them in the slaughterhouses and on extermination trucks. I am not saying animals are more important than your mother, but you can't just ignore the murder. To say laws can't be broken is silly. If the laws are unjust and someone becomes a victim, we need to break those laws. Gandhi was arrested more than a dozen times. Nelson Mandela wasn't very loved in the days he was an activist (because he supported violence)".
The Great Mink Show
As mentioned, Yourofsky did not always side with breaking the law only in theory: in 1996 he formed Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow (ADAPTT). He started protesting businesses that took advantage of animals and in 1999 chained his neck to his car, and blocked the entrance to the Detroit Center for Animal Control, where animals were killed in gas chambers, or sold for experiments. In the late 1990s, when he was active against deer hunting, he received so many death threats that he had to be escorted by 17 police officers to make a speech, "I don't know who threatened me, probably hunters who didn't want to give up their game".
After he freed the minks from the mink farm in Ontario he crawled, with other activists, through mud and piles of feces, after they opened the cages. "I decided I would free these animals no matter what. It's pretty easy—there are a few thousand animals in grave danger, with very little security. There are many concentration camps like that. They are never in town as no one wants concentration camps in their backyard. Behind the farm there was around 600 acres of forest, there is where the minks escaped to".
"A friend warned me the minks would attack me", he adds, "but I said they would know why I was there. All the minks wanted to do that night was to escape. I remember them screaming with joy. One of them even landed on my chest as I opened a cage, I looked at her, and she tilted her head as if to say 'I thought you were the other guy". The screams of joy started to alert the neighbors, Yourofsky was arrested and put in jail. "If I were to break the minks' necks, I would be a hero, but since I stopped the torture, they called me an international terrorist".
The break-in made Yourofsky an overnight celebrity. "Before I broke into the farm, no one cared. Suddenly the media, college professors—they all wanted to talk". That is when the lectures were born: Yourofsky began traveling across colleges in the United States. He recorded advertisements against animal abuse and put up billboards. The first high school he was invited to, he stayed four and half hours over schedule answering Q&A.
Yourofsky however refused, and still refuses to charge money for lectures, and around 2001 the money ran out. In an interview at that time he admitted to owing thirty thousand dollars in credit card debt. He announced his retirement from activist work, and the rumor of his retirement reached PETA, known for its activity against the fur and leather industry. The organization funded Yourofsky's television ads against circuses, and the heads of PETA realized the value of Yourofsky's oratory skills. They paid him a salary until 2005 to keep touring and giving lectures. But the relationship fizzled: "PETA wanted to make money, and I refuse to charge money to give a lecture. I wouldn't even take people's emails. They aren't really into education, there is no money in it".
The current lecture is the fruit of years of labor, traveling across the United States with his wife Erika, also a vegan, who accompanies him almost everywhere. "I enter a class and start giving the lecture, and people look like this at first". He demonstrates sitting in a hostile position with his arms crossed. "Five minutes later they lean forward. After the slaughter house movie, I see the change beginning. They come up to me after the lecture and say: 'tell me what to do".
But the audience is not always friendly. "The worst audience was at Ohio State University, in agriculture classes. Don't ask me why, but they invited me five straight years to give lectures to students who are going to work in a slaughter house. It's probably their way to show that they were open to criticism. But it was like The Jerry Springer Show—they were yelling, and I was yelling. I got tired of it. I don't want to fight, I want to educate".
In 2010 Yourofsky uploaded his lecture to YouTube. A while later, he remembers, "Things started to go crazy. People began to listen. I started getting emails saying, 'I want to make a local version of your speech, can I translate it?' Today it has reached over 3 million views".
Since then, somehow, destiny—and the internet—have attracted a sponsor. "Somehow, I always get a weird mail around December, offering help. From 2008 to 2010, my primary sponsor was a meat eater. At first, I thought he was a vegan, but when I met him in San Francisco, I was shocked to discover that he wasn't. I asked him why he wanted to help me. He said, 'Because you have the best speech I have heard in my life. I think people should hear you'. I always have one big donor, and a few people send me some money". Yourofsky needs just $25,000-35,000 a year to live: he lives in a small apartment and drives a Toyota. "Not having money doesn't bother me. I think that my speech works so well because I am not trying to sell anything".
With skills like that you could have been rich
"I'm very rich—I have the best wife in the world, there are a few squirrels out here on my porch who take nuts from me, I have a good friend who is a raccoon and another who is an opossum. Of course the thought of money has crossed my mind, if only I had more, what I could do with it. But I can't change the fact that I don't know how to make money. I'm brilliant in activism, but an idiot when it comes to making money".
The person Yourofsky has most difficulty convincing is actually his best friend. "For some reason, friends and family are the most difficult to talk to when you are an activist. I don't know why. It's odd because I am great with strangers: they cry, hug me and say I have changed their lives. But my best friend, Darin, whom I have known since we were eight, told me only three days ago he is finally going to become vegan. We'll see if it happens. Darin says all the right things, but does nothing. He uses all the same excuses that meat eaters use, but meat eaters are not rational".
Fighting repression
Yourofsky is lucky enough to be lecturing in an age when meat eaters are beginning to listen. "Probably this lecture would not have been as welcomed five years ago", says Hilla Keren, the spokesperson for Anonymous for Animal Rights. "A combination of a few things is responsible for the change: the awareness of animal abuse in the meat industry, the health advantages of vegetarianism and veganism, and the environmental damage caused by the meat industry. These are all factors in the decline of meat consumption in the United States". In Israel there hasn't been a thorough survey in over a decade, but Keren offers the results of the financial group CME, which found that in 2012 the average American—the world biggest meat consumer—will consume about 12.2 percent less meat than in 2007, the lowest number in 34 years in the United States.
The decline in consumption is in all types of meat, although the most steep decline is in the consumption of chicken. The CME report calls the decline "amazing in the historic context". That said, it is important to mention that the number of animals killed on Earth continues to rise as the human population continues to increase. And the decline in meat consumption cannot catch up to the pace of the demographic expansion.
"We still eat way more meat than is good for us or the environment, not to mention the animals", writes Mark Bittman of the New York Times. "But a 12 percent reduction in just five years is significant, and if that decline were to continue for the next five years—well, that's something few would have imagined five years ago. It's something only the industry could get upset about. The rest of us should celebrate". Bittman also mentions "Flexitarianism"—an eating style that reduces the amount of meat without "going vegetarian"—is one of the top five consumer health trends for 2012. And according to the "Independent", May 2012, from 2005 to 2010 the meat-replacement food industry has grown by 18 percent.
Eating meat of course also has dramatic environmental aspects. According to a UN report, the meat industry is responsible for about 18 percent of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions, more than the greenhouse gas emissions from all cars combined. Health-related reasons for not eating meat are also in abundance.
But as environmental journalist and anchor on Galei Zahal radio, Aviv Lavie, reports, "the majority of Yourofsky's rationale and motivation stems from moral arguments. Veganism has a few other ingredients or motivations that can be entirely separate from the moral issue. The environmental aspect is much more complex, and the health aspects are beginning to interest people—mainly when they have at least reached their parenting age or after they have experienced a health-related trauma. Besides, we were taught the exact opposite: that you need to have at least three glasses of milk a day and that you can't give up eggs. It is difficult to let go of the myths. Therefore the really powerful motivator is the moral issue. Once you have realized that what you have on your plate is not a 'piece of meat', but a dead chicken or a slaughtered cow, it is easier to say 'I want no part in this'".
A study by Kansas University, which looked at the connection between media coverage and meat consumption in United States between 1982-2008, found that every time the media reports on abuse towards animals in the meat or dairy industry, the meat consumption in the United States decreases. Jonathan Safran Foer also generated much support for veganism in his book, "Eating Animals", published in 2009. Among other things, he describes in his book the appalling conditions in slaughter houses. The book inspired actress Natalie Portman to become vegan and compare meat eating with rape. In an article she wrote for the Huffington Post in 2009, she asked "If we don't tolerate rape, why do we tolerate eating meat? Even in complex issues, nothing beats a horror story".
Just like the success of Yourofsky in the world is attributable to more than charisma, his success in Israel—and the seal of approval he gets from its celebrities—also is no coincidence. Hovav Amir, 32, and his partner Daniel Erlich, 33, an actor and narrator, saw the lecture online, and realized Yourofsky may be the answer to the years of activist work which bore little fruit. Amir has been a vegan since his early 20s. He moved to Tel-Aviv and began manning stands for animal rights activism and passing out pamphlets: quickly he realized that it doesn't really work.
"You can stand on the street for four hours, maybe one person will consider veganism, and even he may not fully commit", says Amir. "People just don't care. At first you think you are going to make a change, all you need to do is show them the truth and they will be convinced, but people are in their own world; there is huge repression. And you realize that it's not going to do anything". Amir moved to online activism, and two years ago came across Yourofsky's lecture. "The first time I said wow, everyone needs to see this". Amir and Erlich translated the lecture and built an online site for it, and began publishing it on Facebook. They had 3000 views in three days. Amir began spending more and more time, until he left his work as a programmer. Gradually they began to receive donations to fund their activity, mostly from "new vegans", as Amir refers to them. At a certain point they had trouble furthering the promotion of the lecture for technical reasons, but then came across Achinoam Nini's quote. And like many before them, they realized that one celebrity is worth a thousand shares. They sent the lecture to celebrities, and the rest is internet history.
"There is something about celebs, that works tactically as a middleman", explains Aviv Lavie. "People see someone, on the one hand who is very convincing, charismatic and moving; on the other, they may think, maybe I'm just delusional and don't understand who these weird tree huggers are. Once a person who is struggling sees an actor he knows from TV, he says, 'great, I'm not alone'".
Now Amir and Erlich are bringing Yourofsky to Israel and are funding it through donations. Yourofsky, for his part, is taking a lecturing-sabbatical this year—the first break he has taken in fifteen years. "I am always frustrated and depressed, because I know what is happening to the animals. It's a lot of stress and that can kill you. I feel guilty, but I have to step back a bit". He also avoids giving interviews in the United States. "I had good media coverage, but in America there is such a focus on entertainment, that issues like slavery and murder go in one ear and out of the other".
For his Israeli audience Yourofsky is planning to put an emphasis on the holocaust, and also stress the process of Kosher slaughter. And like Anne Frank, he has not lost hope. "I know that most people are good. They want to re-examine their lives. But they're addicted to meat, milk, eggs and cheese, and addicts are irrational. I'm open and willing to battle the addiction. We claim that humans are an ethical species, but if you are a good person, you can't be good only to certain species. Murder is murder".
What do you see, when looking at a meat eater?
"Someone with blinders on, a secret vegan. I ate meat for 25 years—so I also see myself. I want to give you a chance, to give you a hug, to have you say: 'I want to change'. I see meat eaters everywhere, and I'm frustrated. I want to bring out the wonderful person that is inside of you".
The following section appeared as a sidebar to the main piece:
Who are you, Gary Yourofsky? The combination of education and empathy with statements about violence makes it difficult to decipher who this warrior for the animals is
It is difficult to figure out the kind and empathetic man who gives the Georgia Tech lecture—the one who claims to understand the meat eaters and wants to show them the light—with the violent rhetoric when he talks about the necessary methods to fight those who torture and kill animals, as well as those who eat and wear them.
Yourofsky himself asks to make it clear he is not a violent man. He deals only with education through lectures and advertisements on the radio and TV, and does not promote violence in his lectures or through any other means. Nevertheless, when it comes to stopping animal abuse, for him all means are acceptable. He sees himself as fighting an injustice on the scale of genocide, and often quotes Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and even Gandhi, as those who support violating the law when it is unjust.
"It's very convenient for meat eaters, fur wearers and other violent bullies—who kill and torture as much as they like—to turn around and condemn people who intend to stop their murderous ways", he writes. "It's like the Nazis screaming 'massacre' after the allied forces stopped the holocaust with the mass killing of Nazis. Murderers can't claim that it is unjust to be murdered. Oppressors can't claim to be subject to oppression".
In an article he wrote in 1997 he clarifies: "Undoubtedly, I prefer non-violent activism like giving speeches in classrooms, giving out pamphlets, protesting and writing opinion columns. But a wide array of tactics is required to achieve a significant change. Given the choice between empathy on the one hand, and freeing minks, burning laboratories where cruel research is conducted, or killing someone who vivisects animals on the other—I would rather have these actions taken over empathy any day."
The quotes that will forever be remembered come from the interview he gave to The Abolitionist in 2006: "Sometimes I think that the only effective and productive method of destroying speciesism would be for each uncaring human to be forced to live the life of a cow on a feedlot, or a monkey in a laboratory, or an elephant in the circus, or a bull in a rodeo, or a mink on a fur farm. Then people would be awakened from their soporific states and finally understand the horrors that are inflicted on the animal kingdom by the vilest species to ever roam this planet: the human animal!"
"Deep down, I truly hope that oppression, torture and murder return to each uncaring human tenfold! I hope that fathers accidentally shoot their sons on hunting excursions, while carnivores suffer heart attacks that kill them slowly. Every women ensconced in fur should endure a rape so vicious that it scars them forever. While every man entrenched in fur should suffer an anal raping so horrific that they become disemboweled. Every rodeo cowboy and matador should be gored to death, while circus abusers are trampled by elephants and mauled by tigers. And, lastly, may irony shine its esoteric head in the form of animal researchers catching debilitating diseases and painfully withering away because research dollars that could have been used to treat them were wasted on the barbaric, unscientific practice of vivisection."
Mink Liberation
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."
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.
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.
Billboards and TV Ads
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."
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.
Billboard Targets Fur Wearers
By Kim North Shine
The following excerpts appeared in The Detroit Free Press on November 18, 1999.
Just as fur coats are coming out of storage, a billboard has risen above a major Detroit freeway to remind people who originally wore the plush garments.
The graphic antifur ad, on northbound Lodge Fwy. at 8 Mile Rd., went up overnight Wednesday. It shows a bloody, skinned fox head—although it's hard to tell exactly what animal it is—on a fur background. The picture is accompanied by a white-lettered caption that takes a shot at fur-coat wearers: "Here's the rest of your fur coat. Have a nice day while she bleeds to death."
Royal Oak resident Gary Yourofsky, president of the nonprofit ADAPTT, designed the ad. His group and the national group In Defense of Animals paid $4,150 for the billboard, Yourofsky said. It will be up for at least 60 days.
Yourofsky, 29, doesn't apologize if the billboard is offensive. In September, ADAPTT posted an anti-circus billboard at I-75 at West Grand Blvd. The latest billboard coincides with the start of 16 days of national protests against department stores that sell furs. Locally, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue are the targets.
"People should be offended by what's happening to these animals. People shouldn't think they are too precious to be offended. What I'm hoping is that people turn around, get my number and call me and let me explain to them what's going on," Yourofsky said.
Yourofsky and other groups whose goal is to abolish the fur trade say the animals live in tiny, dirty cages. They say they're denied the outdoors, including their (mink) popular pastime of swimming. They also say the animals are killed in inhumane ways such as anal electrocution and neck-breaking.
Yourofsky served time earlier this year in a Canadian prison for releasing thousands of mink from an Ontario fur farm. He said he speaks for animals who deserve better lives. "We just want to make people think. Is what we're doing to animals right?"
Koalas, Nevil, Fur, etc.
The following comment by the editors of The Detroit News appeared on the editorial page on November 20, 1999.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES: A new billboard sign on the northbound Lodge Fwy. at 8 Mile Road, posted by an anti-fur organization, shows a gruesome skinned head of an animal and announces: "Here's the rest of your fur coat." Meanwhile, Internet journalist Matt Drudge has been ordered by Fox News Network not to show pictures of a human fetus on his TV show as part of his anti-abortion commentary.
Animal Rights Activist Gets TV Station to Air Graphic Commercial
By Christy Strawser
The following excerpts appeared in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, Mich.) on December 28, 1999.
In a 45-minute extemporaneous address, animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky convinced Channel 7 (WXYZ-ABC) executives to air the most graphic acts of animal violence in Detroit television history.
His final 30-second commercial protesting furs as fashion aired Monday. The commercials Yourofsky, 28, persuaded the network to air over the holiday weekend were filled with images of animals writhing in traps, being electrocuted and dying in other ways.
A voice-over tells the audience that "every year millions of animals are confined in tiny cages and killed by anal and genital electrocutions, gassings and neck-breakings. Sometimes they're even skinned alive."
The station stopped the footage short of showing an animal actually die, which was the only compromise Yourofsky said he was willing to make.
"I'm pretty pleased with the outcome," said Yourofsky, president of the Royal Oak-based ADAPTT. "It was revolutionary. Nothing like that has ever aired."
Animal rights activists across the country have tried for years to get similar footage on the airwaves. But they've always been rejected.
Yourofsky said it was a speech from the heart that convinced the local station his commercial was airable. It was sponsored by the California-based group In Defense of Animals.
"I just talked, basically condemning injustice," he said. Then he showed executives the footage he wanted to air. "It worked," he said. "When it was over, the room was visibly shaken."
It was a difficult decision to let the $2,000 commercial run, said Bob Silva, general sales manager for Channel 7. But, he added, it seemed to be the right one. And the station hasn't heard otherwise from many people. "The funny thing is that we got only a handful of letters," Silva said. "And maybe six or seven phone calls. There hasn't been a tremendous amount of feedback."
A good number of the responses came from people who supported the commercial, he said. But there was an outcry from some local furriers. A Fur Commission USA spokeswoman contacted the station, saying the commercial has false content.
Yourofsky disagrees, saying everything in his commercial is correct. "We're standing up for the truth," he said.
Controversy is nothing new to the substitute teacher, who said he's been arrested 5 or 6 times in the last several years at demonstrations protesting animal abuse. Most recently he spent 77 days imprisoned in London, Ontario, for sneaking onto a fur farm and releasing 1,500 mink. He was sentenced for burglary, mischief and possession of burglary tools.
But it didn't deter Yourofsky, who, with the help of fellow ADAPTT supporters, put up a graphic billboard on the Lodge Fwy. recently with a picture of a skinned fox, trying to deter people from purchasing fur.
"I want people not to buy fur, period. I have no intention of stopping," he said.
Activist Suing WXYZ to get Video Back
By Christy Strawser
The following article appeared in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, Mich.) on February 17, 2000.
An animal rights activist is readying a legal battle against a local television station over a videotape he claims it owes him. Activist Gary Yourofsky of Royal Oak filed a lawsuit recently in Southfield's 46th District Court, claiming that WXYZ-TV/Channel 7 kept the master copy of a tape featuring slaughtered animals.
Yourofsky contends that he owns the commercial on the tape—though the television station paid for it (the tape)—and said it won't release it for fear of repercussions from furrier advertisers.
Without the master tape, Yourofsky said he can't air the commercial on any other station.
Channel 7 general sales manager Bob Silva said it seems that Yourofsky is making a big deal out of nothing. He said the station keeps master copies of all of its commercials, and predicts the issue will probably be settled out of court. But Yourofsky is preparing for a fight.
"Why should I pay to redo it?" Yourofsky asked. "If they don't return it, I'll make their lives miserable. I'll protest the hell out of them."
Silva said the activist filed the suit without ever putting in writing a request to keep the tape the station produced for him. He said if Yourofsky had, Channel 7 would probably have just given him the tape.
Yourofsky, the 28-year-old president of ADAPTT—an animal rights organization—contends that he was turned down when he asked for the master tape. He said he was told the station owned it. In the lawsuit, Yourofsky also is asking to recover the $2,000 he paid to air the ads at the end of last year. "I'm not out here to make friends," he said. "But I've been vilified for no good reason."
The commercials Yourofsky is trying to recover showed the most graphic acts of violence aired in Detroit television history. They depicted animals writhing in traps, being electrocuted and dying in other ways. A voice-over told the audience that "every year millions of animals are confined in tiny cages and killed by anal and genital electrocutions, gassings, and neck-breakings. Sometimes they're even skinned alive."
National fur organizations protested saying animals aren't skinned alive. But locally it didn't raise much commotion. Silva said Channel 7 received a handful of letters and maybe 6 or 7 phone calls about the commercials. One of those who protested said the station should never have aired the spots.
"These people are fanatics," said the owner of a local fur shop, who asked to remain anonymous for his safety. "We're not dealing with people who are civil. And the agenda they're pushing is wrong."
Yourofsky, who's been arrested five or six times in the last several years, remains strong in his cause. "Just like in this case, it always comes down to money," he said. "But we're right and they're wrong."
Sign of the Times
By Gary Yourofsky
The following article appeared in The Animals' Agenda Sept./Oct. 2000 edition.
Since the entire planet has been inundated with endless lies about how animals are treated at circuses, rodeos, fur farms, factory farms, slaughterhouses and research labs, it is our duty to inundate the public with the truth.
As a movement, we have done a poor job of exposing—via advertising—the suffering that our planetary companions endure. A few billboards here and there. Some radio spots. And very few, if any, TV ads. Our lack of advertising allows the animal killers to continue their carnage with low visibility. Yet, by engaging in advertising, animal advocates can expose the abusers as the extreme terrorists that they are.
All forms of advertisements must be done in order to de-program the masses who unknowingly have been transformed into mindless, animal-abusing robots. It is partly our fault for not continually inundating the public with the graphic truth about every premeditated form of animal slavery and animal murder.
ADAPTT, Michigan's most active animal liberation organization, has always been uncompromisingly truthful when discussing the depraved tradition of human-to-animal slavery.
Since September 1999, ADAPTT has erected three billboards. One, which reads "Chained, caged and abused for your entertainment. The Circus Sucks," cost $4,650 and went up on I-75 in Detroit and stayed there for two months. Vision Media, the billboard company that ran all of our ads, was sympathetic to the cause, so it remained up for an additional 90 days. Nearly 100,000 motorists each day observed the ad, which included images of a chained elephant, a caged lion and a caged tiger.
ADAPTT felt the "Circus Sucks" tag line would catch on with the younger crowd, and it did. Plus, when the TV and radio outlets covered the ad, it repeated the line this way: "Local activists have sent a strong message to the circus industry. They've sponsored a billboard proclaiming, "The Circus Sucks."
ADAPTT's compassionate advertising ruckus continued on The Lodge Fwy. last November with the help of In Defense of Animals. The $4,000 anti-fur billboard showed a bloodied, skinned fox with the tag line, "Here's the rest of your fur coat. Have a nice day while she bleeds to death." More than 50,000 motorists each day were given the opportunity to think about the deadly fur trade.
ADAPTT and IDA then teamed up for another billboard on the same freeway. This one said, "Stop animal torture. Boycott Procter & Gamble" and went up in May, accompanied by several graphic photos of abused rabbits. The best part of all three billboard campaigns is that additional media was garnered from newspaper, TV and radio coverage, which increased the outreach and reduced the cost of the ad.
When erecting a billboard, sending press releases and making phone calls to other media outlets are a must. Play up the angle that it is thought-provoking, graphic, shocking, truthful and pithy. Most of the time, reporters will bite.
If you are interested in billboard advertising, contact all the companies in your area. Although the bigger ones will be more hesitant to erect controversial ads, the smaller ones often will jump on board.
Billboard companies can create the artwork for your campaign for about $1,000, but you can haggle for a better deal or supply artwork via an animal-friendly graphic artist, which will reduce the cost, too. Some groups who have done their own billboards might allow you to borrow the vinyl (artwork) for free as well.
Stand firm and explain that you simply want the right to condemn animal suffering while most companies advertise to condone it. Stay solid. Be honest. Know your issues. Be eloquent. Insist on your right to advertise truthfully and powerfully with graphic images.
After seeing the skinned-fox billboard, Witko Indoor Advertising, a company that displays ads in restaurant and bar restrooms, donated a few hundred at-cost ads to help galvanize ADAPTT's anti-fur campaign. Witko representatives said if restroom ads are available in your area, the company will offer advertising space at a slightly reduced rate. Contact Witko at 734-261-1092 or www.witko.com.
Defining Animal Rights
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.
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.
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.
Stop Hunting, Boycott Circus to Save All Animals from Bloodshed
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on October 16, 1999.
The animal rights movement believes that all animals have an inherent right to be free and live completely unfettered by human dominance. Sadly, most humans continue to embrace animal slavery, animal torture, and animal murder. Billions of animals are killed every year in a premeditated, systematic massacre. Remember, without universal equality, one type of equality will always create another type of inequality.
Surprisingly, animal rights is not a new concept. The notion that animals deserve absolute protection has been around for thousands of years. Pythagoras uttered the following comment around 550 B.C.: "As long as humanity continues to be the ruthless destroyer of other beings, we will never know health or peace. For as long as people massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, those who sow the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."
The animal rights mission statement is clear and unambiguous. We are seeking the abolition of animal use in medical research, product testing, circuses and rodeos. We are opposed to the so-called sport of hunting, the wearing of animal skin and the consumption of animals. Moreover, we are an unwavering supporter of human rights, and we are seeking an end to discrimination of all kinds. With help, we can end unnecessary bloodshed, malicious treatment and injustices for all sentient beings.
The movement employs tactics to facilitate positive and meaningful changes. We lecture at universities and other schools. We gather in protests in accordance with our First Amendment rights to assemble. We pass out literature. We compose and push for animal-friendly legislation to change or eradicate unjust laws. We engage in nonviolent civil disobedience. Some activists even take part in direct action campaigns by intentionally breaking unjust laws that allow animal torture.
In early 1999, I spent 77 days in a maximum security detention center after freeing 1,542 minks. Keep in mind, throughout history, laws have always been broken to achieve substantive change.
Please help us free out planetary companions and live a nonviolent lifestyle. Stop donating money to animal researching charities. Condemn the bloodthirsty tradition of hunting. Curse the Ringling Bros. and Shriners next time they come to town. Throw out that fur-trimmed jacket and burn that full-length mink. Toss those leather shoes, belts and jackets. And, most importantly, go vegan and refuse to consume anything that once had a face, a mother or a bowel movement.
Activist Explores True Meaning of Animal Liberation
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Post (Oakland U.'s school paper) on February 13, 2002.
Animal rights activists believe that all animals have an inherent right to be free and live completely unfettered by human dominance. Sadly, most humans continue to embrace animal slavery, animal torture, and animal murder. Billions of animals are killed every year in a premeditated, systematic massacre. Remember, without universal equality, one type of equality will always create another type of inequality.
Surprisingly, animal rights is not a new concept. The notion that animals deserve absolute protection has been around for thousands of years. Pythagoras uttered the following comment around 550 B.C.: "As long as humanity continues to be the ruthless destroyer of other beings, we will never know health or peace. For as long as people massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, those who sow the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."
The mission statement of the animal liberation movement is unambiguous. We want to abolish animal use in medical research, product testing, circuses and rodeos. We are opposed to the so-called sport of hunting, the wearing of animal skin and the consumption of animals as food. We condemn animal prisons like zoos and marine jails like aquariums for putting animals on display. Moreover, we are an unwavering supporter of human rights, and we are seeking an end to discrimination of all kinds. With your help, we can end the unnecessary bloodshed, malicious treatment and injustices that all sentient beings endure.
The movement employs a variety of tactics to facilitate change. We lecture at universities, high schools and elementary schools. We gather in sign-carrying protests in accordance with our First Amendment right to assemble. We pass out literature via leafleting and tabling. We compose and lobby for animal-friendly legislation to change or eradicate unjust laws. We engage in nonviolent forms of civil disobedience and direct action like our social justice predecessors, i.e., Martin Luther King and Gandhi.
We also support the courageous freedom fighters of the Animal Liberation Front. In fact, as an ALF activist, I once spent 77 days in maximum security for my role in the 1997 liberation of 1,542 mink from an animal concentration camp which is euphemistically referred to as a "fur farm." If anyone believes that violating laws is improper, ineffective or ignominious, remember that Gandhi, King and Jesus were routine lawbreakers. And laws have always been broken to achieve substantive change. Legality or illegality is not interchangeable with morality and immorality.
Please help free our planetary companions by living a nonviolent lifestyle. Stop donating money to animal-researching charities like the March of Dimes and MDA. Condemn the bloodthirsty tradition of hunting. Curse the Ringling Bros. and Shriners next time they come to town. Throw out that fur-trimmed jacket and burn that full-length mink. Toss those leather shoes, belts and jackets. And, most importantly, go vegan and refuse to consume anything that once had a face, a mother or a bowel movement.
Activists understand that everyone is busy, so we're not insisting that people come to protests or engage in civil disobedience. Simply put, we want you to live in absolute peace with all of our planetary companions. Don't get caught up in apathy and inaction. You can make a difference to thousands and thousands of innocent animals. The following quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. should give you the strength to embrace animal liberation: "Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it polite?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a point when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells him or her that it is right."
What You Give Is What You Should Get
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in The Shield (U. of Southern Indiana's school paper) on January 24, 2008.
Ever since Pythagoras promulgated peace to our planetary companions some 2,600 years ago, the animal rights community has utilized pacifism in its attempts to facilitate substantive change. As a proponent of education, my activism is no different. Each year I give around 250 lectures on ethical veganism to over 10,000 students explaining that victims of discrimination, slavery and murder come in all shapes and sizes. Many students thank me for removing their blinders and subsequently eliminate meat, cheese, milk and eggs from their diets. After all, consuming the cut-up corpses of murdered animals—and the things that ooze out of their bodies—is hardly an enlightened way of living.
However, author Sam Harris explained a major flaw with pacifism activism: "When your enemy has no scruples, your own scruples become another weapon in his hand."
So, while my lifestyle and lectures are based on compassion, those who refuse to stop harming animals force me to support 'eye for an eye' and 'by any means necessary' philosophies.
In a world full of lying politicians and deceitful public relations, I hope you'll appreciate my willingness to unapologetically say what I'm about to say.
Empathy should only be reserved for innocent beings—human or nonhuman. Institutionalized violence doesn't simply vanish with a peaceful protest, a dose of logic and a whole lotta love. If people continually deny animals their inherent right to be free, radical tactics are necessary and justified. Physically preventing an abuser from committing abuse and killing a murderer to stop the murder are noble, vicarious acts of self-defense.
This is why furriers—who anally electrocute foxes or break the necks of mink—deserve the same treatment in return. The same goes for anybody who wears fur. If you pay someone to commit acts of cruelty, then you are complicit and, therefore, just as guilty.
Rapists, murderers and child molesters should be vivisected, executed and dissected, allowing researchers the opportunity to gather useful information that would actually benefit human health for a change. I see nothing wrong with capital punishment because if you willfully destroy someone else's life, then you automatically relinquish yours.
I believe in God but am vehemently opposed to organized religion and its attempts to sanctify cruelty in His name. Harming or killing animals is Satan's milieu. Christians, Jews and Muslims need to represent their faiths through peaceful compassionate living, not the barbaric tradition of meat-eating or the inane rituals of singing songs to the sky, growing long beards, covering the head in cloth or dipping each other in water.
The next two paragraphs can be found on my adaptt.org website in the What's Wrong with PETA and HSUS? section. They're the reason why the USI administration canceled my lecture last year and why journalism Professor Chad Tew and his students fought to change school policy and bring me back. Tew knew I had a First Amendment right to speak on campus.
"Sometimes I think the only effective method of destroying speciesism would be for each uncaring human to be forced to live the life of a cow on a feedlot, or a monkey in a laboratory, or an elephant in the circus, or a bull in a rodeo, or a mink on a fur farm. Then people would be awakened from their soporific states and finally understand the horrors that are inflicted on the animal kingdom by the vilest species to ever roam this planet: the human animal!
Deep down, I truly hope that oppression, torture and murder return to each uncaring human tenfold! I hope that fathers accidentally shoot their sons on hunting excursions, while carnivores suffer heart attacks that kill them slowly. Every woman ensconced in fur should endure a rape so vicious that it scars them forever. While every man entrenched in fur should suffer an anal raping so horrific that they become disemboweled. Every rodeo cowboy and matador should be gored to death, while circus abusers are trampled by elephants and mauled by tigers. And, lastly, may irony shine its esoteric head in the form of animal researchers catching debilitating diseases and painfully withering away because research dollars that could have been used to treat them was wasted on the barbaric, unscientific practice of vivisection."
I'll be lecturing at USI on Tuesday, January 29, in the Mitchell Auditorium from 7-9 p.m.
Vegan Lectures
The Vegan Way
Meatout Urges People to Try Plant-Based Diet
By Cathy Nelson
The following article appeared in The Daily Tribune (Mich.) on March 18, 2001.
It is still morning at Birmingham Seanholm High School as the group of about 20 students filter into the classroom and sit at desks arranged in a neat semicircle. Although it's a weekday, they're not here because they have to be. They've come by choice to hear the man at the head of the classroom speak.
"I'm here to educate, enlighten and tell you things you aren't supposed to be told," said the speaker, casually dressed in jeans and a black button-down shirt. After a brief introduction, he walks to the VCR and inserts a video. Someone asks if it's OK to leave if she feels sick to her stomach. "It's fine," the speaker answers.
The video is graphic—throats are slit, skin is sliced, blood is spilled. But no one leaves the room.
The lights come on. "That is where your food comes from," the speaker announces. The speaker is Gary Yourofsky, animal rights activist and founder of ADAPTT, an organization that began in Royal Oak and now has chapters in Toledo, Omaha and Tampa.
On this morning, he's talking to students about adopting veganism, a diet that includes no meat, chicken, fish or animal products such as eggs and dairy foods. Yourofsky's been invited to speak as part of Seaholm's "Democracy and Diversity in 21st Century America Teach-In 2001."
"I never pull punches or sugarcoat anything," said Yourofsky, who's lectured at schools including Michigan State University, Bowling Green University and University of Connecticut. "I hit them straight up with the truth, as harsh as it is. But teenagers respond." Recent statistics show there are an estimated 1 million vegetarian school-age children.
Seaholm junior Maisie Distanislao is one of them. She's trying to take her vegetarian diet—meaning no meat, poultry or fish—even further by adopting veganism. "I feel like Gary," said Distanislao, who invited Yourofsky to speak to her peers after meeting him at ADAPTT's Royal Oak Garage Sale table. "Animals should have the same rights as humans because we are animals as well. Therefore, we should be at an equal level with each other."
While Yourofsky's approach might be in-your-face, his subject is one that more and more Americans, especially those under 30, are investigating. According to a 2000 Zogby poll sponsored by the Vegetarian Resource Group, there are 4.8 million vegetarian adults in America—the largest percentage fall in the 18-29 age group. Of these, one-third to one-half are vegans, eschewing all animal-derived products.
On March 20, organizers of the Great American Meatout 2001 are hoping to add to those numbers by asking people to pledge to "kick the meat habit at least for the day and explore a more wholesome, less violent diet."
Many events are planned around the country, including today's 3 p.m. sampling of vegetarian and vegan foods at the Royal Oak Community and Senior Center. Sponsored by the Great Lakes Institute for Plant Based Nutrition, the free event also offers information from health professionals and vegetarian organizations.
The Meatout is traditionally held in mid-March and this year it coincides with a severe outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among European livestock. The highly contagious disease resulted in the slaughter of 170,000 animals in Britain and a U.S. government ban on all meat and livestock imports from the European Union. Foot-and-mouth disease has also been documented in France, Argentina, Mongolia and Saudi Arabia and may have reached Ireland and Italy.
"If this is not a wake-up call for us to embrace a vegan diet, than I don't know what is," Yourofsky said. "I've never heard of a tofu recall."
Caleb Grayson, owner of Xhedo's Cafe in Ferndale, said that although he didn't switch to a vegetarian diet for ethical reasons, hearing reports of foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease have convinced him he made the right decision. "You can really get an attitude when you start hearing that. I have become more moral about it. Some people won't consider the moral perspective and violence of killing animals because they don't want to give meat up."
Grayson was one of the last people who ever thought he'd become a vegetarian. Growing up in the "very carnivorous" state of Texas, meals were generally meat feasts, he said. But after moving to Ferndale and taking over Xhedo's, Grayson started eating from the restaurant's health-conscious, mainly vegetarian menu. Soon, he was holding the pastrami, then the ham and, finally, the turkey.
"I was starting to get nutrients from the food I was now eating. I started having an aversion to meat."
That was until Thanksgiving 1998, when Grayson and his wife, Keri, went back to Texas for the holidays. There, Grayson likens his behavior to a smoker who goes through a carton of cigarettes before quitting. Grayson said he stuffed himself on turkey, ham, beef brisket and tacos during the entire stay. "I felt sluggish. I felt poisoned," Grayson remembered. "On the plane back, I vowed never to eat meat again." He kept his promise and instead of finding fewer food choices, he found more. "There were so many flavors. It wasn't like I was missing out. It was like a whole other world. It just opened my eyes that I didn't have to eat meat to enjoy food."
Grayson and his wife are now raising their 2-year-old daughter Nebraska as a vegan. He said the energetic toddler drinks plenty of soy milk and likes to snack on tofu dogs, vegetables, pickles, and olives. Nebraska is lucky. She'll find more choices than others who've walked the once-lonely vegetarian path before her.
"Today's vegetarian products are good because manufacturers are producing more and more all the time," said Laurelee Blanchard, a spokeswoman for the Maryland-based Farm Animal Reform Movement, a national sponsor of Meatout 2001. "They keep improving quality. You can find plenty of items at the grocery store and health food stores are even better." Blanchard said with almost one-fourth of all Americans purchasing meat alternatives, mainstream manufacturers like Kellogg and Kraft are getting in on what was once a niche market.
Still, there are people like Berkley's Gina Stevens who struggle to give up food they've eaten their whole lives. "I'd like to be vegetarian, but I'm not," said Stevens, 29, who works at Troy's Good Food Co., one of the area's largest vegetarian and vegan food carriers. "I was raised on eating meat. I think it's cruel. I don't like the way it's processed or handled, but it's convenient. When I don't know what to eat, I have chicken, even though I feel guilty afterward."
Yourofsky hopes he can give the educated push to people, like Stevens, who straddle the fence. In addition to alleviating animal suffering, Yourofsky tells his audiences they can lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, strokes, diabetes and cancer through a plant-based diet. "Veganism in and of itself is a preventive medicine," Yourofsky said.
Human beings are herbivores by nature, he tells the Seaholm students. Yourofsky points out that our anatomy—large intestinal tracts, broad, flattened teeth, sweat glands—is that of a plant-eater, absent of carnivorous traits such as claws, fangs or panting. To prove his point, he offers the "Squirrel Challenge" at every talk. "I challenge anyone to go outside, pick up a squirrel and eat it as a true carnivore would—teeth, face, bones, everything. Eat it raw and bloody." Not surprisingly, no one has taken Yourofsky up on his challenge. Still, he's used to meeting occasional resistance to his views, like the outspoken biology teacher at his Seaholm presentation who lashed out at Yourofksy, accusing him of "misinforming" students.
Yourofsky stands firm. "Animal rights people are accused of exaggerating, but we don't. There's no need to."
Erica Cotter, a Seaholm junior, said she's glad her peers had the opportunity to hear Yourofsky speak. "At least he makes you think," said Cotter, who along with her mother, brother and boyfriend, is a vegan. "If you can sit down with somebody and talk to them, if they're compassionate people, they'll listen. Nowadays, it's not that hard to be vegan."
That's something Grayson, the man who gave up turkey for tofu, agrees with. "There's always choices you have to make. I don't have any problem living outside what's considered the norm."
Animal Rights Activist Encourages Veganism
Alum Speaks About Circuses, Research, Zoos
By Susan Bromley
The following article appeared in The Oakland Post (Oakland U.'s school paper) on February 20, 2002.
The video images are startling and graphic—elephants chained and beaten at the circus. Cows being branded, ears cut and ovaries removed, all without anesthetic.
Gary Yourofsky, an OU graduate, spoke about animal rights to four rhetoric classes last week. During his presentation he showed students a disturbing video where animals were being tortured and killed.
"I did not come here today to convince anyone that animals are more important than human beings because the issue of importance is irrelevant to how animals should be treated," Yourofsky said. "No one's ever said a mouse is more important than your family. Gandhi once said, 'the more helpless a creature, the more it is entitled to protection.'"
Joe Blake, freshman, attended one of the talks and described it as "mind-blowing." He left the room during the video. "Luckily I hadn't eaten, or I would have thrown up. I couldn't get it out of my head."
Yourofsky, 31, is the president and founder of ADAPTT. He has been arrested 13 times, most notably for his participation in freeing 1,542 mink from a Canadian fur farm. He became an activist after going behind the scenes at a circus with his stepfather, a circus clown. Yourofsky describes the circus as slavery, noting that the animals are chained, caged and beaten in an effort to make them perform unnatural tricks. "Fear is the only way to make wild animals submit and perform," he said. "They are shipped around like cargo in boxcars and semis while someone else profits from their labor and misery."
Yourofsky told audiences he is also against zoos, saying that the confinement causes neurotic behavior and lethargy in the animals. When asked about the conservation efforts of zoos, he replied that if zoos only saved endangered species he would give them a thumbs up, but noted that 99 percent of animals in zoos are not endangered.
Yourofsky is also against medical research. "The animal research world has done a masterful job of convincing everyone that your dying mother, your sick baby, will be saved by torturing and killing mice and monkeys. The anatomical, physiological, immunological, genetic, histological and even psychological differences are too great to overcome."
Yourofsky focused a great deal of his speech on humans' consumption of animals for food. Yourofsky said he knows that not everyone can be an activist. But he hopes that by educating people, he can convert them to veganism, a lifestyle in which you consume no food that comes from an animal and wear no clothing that comes from an animal, such as fur, leather, wool, silk or down.
Yourofsky stated that humans are not naturally carnivorous, citing the finding of Dr. William Roberts, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology. Roberts found that "when we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings who are natural herbivores."
Yourofsky notes that true carnivores do not get clogged arteries and also that humans don't have claws or fangs like carnivores do.
Katie Maloney, freshman, said, "We don't think about where our food comes from as long as it tastes good. I always knew that pork chops came from pigs and that eggs came from chickens, but I never thought of them being beaten to death, living in terrible conditions or being abused throughout their lives," adding that she was rethinking her dietary habits.
John Edrington, freshman, first saw Yourofsky speak last semester and became an animal rights supporter. He was so inspired, he helped establish Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals at OU and became president of that organization. He said SETA's current main goal is to educate its members. Edrington is a vegetarian and is trying veganism but has found that cheese is difficult to give up. He isn't willing to go to jail for his new cause, but Yourofsky said he isn't asking anyone to go to jail because that's his job.
Animal Rights Activist Hounds Berkeley
By Andres Cediel
The following excerpts appeared in The Berkeley Daily Planet (UC Berkeley's school paper) on October 5, 2002.
Animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky is proclaimed an international terrorist by some and savior by others. His most recent feat, which earned him six months in maximum security prison, was releasing 1,500 minks from a farm in Canada where they were being raised for fur.
"I knew I would get out [of prison]," said Yourofsky, "but the animals never would."
Yourofsky is on a nationwide speaking tour as a lecturer for the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Yourofsky spoke to a group of two dozen students and activists at UC Berkeley on Tuesday, alleging cruelties within the meat industry, calling lab testing on animals unscientific and espousing veganism as the path to world peace.
"I'm not an animal lover," he explained. "I just loathe injustice."
Yourofsky's grievance that 10 million adoptable animals are put to death every year is particularly relevant to Berkeley citizens, who will be voting on a ballot initiative this November to rebuild the city's animal shelter. The current facility, built in the 1940s, is thought to be inhospitable to animals. It has sewage problems, a rodent infestation and is unable to provide proper isolation for sick animals, shelter officials say.
Shelter volunteer and co-author of the initiative Jill Posener calls the shelter "Berkeley's dirty little secret" and said that the facility was designed "to hold an animal for 24 hours and then kill it."
Yourofsky's message was not directed at those working to save animals in poor conditions, but aimed at UC Berkeley professors uphill who use animals to advance their field of study.
According to the university's public relations office, more than 40,000 animals are housed on campus for research. Psychology professors who experiment on them receive millions of tax dollars to investigate such things as how the brain analyzes visual motion and the neural mechanisms of sound recognition.
The Berkeley Organization for Animal Advocacy (BOAA) points out that these procedures involve attaching electrode pedestals to the brains of monkeys or zebra finches, and then paralyzing eye movement or subjecting the animal to eight to 16 hours of continuous audio stimulation. In both cases, once the experiment is complete, the animal is killed for brain examination.
"When will we let go of these medieval practices?" Yourofsky asked.
He added that, aside from the ethical contradictions, animal testing is not scientifically valid. There is no correlation between one species' reaction to a stimulus and that of another species, Yourofsky contended.
"I'm still waiting for the scientist who can show me the formula [showing this correlation]," he said.
"I realized that they [university scientists] were treating the animals in a crap manner," said veterinarian Elliot Katz, "because they knew that the experiments they were doing were crap anyway."
In the early 1980s, Katz became involved in animal rights when he organized a defense of Max Redfearn, a university veterinarian who was threatened with his job after refusing to sign USDA papers certifying that animals had been treated humanely.
Katz, Yourofsky and others assert that there are more effective and humane alternatives to testing on live animals, such as computer models and videos.
Members of BOAA have picked up on Katz' work and have drafted resolutions calling for UC Berkeley to phase out animal testing. Both Berkeley City Council and UC Berkeley's student government have officially supported the effort.
PETA Raises Awareness
By Rebecca Jania
The following article appeared in the Western Courier (Western Illinois University's school paper) on October 23, 2002.
Western Illinois University's Associated Students of Philosophy recently offered students the opportunity to learn about the treatment of animals. Monday, the ASP sponsored a lecture by Gary Yourofsky, a national lecturer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The organization's goal is to end all animal exploitation, according to PETA's Web site. It is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with offices in multiple countries.
Yourofsky has been working for animal rights since 1996. He founded ADAPTT, a Michigan-based animal rights organization. In May 1997, he participated in a raid on a Canadian mink farm with the Animal Liberation Front. He was sentenced to six months in a maximum-security prison; however, after 77 days he was deported back to the United States. He has participated in multiple protests against organizations that he feels are abusing animals, and he has been arrested 13 times for civil disobedience.
"Breaking laws has always been a part of civil disobedience," Yourofsky said. He added that he doesn't love animals; he loathes injustice. Yourofsky began the lecture with a video clip presenting several commercials that he produced regarding animal testing and meat production. He warned the audience the images would be graphic. "If you feel like crying, go ahead," he said. "That's what people are supposed to do when they see a tragedy like this happening. If you feel like laughing when you see these images, you may want to consult a psychiatrist."
Yourofsky spoke about the concept of Speciesism. "We are taught to hate and discriminate against animals long before we are taught to hate or mistreat gays or blacks or the other sex," he said. "Who taught us that animals were put on the earth for food? Who taught us that it is standard operating procedure to exploit the lives of animals? Who gave us a belief system that embraces misery of animals?"
Yourofsky then went on to speak about the basis of veganism. Vegans do not wear or eat any product that came from an animal, including meat, dairy products and eggs. "I don't eat anything that had a face, a mother or a bowel movement," Yourofsky said. Yourofsky explained some aspects of the meat industry, including the large amounts of animals placed in small cages and the practices of removing parts of animals as infants to prevent "industry-induced aggression" later in life. "Most males (in the meat industry) are considered expendable. This is because the females are artificially inseminated. Many feminists are vegan because they see how their nonhuman sisters are being exploited for their reproductive organs."
In his presentation, Yourofsky explained why human beings are not physiologically carnivores or omnivores. "We have carbohydrate-digesting enzymes in our saliva, which carnivores and omnivores lack. Also, all herbivores have canines; it's not just about the shape, it's about the size (of the teeth)." He also cited the concept that humans are the only animals that have to cook their meat. "I missed the show on the Discovery Channel where the lions had a gazelle barbecue," he said jokingly. "Carnivores and omnivores can eat bacteria-laden flesh. Humans have to cook it because they lack the correct stomach acid to kill the bacteria."
Yourofsky also provided environmental downfalls of the meat industry. "Fifty percent of the water in the United States is used in factory farms. Factory farm animals produce 2.1 trillion pounds of manure. Much of this ends up in water sources. That which doesn't is mixed into the feed of farm animals. Our topsoil is being destroyed by pesticides that are used on factory farms to keep insects off of animals."
He cited research done at Cornell University that showed 69 percent of human intake of pesticides comes from meat and meat byproducts, while 11 percent comes from fruits and vegetables.
Although vegans do not consume eggs or dairy products, according to Yourofsky, vegan women are not overly prone to osteoporosis. "Americans, who are the highest consumers of dairy products, come 18th on a list of countries with the least osteoporosis. The Vietnamese, who are lactose intolerant and don't drink cow's milk, have very low rates of osteoporosis and broken bones. This is because the proteins in milk are so acidic that it causes the kidneys to excrete calcium."
Dr. Peter Cole, an assistant professor in Western's history department, said, "People who drink milk fascinate me. Humans are the only species that drinks another species' milk. It almost makes more sense to be a carnivore because there's more of a precedent (in nature)."
According to Yourofsky, animal experimentation is another problem in the fight for animal rights. "Experimentation on animals lacks an extrapolative coefficient that allows us to apply these experiments to the human body. Drugs have been taken off of the market because they passed animal experimentation but later hurt humans." Yourofsky said companies performing experiments will continue to experiment on a variety of animals until they receive the results they desire. He quoted Dr. Richard Klausner from the National Cancer Institute as saying, "The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades—and it simply didn't work in humans."
Yourofsky is concerned with these problems because he himself has seen many of the problems firsthand. As part of ADAPTT, he visited locations where animals were being held for experiments, entertainment or the meat industry and he filmed these places for documentation. He has shot some of the footage he uses in his presentation himself.
"I present (information) the way I'd want it to be delivered if I were living in a cage," he said. One of the greatest problems, according to Yourofsky, is the way that some people cannot empathize with animals in these situations. "It's not our family members, our dog, or our cat. It is other animals. Some people don't see a problem with hurting these animals because they don't know them. People should realize that violence is violence. One form isn't worse than another. It's all horrible."
PETA Lecturer to Promote Veganism
By Kelly Josephsen
The following article appeared in The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois) on October 23, 2002.
A former "animal liberator" who works with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will be at Illinois State University on Friday to promote the vegan lifestyle. Gary Yourofsky was jailed in 1997 for helping free 1,500 minks at a Canadian fur farm. Now PETA's student lecturer, he visits campuses across the country to talk about veganism, the fur industry, circuses and rodeos, animal experimentation and hunting.
His ISU presentation is at noon Friday in Room 219 of Stevenson Hall. Yourofsky will focus on becoming a vegan, which he calls the "single most important" step people can take to protect animals, safeguard the environment and improve their own health. Vegans do not consume animal-derived products.
Activist Urges Veganism
By Kelly Josephsen
The following article appeared in The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois) on October 26, 2002.
It's morally wrong for humans to torture and kill animals for food, says an activist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Gary Yourofsky, who has been jailed for "animal liberation" and is now PETA's national student lecturer, spoke to about 20 Illinois State University students Friday. His visit was sponsored by the campus chapter of People Against the Mistreatment of Animals.
Yourofsky said he isn't trying to anger people. "If you want to make me your enemy, go ahead—join the club," he said. "But I came here to educate and enlighten. Today's speech is intended to uplift you."
His main focus was on reasons to become vegan, or not eating or wearing any product derived from an animal. If animal mistreatment isn't enough, said Yourofsky, who became a vegan six years ago, humans should consider their health.
Humans terrorize and enslave domestic animals by the billions so they can kill and eat them. But that kills humans by the millions through heart disease, kidney disease and cancer, he said. Yourofsky said animals are tortured as humans try to find treatments and cures for diseases they bring upon themselves.
Yourofsky used videos and statistics, and said every person who eats meat kills 3,000 (land) animals throughout their lifetime. He said some female pigs have been kept in pens too small for them to turn around and chickens have had their beaks cut off so they won't peck at other chickens. He handed out a vegan "how-to" guide and pointed students toward Web sites such as www.goveg.com.
"Nonviolence through veganism is the only ethical way to live on this planet," he said. "I am simply asking everyone to please re-evaluate their belief system."
Veggie Is The Way To Go
By Jackie Hill
The following article appeared in The Western Courier (Western Illinois University's school paper on October 28, 2002.
After several years of contemplation, I have finally decided to become a vegetarian. This was a personal decision and I have, so far, not regretted it.
A man by the name of Gary Yourofsky put me over the edge. As a national orator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Yourofsky gave a speech and showed a gruesome video of the treatment of animals and their effects on the environment. Yourofsky came to speak in Morgan Hall last Monday. So here I am, a week later, and this is what I have learned.
It is definitely a lot more difficult to find things you can eat, especially on campus. I was told that Thompson Hall has a new section in their cafeteria called Sun Creek which serves a vegetarian cuisine. I have not been able to make it over there yet, but I definitely plan on it in the near future. Hy-Vee has been surprisingly helpful. They have a decent selection of substitute meat products. You should try the tofu hotdogs because and I've found that they are pretty good.
Although I am just starting out as a vegetarian, I understand that it is a very big step and there are important issues that are crucial to one's dietary needs. I'm making myself aware of my nutritional needs because not all vegetarian diets are healthy. "Vegetarian is not synonymous with good health," says Jean Bigaouette, a nutritionist in Albany, N.Y.
Bigaouette stresses that being a healthy vegetarian means more than not eating meat. Vegetarians need to replace meat with foods that have similar nutritional value, such as vegetables, beans, peas, tofu and soy products. It is also important for vegetarians to get the right amount of vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin B-12. Taking vitamin supplements might be a wise choice for vegetarians, especially on a college campus where the food selection is limited. Also, talking with a dietician or nutritionist on campus might be very beneficial to a diet.
A good resource to check out is the American Dietetic Association. It provides information for planning a balanced diet. I never thought I, out of all people, would become a vegetarian. But, if I can get the same amount of nutrients from not eating meat, while standing against the slaughtering of animals, then I guess it's no more Burger King for me...unless it's a Veggie Burger.
PETA Speaker Presents Proper, Healthy Veganism
By Colleen Schorn
The following article appeared in The Breeze (James Madison University's school paper) on November 25, 2002.
Telling students not to drink milk or eat meat, a national lecturer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals spoke Wednesday night. Sponsored by JMU's Animal Rights Coalition, Gary Yourofsky presented "Veganism: Health, Environment and Ethics" to a crowd of about 40 students in Taylor hall.
Yourofsky began by saying he has been arrested 13 times for various animal liberation acts, or as he referred to them, "random acts of kindness or compassion," including liberating more than 1,500 minks in 1997 from death on a fur farm in Canada. In 1996, he founded ADAPTT. However, he said he is not an animal lover, but rather a person who empathizes with the injustice that animals have faced.
"I came to show you what you are not supposed to see," Yourofsky said before showing a gruesome video on animal mistreatment in circuses and killing methods in the factory farms that he referred to as "concentration camps." Scenes included two men who threw large rocks onto a pig to crush its skull, slitting a cow's throat to let it bleed to death and the decapitation of live chickens. Before the short video, Yourofsky asked, "If it is not good enough for your eyes, then why is it good enough for your stomach?"
He said vegans do not consume or buy products that come from anything that once had a face, mother or bowel movement. According to Yourofsky, many significant people in history were vegans: Plato, Socrates, Leo Tolstoy, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.
According to Yourofsky, human beings are not natural carnivores because the cholesterol can kill us. Human intestines are proportionally the same length as herbivores, whereas carnivores have much shorter intestines, he said. Also, our teeth are not sharp and are better suited for plants, according to Yourofsky. Humans do not catch meat like other carnivores, he said, adding that we do not have the stomach acids to digest meat correctly either.
According to Yourofsky, no carnivore ever has had clogged arteries because carnivores' bodies are more suited to digesting meat. There are many health reasons behind veganism as well, Yourofsky said. He said that according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a diet that is high in fiber and low in fat (especially animal fat) is likely to prevent cancer.
Student reaction to the lecture was positive. "This lecture certainly strengthened my views that veganism is right," sophomore Jared Bowie said. "I have been trying to get rid of meat and animal products out of my diet."
Freshman Sharid Kamal said, "What Yourofsky said is true, unfortunately. I am a vegetarian and I don't drink milk. It is certainly hard, but my beliefs were strengthened now, especially after seeing that video."
PETA Rep Pitches Turkey-less Holiday
By Brye Butler
The following article appeared in the Wichita Falls Times Record News (Midwestern State University's school paper) on November 26, 2002.
If Gary Yourofsky had his way, it would be a tofurky Thanksgiving for all, with vegetarian gravy and pumpkin pie with vegan whipped cream, all washed down with a big glass of soy milk. Yourofsky, national lecturer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA, is a vegan traveling the country challenging others to change their carnivorous ways and give up eating meat or animal by-products as well as stop wearing animal skins or furs.
This means faux fur fashionables and leather knock-offs, and tofu and soy as meat substitutes.
"I do not eat anything—or a product of anything—with a face, a mother or a bowel movement," he told about 30 Midwestern State University students Monday morning, the first of four lectures he delivered on campus Monday during part of a tour of 30 schools nationwide.
"Once a liberator, now an educator," he said, explaining he has been arrested 13 times in the name of animal rights. "But I'm not an animal lover. Call me anything but an animal lover." Yourofsky said he just wants "simple decency" extended to other life forms. "Of all the exploited beings on earth, animals are the most terrorized."
He reinforced this point through graphic video footage with his own harsh narrative. Images of meat-processing plants and meat-producing farms showed small dirty quarters with too many animals vying for space, causing neurotic and hostile behavior. Footage also showed physical cruelty. Pigs' teeth are sawed off to prevent them from gnawing on their cages; chickens are de-beaked to prevent pecking each other; bulls' horns are cut off at the head. The slaughtering footage was even bloodier: cows dangled by one leg and were gutted, chickens were hung upside-down and beheaded, live sheep were slit at the throat and left to bleed to death, a pig was bashed in the head until it stopped moving. "It's very harsh; it's very truthful," he said. "The truth is harsh."
The MSU students were stone-faced and sober. One student walked out of the room. Yourofsky didn't say where the video footage came from or when it was filmed, but he did say 10 billion cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys were raised in meat-producing farms. Yourofsky scoffs at the Animal Welfare Act and free-range farms, saying neither prevent animal exploitation. The only solution to this treatment: join the 17 million vegetarians in the United States, he said. About one million carnivores are becoming vegetarians each year, according to the PETA Web site.
Yourofsky said this dietary change is healthier physically and morally, and more natural. "You are not carnivores and omnivores. Our bodies are not designed to eat meat," he said, explaining how a human's colon, intestines and teeth shape are similar to plant-eaters. "Up and down, we fall into the herbivore category." This means a soy, wheat gluten, veggie Thanksgiving.
"Instead of stuffing yourself on the corpse of a tortured turkey, feast on meaty—but meat-free—mouth-watering tofurky roast," the PETA Web site recommends for Thursday's holiday.
Peta Speaker to Bring Discussion
By Geoff Higgins
The following excerpts appeared in The University Chronicle (St. Cloud State University's school paper) on February 24, 2003.
Animal rights and veganism will be the topic of discussion Tuesday at SCSU. PETA is bringing speaker Gary Yourofsky to SCSU while he's in Minnesota this week to speak at different schools across the state.
"I heard that he was going to be in Minnesota giving speeches so I knew that I wanted him to come here," said Ayoko Mochizuki, a member of the Campus Green Party (CGP). Yourofsky has spoken...to thousands of students in more than 100 schools around the US.
He will be speaking twice on Tuesday. His first lecture will be 12:30-1:45 and his second speech is scheduled for 3:30-4:45. Both presentations will take place in the Atwood Little Theatre.
Mochizuki said that the CGP has arranged for two educational videos to be shown during the time between Yourofsky's lectures. The first video is titled "Animals in the Service of the Military." The second video that Mochizuki has chosen to feature is "Lethal Medicine." Both are about 30 minutes in length.
Yourofsky has a speaking style that his supporters call "thought-provoking." He has been known to use inspiring stories, indisputable facts and quotes from great thinkers to get his listeners thinking about cruelty towards animals. Anther technique that Yourofsky uses in his speeches is the use of documentaries that show graphic footage from fur farms, laboratories and factory farms. His goal is to encourage people to be kind to animals.
He is also a strong advocate of veganism, a lifestyle where there is no use of any product that comes from animals. This includes clothing materials and food products.
Yourofsky holds a B.A. in journalism from Oakland U. and a radio/broadcasting degree from Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts. Good communication skills are in Yourofsky's background and both Campus Greens and Earth Action Coalition (EAC) encourage students to show up to this event to gain some important knowledge.
"Students need to understand that they are not separate from the environment but a part of it," said EAC's Kari Block. "It is time to recognize and respect the rights of other species to exist and thrive alongside humans. We need to try new and more sustainable ways to live on this planet because these changes will benefit all of us. Thus, what we do to the environment, we do to ourselves."
Animal Rights Activist Speaks to UM-D
By Michelle Darwish
The following excerpts appeared in The Michigan Journal (University of Michigan-Dearborn's school paper) on November 4, 2003.
Gary Yourofsky has picketed prominent businesses, chained his neck to the axle of his car, been arrested at least ten times, and spent 77 days in a maximum security detention center—all in the name of animal rights. Yourofsky, advocate for animal protection and a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, has degrees in journalism and broadcasting but prefers to dedicate his life to animal rights, encouraging others to open their eyes to animal cruelty. Cathy Nelson attested to Yourofsky's conviction in The Daily Tribune (Feb. 27, 2000): "When Yourofsky speaks about animal rights, things change," she said.
He is the Founder of ADAPTT (Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow) and lecturer endorsed by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
Nevertheless, Yourofsky remains one of the most controversial animal rights activists.
In the June 24, 2001, issue of The Toledo Blade, Yourofsky said, "We must be willing to do whatever it takes to gain their [animal] freedom and stop their torture."
Even though his personal preference is nonviolent lectures, he does not condemn others for using different approaches. "Do not be afraid to condone arsons at places of animal torture," he has written to supporters. If an "animal abuser" were to get killed in the process of burning down a research lab, "I would unequivocally support that, too."
However, Ingrid Newkirk, founder and president of PETA insists, "Yourofsky's passionate speech reaches countless people at a real gut level. Yourofsky uses a forceful combination of history, statistics, compassion and good old-fashioned logic to blow out of the water any argument that animals are here to be used and abused."
The Student Activities Board will host Gary Yourofsky's talk "From Liberator to Educator" on Wed., Nov. 5 at 12:30 in CB 1030.
Halifax Community College Students Encouraged To Go Vegan
By Jennifer Heaslip
The following article appeared in The Daily Herald (Roanoke Rapids, Virginia) on April 27, 2004.
Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow. Gary Yourofsky and Kate Timko, from Royal Oak, Mich., have stopped in Halifax County for two days to explain the benefits of a vegan lifestyle, and, what they believe are, the cruel methods used to supply humans with meat. As vegans, they do not eat anything with a face, a mother or a bowel movement, or anything that comes from an animal, such as milk, eggs, cheese and honey. They also don't wear animal skin, such as leather, wool or fur.
The two are members of ADAPTT. They travel to schools and towns all over the country to spread their message, and stopped at Halifax Community College Monday and today to speak to students. They will also speak to any members of the public Thursday at 6 p.m. in room 401, building 400.
They cite kindness to animals as the main reason for not eating meat or animal by-products, as well as health and environmental reasons. Their style is more informational than forced-down-your-throat. They provide the information, aiming to open people's eyes, and then let the chips fall as they may. "We're just here today to take the blinders off and talk about the realities," Yourofsky said.
They showed seven minutes of video footage and TV ads. The ads focused on dogs and cats euthanized at shelters, the fur industry, traps, unscientific research, circus practices and slaughterhouses.
Video footage, some filmed by Yourofsky himself, shows chickens having their heads cut off, pigs being beaten to death, animals being dismembered while fully conscious, a sheep getting its neck cut, geese with poles shoved down their throats, birds and chickens living in cages in their own filth, bulls being de-horned and castrated without anesthetics, and much more. "Nothing on this tape is illegal," Yourofsky said.
The video clips also showed baby pigs having their tails cut off and their teeth cut out to prevent damage from fighting when crowded together, then their testicles ripped out and holes punched in their ears, all without anesthetics. "All this cruelty and suffering for a sandwich," Yourofsky said.
In the U.S., 10 billion cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and other land animals are raised in concentration camps until they die unmercifully by being hung upside down and having their throats slit, they said. They are then dismembered, and cooked and eaten by humans. Others are beaten or shocked to death.
"I think they did a good job as far as getting the message across to people as far as slaughter, because I for one didn't know that happened," said HCC public speaking student Dora Peterson. "It's eye-opening to anyone who wants to go vegetarian." She said she had a taste for a cheeseburger before the speech; but not after seeing the video. "I don't know what I want to eat now," she said. The video clips were graphic enough to prove the point, but not enough to make you sick to your stomach, she said. "It really makes you sit back and think about what you're doing to yourself. It's very educational."
Female animals are baby machines that live in crates and cages, and are then cruelly killed when they are no longer able to produce offspring, Timko said. She asked, whatever happened to decency and truth and compassion, especially for those who are weaker? Birds are de-beaked without anesthetic and then live in piles of their own waste, just to be killed and eaten. "All of a sudden, people think all that feces and urine magically goes away," Yourofsky said.
It isn't natural for people to eat meat, he said. Humans are plant eaters, and are not natural carnivores. People acquire a taste for meat once it is given to them at a young age. "We are not meat-eating creatures," Yourofsky said. "We're all born vegans."
Eating meat is also bad for your health. We kill and eat animals, and then the animals end up killing us, Yourofsky said. Heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes and other diseases are directly linked to eating meat, and the number one killer of Americans is heart disease from clogged arteries because of meat. "Folks, eat what comes from the ground. It is natural," Timko said.
Yourofsky and Timko have hope that there will some day be equal rights for animals. It may seem like a radical idea, but it's not the first idea to be opposed and then accepted, Timko said. About 150 years ago, white men owned slaves. Eighty years ago, women couldn't vote, and 40 years ago, there was still segregation. Who knows where animal rights will be in 150 years?
There are plenty of "fake" meat alternatives, Timko said. Yourofsky ate meat for 25 years, and Timko for 23 years, but animal cruelty conditions convinced them to change.
Veganism: A Fix for Animal Abuse
Activist Promotes Harm-Free Living
By Nick Maxwell
The following article appeared in The Daily Aztec (San Diego State's school paper) on December 5, 2006.
Ninety-nine percent of the abuse and killings of animals around the world can be attributed to the dairy, egg and meat industries. This is what animal rights advocate Gary Yourofsky said last Friday in Aztec Center during his lecture about the ethical treatment of animals and humankind's moral obligation to become vegan.
"In my early life, I had the blinders on," Yourofsky said. "Nobody ate more meat than me. And in high school, embarrassingly and shamefully, I used to own a fur coat."
Yourofsky tried to have the audience tap into past childhood innocence, a time before "mistakes" such as buying fur coats were made. He said reconnecting the audience with their youthful innocence would mean that people would never intentionally harm another living being on this planet. "When we were kids, we used to smile and giggle at animals," Yourofsky said. "Then we were taught to ignore animals' feelings; hatred is a learned behavior."
Yourofsky's lecture promoted the end of all forms of discrimination including speciesism, the unfounded, unethical and unprecedented belief in the right to slaughter animals because humans believe they are so much more important than every other species on earth. He spoke about how carnivores have to lie to themselves in order to justify their inexcusable actions. "(Animals) don't look like us," Yourofsky said. "(Animals) don't act like us. (Animals) are not as smart as us, and (animals) don't talk like us." He then compared this way of thinking about animals to the excuses and logic people used to use to justify 400 years of enslaving black people, calling it a "vile excuse."
The presentation included a graphic four-minute video of animals being killed in slaughterhouses. "If you have to turn away, you should ask yourself: If it's not good enough for my eyes, why does it belong in my stomach?" Yourofsky said of the video. The video portrayed many live animals on hooks being either cut open or shot in the head while Jo Dee Messina's "Even God Must Get the Blues" played in the background.
Images, such as these, of animals being slaughtered are what prompted Yourofsky to perform "numerous acts of compassion," which he has been arrested 13 times for. Yourofsky detailed his experience when he freed 1,542 minks from a farm in Ontario, Canada, which was aiming to slaughter the animals for coats. Setting the minks free eliminated more than $2 million in profits for the mink farm before he was caught by authorities and sentenced to 77 days in a maximum-security prison. He was labeled an international terrorist by the media.
Setting animals free, though, is Yourofsky's way of avoiding their slaughter. The average American eats more than 3,000 land animals in their lifetime. "You can stop a slaughter when you leave today," Yourofsky said. He expressed feelings of disgust for people who attempt to be compassionate but take no action. "Since when does opposing an atrocity make the world a better place?" he said. "Everyone says that they're against the genocide in Darfur. Well, who isn't?"
Yourofsky lectured about the health benefits of becoming a vegan although he said that health is a selfish reason for going vegan. Yourofsky said that humans are biologically designed to be herbivores and a vegan diet can eliminate osteoporosis and all cholesterol.
"Even as a vegetarian person, I feel like I'm more informed," English senior Alfredo Soria said.
English senior Danielle Katz organized the event. Katz has been a vegan for four years after having an epiphany while cutting chicken meat. "I thought, 'Oh my god, I'm cutting this chicken used to alive,'" Katz said. Katz is part of the San Diego Animal Advocates group who is campaigning for more vegan meal choices on campus. "Food services has been very receptive to us," Katz said. "(Animal rights) is all about supply and demand. If people stop demanding animal products, corporations will stop slaughtering animals."
Lecture on Veganism
By Seth Grundhoefer
The following article appeared in The Shield (U. of Southern Indiana's school paper) on January 31, 2008.
Over 100 people gathered in Mitchell Auditorium to hear animal rights activist and founder of ADAPTT Gary Yourofsky lecture on "ethical veganism" Tuesday night. The Society of Professional Journalists extended an invitation to Yourofsky for the first time since April of 2007, when he was denied an opportunity to speak due to USI's outside speakers policy, which has since been revised.
The event itself was SPJ's "Free Speech Lecture," which included a talk by Yourofsky, along with the distribution of the 2006 Aerie magazines still in circulation. "This discussion is about the symbolic healing of our public forum," said Chad Tew, associate professor of journalism and faculty sponsor of SPJ.
Yourofsky's lecture included a four-minute video featuring slaughterhouses and dairy farms, a discussion on "ethical veganism" and a brief Q&A session.
To Yourofsky, veganism is the true path to enlightenment, and a way of life that many humanitarians such as Pythagoras, Gandhi, Socrates and Plato followed.
"I want to awaken those emotions that have been buried by society. All I'm asking is for people to show compassion towards their animal brothers and sisters," Yourofsky said.
During Yourofsky's graphic video, some of which he captured himself, he asked people not to turn away. "If you feel the need to turn away or close your eyes during this video, you might want to ask yourself a question: 'If it's not good enough for my eyes, then why is it good enough for my stomach? I want to remove your blinders," Yourofsky said.
For audience member and Evansville citizen Sharon Happe, Yourofsky did just that. Happe said Yourofsky wasn't calling anyone to arms, he was simply telling people to show compassion towards the animal kingdom. "He mentioned things I have always felt, but until now, I never saw the reality of it all," Happe said.
Mary Stoll, assistant professor of philosophy, considered Yourofsky's animal rights presentation as a standard part of ethics. "Animal rights is an old ethical topic, and it's nice to see a talk about it outside the classroom," Stoll said.
Yourofsky acknowledged that his tone in his writings and lectures are different, however, he proclaims them both as truthful and honest. Yourofsky said that stopping "animal oppression" is one of the few issues people can actively change immediately. "For the first time ever, when you walk out this door, you can effectively end a massacre," Yourofsky said.
To Meat or Not to Meat
By Veronica Isidron
The following article appeared in The Current (NOVA Southeastern University's school paper) on February 9, 2010.
Last week, the large lecture room at the Shepard Broad Law Center was filled with students and faculty who are vegetarians, vegans and meat-eaters, all there to hear a lecture from animal rights activist, Gary Yourofsky.
During the lecture came a four minute video, some of it filmed by Yourofsky himself. The audience was warned that the images would be graphic. With the anticipation that many would look away, Yourofsky told the audience to ask themselves, "If it's not good enough for your eyes, why is it good enough for your stomach?"
The video started with little, pink baby pigs being thrown onto the ground. As they hit the ground, many struggled to move around but there was no escape from the torture that would eventually result in death. Cows, pigs and sheep suspended upside down by chains, while workers sliced body after body and the blood poured out of them onto the floor. A pig fell to the ground and was beaten to death. A dolphin struggled to stay alive while chained to a truck. Beaks cut, horns snapped, genitalia sliced and all while the animals were conscious. These were just some of the images in the video. These animals were tortured and left to suffer until their last breath. Soon after that, their meat is sold and later served on a plate for people to eat.
"I was deeply disturbed and moved by the video that was showed. It's amazing how much we take for granted the tremendous amount of suffering animals experience just to satisfy human's insatiable desires for meat and other product derived from them," said George Alvarado, junior business major, shortly after viewing the video.
Several people in the audience turned their eyes from the video. Many placed their hands over their mouths. The question remains, will the audience now hold their hands over their mouths when it comes to being served food derived from animals?
At the lecture students were told being a consumer of meat and food derived from animals, not only adds to the abuse and killing of animals, but also can be bad for your health. Yourofsky related animal consumption to diseases such as heart disease and cancer, as well as cases of osteoporosis due to the body needing calcium from your bones to regulate the acidity from the absorption of meat. Yourofsky explained that eating meat is a learned behavior and with time becomes an addiction. Realizing that giving up meat can be very difficult for people, Yourofsky provided the audience with many alternative food options, showing pictures of burgers, ribs, chicken, turkey and bacon made without any animal flesh. Yourofsky suggested that the effect of changing one's diet to not include food derived from animals would help with maintaining a healthy body and contribute to stop the massacre of animals.
Alvarado commented on the lecture by saying, "I was impressed with Gary's passion and determination for expressing his message of intolerance for animal cruelty of any kind." Five days after the lecture, Alvarado had not forgotten the facts or the visuals that were presented to him that day. He states, "My life has changed dramatically since seeing Gary Yourofsky's presentation. I can no longer look at meat the same way nor have the desire to consume meat as a result of all the information that I took in. I feel that changing my eating habits to not eat meat or any meat whatsoever is a good beginning to ending animal cruelty."
For more information you may visit Gary Yourofsky's Web site.
Circuses
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.
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."
Speaking on Behalf of Fellow Animals
The following headline, photograph and caption appeared in the Sterling Heights Sentry on July 15, 1998.
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.
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, at least not to everyone.
Animal rights crusader Gary Yourofsky, who founded the Royal Oak-based ADAPTT, used a bullhorn to lead a group of half a dozen chanting protesters outside The Joe. It's the same group that erected a billboard along the I-75 at West Grand Blvd. proclaiming: "The Circus Sucks."
"Circuses are animal slavery enterprises," says Yourofsky, who was banned from Canada after he served 77 days in jail this year for freeing 1,542 minks from a fur farm in Blenheim, Ontario. "Their livelihoods are built upon the misery and suffering of animals. It is impossible for any circus to properly care for non-domesticated animals such as a lion or tiger or bear. The elephants are kept in chains their entire lives when they're not performing stupid idiotic tricks."
Yourofsky says his group doesn't want to ban circuses, just animal-oriented ones.
Whoa, Nelly
The following headline, photograph and caption appeared in The Collegian (U. of Toledo's paper) on February 28, 2000.
Animal Rights Activists Protest Circus at Barnstormer
By Kasey Everly
The following excerpts appeared in The Express (Mich.) on July 23, 2000.
"Praesto et Persto." Latin for the term, "I stand in front and I stand firm," 29-year-old animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky wears the tattoo on his right forearm like a blazing badge of courage. He received it after being recognized as part of the Animal Liberation Front, an underground extremist group, after a six-month incarceration for busting out 1,542 minks from an Ontario fur farm in 1997.
Yourofsky is well-known for his acts of civil disobedience; he once chained himself underneath his car and blocked the entrance to the Detroit Animal Control Center. In fact, he travels all over the nation preaching his message of animal liberation and leading the Michigan animal rights group he founded, ADAPTT.
In an area like the M-36 corridor, where hunting is about as normal and accepted a sport as hockey, most local folks have never heard of Yourofsky or ADAPTT. But on Friday afternoon, the group and its founder made their presence known by protesting The Royal Hanneford Circus at Barnstormer Entertainment Complex on M-36 in Whitmore Lake.
Yourofsky and a small band of supporters were protesting the entire weekend of the performance with posters in hand to relay their message: Animals belong in the wild, not the circus. "People often hear me say the circus is an animal slavery event," Yourofsky said. "The circus fits every criterion of slavery...animals caged up, confined, incarcerated, forced to perform against their will, forced to perform unnatural acts, shipped around from city to city. They receive no compensation while someone else profits off their work. That is slavery," he said.
Yourofsky argues that circus animals, in order to be trained to perform, are "beaten and dominated." He claims to have spent five years researching and documenting every popular American circus on the circuit by going undercover. There, he said, he's seen animals beaten with metal objects and confined. "These animals don't enjoy entertaining human beings," Yourofsky said. "That's why they have to be kept in chains and cages."
ADAPTT boasts 1,850 members, mostly Michigan residents, since its inception in 1996. Yourofsky said the reason so many people still attend the circus, despite the efforts of his group to educate people, is because of ignorance. "99 percent out of 100 percent of the people I speak to about circuses don't know what's going on," he said. "The majority of people are unaware."
Animal Slavery
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in The Farmington Observer on August 10, 2000.
As founder and president of ADAPTT, Michigan's most active animal liberation organization, and an expert on human-to-animal slavery, let me say that the deceitful article written by Ellen Herscher in your July 27 edition was a complete and utter lie.
The circus is an animal-slavery enterprise. It meets every criterion of slavery. Animals chained and caged and dominated against their will. Animals shipped from city to city like cargo in hot box cars against their will. Animals forced to perform unnatural and idiotic tricks against their will. While someone else profits off their misery. That, my friends, is the utmost definition of slavery.
The issue of an animal-oriented circus being abusive is a moot point. It is impossible to use positive reinforcement with purely wild animals like elephants, lions, bears and tigers. Violence is the only way to make wild animals perform unnatural tricks. Training sessions are comprised of beatings in order to establish superiority. Blackjacks, hooks, iron bars, whips and sticks are used to beat the pride out of animals. That’s why all circus trainers carry weapons around with them like elephant hooks—which are pick-axe like devices—and whips for the lions, bears and tigers.
In 1998, during a Shrine Circus protest in Detroit, a police officer even pulled out his gun and threatened to shoot me for displaying an elephant hook to passersby.
In the wilds of Africa and Asia, elephants walk 20 to 50 miles a day and take mud and dust baths as part of their natural behavior. However, elephants in the circus have their front, left legs and back, right legs chained up at all times when they are not on stage doing idiotic tricks. Not only can they not walk 20 to 50 miles a day, they can’t even take one step. For image reasons, some circuses have started keeping elephants behind electrical fences. But these areas are unsuitable for two pound toy poodles let alone 5,000 pound elephants.
Lions, bears and tigers fare no better. Circuses cage them like prisoners. The result of the constant confinement is sad. Most animals in the circus develop neurosis and exhibit neurotic behaviors. Elephants sway from side to side. Lions, bears and tigers pace back and forth in their cages and sometimes engage in self-mutilation.
The transportation process is ridiculous as well. Animals are shipped year-round from city to city in semi-trucks and railway cars. The semis and rail cars are without electricity, so every trip is in complete darkness, without air conditioning if it’s warm and without heat if it’s cold. Furthermore, if being chained up, caged up, dominated, humiliated and enslaved isn’t horrible enough, larger circuses—like The Shriners, Royal Hanneford and Ringling Bros.—deny animals sunlight. These circuses perform for 3-21 days straight and keep animals in the warehouse area during their Michigan visits.
Needless to say, there will be a protest on August 13 at The Kelly Miller Circus at Soccer Soccer Park in Farmington Hills. See you there.
Animal Activists Protest Circus
The leader of an animal rights group doesn't believe that a circus can be the greatest show on earth because of the way he believes animals are mistreated. He and other activists peacefully protested the Kelly Miller Circus in Farmington Hills Sunday.
By Joni Hubred
The following excerpts appeared in the The Farmington Observer (Mich.) on August 17, 2000.
Farmington Hills police prepared for the worst this weekend after animal rights activists announced they would picket a performance of the Kelly Miller Circus at Soccer Soccer.
"We had a few officers over there, and we set up a command post," Chief Bill Dwyer said. "You never know what to expect, so you plan for the worst."
Dwyer arrived on the scene to find only a half-dozen people carrying signs on the east side of Drake Road, near 12 Mile. The protest was a peaceful one, as is the custom of ADAPTT, according to founder Gary Yourofsky. Based in Royal Oak, ADAPTT is Michigan's most active animal rights group, Yourofsky said.
"I've been following Kelly Miller around for years," he said. "They're one of the worst. One elephant is swaying so neurotically, she's completely insane because of the confinement."
Yourofsky believes the majority of circus animals display neurotic behavior, commonly called "circosis." Elephants sway, tigers and lions pace or bite the bars of their cages because they've been taken out of their natural environment and don't get enough exercise. In all cases, animals are beaten to force them into submission, Yourofsky charged.
He claims Kelly Miller Circus is one of the worst offenders, a charge circus home officer manager William Rawls vehemently disputes. "Kelly Miller Circus supports the humane treatment of animals," Rawls said. "That's not to say there aren't circuses out there that don't take care of their animals."
Yourofsky, however, says he has seen conditions that belie the circus' claims. "When animals are not on stage, they are taken backstage and caged up or chained up," he said.
Yourofsky's animal rights activism stems from an experience with a circus. His stepfather, a Shrine Circus clown, took him backstage when he was 23. "I'll never forget standing face to face with this 8,000-pound elephant. She was swaying and chained to the cement floor, and it hit me like a ton of bricks," he recalled. "I just knew from seeing this elephant, this was slavery."
After extensive research, Yourofsky decided to become a vegan, which takes vegetarianism a step further. He not only refuses to eat meat and animal products, he won't wear animal skins of any kind, wool or down, and won't use any products that are animal-tested. "It's the most compassionate lifestyle," he said.
A forceful activist, Yourofsky spent 77 days in a maximum security prison in Canada for releasing 1,542 minks "imprisoned" at a ranch. He was subsequently deported and boasts another 10 arrests. "Do we break laws? Absolutely," he said.
Not in Farmington Hills, however. Sunday's protest involved only picket signs and handing out literature.
"They followed the rules," Chief Dwyer said.
Siegfried and Roy
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) in October of 2003.
The issue of whether animal trainers use violence to form a master-slave relationship with exotic animals is moot.
Even Henry North Ringling, one of the founders of the Ringling Bros., admitted to the perfunctory abuse of wild animals in entertainment venues. Ringling made the following statement in his own autobiography, The Circus Kings: "It is not usually a pretty sight to see the big cats being trained. When the trainer starts off, ropes and chains 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."
By now, most people are aware that Vegas Showman and lifelong animal exploiter Roy Horn was mauled by a tiger during a show at The Mirage last week. His partner, Siegfried, was unharmed during the feline's revolt.
I want to be very clear about the fact that Roy Horn was no friend to the countless animals he forced to perform in more than 5,700 shows over the last 35 years. If Siegfried and Roy truly cared about the happiness of the animals they irresponsibly owned, they should have long ago created a beautiful, rolling-hilled sanctuary for the tigers' sanity and exploration and left them alone after that. Parading animals around on stage is not friendly. Degrading, mocking, humiliating and caging tigers for personal profit and audience laughter is not noble.
Siegfried and Roy are no different than the trainers who work for the abusive circus industry. Elephants, bears, lions and tigers are caged and chained, and cruelly dominated with sticks and whips until they submit and acquiesce to the trainers' demands. Food and water deprivation is another tool of the trade. When an animal doesn't follow orders, they don't get to chomp their dinner or moisten their palates. Positive reinforcement is a fantasy created by the spin doctors who enslave animals for monetary gain.
If I had a Vegas act with tigers, we could not train them without violence. Violence is a staple of the exotic animal industry. Don't forget the tigers' long and lonely hours spent in cages on and off stage. Imagine if someone locked you in your tiny bathroom for five to eight hours a night and only brought you out now and then to say "Ta-da!"
Let's not forget Siegfried and Roy also used elephants and other wild animals in their gaudy act.
Siegfried and Roy's greedy, selfish yen for fame and fortune and constant attention is, frankly, disgusting. Breeding animals into slavery, putting them on display for amusement and caging them on stage are not beneficial to endangered cats.
Any creature would choose death or even extinction over a lifetime of confinement and inanity. Nature intended them to be free. And without freedom, animals are lost in a world on confusion and chaos.
Humans, as usual, seem to believe they are on top of some fallacious pyramid of domination over the animal kingdom. But when will humans extend some simple decency to our planetary companions? All animals should be liberated from entertainment venues and we should seek to end all of our vicious traditions and practices.
It's not too late for Siegfried and Roy, though. Many former abusers of animals have transformed their lives and made amends for their past sins. John Robbins, former heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire, withdrew himself from the family business in the 70s. Since then, he has dedicated his life to promoting vegan diets and animal liberation.
Howard Lyman, a former fourth generation cattle rancher, shut down his dairy and cattle farms and has been promoting veganism and animal rights for years. You may recall Lyman was the reason Oprah was sued by the Texas Cattlemen in the 90s because he convinced Oprah to remove cow meat from her diet on national TV.
Pamelyn Ferdin, former child star who was the voice of Lucy on Charlie Brown, abandoned her meat-eating ways for an ethical vegan lifestyle. She even went to jail this year on behalf of enslaved animals after a judge found her guilty of displaying a vicious elephant hook at a circus demo. She was trying to educate people about the horrible techniques used by circus folk. The judge—who sent Ferdin to jail—ruled it was okay for elephant handlers to dominate, scare and coerce elephants with razor sharp hooks, yet it was illegal for caring people—like Ferdin—to expose the weaponry used by the animal entertainment industry.
If Siegfried and Roy decide to form an all-human Vegas spectacle and stop displaying animals on stage, they can be revered as true friends to the animals. Otherwise, they will remain selfish villains who care more about themselves and their pocketbooks than the sanity and well-being of endangered felines.
Vivisection
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.
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.
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!
Fur
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.
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."
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."
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.
Anti-fur Protesters Step Up Their Fight
Somerset Collection is the First Target of Holiday Pickets
By Mike Martindale
The following excerpts appeared in The Detroit News on November 26, 1999.
Sign-carrying, anti-fur protesters say they will be a fixture outside Metro Detroit fur salons over the next few weeks. Gary Yourofsky of ADAPTT said the demonstrations are part of "Fur Free Season" and a nationwide effort to raise public awareness about animal rights.
"We will be here today, tomorrow and the next day," said Yourofsky, 29, of Royal Oak, at a kickoff informational picket last week at the Somerset Collection in Troy. "We're not going away, and if anything, we plan more protests and demonstrations until people understand that the skinning of animals and using that fur for coats is inhumane. We think people are getting the message. The thumbs up are outnumbering the middle finger gestures by about 3-to-1."
In past protests business owners have complained that the protesters are interfering with their right to conduct a legal business. Troy police said the demonstrators were orderly at their event last week and conducted a legal picket.
Yourofsky spent 77 days in a Canadian jail this year for freeing minks from a mink ranch.
He has been arrested twice since then. Last week, he showed up at a county park to protest deer hunting on the property.
On Wednesday, demonstrators carried signs such "Neiman Carcass: The Animal Skin Super Store," and "Wear Your Own Skin."
The nonprofit ADAPTT group wants to abolish animal use in medical research, product testing, circuses, rodeos and other forms of entertainment. The group opposes hunting and the wearing of animal skins, including leather, wool and down. They also seek to phase out the consumption of animals for food.
ADAPTT recently rented a 10-foot-by-36-foot billboard of a bleeding, skinned fox at the Lodge Freeway and Eight Mile Road that says: "Here's the rest of your fur coat. Have a nice day while she bleeds to death."
The group also has recently rented an anti-circus billboard to protest animal abuse by traveling shows.
Yourofsky defends the often graphic tactics. "Forty million animals have the fur ripped off their backs each year, are electrocuted and killed in a number of equally inhumane ways. It's disgusting and barbaric."
4 Anti-fur Activists Arrested
Animal Rights Demonstrators Sit In Group at Franklin Park Mall
By Mark Zaborney
The following article appeared in The Toledo Blade on November 27, 1999.
At the Franklin Park Mall entrance to Dillard's, next to displays featuring "Chicken Soup for the Soul—the Game" and Furbys, four people stood in a huddle yesterday as they arranged bicycle locks around each other's necks.
Once secured together, they shouted in unison, "One, two, three, sit down!" and turned to face outward as they sank to the floor.
"Who wears fur? Beautiful animals," they chanted. "Who else wears fur? Ugly people."
The four continued to tell passers-by of their cause for an hour, rejecting requests by Toledo police to unlock themselves and leave quietly. Police called the fire department and, after 15 minutes of trying, four firefighters cut the steel locks with a hydraulic tool about 5:30 p.m.
"For us to express our First Amendment rights, we have to break the law," said Mark Whitt, 41, of Toledo. He and three others were handcuffed and taken to the Safety Building where they were issued citations for disorderly conduct. Whitt, Amy Ptaszynski, 27, of Toledo; Tiffany Frost, 24, of Belleville, Mich.; and Gary Yourofsky, 29, of Royal Oak, Mich. are to appear Dec. 6 in Toledo Municipal Court, Sgt. Tim Hanus said.
"I will stand strongly against the nefarious murdering of innocent life," Frost said.
Dillard's Management would not comment last night. Scot Vallee, vice president and general manager of Franklin Park Mall, said protests are not allowed in the mall because it is private property. "Otherwise, we'd have every single group that wants to protest out here. It'd stop business," he said.
The Dillard's protesters were part of anti-fur protesters nationwide scheduled to coincide with the first big day of holiday shopping. In NYC more than 400 people gathered near Times Square to protest the use and sale of fur from animals, and 45 were arrested on trespassing related charges, a NYC police spokesman said.
At Franklin Park, the four locked-together protesters were joined by at least five others who held signs, passed out cards explaining why they oppose fur, and shouted, "Tell Dillard's to stop selling fur now!" to passers-by.
Police told the protesters who were not locked together to put down their signs and leave the area, and they complied. Several mall guards, 11 Toledo police officers, and reporters and television photographers kept the seated protesters from the sight of many shoppers. Those inclined to peek were hustled along by officers or guards.
One shopper, handed a card titled "Fur kills; no blood for vanity," tore it up and threw it at the locked-together four. "Here's what I think," he said. Others who caught a glimpse were sympathetic. "I don't think they should sacrifice an animal's life," said Connie Gray, 51, Devils Lake, Mich. "They've got faux fur down to a patent."
Joyce Rista of East Toledo didn't like the protest and has no opinion on fur. "If it was me, I'd just buy the fake fur and let it go at that." she said.
The protest was organized by ADAPTT, which Gary Yourofsky founded in 1996. He was jailed in Ontario for nearly three months this summer for his part in releasing 1,500 mink during a late-night raid on a fur farm in 1997.
Activists Protest Practices Linked to Burlington Stores
By Dave Groves
The following article appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on May 14, 2000.
On a clear, sunny day when many people were running Mother's Day gift-getting errands, animal cruelty activists reminded area shoppers of less pleasant thoughts.
Members of ADAPTT held demonstrations Saturday at nine of 10 Burlington Coat Factory stores in Michigan, including outlets in Southfield and Auburn Hills.
Holding posters depicting the skinned skulls of coyotes, they hoped to alert shoppers to what they see as abominable practices of the fur industry.
Gary Yourofsky, ADAPTT founder, said Burlington stores were targeted because the company still has "egg on its face" after a Dateline NBC investigation revealed it was selling fur harvested from Mongolian dogs. He added that the company removed the products from its shelves following the story.
Hoping that Burlington is close to a decision to discontinue fur sales completely, Yourofsky said his organization is continuing to put pressure on corporate management. "How can they take a stand against using dog and cat fur and not against fox and coyote fur? It's so hypocritical," he said.
A district manager for the company would not comment.
Protester Lisa Breck of Ferndale said she hopes people who learn of cruel treatment animals undergo both in the wild and on fur farms will not only boycott fur retailers, but also voice their disgust to store managers or company executives. "I think we know that most people who find out about this are against fur, they just don't know that they can have an impact," she said. "This gives them an avenue."
Burlington Targeted by Animal Rights Activists
By Anne Heitjan
The following article appeared in The Sterling Heights Sentry (Mich.) on June 7, 2000.
An anti-fur group intent on getting Burlington Coat Factory to pull its stock of fur coats may be nearing its goal.
Members of ADAPTT staged a protest at the company's Sterling Heights location May 27. The group is targeting Burlington because the company has only a small stock of fur items and may be pressured into discontinuing it, according to ADAPTT president Gary Yourofsky.
"We know who we're targeting," Yourofsky said. "For them to hang on to that one rack seems pretty silly. They seem close to pulling it."
The company has in fact considered pulling real fur items, according to Ric Bramble, Burlington spokesperson. "We do have a small selection," Bramble said. "As to pulling that, that hasn't been determined, but it has been discussed."
Protesters also were angry when one of the store's employees allegedly lied to customers and protesters, claiming the store carried no real animal fur. Bramble declined to comment on the allegation, as did employees at the Sterling store.
"I was there to buy a shower gift," said Melissa Waz, who was part of the protest. Waz claims a store employee told her the store carried no real fur. "I went to check the labels and I was furious. They should have just told me the truth and let me make my own decision."
Bramble said protesters and the company simply suffer from a difference of opinion. "This is the US, and people are entitled to their opinions," he said. "We're a retailer. We give the public what they're looking for. There are people who like faux fur, and we sell that. There are people who like real fur, and we sell some real fur. It's supply and demand, more or less."
Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation operates more than 280 stores in 42 states. Yourofsky said ADAPTT is planning more protests across the state, the next scheduled for June 10 in Taylor. He said he believes the Sterling Heights protest, which involved nine ADAPTT members, was a success.
"Thousands of motorists and hundreds of shoppers and passers-by were informed about the death trade," he said. "Forty million animals are murdered worldwide each year in the fur trade."
Campaign Against Fur Coats Visits Store
By Jim Kasuba
The following article appeared in The News-Herald (Mich.) on June 14, 2000.
Fur coats are probably the last thing on a person's mind on a hot and humid June day. However, for Gary Yourofsky and his group of animal rights activists, there's no pause for the cause.
Yourofsky and six members of his organization, ADAPTT, were in front of the Burlington Coat Factory on Saturday afternoon in Taylor to protest the store selling a small number of fur-trimmed coats. ADAPTT has been targeting the chain of stores throughout the state this past month.
Yourofsky, a 29-year-old Royal Oak resident, said the 268-store chain has been targeted nationally since it admitted using dog fur to trim coats sold about a year ago. Yourofsky said the coats were pulled from stores after an NBC Dateline story embarrassed the chain. However, he maintains that the company still is selling a limited number of coats with fur trim that comes from the domestic dog's distant cousins—foxes and coyotes—and other animals, such as raccoons.
"It is hypocritical of Burlington to condemn only the dog and cat fur trade and not the entire fur trade," Yourofsky said. "The thought-provoking animal rights adage, 'Why do we call some animals pets and others dinner?' can be slightly altered to apply to the fur issue: 'Why do we call some animals pets and others fur coats?"
Ric Bramble, director of media relations for the New Jersey-based Burlington chain, said Yourofsky is wrong in his statement that BCF pulled fur coats after the Dateline story. "Those coats were pulled before the Dateline piece," Bramble said. "We unknowingly had less than 600 coats nationally that came from Mongolian dogs, which are wild dogs, not pets."
Yourofsky counters by saying there is no such thing as wild Mongolian dogs. "They were German Shepherds and they were skinned alive," Yourofsky said. "They may have come from Mongolia, but we don't call our dogs 'American dogs'."
Bramble said that as soon as his company was informed by the Humane Society about the origin of those coats, they were pulled off the racks. "It was an unfortunate situation, but we worked it out," Bramble said. "We were in touch with the customers who purchased the coats and told them the coats could be returned for a full refund." Bramble said the chain does have some stores that continue to sell real fur-trimmed coats, but that most of the fur coats sold at Burlington stores are faux fur.
"But some people still want real fur," Bramble said. "We're a retailer and it's the law of supply and demand. They demand it and we sell it."
That being the case, a lower demand for real fur has meant a sizable reduction in the numbers of fur coats most of the stores offer, he said. At the present, the chain sells only a limited number of fur trim coats. Bramble said Burlington advocates the labeling of all fur coats, not just those costing more than $150, as the current law dictates. The labels identify the type of fur being used.
Yourofsky said he personally had about 40 discussions with shoppers outside of the Taylor Burlington location, and all but one appeared supportive of his group's efforts. That one person was an outspoken bear hunter, he said.
Protesters Target Redford Fur Store
By Kurt Kuban
The following article appeared in The Redford Observer (Mich.) on June 22, 2000.
The Redford Burlington Coat Factory was the target of an animal rights protest Saturday afternoon. About a half-dozen members of ADAPTT picketed the store, located in the Redford Plaza at Telegraph and West Chicago, because the national retailer admitted it had sold coats made of dog and cat fur.
Around noon, the group began its protest just outside the doors of the store. Less than an hour later, store management asked the group to move off of Burlington property, and had to call police after the group refused. A Redford Township police officer was dispatched to the scene and the protesters peacefully moved to a sidewalk along Telegraph Road, where they continued picketing for several hours.
ADAPTT, founded in 1996 by Royal Oak resident Gary Yourofsky, has picketed 12 Burlington stores throughout the state in the last month. In recent years, ADAPTT has been involved with many protests and acts of civil disobedience, including a highly publicized incident in which members freed a large number of minks from a fur farm in Blenheim, Ontario. Yourofsky, 29, spent 77 days in an Ontario jail for that incident.
Yourofsky, who led the protest Saturday, said his group's opposition to the chain retailer stems from an investigation conducted by the Humane Society that determined Burlington had sold some coats lined with dog and cat fur. Embarrassed, the company pulled the coats from its shelves after Dateline NBC publicized the matter in a December 1998 show.
Yourofsky said Saturday's protest was meant to inform the public about the cruelty involved in the fur trade, and the "hypocrisy" of Burlington's continued use of coyote and fox fur in its coats. "The shoppers and passers-by had a good understanding of the hypocrisy of Burlington's policies," Yourofsky said. "Burlington officials say they don't use dogs or cats in their furs, but they still use fox and coyotes, which are in the canine family and close relatives of dogs. I'm just saying, don't be arbitrary. Either take it all out, or leave it all in. But it is just nonsense to make the claim they are making."
Redford Burlington manager Angela Almon said her store does not sell coats made from dogs or cats, and never has. She said the store has been the subject of one other protest since the airing of the Dateline story. She said she asked the picketers to move because they were affecting business. "If they are out there picketing, our customers are obviously going to be curious," she said.
Yourofsky said his group will quit targeting the Burlington chain when it quits selling fur coats. "My problem with the fur trade is that there are nothing but blood trails, misery, slavery and murder behind the glamorous propaganda put out by the industry's spin doctors," Yourofsky said. "If anyone would think clearly about the process that went into the making of their coat, I'm sure they would not give their approval. But the spin doctors make sure people never think about where the coats come from."
Activist Sets Sight on Clothier
By Christy Strawser
The following article appeared in The Daily Tribune (Mich.) on August 11, 2000.
Animal activist Gary Yourofsky is planning another large-scale strike against the practice of using animals for fashion. Yourofsky's group, ADAPTT, is gathering support for an effort against Burlington Coat Factory, a store that sells fur-trimmed apparel and was—unknowingly, company officials said—involved in using dogs and cats for some of its merchandise created in Asia several years ago.
The store has solved the problem, representatives said. But that's not enough for Yourofsky, who said the company should cease selling any kind of fur.
There's a nationwide effort to collect people who feel the way he does. Last Chance for Animals and the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade are gathering people to protest at Burlington Coat Factories across the country Saturday morning.
Yourofsky, 29, is bringing as many people as he can from the Royal Oak group he founded, ADAPTT, that boasts 1,850 members.
The closest targeted stores are in Southfield and St. Clair Shores.
Yourofsky said the demonstrations should be peaceful and educational, with ADAPTT members handing out literature and carrying posters bearing the images of skinned coyote faces. "It will be a huge demonstration in 30-50 cities across the country," Yourofsky said, adding that it will be the 13th time this year his group targeted a Burlington Coat Factory.
"We find what they're doing to be morally reprehensible," he said.
Anyone seeking more information about the demonstration should check out ADAPTT's website, email DogmaDay@aol.com or call the group's message center at 810-763-2715.
Hunting
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?
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.
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!
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.
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.
Protesters Hang on for Deer Life
By Bob Gross
The following excerpts appeared in The Oakland Press on November 6, 1999.
Hunters killed nine deer the first day of a controlled archery hunt at Stony Creek Metropark, despite protests by animal rights activists who had hoped to stop the hunt.
About 35 people were lined up outside the main entrance at Stony Creek on 26 Mile Road, holding picket signs and chanting "Nugent's boys must go," in reference to rock guitarist and hunter Ted Nugent.
Nugent, who did not attend the hunt, was the most prominent target—a song with the chorus "the day Ted Nugent killed all the animals" came from a portable tape player at the side of the road.
"Ted Nugent's boys are getting away with murder," said Kristine Simon of Chelsea, a co-director of Michiganders Against Sport Hunting (MASH), the group that organized the protest.
Jodi Louth of Saline, also of MASH, said the controlled hunt should have been called off because Gary Yourofsky, a Royal Oak animal rights activist, infiltrated the hunt area of the park. Dave Moilanen, a spokesman for the park authority, said the protesters had spread the Yourofsky rumor in order to disrupt the hunt.
"If you have an apple tree with too many branches on it, you prune it to get better apples," said Chuck Buzzy, president of the Metro Wildlife Management Base, a consortium of conservation groups coordinating the hunt.
Alma Gilette of Sterling Heights wasn't buying that argument. She held up a sign protesting the hunt. "I love the animals and I want to see the animals," she said. "I'm against the hunting of the deer in the park."
Robert Penskar of Chelsea objected to the control measures. "I abhor what will happen out here today," he said. "They are going to bowhunt deer, which to me is a travesty. These deer are in a park which people like to see. It's supposed to be peaceful—instead, they are turning it into a killing field."
MASH's Louth blamed pressure by hunters for the HCMA's decision to use hunting as a management tool. "The HCMA were cowards for caving in to hunting pressure, and the hunters today are cowards for participating," she said.
GM's Deer Removal Plan Draws More Criticism
By Mitch Hotts
The following article appeared in The Macomb Daily (Mich.) on July 14, 2000.
There's growing opposition to plans to remove a herd of deer from a wooded area on the grounds of the GM Tech Center property in Warren. The company plans to develop the pristine 312 acres along Mound Road between 12 and 13 Mile Roads, but must first deal with the deer, estimated to be between several dozen and 100.
Some animal rights activists and members of the Warren City Council say they will oppose any efforts to remove or euthanize the creatures. "This is the last place in Warren where these animals can live unharmed and unfettered. I don't understand what kind of legacy GM wants to leave here," said Gary Yourofsky, president of ADAPTT.
The issue was scheduled to be discussed at Tuesday night's council meeting in Warren, but was tabled because GM officials are on vacation and could not attend. Ann Klein, the council secretary, said some GM leaders told her they have no plans to kill the deer. She said other council members are publicizing the issue for political reasons. "General Motors is conducting studies on how to handle the deer and they will have a nature center there," Klein said. "This was in poor taste to bring this topic up when GM is not here to defend themselves."
GM spokesman Gerry Holmes has not returned phone calls in the past week, but in the past, he has been quoted as saying the automaker will decide the most humane option for the herd.
GM workers and some residents who live near the site feed the deer by hand on the trails of the fenced-in property. If the company decides to move the deer, it will either truck them away, airlift them out or tranquilize the animals. None are good solutions, said Sue Neal of the Michigan Humane Society. Neal, a wildlife specialist, said the stress of the relocation could be fatal to the deer. After studying aerial photographs of the area, Neal favors natural dispersion, allowing the creatures to run free along the Red Run Drain. "I would be against relocation because it would be fraught with difficulty. It pains me to see the high amount of suffering with a low probability of success for this effort," Neal said.
But Anne Fracassa, chairwoman of the Warren Animal Commission said the automaker has indicated it will create a refuge area for the deer. "From what we know, much of the deer can safely be transferred to another section of the site. But the development likely is five years down the road," she said.
Council members James Fouts and William Barnwell also expressed concern over the animals. "I happen to watch them every day from behind my house and I'll fight for those little deer," Barnwell said. Fouts offered a plan that includes an independent study to determine the effects of development on wildlife in that area.
Board Fails to Pass Plan for Deer Kills at Metroparks
By Bob Gross
The following excerpts appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on August 11, 2000.
Deer at area metroparks are safe—right now and perhaps for the rest of this year—from the killing that provoked protests and controversy in 1999. The board of commissioners for the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority failed Thursday to pass a metroparks white-tailed deer management plan for 2000-01.
The deer management proposal likely will come up again—possibly at the authority's Sept. 14 board meeting—but Director Frank Sudek said a delay could jeopardize any management plan for 2000-01.
Judy Brock, president of the Metroparks Deer Preservation Council, a group that opposed last year's deer kills, saw Thursday's meeting as a slight turn in her group's direction by some of the commissioners. "We are pleased that some of the commissioners are questioning some of the points we made from the beginning," she said.
The group, which has advocated non-lethal control measures such as surgical sterilization, contraceptive drugs, trapping and relocation and fencing, had questioned whether the deer were having a devastating effect on park vegetation.
More than 20 people spoke during Thursday's meeting at Metro Beach Metropark, the majority against the proposed deer management proposal.
Gary Yourofsky, an animal rights advocate from Royal Oak, said he would form a "rogue independent police unit" to stop any lethal control measures in the metroparks. "I'm fed up with the so-called experts who work for the Dept. of Natural Resources, the Natural Resources Commission and the HCMA justifying unsound fun for people who commit cowardly acts," he said.
He later interrupted (commissioner William) Kreger, who was trying to explain why he felt the deer needed to be controlled.
Residents Threaten Violence Over Deer Removal
GM Plan to Remove Herd of 70 From Tech Center Stirs Furor
By Hawke Fracassa
The following excerpts appeared in The Detroit News on November 9, 2000.
Animal lovers are threatening violence if that's what it takes to stop General Motors and Warren from removing a herd of 70 deer from the GM Tech Center. "These deer are my family. If they harm my family members, I will retaliate—I am willing to get arrested," said Gary Yourofsky, one of 50 people picketing at City Hall on Wednesday over the move. "I will use force to defend deer like I would defend my mother or sister. I'll do whatever it takes and I'm not alone."
Marci Hannah, 47, doesn't think GM will save the deer she has learned to love. "It's too late to change their mind. Now I just want them to tell us the truth," Hannah said.
Florence Robbie, 87, said it was too cold for her to be out protesting but she had a point to prove Wednesday. "I'm upset," she said before joining a chorus of "Keep the Land, Save the Deer."
At least eight police cars came to watch over the angry protest after Yourofsky entered the lobby of Mayor Mark Steenbergh's office.
He ignored Steenbergh's aides and yelled "cowards" at them after learning the mayor wasn't there. They marched and chanted near the clerk's and treasurer's offices before marching into the Tech Center. Six Pinkerton security officers called Warren police supervisors and locked the Tech Center gates shooing protesters off the property. No one was hurt or arrested.
Passersby honked horns and pumped their fists in support, even when protesters walked in front of them with signs that said "The Buck Stops Here," "Boycott GM" and "Loud and Clear, Keep All the Deer."
The next protests are next week at Steenbergh's home and at Tuesday's City Council meeting, Yourofsky said. "We want to do civil and uncivil disobedience because this whole thing stinks to high heaven," Yourofsky said.
Officials acknowledge deer could die from the stress of the move from Warren, but believe they're doing what's best. Protesters don't think so. "This whole thing has hunting farm written all over it," Yourofsky said. "The city is a puppet of GM and GM is directly killing deer and other animals by destroying their habitat."
Hunters are Terrorists of the Animal World
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in The Detroit News on April 20, 2001.
Before I refute every hunting lie, let me begin with two quotes from some well-known animal rights activists.
The first one is from Mohandas Gandhi. "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"
The second quote from the great philosopher Pythagoras. "As long as humanity continues to be the ruthless destroyer of other beings, we will never know health or peace. For as long as people massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed those who sow the seed of murder and pain will never reap joy and love."
Now, contrary to the rosy picture hunters always paint about themselves—the noble hunter, the honest hunter, the caring hunter, the concerned hunter—let's run down a quick list of noble hunting adages:
- Shoot more and shoot more often, I'm a gut-pile addict, whack 'em and stack 'em, live to hunt/hunt to live and kill on.
- And how about this comment from Ted Nugent, the world's most outspoken animal-killer and just about every hunter's hero: "I contribute to the dead of winter and the moans of silence, blood trails are music to my ears. I'm a gut-pile addict. The pig didn't know I was there. It's my kick. I love shafting animals. It's rock 'n' roll power. (World Bowhunter's Magazine, Volume 1, Number 4, May 1990, page 12)"
It's hard for animal rights humanitarians to discuss the truth about hunting when we're constantly dealing with lies about overpopulation, lies about kindness and lies about science.
ADAPTT is fed up with hunters, their government cronies and all of their sick mentalities. The so-called "experts" who work for the DNR and the NRC are not "experts." They're hunters and hunt supporters.
And hunting is not sound science. It is only sound fun for unsound individuals who commit cowardly acts. And it sounds to me that any sound person who possesses a scintilla of sound sense would understand that soundly truth.
To appease hunters in 1971, the DNR began serious efforts to change the "old forest" situation in Michigan. There were around 500,000 deer at that time which wasn't enough to please the hunters. Therefore, the DNR instituted the Deer Range Improvement Program known as DRIP which called for the clear-cutting of 1.2 million acres of forest creating a more accessible food supply for deer and further stimulate reproduction. The DNR also has always issued a disproportionate number of licenses to kill male deer, because killing males instead of females causes the females' internal reproductive mechanism to go haywire. Then, she ends up giving birth to twins and even triplets to keep the species going.
The DRIP program and sex-biased hunting has caused the deer herd to level out at around 2 million animals last year.
For the record, hunters cause an increase in deer-car accidents and contribute to crop damage.
In 1972, there were 10,742 deer-car collisions. Last year there were about 70,000. Gee, I thought hunters were hunting to reduce deer-car collisions? In 1996, The Michigan Farm Bureau even threatened to file a class-action lawsuit against the DNR for solely catering to the needs of hunters.
By the way, as deer-car accidents and crop-damage steadily increased over the years, here's what Dave Arnold, a DNR executive, had to say to The Detroit Free Press on January 1, 1980: "Don't lose sight of the purpose of the program. When the DNR decided several years ago to try and increase the herd to about one million animals, we knew the auto collision rate and crop damage would rise."
Here's what Ned Caveney, a DNR state forester, had to say to the Northwoods Call a Charlevoix paper on May 26, 1991: "In Michigan, we manipulate forest habitat to produce amazingly unnatural deer numbers --- up to two million of the critters some years. That probably approaches two million more that existed before man got into the act."
In the '90s, pro-hunting governor John Engler created The Hunting and Heritage Task Force in order to expand hunting and fishing opportunities to the public which is the same reason why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service exists. By the way, the USFWS offers 290 hunting programs and 307 fishing programs on the 514 national wildlife refuges throughout the U.S. Paragraph six of Engler's Hunting and Heritage Task Force edict states the following: "While Michigan offers widespread opportunities to hunt and fish, more could be done to encourage participation, especially in high population centers. All divisions within the DNR should work together, making hunting and fishing more accessible on both public and private lands. Where possible, expand opportunities to hunt and fish within urban parks and recreation areas."
This was the sole purpose behind the recent deer killings at our metro-parks. Not because the deer were eating up all the trillium plants. The HCMA board of commissioners wouldn't know the difference between trillium and helium. Moreover, humans are the only animals who destroy land and take more than they need.
The metro-park killings didn't take place because the hunters wanted to donate food to the hungry. That's just a clever public relations gimmick to try and place a halo around those who murder animals for fun. It is far more cost efficient to feed hungry people spaghetti and stir-fried tofu, and you can feed more people that way too.
Everyone must understand that wildlife management is an illusory concept created around 100 years ago. There is no such thing as wildlife management. Humans cannot manage nature. The only managing humans should be doing is managing to stay out of the animals' space.
And, once again, it is unjust, stupid and contemptible that the DNR and NRC—made up entirely of hunters and hunt supporters—make decisions about the fate of wild animals. That would be akin to allowing pedophiles to write child protection laws and misogynists pen domestic abuse laws?
Do hunters eat their kills? Yes. But do hunters hunt for food? No! They hunt for the thrill of the kill. They receive a rush. A super-shot of adrenaline. It's bloodlust and dominance. It's arrogance and selfishness. It's hatred and brutality. It's dishonor and viciousness. It's murder and it's obscene.
Hunters always use the excuse that deer are going to starve to death during the winter as if starvation wasn't a natural process and nature's way of controlling populations and the ecosystem's way of working.
Starving deer provides food for scavenger animals and is nature's way of weeding out sickly animals and allowing the strongest ones to reproduce.
A bullet to the head or an arrow through the chest is not a solution to starvation. But, furthermore, hunters don't even shoot starving deer. They don't make good trophies and don't have lots of meat.
I dare anyone to show me a photograph of one hunter last year who shot one emaciated deer. Just one. Hunters shoot big bucks with big racks for big trophies. Watch their TV shows on PBS and ESPN and TNN. That's all they talk about—big racks and big trophies.
On April 17, 1989, in The Free Press, Nugent said this about hunting: "I don't hunt for meat. I hunt to hunt."
In 1990, Nugent said the following in his World Bowhunters Magazine: "Nobody hunts just to put meat on the table because it's too expensive, time-consuming and extremely inconsistent."
For the record, I never threatened to harm someone's child over the recent deer-killings in our metro-parks. I threatened to take a bullet for the deer and form my own deer-police unit to protect deer from hunters. But I did challenge about six sissified animal-killing hunters to show me how tough "tough guys" really are. I wanted to fight these bullies and put them in their place. Unfortunately, as usual, they refused to take me up on my challenge. If there's one thing that I've learned in six years of intense activism, animal-abusers are cowards who would never fight someone who would fight back.
Horses, Dogs, and Squirrels
Condemned Chow is Safe, Activist Says
With Ato in Hiding, Legal Actions to Keep the Dog Alive Run On
By Maryanne George
The following article appeared in The Detroit Free Press on July 24, 2000.
Ato, the dog on death row who disappeared from a humane society shelter last week, is safe, an animal rights activist said Sunday. Gary Yourofsky, founder of ADAPTT, said Ato is living in a home, but declined to say whether the dog has left the state. "Ato is safe and he is alive," said Yourofsky of Royal Oak, who says ADAPTT has 1,850 members. "Justice has finally been served. We don't put humans to death for biting. Ato was simply protecting his home and property."
Last year 15th District Court Judge Julie Creal Goodridge ordered Ato destroyed as a vicious dog after biting a paperboy in August 1998 and three other people. Ato had been living at shelters for nearly two years while his fate has been in court. Hiroshi and Seiko Ikuma of Ann Arbor have denied any role in springing their dog. But Friday, Seiko signed a waiver allowing a veterinarian to put the 90-pound chow chow to death, Ann Arbor assistant attorney Robert West said Sunday.
Seiko is scheduled for a contempt of court hearing in 15th District Court in Ann Arbor today. She failed to appear at a hearing Tuesday to explain why she had not yet had the dog destroyed," West said. "If she knows the dog is safe, she may not worry about signing the waiver," West said. "I am not willing to accept her denials that she has no knowledge of where the dog is."
Yourofsky said he had no role in Ato's escape, but wished he had. Yourofsky has been jailed 11 times for his animal rights activism, including the release of 1,500 minks from a Canadian farm in 1997.
On Friday the Michigan Court of Appeals declined to hear an emergency appeal of the 7-year-old dog's death sentence, West said. The Ikumas have been unsuccessful in their legal attempts to save their dog. Neither the Ikumas nor their attorney, Raymond Mullins, could be reached for comment Sunday. Mullins has told West that he will ask the Supreme Court to hear the appeal. The high court will likely rule on the Ikumas request within a month, West said. But he said the court likely will decline to hear the appeal, because it usually only reviews cases that are of interest to large numbers of people. All the legal maneuvering may be moot as long as Ato (pronounced Otto) cannot be found.
Washtenaw County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Miller said Sunday that the investigation continues into Ato's disappearance from the Huron Valley Humane Society in Superior Township July 16 or 17.
Ato was confined after biting 13-year-old Alex Newton, a delivery boy for the Ann Arbor News who entered the house to drop off a paper in August 1998. A six-person jury acquitted Seiko in December 1998 of owning a dangerous dog. But the city pursued civil charges under dangerous-dog laws.
Dog is Now Safe in a Home, After Disappearing From a Shelter
By The Associated Press
The following article appeared in The Ann Arbor News on July 24, 2000.
A dog that disappeared from a shelter after being ordered destroyed is now living in a home, an animal rights activist said. Ato disappeared last week. The dog was to have been euthanized after biting a paperboy in August 1998. He had been in a Washtenaw County humane society shelter for nearly two years while his fate was decided.
"Ato is safe, and he is alive," said Gary Yourofsky, founder of ADAPTT. "Justice has finally been served. We don't put humans to death for biting. Ato was simply protecting his home and property."
He wouldn't say where the dog was placed. He also said he had no role in Ato's escape. Owners Hiroshi and Seiko Ikuma of Ann Arbor have also denied any role in setting their dog free.
Last year 15th District Court Judge Julie Creal Goodridge ordered Ato destroyed after hearing testimony that Ato had bitten two other people, besides the paperboy, 13-year-old Alex Newton. Newton took 13 stitches to close his wounds.
On Friday the Michigan Court of Appeals declined to hear an emergency appeal of the 7-year-old dog's death sentence, Ann Arbor assistant city attorney Robert West told the Detroit Free Press. Seiko then signed a waiver allowing a veterinarian to put the 90-pound chow chow to death, West said.
The Ikumas have been unsuccessful in their legal attempts to save their dog. The Ikumas attorney, Raymomd Mullins, has told West that he will ask the Supreme Court to hear the appeal.
A six-person jury acquitted Seiko in December 1998 of owning a dangerous dog. But the city pursued civil charges under dangerous-dog laws.
Washtenaw County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Miller said Sunday that the investigation continues into Ato's disappearance from the Huron Valley Humane Society in Superior Township.
Eastpointe Squirrel Feeder Back in Court
By Mike Wowk
The following excerpts appeared in The Detroit News on June 26, 2002.
Shopkeeper Luminitza Marinas says feeding squirrels was one of her few pleasures when she wasn't running her business seven days a week or caring for her 90-year-old mother.
Marinas, who has been fighting Eastpointe officials for more than four years over squirrel feeding, is back in court today.
"Prosecutors all over the country are always telling us they don't have time to prosecute animal rights cases," said Gary Yourofsky. "But all of a sudden, they have time for a squirrel-feeding case? It makes no sense."
Marinas, 62, is a Romanian immigrant who runs Lumination, a new age shop on Nine Mile Road with wind chimes and scented candles. "I don't know why they're going after me," she said. "I just carried two little bags of nuts to the park twice a week. Everybody feeds squirrels. I am being harassed."
It Doesn't Take Horse Sense to See This Sport is Really Abuse
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on May 27, 2006.
As more than 100,000 people gathered at Pimlico Race in Baltimore on May 20 watch which animal could run a circle the fastest, millions of TV viewers witnessed the inherent cruelty of forcing horses to race. Barbaro, who was supposed to be the quickest horse in the Preakness, broke his ankle as he fled out the gate.
The ankle injury is all too common in this animal-enslaving enterprise that breeds 1,000-pound stallions for huge, strong upper bodies but ignores their human-sized ankles that carry the body's weight.
The techniques used to dominate horses are vile. The word "breaking" as in "breaking a horse" doesn't involve whispers and hugs like many people believe. It is physically and psychologically abusive. Getting horses to allow saddles on their backs is the first step of domination. The animal is locked into a small area where the horse quickly realizes he must acquiesce to the demands of his human captor. When the saddle is finally attached, the horse desperately tries to shake it off because the cinch is painfully tight around the hypersensitive waist area.
Then it's time for the bit to be forced into the horse's mouth so his every movement can be controlled. This cruel and vile device forces the horse into full submission. The bit is intentionally placed behind the front cutting teeth and behind the back grinding teeth. When the rein is yanked, the steel implement painfully grinds against the teeth, the roof of the mouth and the cheek area so the horse will submit to the demands of the rider and turn left or right, or stop.
Many racing fans also claim that horses naturally love to run. This is misleading in two ways. First, loving to run and being forced to run are two different things. Animals and people, however, want to run on their own terms, when they feel like exercising, playing, or escaping from a tenuous situation. Second, after spending hundreds of hours at sanctuaries through the years and befriending dozens of horses—many that once raced—I have only seen horses run once.
When the whip weapon is used or threatened to be used, I am not sure how any rational individual can claim that this obscene industry is benign or even necessary in the 21st century.
Civilized societies show compassion and act mercifully toward one another and the creatures that live among them. In the same way cows on dairy farms end up at the slaughterhouse when they can no longer produce huge amounts of milk, the majority of horses in the racing industry wind up at the slaughterhouse —horse flesh is eaten throughout Europe—when they can no longer produce victories.
The Atlanta NAACP is a Racist Organization
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in the Florida Sun-Sentinel and The Oakland Press (Mich.) on September 9, 2007.
Civil rights icon Dick Gregory explained, "Under the leadership of Dr. King, I became convinced that non-violence meant opposition to killing in any form. I felt the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' applied to human beings not only in their dealings with each other, but in their practice of killing animals for food and sport."
Ironically, Michael Vick, his diehard fans and the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP are at polar opposites with Gregory because supporting, defending, excusing or engaging in animal cruelty continue to be everyone's favorite pastime. Rationalizing cruelty and forgetting about victims are the other hobbies humans love most.
For more than 2,000 straight days, hundreds of dogs at Vick's Virginia compound were forced to attack each other while cheering spectators wagered thousands of dollars on which dog would rip the other dog to pieces. Vick's love of violence continued long after the winning dogs' jaws were pried off of the losing dogs' throats. When some of his dogs didn't win, they were slammed to the ground, hanged, electrocuted or drowned. Any talk about Vick making a 'mistake' or being 'immature' is false. Throwing a pass into double coverage is a mistake. Giving someone the finger is immature. Shoving the heads of dogs into a 5-gallon bucket of water until they die is evil, malicious and purely premeditated.
These facts didn't seem to sway R. L. White, who heads the Atlanta NAACP. He recently asked the NFL not to "permanently ban Mr. Vick from his ability to bring hours of enjoyment to fans all over this country." Unless it's self-defense or defense of another, people who murder animals or humans—along with child molesters and rapists—don't deserve equal rights, future career guarantees or the Atlanta NAACP's support. Since the NAACP went out of its way to involve itself in a case that has nothing to do with the violation of Vick's civil rights, I am forced to ask: How much money did Vick donate in order to get the NAACP's outspoken support?
If certain people or influential organizations are defending Vick's psychopathic behavior because of his skin color, then it's just as immoral as anyone condemning him because of it.
White's other comment about Vick receiving "more negative press than if he had killed a human being" can be impugned with two letters: OJ! Simpson has received close to 15 years of negative press. How about the years of unfavorable coverage for Jon Benet Ramsey's parents? Robert "Baretta" Blake and Phil Spector have gotten tons of bad press. How about the negative press Bush receives about the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis and 3,300 American soldiers?
Speaking of White's hypocritical "negative press" statement, didn't the NAACP make a national spectacle out of Michael Richards and Don Imus? Both received way more negative press than Vick, even though the only remnants of their behavior were hurt feelings, not dead bodies. Is the NAACP prepared to ask CBS to bring Imus back after a short hiatus, or urge The Laugh Factory to give Richards another 10 minutes of stage time?
Furthermore, if people are outraged because Vick oversaw the torture and murder of dozens of dogs in the blood-sport of dog-fighting, why aren't people outraged about America's annual torture and murder of 10 billion land animals for the blood-tradition of meat-eating? If you think the dogs that Vick killed suffered greatly, you should see what farm animals endure before their flesh winds up on a grill at Outback. You can view a clip on my www.adaptt.org website. It is deceitful to condemn one form of cruelty to animals and not another, especially when it all happens because of tradition, habit, arrogance and profit. And spare me the invalid comments about humans being more valuable than animals. That discriminatory belief (speciesism) is also the foundation of racism, sexism and heterosexism. Slavery, oppression and discrimination only occur when one group believes they're more important than another.
A lifetime ban from the NFL and the maximum amount of jail time should be Vick's punishment. Better yet, he should be forced to live and die like a pit bull in a dog-fighting ring. Then maybe he, White and many others will finally understand what inequality is all about.
Taming, Riding Horses is an Act of Animal Cruelty
By Gary Yourofsky
The following editorial appeared in The Oakland Press (Mich.) on May 15, 2008.
QUESTION: Why is the horse the only mammal who cannot have a broken leg repaired?
ANSWER: The horse is the only mammal that can be insured for millions of dollars!
As more than 150,000 thrill-seekers gathered at Churchill Downs in Louisville last Saturday to bet on which animal could run a circle the fastest, more than 14 million TV viewers witnessed the inherent cruelty when horses are forced to race. Eight Belles broke both of her front ankles shortly after she crossed the finish line in second place.
Ankle injuries are all too common in this animal-enslaving enterprise that breeds 1,000-pound stallions for huge, strong upper bodies but ignores their human-sized ankles that carry the body's weight. This genetic-altering and selective genetic-breeding process is akin to the meat industry's breeding of pigs who have huge, extra-fleshy upper bodies but weak arthritic legs.
The techniques used to dominate horses are vile. In fact, the word "breaking" as in "breaking a horse" doesn't involve whispers, contrary to what many people want to believe. It is physically and psychologically abusive. Getting horses to allow saddles on their backs is the first step of domination. Animals are locked into a small area where they cannot escape. Horses quickly realize they must acquiesce to the demands of their human captors or face the consequences—which can include food or water deprivation and even killing (euthanasia) if the horse is deemed unmanageable. When the saddle is finally attached, the horse desperately tries to shake it off because the cinch is painfully tight around the hypersensitive waist area.
Animal abuser Trent Normandin even states the following on his website: "The horse goes to great lengths to get the strange object off his back. Trent allows the horse to try to shake off the saddle and learn that he cannot."
Then it's time for the bit to be forced into the horse's mouth so their every movement can be controlled. This cruel and vile device—which used to be shoved into the mouths of black slaves in America when they were auctioned off to white businessmen—forces the horse into full submission. The bit is intentionally placed behind the front cutting teeth and behind the back grinding teeth. When the rein is yanked, the steel implement painfully grinds against the teeth, the roof of the mouth and the cheek area so the horse will submit to the demands of the rider and turn left or right, or stop. The mouth is one of the most sensitive parts of anyone's body, therefore making it not only evil to control someone in this way, but purely fallacious for those in the racing and equestrian industries to call themselves horse-lovers! Intentionally inflicting pain and discomfort on someone else is hateful, not loving.
After the bit is in place, the mounting of the animal which—for the record—does not want to be mounted, is next. Normandin again acknowledges the inherent cruelty of riding a horse: "At this point, the average horse furiously rebels and may buck and rear." It should be abundantly clear that the breaking process does not benefit the horse in any way. It is only a benefit to those who wish to reap profit from the horse's body.
Many racing fans also claim that horses naturally love to run. This is misleading in two ways. First, loving to run and being forced to run are two different things. Every being under the sun, except maybe the sloth, loves to run. So this is a ridiculous rationalization. Animals and people, however, want to run on their own terms, when they feel like exercising, playing, or escaping from a tenuous situation. Secondly, as the nation's only traveling animal rights lecturer (more than 1,600 lectures in 27 states), I have seen thousands of horses in fields along Americas highways and visited many sanctuaries over the years. I have still only seen horses run once! It happened at the SASHA Farm Animal Sanctuary in Manchester, Mich., when a handful of their rescued horses were introduced to a new field in 2003. Their dashing excitement quickly faded after a few minutes, and they went back to their true love: grazing! Not running! Horses, when given the chance, graze as much as cows.
Meanwhile, I have yet to mention the whip. When this weapon is used or threatened to be used, I am not sure how any rational individual can claim that this obscene industry is humane, benign or necessary in the 21st century. Civilized societies are supposed to show compassion and act kindly and mercifully toward one another and the creatures that live amongst them.
Miscellany
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.
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.
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.
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: 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."
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.
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."
Animal Defender Acquitted
Activist Claims Victory for Warren Residents' Constitutional Rights
By Norb Franz
The following excerpts appeared in The Macomb Daily (Mich.) on February 3, 2001.
An animal rights activist arrested by Warren police at a City Council meeting was acquitted Friday of disturbing the peace.
After deliberating for 1 hour and 45 minutes, a 37th District Court jury of six women concluded that Gary Howard Yourofsky did not disrupt a raucous council session highlighted by the debate over the deer herd on property owned by General Motors.
"Maybe police will stop bullying people exercising their First Amendment right," Yourofsky, 30, said as supporters offered hugs and handshakes following the verdict.
Yourofsky, the head of ADAPTT, stood from his seat as council members on Nov. 14 offered their opinions on the relocation of the deer on vacant land across from the GM Technical Center.
Defense attorney Matt Savich said General Motors had provided Warren police with a photo of his client. Savich alleged that officers singled out his client as dozens of people urged city officials to protect the deer from development of the pristine but valuable vacant property along Mound Road, between 12 and 13 Mile. "Yourofsky was clearly targeted. They were looking for him," Savich said.
During the two-day trial, Savich had spirited exchanges with Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Tonya Clawson and Visiting Judge Sherman Faunce. At one point, after Faunce ruled against him on an issue, Savich remarked: Judge, who do you work for, GM?"
The trial was attended by nearly a dozen city activists—several of whom frequently criticize some council members. During testimony, a few were told to quiet down by a court officer who said: "Ladies, don't comment; this isn't a city council meeting."
Yourofsky's arrest in Warren wasn't his first brush with police. An admitted radical, the Oakland County resident said he has been arrested 12 times, all stemming from his defense of animals. Eight of the incidents involved acts of civil disobedience, and he pleaded guilty each time, he said. Had he been convicted, Yourofsky could have been sentenced up to 90 days in jail.
Councilman James Fouts, who along with councilman Mike Wiecek were defense witnesses, said the Yourofsky case put free speech on trial. "I've had a number of people tell me they are afraid to come to council meetings, that if they boo or yell they're going to be arrested," Fouts said.
Man Found Not Guilty of Disrupting Council Meeting
By Brian Louwers
The following excerpts appeared in The Warren Weekly (Mich.) on February 14, 2001.
An animal rights activist arrested during a Warren City Council meeting last November will not go to jail or pay a fine. The charge of disturbing the peace against Royal Oak resident Gary Yourofsky was dismissed February 2, after a jury found him not guilty of breaking the law in council chambers at the Nov. 14 meeting of the Warren City Council.
Yourofsky, the leader of an animal rights group opposing the relocation of deer from property owned by General Motors Corp., was arrested after he stood up during a portion of the meeting set aside for council member comments. After he was asked to take his seat, he exchanged a few words with police before he put his hands behind his back. He was arrested and escorted out of the chambers by Warren police.
Yourofsky has said he was not breaking the law when he stood in protest and asked to be recognized. Though arrested eight times in his crusade against perceived injustice toward animals, he was pleased with the jury's decision in this case. "The case was a victory for the citizens of Warren who have been hassled and harassed by police officers," Yourofsky said. "All the City Council is trying to do is silence the people who speak out when they have an opposing view."
Warren City Council member James Fouts, a staunch opponent of time limits for members of the council or the audience wishing to speak at meetings, testified on behalf of the defense, as did council member Mike Wiecek.
"I felt the First Amendment to the Constitution was on trial," Fouts said. "They denied a citizen the right to speak. That amounts to a police state in the city of Warren."
Animal Rights Group Calls on Christians
Meatless Fridays Campaign Motivates Push for Vegan Life
By Kim Kozlowski
The following excerpts appeared in The Detroit News & Free Press on March 4, 2001.
Gary Yourofsky, an animal rights activist in Royal Oak, thinks meat-eaters who call themselves Christians are "animal murderers."
"As far as I'm concerned, Christian carnivores are committing the ultimate sin by enslaving, torturing and murdering animals for food, clothing and entertainment," said Yourofsky, founder of ADAPTT. "It is completely irrational to say God would mandate the animal slavery and cruelty that is taking place today."
But the practice of not eating meat, especially on Fridays, is a practice for Catholics that is rooted in biblical history—not animal activism. Before the reforms of Vatican II in 1966, Catholics were obligated to avoid meat every Friday throughout the year because Jesus died on Friday, according to Fr. John H. West, a theologian at the Detroit archdiocese. Now it's voluntary practice, but one that is still highly encouraged during the holy season of Lent.
Accusations Raise Hackles at PETA
Animal Rights Group Criticized for Links to Terrorism
By Bill Burke
The following excerpts appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on June 22, 2002.
PETA doesn't let political correctness get in the way of a good campaign, be it a menacing Ronald McDonald wielding a bloody butcher knife or "Got Beer?" billboards mocking the milk industry.
In recent months, PETA has come under attack for...hiring a national lecturer who served two months in prison for breaking into a Canadian mink farm and freeing 1,500 animals and reportedly saying he condones arson at "places of animal torture" and would "unequivocally support" the death of a researcher at a targeted lab.
Earlier this month a story appeared on a website operated by Center for Consumer Freedom under the headline "PETA's New Pro-Violence Promoter." The story was about Gary Yourofsky, an animal rights activist hired May 20 by PETA as a lecturer. His title, PETA spokeswoman Lisa Lange said, is "humane education presenter."
PETA's critics point out that Yourofsky has been arrested more than a dozen times and in 1999 spent two months in an Ontario jail for a 1997 mink release at a farm there. Yourofsky and his fellow animal liberators also destroyed breeding records, according to news reports.
In a June 2001 interview with The Toledo Blade, Yourofsky is quoted as having written to supporters, "Do not be afraid to condone arsons at places of animal torture." If an "animal abuser" were killed in a firebombing at a research lab, "I would unequivocally support that, too," he told the newspaper. The article said Yourofsky wears a tattoo on his arm of himself wearing a hood and displaying the symbols of the Animal Liberation Front. He probably won't be around to see the animal rights movement achieve all of its goals, he said, because "I really think I will be assassinated."
Of Yourofsky's background, PETA's general counsel Jeffrey Kerr said: "What he did or said before coming to PETA is irrelevant. The important thing is what work he does for us."
Zoo Director Defends Decision
By Christy Strawser
The following excerpts appeared in The Daily Tribune (Mich.) on July 4, 2004.
The fuzzy gloves really come off when officials from the American Zoological Association and Detroit Zoo face off on the zoo's decision to find a new home for its longtime elephant residents Wanda and Winky.
"We don't know of any zoo in a temperate climate that has Asian elephants and is large, has lots of elephants and manages them in a kind of protected situation," said Ron Kagan (Detroit Zoo Director), who has looked at the 2,700-acre natural habitat Elephant Sanctuary of Tennessee as a possible home for Wanda and Winky.
AZA members say elephants are necessary in zoos because the awe of their presence can spur the public to raise funds to fend off endangerment. Some say fewer people will visit the zoo if elephants are gone, which could set off financial losses. Kagan counters by saying the AZA is "dangerously out of touch" with the public if members think people will stay away to protest missing elephants.
Local animal rights activist Gary Yourofsky, founder of ADAPTT, said Kagan deserves credit. The activist's best case scenario, though, is a zoo supporter's worst nightmare. Yourofsky hopes disbanding the elephant exhibits is the first step toward replacing zoos with a virtual experience where live animal videos are broadcast through closed circuit television. "It's not necessary to have a place at 10 Mile and Woodward where people can gawk at animals. People in tune with animal feelings realize it's not a nice situation for animals, it's only a nice sitaution for humans. Nothing justifies putting them in captivity."
ACLU Claims FBI Planned to Spy at IU
By The AP
The following article was written by The Associated Press on December 21, 2005.
The American Civil Liberties Union claims government documents it obtained show that the FBI planned to have terrorism investigators spy on a 2003 animal rights event at Indiana University.
The alleged plan to infiltrate a campus speech by an environmental activist was contained in hundreds of pages of heavily censored documents ACLU lawyers obtained from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act. An FBI spokeswoman denied the agency took any such action.
One of the documents, which the ACLU posted on its Web site Tuesday, is from the Indianapolis FBI office and referred to plans to conduct surveillance and collect "general intelligence" during an April 2003 speech by animal rights advocate Gary Yourofsky at the Indiana Memorial Union.
"It's hard to see how surveillance of animal rights groups makes us safer from terrorism, but it's easy to see how it threatens our constitutional rights to free speech and privacy," said Fran Quigley, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, an ACLU affiliate.
Wendy Osborne, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Indianapolis office, said the surveillance did not take place. "I can tell you we did not conduct surveillance in Bloomington at that meeting or any meeting like that," she told The Herald Times.
"The FBI has to operate under the attorney general's guidelines," she said. "We don't just go around and watch organizations and go to meetings to see who's showing up. We're not allowed to do that, nor do we do that."
Yourofsky was sentenced to six months in jail in Ontario, Canada, for his part in releasing more than 1,500 minks from a mink farm. The activist, who has been affiliated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow, has lectured at several college campuses.
In May, Fresno State University's president warned authorities no police surveillance would be permitted on campus unless it was required by law and approved by administrators, following student complaints that undercover officers attended a lecture by Yourofsky in November 2004.
...and lastly...
"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