GEN. WESLEY Clark was making headway as an anti-war moderate until his friend Michael Moore started calling President Bush a "deserter." Last year, the country could have had a principled debate on the war, until MoveOn.org entered the fray with its fringe views. And "the Jacko," wacko that he is, might have gotten a ghost of a fair shake, until the anti-Semitic, racially separatist Nation of Islam got involved in his affairs. Time after time, extremists have hijacked legitimate debates.
Here at the University, opponents of the Medical Center's use of dogs for student training could have had great success in raising sympathy for man's best friend. But then along came the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and you can be sure that this canine campaign will, as they say, go to the dogs.
Last Friday's Daily Progress reported on the Medical Center's use of canine companions for a "Life Saving Techniques" lab. After medical students practice "saving" the dogs -- tying sutures around blood vessels, inserting chest tubes and cutting into windpipes to create airways -- the dogs are put to sleep. A little fewer than 100 dogs are put to death each year ("Dog lab critics trigger heated debate," Jan. 30). While most mainstream Americans have no problem with using lab rats and chimps for research that will save lives, the Medical Center's decision to practice on our most cherished pets would probably otherwise raise more than a few protests. But PETA's involvement in this affair diminishes the case for dog lovers and instead focuses the story on the radical organization itself.
PETA is not so much pro-animal as it is anti-humanity. After all, if it were truly focused on the wellbeing of all creatures great and small, what business would it have funding extremist ecoterrorists and arsonists? Now more than ever, Americans reject the use of terrorism to achieve political ends. Yet PETA has funneled money to the violent Earth Liberation Front (ELF), which has firebombed SUV dealers across the country. While mainstream environmentalists are fighting to protect water supplies, ELF even sabotaged a drinking water facility to protest the "commodification of water" (www.consumerfreedom.com and "Enabling, and Disabling, Ecoterrorists," The New York Times, Nov. 16, 2003).
If PETA and ELF really cared about the environment, they would work to improve fuel efficiency and water quality. The fact that they would rather torch vehicles, thereby releasing plumes of toxins into the air, attack our drinking water and endanger lives reveals their true colors; they don't want to make the world more livable -- they don't want humanity to live.
Even when PETA sticks to its ostensible issue of animal rights, it rejects the nonviolent means practiced by its leftist brethren. Instead of protesting peacefully, PETA sponsors arsonists like Rodney Coronado, who spent four years in a federal penitentiary for burning down a Michigan State animal research lab (The Abrams Report, Feb. 24, 2003).
Recently, PETA has also taken to the streets to accost families, handing children propaganda with a depiction of a mother knifing a rabbit. "Your mommy kills animals," reads the pamphlet. "How many animals did she kill to make her fur coat? The sooner she stops wearing fur, the sooner the animals will be safe" (Hannity & Colmes, Dec. 19, 2003).
Our society cherishes legitimate differences of opinion, but in order to accommodate every viewpoint, there are certain minimum standards of decency and civilized conduct for how we express ourselves. PETA is a bunch of fanatics who know no standards of fair play and will stop at nothing to impose their self-hate for mankind on everyone else. If people of good conscience are genuinely concerned about stopping the Medical Center's practice on pooches, they must reject PETA's involvement before the extremists hijack their efforts. Otherwise, as they say, that dog won't hunt.
(Eric Wang's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at ewang@cavalierdaily.com.)
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