'Humane' charities contribute to violence

By: David Martosko
Newspaper: Las Vegas Review-Journal

If law-enforcement agencies are serious about attacking the growing problem of animal rights violence, they should start looking for clues inside some of the better known animal-protection charities ("Animal rights terrorists," Monday Review-Journal editorial).

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has spent more than $150,000 defending arsonists and other violent animal-rights criminals, including at least four who are currently in federal prison. The group actually wrote a check to the terrorist Earth Liberation Front in 2001.

And the senior staff of the Humane Society of the United States includes at least one former spokesperson for the terrorist Animal Liberation Front. The super-rich lobby group fought tooth and nail against passage of the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, our nation's toughest law dealing with just this sort of crime.

The animal protection movement's wealthy "above-ground" charities often defend and promote its underground bomb-throwers. The federal government should be aggressively investigating to fully expose these connections.

David Martosko WASHINGTON, D.C. THE WRITER IS RESEARCH DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR CONSUMER FREEDOM.