The latest raid by the FBI on the home of Peter Young should serve as a wakeup call to every vegan activist worldwide. Regardless of whether you agree with what he did in the past or any of the allegiances that he may have, the execution of the warrant could potentially open the doors for similar harassment of others in the future.
The fact that a judge signed off on the warrant that included the terms ‘go vegan’ and ‘straightedge’ is of a great concern to all, as these are almost daily used words by most vegans.
In these days of governments being all touchy feely about things relating to homeland security and terryrism, things just seem to be going overboard.
The time has come for every vegan blogger, Facebook page creator and so on to start cross-posting and sharing links about everything that happens to a group or individual in the name of veganism and Animal Rights. It is irrelevant whether you agree with whatever tactics are used, the fact of the matter is that whatever happens to them will soon happen to the rest of us.
It reminds me of the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller, which I have paraphrased below.
THEY CAME FIRST for the ALF activist, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an ALF activist.
THEN THEY CAME for the MDA Activist, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an MDA Activist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Abolitionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an Abolitionist.
THEN THEY CAME for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.
These are the divide and conquer tactics that governments do so well. In Australia, we have seen it a number of times. They did it to the shooting fraternity to take their firearms away from them. They did it to the union movement by targeting the stevedores under the guise of increasing productivity.
Now they are doing it to the Animal Rights community by targeting the outer fringe of the movement.
Every time that any of us hears of an activist being raided or questioned by law enforcement and we keep quiet about it, we are giving them permission to do the same to us when our time comes.
Everything that happens to the Animal Rights/Vegan movement needs to be made public by everyone. If we don’t stand up and raise our voices in support of them now, who will do it for us?
This article was written by the founder of VeganPolice.com.au, Cameron Blewett.
Cameron is a long term vegan (30+yrs), and is passionate about veganism, and helping people to understand more about it and giving other animals equal consideration.
You can find Cameron’s other rants on his website, CameronBlewett.blog