A Series of Tubes

So if you read my previous post or have been following Santa Cruz news lately you will know that there was an attack at the house of a researcher by some animal rights activists.  I wrote earlier about the attack and briefly mentioned Peter Young, who is pictured at right.  Peter Young spent two years in prison for animal rights activities.  He advocates breaking the law in order to achieve animal rights but he also says that he opposes violence.  His response to the attacks at a researcher’s house that occurred three days after he made a speech in Santa Cruz as quoted by the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

He said the case seemed to be a “P.R. smear campaign by vivisectors to discredit the work of activists. I’m quite sure somebody didn’t try to break into the house. We’re against violence.”

So as long as Peter Young is venturing a guess I think I will also venture a guess.  I think that the people that attacked the house of the researcher at Santa Cruz were inspired by Peter Young.  I have a feeling that my guess conforms to Occam’s Razor a bit more than his does.

Peter Young is also quoted as saying: “More than anything, I regret my restraint, because whatever damage we did to those businesses, if those farms were left standing, and if one animal was left behind, then it wasn’t enough.”

It is interesting to listen to Peter’s speech, something I’m doing as I write this.  He talks about how poorly he was treated in prison after he is caught and how he was placed next to murderers and placed in shackles.  Of course prison reform, changing the laws or regulations regarding animal rights, and swaying public opinion is not what he is interested in.  He wants more people to go to prison for the cause of animal rights.  According to Peter, preventing research is something that you should be willing to go to jail over.  The worst part about his rhetoric is that his approach is the least likely one to create any change in the system.  A more likely result from Peter’s speech is that impressionable people were inspired by what they see as a martyr, go to a researchers house with bad intentions, trespass, intimidate, and attack that researchers house and family during her daughter’s birthday party.