Hunt activist backs violence as tactic (CHASSE AU PHOQUE)

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http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/19/seal-assassinate050419.html

Hunt activist backs violence as tactic

Last Updated Tue, 19 Apr 2005 12:22:44 EDT
CBC News
ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. - A senior member of a group campaigning against the East
Coast seal hunt says physically attacking people such as research scientists
and sealers is an "effective tactic" that may be justified in the quest to
save animal life.

Dr. Jerry Vlasak has even backed assassinating scientists in at least one
public speech, a view that convinced Britain to bar the long-time board
member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society from visiting the United
Kingdom last year.


Dr. Jerry Vlasak
Yet the California physician was able to enter Canada to protest the spring
hunt off Quebec's Magdalen Islands this year, along with group president
Paul Watson and several other members. He now faces a charge of interfering
with the hunt.


FROM MARCH 31, 2005: Activists arrested while protesting seal hunt

In the past, Vlasak has spoken on behalf of such radical groups as the
Animal Liberation Front, which the FBI considers a terrorist threat.

He once told an animal rights conference that killing research scientists
would save lab animals from experiments he considers cruel.

"If these vivisectors were being targeted for assassination, and call it
political assassination or what have you ... strictly from a fear and
intimidation factor, that would be an effective tactic," he said.

"I don't think you'd have to kill, assassinate too many vivisectors before
you would see a marked decrease in the amount of vivisection."


FROM QUIRKS AND QUARKS: Animals and research

In an interview with CBC, Vlasak did not back down from those views when
asked if sealers are in the same league as animal researchers.

"Are these people comparable to people that chop up animals in laboratories
just to further their academic careers? Yeah, I think they're all abhorrent
in a certain way, yes," he said.

"The threat of violence would be another way to stop them and I would be
behind that threat."


Dr. Jerry Vlasak's bloody nose from a Sea Shepherd Society video.
Vlasek also told the CBC he did nothing wrong while protesting the Canadian
seal hunt in late March and intends to fight the charges in court.

"I was punched in the face by a sealer with his bare knuckles while I was
trying to have a rational conversation," he said.

David Martosko, a Washington researcher who tracks groups like the Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society, says Vlasak's comments demonstrate a
dangerous side of the animal rights movement.

"They are not animal welfarists, they're animal liberationists," he said.

"That's a very, very dangerous philosophy to espouse, especially if you're
willing to cross the line into violence to achieve it."