In response to the Guest commentary by Carrie Freeman that attacked columnist Army Feth’s decision to wear a fur coat (“Protecting animals is happier than selfishly wearing them,” ODE, Nov. 2):
It’s interesting that Freeman claims that Feth mischaracterized the Dalai Lama’s peaceful Buddhist principles, when Freeman evidently has no problem with mischaracterizing raising farm animals as slavery or saying that humans are animals. Nor does she have any qualms stating that being compassionate and wearing fur are somehow mutually exclusive. Freeman associates farm animals with slavery, yet Freeman has no shame in using African Americans and stepping on their backs by associating what they suffered with the suffering of farm animals.
PETA recently apologized and pulled a bus tour that equated farm animals with slavery, after African Americans protested this comparison. (The fact that PETA tried the same tactic with Jews and the Holocaust, which met with similar protest, makes their most recent apology hollow). The objections and feelings of African Americans to this comparison evidently means nothing to the supposedly compassionate Freeman.
Freeman claims that animals raised on farms are raised in cramped cages and then electrocuted “up their butt” or gassed in a “primitive gas chamber” begs the question, what world is she living in? Fur farms have a certification program developed in conjunction with the American Veterinarian Medical Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farms are certified by inspection by an independent veterinarian to verify compliance with these standards. Farms must be re-inspected and recertified every 3 years. About 95 percent of domestic mink production occurs on certified farms that meet industry standards and have passed veterinary inspection. Industry guidelines regarding euthanasia follow the recommendations of the 1986 American Veterinary Medical Association Panel on Euthanasia. The guidelines recommend the use of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide bottled gas for mink and lethal injection for fox, which is also used to put your dog or cat to sleep humanely. This information can easily be found at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Web site.
Freeman claims animal lovers are compassionate, but that does not explain the millions of dollars in damages caused every year by animal rights terrorists. Ask Anna Wintour who has been attacked by these “compassionate” people just how compassionate they really are. How many college research laboratories have been destroyed by these compassionate people? Why are two compassionate PETA employees facing multiple counts of animal cruelty in North Carolina? Forcing one’s own morality on others is not compassionate.
Those who result to the use of lies, force and intimidation to achieve their ends do so because they can not achieve them through reason, truth, and morality. Freedom means freedom to choose whether to wear fur or not, without the use of lies, force, or intimidation.
James Mullen lives in Maryland