The June 2002 issue of WATT Poultry USA has an article by Richard Berman, executive director for the Center for Consumer Freedom, on "PETA And Friends." It begins: "Animal rights extremists would like to put you out of business. Who are they? What are their tactics? Does your neighbor down the street help fund them?" Here are the opening paragraphs.

" 'It is speciesist to think that the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center was a greater tragedy than what millions of chickens endured that day and what they endure every day because they cannot defend themselves against the concerted human appetites arrayed against them . . . the people who died in the attack did not suffer more terrible deaths than animals in slaughterhouses suffer every day.'

"Those are the words of Karen Davis, who runs the anti-poultry activist group United Poultry Concerns out of a Virginia home she shares with over 100 duck and chicken 'companions.' Davis concludes that 'the deaths of thousands of people' on September 11 actually 'reduced the amount of pain and suffering in the world'-since some 3,000 people would no longer be alive to eat chickens.

"Davis's words expose the twisted reasoning of animal rights extremists, who have launched a jihad against producers of poultry and other meats. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., of the Water Keeper Alliance echoed Davis's words when he called the pork industry a 'threat . . . greater than that in Afghanistan.' "

The article goes on to criticize the "arrogant recklessness that permeates the core of the animal rights movement." PETA, the Animal Liberation Front, and the Earth Liberation Front are berated for their activities.

On July 2, 2002, Karen Davis was inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame "for outstanding contributions to animal liberation."

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United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. For more information visit www.UPC-online.org