From animal rights terrorism testimony by Dr. Michael Conn, associate director of the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center: “My plane was met at the Tampa airport by animal extremists who tried to engage and film me… Some stood outside meeting room doors, distributing fliers that made outlandish claims and lobbying attendees… I received threatening calls at the hotel and knocks on the door in the middle of the night… It got so bad that an armed state police officer was assigned to look after me.
“At a little after 4 a.m. on the day of my departure, the police officer met me in the lobby of the hotel, escorted me to a taxi… I thought it was over, and with a tremendous sense of relief I checked in and passed through [airport] security. Suddenly, as I was about to step onto an escalator, I became aware that some of the extremists — muttering ‘we came to say goodbye,’ and ‘we were afraid we missed you’ — had physically surrounded me.”
Animal rights terrorism is a growing threat. Did anti-meat People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals denounce the harassment of Dr. Conn? Would linking PETA to Conn’s experience be taking things out of context? Hardly. PETA, “one of the largest animal extremist organizations in the world… created a page for me on their website, soliciting e-mails and letters.”
