People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ Bruce Friedrich, one of the few animal rights agitators radical enough to rise to the level of third-in-command at PETA, told The (Northwest Indiana) Times last week that he objects the use of the adjective “militant” to describe him. “As for being a radical vegetarian,” Friedrich lectured, “I always remind people to be polite in their beliefs and preferences.” He then went on to discourage other activists from being “the type of vegetarian no one wants to ask over to dinner or eat out with.”
Has he looked in the mirror lately? This is the same Bruce Friedrich who mooned the Queen of England last year, and then told the “Animal Rights 2001” convention that “it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks who fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it’s perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through windows.” [Click here if you haven’t yet heard this quote for yourself.]
Bruce Friedrich’s brand of lunacy is becoming a typical part of PETA’s worldview. After listening to Friedrich rant on a recent Fox News Channel show about the “horrors” of fishing, radio host Mike Gallagher noted that “PETA chases away anybody who’d ever want to be a part of this organization. The only thing missing right now from Bruce is a tinfoil hat on his head.”
