Animal-Rights Activist Stirs Human Emotions
It is ironic that Ava Park, so-called Animals’ Watchdog, allowed herself to be photographed with her animal slaves, Raffee and Dee (“Animals’ Watchdog,” Jan. 29 ). She seems oblivious to the fact that a belief in animal rights, equal to those of humans, is a slippery slope leading to the logical conclusion that the keeping of other animals as pets is a form of slavery.
Parks, as well as most of the members of the animal-rights fringe, are guilty of mammal chauvinism, caring and protesting more for the rights of rabbits, harp seals, dogs and cats than for their brethren further down the evolutionary scale in the animal kingdom. When was the last time anyone heard of the Animal Liberation Front breaking into a genetics research laboratory to liberate fruit flies?
Presumably Ms. Park, as an activist with the courage of her convictions, would shun any medical procedure or drug developed with the aid of animal models. Thus, if she ever needed heart bypass surgery, insulin injections or skin grafts, she would forgo them out of respect for the rights of the animals that gave their lives in the development of such therapies. Likewise, faced with a termite or cockroach infestation, she would choose to cohabit with these small animals rather than having them exterminated.
While all living things should be treated with respect for their role in nature, in the final analysis each of us chooses the level at which we draw the line regarding personal survival. Thus, carnivores eat animals, omnivores both plants and animals, while vegetarians kill and eat only plants. The bottom line for Ava Park and all the rest of us is this--for us to live, something else must die.
DAN SHEPARD, Huntington Beach
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Thank you for the great article about Ava Park, founder of the Orange County People for Animals organization.
Ava is a truly incredible woman,deserving of considerable admiration both for her honorable convictions and for the courage she displays on a daily basis. I went through a similar metamorphosis after allowing myself to recognize the numerous abuses that humans bestow upon the other living beings with whom we share this planet.
It is truly mind-boggling how callous and uncaring the human species can be. What other animal kills and maims for fun, sport or economic gain? Unfortunately, once you open your eyes and heart to the atrocities that go on every hour of every day in laboratories, factory farms, the entertainment industry, there is just no turning back--no return to that safe haven of ignorant bliss.
The only consolation is in knowing that your beliefs and values are in the right place and that maybe there is hope for a kinder, gentler future for us all. Animal rights is about all living beings having the right to peace on Earth. How can this be bad?
M.A. BROWN, Newport Beach
