HERNDON/ American Policy -- On June 30th, the enemies of humanity will gather at an annual Animal Rights conference to be held in McLean, Virginia. Their cause may be animal rights, but their objective is to deprive humans of new cures for AIDS, cancer, and other diseases, along with the development of new medical techniques to bring an end to other causes of suffering. And that's just one element of an agenda aimed at every living man, woman and child on earth.

These animal rights advocates have an agenda that is so bizarre most people simply dismiss it as lunacy, but the reality is that they are well funded and well organized. Worse, there is an increasing likelihood that they are engaging in a form of terrorism that can wreak havoc on the economies of whole nations.

International law enforcement authorities suspect that England's sudden outburst of foot-and-mouth disease may herald a form of animal rights terrorism that ratchets up the stakes in a war that has long been waged against any sort of agricultural, commercial and research activity seen as a threat to animals. If, in fact, the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom was the work of animal rights terrorists, it rapidly achieved the goal of having a devastating effect on that nation's economy. In the United States, animal diseases, particularly those deliberately spread by animal rights terrorists, would be a major threat to the $55 billion-a-year livestock industry.

Following the outbreak of FMD in England, Ingrid Newkirk, the co-founder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, let it be known she hoped the disease would sweep the US as well. Her justification was that destruction of US livestock would "wake up" consumers and only bring economic harm to "those who raised animals in farm-style concentration camps." Newkirk reportedly told the Environmental News Network that FMD would be "good for animals, good for human health, and good for the environment."

Animal rights extremists have been increasing their terrorist activities for years and the attacks have been international in scope. In the United Kingdom, the Association of Medical Research Charities withdrew its funds from a bank that refused to hold shares in the Huntingdon Life Sciences Group. At the same time, both the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and Bioindustry Association announced they, too, were considering withdrawing business from banks and other financial institutions if they cave into the threats of animal rights extremists.

Huntington Life Sciences was the target of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance in early May. Scheduled speakers included Kevin Kjonnes who, previously, had been the spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front in the wake of a break-in at a University of Minnesota laboratory that destroyed years of research. He subsequently traveled to England to observe the anti-HLS campaign there.

Police continue to investigate suspected sabotage in April at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Hillsboro and at the Cornell University Duck Laboratory, where some 250 ducklings were stolen with credit claimed by a spray-painted signature from the North American Animal Liberation front. The incident took place during "World Week for Animals in Laboratories." Ironically, the Cornell Laboratory does research dedicated to production, testing and distribution of vaccines used to protect the domestic duck population. That same month, a medical research company, ICRC, in Castroville, California, was raided and more than two dozen research rabbits were stolen. The company raises rabbits for the development of antibodies used to detect disease in plants and animals.

More than a thousand animal rights crimes occur every year and they include arson, theft, and physical assaults.

The groups represented at the forthcoming June 30-July 5 Animal Rights conference are a who's who of those tacitly promoting the growing wave animal rights terrorism. They include the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Humane Society of the United States, In Defense of Animals, the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, Farm Sanctuary, the American-Vivisection Society, Animal Protection Institute, Doris Day Animal league, E Magazine, Fund for Animals, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the National Anti-Vivisection Society.

Among the speakers scheduled are Craig Rosebraugh, a press spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, former PETA founder, Alex Pacheco, and Elliot Katz from In Defense of Animals. One of the topics to be discussed is "the role of violence" to achieve their goals.

Animal rights activists are utterly indifferent to the medical breakthroughs that have resulted from research conducted with animals to first determine their safety for humans. Similarly, animal rights activists believe that humans should not eat animals for any reason nor benefit from them in any fashion. They are, in their madness, utterly oblivious to the fact that human civilization arose initially from the use of animals as food, for clothing, and other basic needs.

The list of companies and other enterprises targeted for animal rights violence literally encompasses whole industries that include international restaurant chains, ranching of every description, fur farming, pharmaceuticals, and many others.

So far, the mainstream media has failed to focus on animal rights advocates in terms of their real threat to society. Instead, more often than not, they have received ample opportunity to present their agenda as outrageous publicity stunts. It is far more sinister than that. It has all the hallmarks of a criminal enterprise.

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report, a monthly newsletter, and is president of the American Policy Center, an activist think tank. The Center maintains an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org.

Published by permission.