Ayn Rand Institute Press Release

Animal Rights Activists Are Not Pro-Animal, They Are Anti-Human
August 7, 2008

Irvine, CA--Last Saturday, animal rights activists used firebombs to attack two UC Santa Cruz biologists--exploding the car of one scientist, who was not present, while bombing the townhouse of another, who sustained minor injuries while fleeing with his wife and two small children.

"This sort of attack is shocking and reprehensible, but unfortunately it is not surprising," said Dr. Keith Lockitch, resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute. "It is not surprising when supporters of animal 'rights' use violence and intimidation, because their cause is fundamentally anti-human."

"Animal activists claim that their goal is to stop gratuitous torture inflicted for no reason. But that is a smokescreen. They fight against such benign practices as keeping animals in circuses and zoos, or even as pets--no matter how well-loved and well-cared-for they are. Worst of all, they oppose the use of animals in research, no matter how humanely they are treated and no matter how many lives could be saved from the medical advances this makes possible.

"All of this is based on the false notion that animals have 'rights.' But the concept of 'rights' properly only applies to rational beings, who can recognize and respect the rights of others. In the name of the imagined 'rights' of animals, they have no hesitation about assaulting the actual rights of individual people.

"It is a mistake to regard these criminals as 'extremists' who are hijacking an otherwise valid cause. It is the cause of animal 'rights,' itself, that is vicious and anti-human."

### ### ###

Dr. Lockitch has a PhD in Physics from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. He writes and edits for ARI and is a professor in the Objectivist Academic Center, where he teaches undergraduate writing and a graduate course on the history of physics. His writings have appeared in publications such as the Orange County Register and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Dr. Keith Lockitch is available for interviews. To book him for your show, please contact Larry Benson:
800-365-6552 ext. 213 (office)
949-838-5137 (cell)
larryb@aynrand.org

For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."

                                                                                                     RSS