Through the generosity of a Madame Benney living in Provence, I have
received a graciously signed copy of Keith Mann’s monumental publication
of 644 pages entitled: FROM DUSK ‘TIL DAWN. It is full of illustrations
and – though I’ve so far simply scanned through it – one thing is made
extremely clear: The ALF is totally against damaging the life of any
species – and that includes the most predatory of all! And such an
ethical stand is highlighted in an excerpt from a highly respected
publication which read:
It is a strange sort of terrorist campaign, to say the very
least, which has waged for over 20 years without killing anyone!
(The Observer: July 1992)
Property may well be damaged in an effort of animal rights activists
seeking to free defenceless animals from torture, but they do not attack
the perpetrators themselves. At least – during my fifty year involvement
with them! – I have never known an authentic animal activist, or indeed
a liberationist, to be one who would seek to harm life of any kind.
Reverence for all life is their motto, but this is not to be confused
with reverence for property.
I view the animal activist bodies, as I have come to know them, as
akin to the actions, life styles and aims of other philanthropic
movements. I think of the past works of William Wilberforce – a founder
member of what later evolved in to the RSPCA. And in more recent times,
the life work of a Mahatma Gandhi or, indeed, a Martin Luther King. The
fact is that such people were basically driven by an urge to protect
forms of life that had been horribly abused and yet couldn’t speak up
for themselves.
Yes, such movements may well have resorted to damaging property, but
the motive behind it was surely an altruistic one: no less than the
liberation of innocent life that had undergone horrendous abuse! Indeed,
the appalling tragedy was that the law of their day was heavily slanted
in putting property of far more value than life, and this was reflected
in the harsh sentences that were, and still are, meted out. Indeed, has
not this perversion and distortion of moral priorities been one that has
marred our past British history and penal system? One could be pilloried
and flogged for stealing a loaf of bread; and when the so-called crime
was at the cost to property owned by the governing classes penalties
were more unjust than ever
Up to his deathbed, my Dad did not appreciate my leanings as a young
man towards Christianity. And who could blame him when the local
churches proclamation of it was so unlike Jesus Christ’s! The Vicar of
the village would never start the Sunday service until the local squire
had arrived; and when he did, others touched their hat or doffed their
cap. The red carpet would frequently be rolled out to the main door,
except for when he chose entrance into a side chapel where the pews were
upholstered and its small fireplace lit when appropriate. This ‘lord of
the manor’ was far from being an unkind fellow. He certainly had his
many good points, as did his wife. She visited the poor of the parish on
a purely voluntary and unpaid mission. ‘She was not poor!’ Indeed, the
squire was also the local magistrate who dispensed the law; and even the
local bobby would doff his helmet in the squire’s presence.
Well, the above refers to well over a century ago, and we are now in
the age of a so-called Socialist government, till recently under Tony
Blair’s leadership and reflective of an embryonic Third Reich. Those who
live in earshot of HLS and similar hell-holes are akin to those who
lived in Dachau, near the concentration camp. They worshipped at the
picturesque church, learned to avoid the evils of profanity, four letter
words and self-abuse. Yes, while in ear and nose shot of the sounds and
smells of the incinerators! Well, I tell you, we in Britain today are
far guiltier. Those past Germans dared not to speak out for fear of the
consequences. We in a democracy CAN speak out without recrimination, yet
– quite unforgivably - we remain mute!
Well, as I see it, such a ‘profession’ of the faith of Christ is
nothing but contemptuous of all that Jesus stood for. Our Saviour was
one whose greatest act of militance was to enter the temple of Jerusalem
– the focal point of all worship – and there to liberate animals and
birds about to be ritually slaughtered. Yes, and in the process of
liberating the latter and driving out the former with a whip, He appears
to have knocked over some tables with force. Enough to send their
‘filthy lucre’ well and truly spinning. If this was not deliberate
damage to property as well as sacrilege and profanity, then what was?
But Our Blessed Lord justified such an act, to Himself, because life for
Him was more sacred and of value to Him than a centre of worship and the
furnishings it contained. He spoke of His Father in Heaven requiring
mercy rather than (ritual) sacrifice, hence it was an act of ‘righteous
indignation’. And I truly feel that many raids perpetrated in the past,
by liberationists such as Keith Mann, have similarly been fuelled by a
spirit of righteous indignation rather than any spirit of wanton
vandalism.. However, a law that puts property before life will not
concede to such a view, and can become contemptible
My review of Keith Mann’s blockbuster (672 pages & 140 photos)
will appear in the next newsletter. Sufficient to say that copies are
available at £14.99, plus £2 postage, from Keith Mann, BM2636. London
WCIN 3XX
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