A dragonfly lands on the ring finger of the man with
whom I am having tea at a waterside table in sunny south Florida; and
for a moment is the safest place the insect will ever be. The gentleman
reacts with surprised delight. “Look at this,” he whispered, “look, it’s
just a baby. Maybe he’ll come home with me and be my dragonfly.” After a
moment, the fantasy ended and the bug flew off, and the man shrugged and
said “or not.”
How many of us would stop in mid-sentence to regard a
small, harmless insect alight on our fingers? Maybe most of us would
slap it away before even seeing what it was. But not this man, not Alex
Pacheco.
Alex is probably not too well known as a bug person,
unless, of course you count a certain famous Beatle with whom he’s
become somewhat friendly. But that’s another story. What Alex is famous
for, of course, is being the co-founder of the People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, (PeTA). That and a whole lot of dangerous and
daring animal rescues.
Alex Pacheco came from very humble beginnings. The son
of a doctor and nurse, he was raised in Mexico along with his brother,
now a globe-trotting college professor, and his sister, a nurse in
Seattle. Animals were part of his daily existence. There were chickens
on the roof, dogs and cats and horses everywhere. There were all manner
of mammals, fowl and reptiles, even in the live markets, even in the
streets. Alex came by his passion for animals quite honestly.
His first real “mission” was to put a stop to the
unlawful hunting of whales. As a crewmember aboard a Sea Shepherd
vessel, he sailed into international waters to stop Norwegian and
Japanese hunters from slaughtering whales. He was just 18 at the time,
and a long, long way from sunny Mexico. Alex would later be accused of
being the “ringleader” many times after that, but this time, he was
simply a crewmember. Still, he got an award for being the best
crewmember on the ship. It was a hint of things to come.
He met Ingrid Newkirk some time after that, in the city
shelter, in Washington D.C. It was the early seventies and he and Ingrid
struck up a friendship based on their mutual passion for animals.
Together they put together campaigns and launched ideas. According to
Alex, Ingrid was responsible for taking the DC pound to new and
wonderful heights. She was tireless in all her pursuits for the animals
in her care and never stopped working for them. PeTA was not even a
concept yet, and the use of the words “animal rights” was not quite the
household word it is today, not in this country anyway. Living on
Ingrid’s meager salary at the city shelter, the activists recruited
volunteers, held demonstrations, and used the media to the best
advantage for the animals, a controversial legacy PeTA continues today.
In 1981, about a year after the official founding of
PeTA, their lives changed forever. Alex took a job as a volunteer
researcher’s assistant in an animal laboratory in Silver Springs,
Maryland. His duties enabled him access to records and areas the general
public, including the funding agencies, were unable to view. He
video-taped the animals in various degrees of discomfort and pain. Some
animals died long before their date with death. The project was
experimental stroke therapy. The chimpanzees had their nerves severed so
that they were unable use their limbs. And then, they were forced to do
so in order to simply survive. Of course, many didn’t survive. This was
all in a vain effort to determine what, if any, therapy could be used
for human stroke victims who have lost the use of a limb.
Alex videotaped all that he could, and then brought
charges against the researchers and the laboratory. The case became
known as the infamous Silver Springs Monkeys case, (the subject of a
book entitled Monkey Business), and went on for over four years. It
represented thousands of hours of court time, hundreds of appeals, and a
lot of media attention. The case set several precedents including the
first arrest and conviction of an animal experimenter in the United
States on charges of cruelty to animals. It also was the first ever
confiscation of laboratory animals. More importantly, it was also the
first U.S. Supreme Court victory for animals in laboratories.
This was the first of many such cases for Alex. However
the notoriety it brought him made it increasingly difficult working
undercover at labs and slaughterhouses. His picture was circulated as a
warning to other laboratories. Alex had body guards wherever necessary,
and became a student of the martial arts. His stories of rescues and
other battles are the subject of his many public appearances at
animal-rights conferences and conventions. Having been arrested forty
times, Alex has some extraordinary stories.
Alex left PeTA after twenty years in October 1999. When
asked why he left what surely must have been the high point of his life,
he gives only a generic “We had some differences.....” The more
important question is whether Alex will continue his life’s work for
animals.
The answer is a most emphatic yes! Living in South
Florida, Alex is involved in two new ventures; All American Animals.Com.
and Humane America. Alex serves as President of both of these
organizations. Legendary artist Peter Max (Blue Dog) is his partner and
Town & Country Magazine editor Frank Zacharay serves as celebrity
liaison for AllAmericanAnimals.com.
Alex’s goal now is to get vegetarian foods into all of
the institutions. “They serve ten thousand meals a day at any given
prison, university, hospital or other institutions. I am out to get them
to realize that going vegetarian for at least half of these meals makes
good sense economically,” says Alex “we tried persuading them by
compassion, I say that economics is the way to get through to them, and
that’s what I am going to try to do.”
Alex’s new venture, AllAmericanAnimals.com is a little
different from his other undertakings. This one is a “for profit”
company that will assist charities in getting started. Alex will be
available as a consultant on all matters of fundraising and other
details of starting a nonprofit. He has access to a lot of celebrities
too, and much like an agent, he will get one to come to a fund-raiser or
charity event to raise money and awareness of new organizations. “You
never know where an animal-person may be hiding," he says when asked
about some of his more unpopular senatorial acquaintances. As I find
myself looking around the steakhouse restaurant that Alex has chosen as
the site of our meeting, I wonder how it is that the people around us
have no clue who Alex is, a scenario that plays out much differently at
gatherings of animal-rights activists where his picture and autograph
are much sought-after treasures. I have to admit that I have been guilty
of such treasure hunting, and have pictures of myself and Alex
throughout the years at various functions.
And just what do those in the animal-rights movement
have to say about all this? We asked some of them:
"Although I have never met Alex in person from what I
have seen from his
tireless efforts he is completely dedicated to ending abuse and
oppression.
His heart and his head speak one language, that of the animals who do
not
speak."
~Susan Roghair, President (aka EnglandGal@aol.com), Animal Rights Online
“I don't know him personally. When I first embraced the
animal rights movement,
PeTA was my first point of entry and he was my mentor. PeTA is not the
same
organization without him. Alex has taught me that this movement is not
about
'loving animals' -- it is about fighting injustice. Because of him, I've
learned that
as long as animals are treated as property and as commodities, they will
never
have their JUST day in court. The ARA's are the TRUE humanitarians --
and
should NEVER let unjust laws take precedence over an animals right to be
free.
Because of Alex's example, I have become determined NOT to get caught up
in apathy and inaction. What a shallow life I must have led before this
single
human being made me open my window of compassion and hear the cries of
the enslaved animals and the tumult of the animal kingdom. I look
forward to
meeting Alex Pacheco one day. He would be pleased to know that because
of him -- activism engulfs me. Activism is near. Activism is now."
~Melissa Waz, Activist, Tampa, Florida
"Alex had his ups and downs with the organization. We're
very happy he's
settled on something and we definitely are rooting for him. We hope his
new
group will be a success and that it will truly benefit animals."
~Ingrid Newkirk - cofounder of PeTA
“Alex Pacheco is a pioneer in the modern animal rights
movement, having co-
founded PeTA and investigated an animal research laboratory leading to
the
first conviction of an animal researcher under an animal cruelty
statute. Since
PeTA's founding, it has helped to place the term "animal rights" in the
modern
lexicon.”
~Wayne Pacelle, HSUS
“I'm presently in the midst of some travel but I can
quickly say that I met Alex
in the late 1970s in England after he jumped from the Sea Shepherd after
it
rammed a pirate whaler in a Portugal port."
~Kim Stallwood, President and Publisher, Animals Agenda
“Alex Pacheco was my hero long before I met him. When we
did meet, I was
surprised to find a fun-loving, playful guy. He is absolutely charming
but not
what I had expected from one of the founders of such a serious social
move-
ment. I expected a personality brimming with commitment and passion. I'm
sure they are there, underneath a nice layer of levity”
~ Karen Dawn, President & Founder, DawnWatch.com.
It’s true. As I was chiding Alex for being so derelict
in responding to his e-mail messages, he was sheepish in his apology and
revelation that he really hasn’t gotten the hang of the computer thing.
“I sometimes get jokes from my friends,” he explains. “I really like a
good joke now and then, but I can’t always figure out how to open them.”
Speaking of joking, I simply can’t end this article
without commenting on the running joke among women in the movement, and
a common theme on which everyone who has seen Alex agree, he’s a
heartbreaker! But that seems to be a prevailing theme among men in the
movement. I don’t want to mention names (Wayne, Gene, Kim, even our own
Greg......) but an unscientific poll (I asked most of you) proved that
so many great-looking guys are drawn to our movement. The compassion and
vegan lifestyle is dowright sexy.
And I would be derelict in my responsibility as a
reporter if I didn’t report that, happily, there was NO RING on the
finger on which the little dragonfly landed.
Go on to Two Victories
from Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade
Return to 6 September 2000 Issue
Return to Newsletters
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