There's good advocacy... and there's bad

When animal activism becomes imoral:

Threatening Students Interested in Science -- Apr 03 2011 Published by scicurious under Activism

Quote :

By now you may have heard of the latest tactic of the animal rights group “Negotiation Is Over”. The militant animal rights group has decided to get them while they’re young. Not to recruit while people are young, mind you, to THREATEN. To threaten college students who are interested in science careers and doing animal research.
How to Shut Down Vivisectors-In-Training in Three Easy Steps
1. By and large, students pursuing careers in research science truly want to help people, not victimize animals. Their indoctrination into the world of laboratory torture is slow, methodical, and deliberate. While they are being groomed, we are obligated to intercede and educate these young scientists with truth. As Alena admitted, “I was naive…I really just did not know about all this stuff.” And she is not unique.
2. Students also need to understand that making the wrong choice will result in a lifetime of grief. Aspiring scientists envision curing cancer at the Mayo Clinic. We need to impart a new vision: car bombs, 24/7 security cameras, embarrassing home demonstrations, threats, injuries, and fear. And, of course, these students need to realize that any personal risk they are willing to assume will also be visited upon their parents, children, and nearest & dearest loved ones. The time to reconsider is now.
3. Like all young adults, college students are acutely concerned with how they are perceived by their peers. They need to maintain a certain persona if they wish to continue to enjoy the acceptance of their community. This makes them infinitely more susceptible to negative and inflammatory publicity than their veteran-mutilator counterparts. When education fails, smear campaigns can be highly effective. Abusers have forfeited all rights to privacy and peace of mind and, if an abuser-to-be should fail to make the correct choice now, NIO is here to broadcast all of their personal information. Remember, young people document every facet of their personal lives online. In about 30 minutes, we were able to compile an impressive and comprehensive profile for Elena.

(Via NIO. That is a link to the real NIO, so consider yourself warned. emphasis mine)

Get ‘em while they’re young, NIO. Nice. Make a poor girl walk around her campus looking over her shoulder in fear. Make her give up her dreams to help the world to favor your agenda. No one wants to hear that a student is treated this way. No one would EVER want to hear that their child was threatened this way. But many of us have kids that want to help the world in some way. Many of us have kids that love science. And now they will get the message that if you love science, you have "car bombs, 24/7 security cameras, embarrassing home demonstrations, threats, injuries, and fear" waiting for you.
These threatening tactics are disgusting no matter who they are targeted at, and spreading it to students is just an extra level of nasty. It is NEVER ok to threaten violence, to tell people that you will ruin their lives.
There are those who disagree with the use of animals in research. That’s fine. We are allowed to disagree. We should talk about it. We should research viable alternatives (something which, by the way, scientists are doing all the time. Believe me, animal research is NOT the cheapest, or most efficient way to find answers to
medical problems. It IS the SUREST, the only way that we find results that will work in humans. But the day we come up with a viable alternative, believe me, most of us will give up our animal work immediately). But we should not threaten violence. To threaten violence to young students working with fruit flies is just beyond the pale. But then again, these are people who think nothing of threatening researchers’ children, so I guess nothing is beyond the pale.
For those who are in favor of responsible animal research, stand up to this violence. And for those of you who are AGAINST animal research, you need to stand up to this violence, too. Be willing to have an honest conversation about animals in research without threatening car bombs, and don’t affiliate yourself with those who do. Show everyone that there is another way to be against animal research, a way that doesn’t involve violence to animals or humans.
For those of you who DO animal research, do your best to protect yourself, your students, your techs, and your post-docs. Teach them about internet privacy, and how to protect themselves. Teach them how to talk about what they do responsibly. And most importantly, teach them how to WORK responsibly, how to treat the animals they work with with respect and care. Show them how important animal welfare is to responsible conduct of research. Some of these people will become researchers, some may not. But all of them can come away with knowledge of what we do and how we work, knowing that animal research is necessary for life improvements for both animals and humans.
And now I can just sit back and wait for the threats to come flowing in. Because I know they will. But I'd like to think that if I can reach some people (all two of you) who will realize how terrible this is, and help you to speak out, it'll be worth it. And if you are getting threatened, don't face it alone. Hold your head up, protect yourself, and speak out. What we do is valuable, important, and necessary, and the more we work, the closer we come to finding cures and treatments that are desperately needed, and the closer we come to finding alternatives for use of animals.

The comments that followed that article included replies from NIO members. The language and the threats of violence were unbelievable!
That kind of attitude destroys all possibilities of engaging in dialogue, and only serves to give the rest of us a bad name.

Teresa wrote:

The comments that followed that article included replies from NIO members.

The language and the threats of violence were unbelievable!

That kind of attitude destroys all possibilities of engaging in dialogue, and only serves to give the rest of us a bad name.

It sure does.