PETA, Sharks, and A Cure for Cancer

"Would You Give Your Right Arm to Know Why Sharks Attack, Could it be Revenge? Go Vegetarian, PETA."

This is the message of a billboard that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals intends to unveil in Pensacola, the Florida Gulf Coast city near where a shark ripped off the arm of Jessie Arbogast, an eight-year-old child. Since then, a 10-year-old, David Peltier, was killed while swimming off North Carolina's Outer Bank Barrier. Others have been attacked this summer, generating a great deal of media coverage.

According to PETA spokesman, Dan Shannon, "Our message is that humans kill billions of fish, including sharks, each year, in the most hideous ways…" PETA simply uses these attacks on humans for the sole purpose of advancing their warped agenda.

I keep waiting for someone who holds a high, public office to speak up. I keep waiting for anyone in the mainstream media to address this abomination. I keep waiting for some public outrage that will ultimately expose PETA as vicious enemies of the human race, but it never seems to come.

No one ever seems to draw any insight as to the objectives of this group of neo-Nazis, whose co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk, once said, "Six million people died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses." Beyond their disgusting way of advocating vegetarianism, there is a greater threat to humankind posed by PETA and the Animal Liberation Front. These are animal rights activists who oppose the use of animals for any kind of medical research.

Animal rights activists burn laboratories, threaten researchers, and steal research animals. Last Chance for Animals director, Chris DeRose said, "If the death of one rat cured all diseases, it wouldn't make any difference to me."

Would it make a difference to you? Do you think we should ban all medical research that requires the use of animals? Are you aware that most of the major breakthroughs in pharmacology and medical technology has been dependent on animal research? And still is.

Have you ever had anyone in your family die a slow agonizing death from cancer? Here is just one example why opponents of medical research utilizing animals pose a threat to everyone who may yet succumb to cancer.

The Associated Press recently reported that a genetically engineered drug, using a piece of antibody from a mouse's immune system shows great early promise in tracking down and killing a rare leukemia. It has raised doctor's hopes in the long quest for a magic bullet against cancer.

The experimental drug uses the mouse immune system to latch tightly onto the cancer cells. A bacterial poison fused to the antibody is then carried inside the cancer cells and kills them. The success rate in the experimental stage has been extraordinary. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland tested the drug on 16 patients with hairy cell leukemia, untreatable by the usual chemotherapy. Three patients, say doctors, were clearly given too little or were immune to the toxin. Of the thirteen others, eleven were left completely free of the disease. During two years of follow-up, only three of those 11 needed more treatment.

Clearly, the cure for cancer may now be on the horizon. It was not possible without the use of animal research.

The next time you are in a discussion with an animal rights advocate, ask them if, before entering a hospital, they will sign a release that says they will not accept any medical procedures or cures that were obtained from animal research? See if they have the guts to put their own lives on the line for their irrational blatherings. This is precisely the kind of medical care they are advocating for you.

Copyright © Tom DeWeese, 2001
First North American Serial Rights only.

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