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Animal Rights Group Targets NIH Director's Home (sciencemag.org)

Posted by timothy on from the where-do-you-stand dept.

sciencehabit writes: Late last month, hundreds of people in two Washington, D.C., suburbs received a letter in the mail claiming that one of their neighbors was tied to animal abuse at a government lab. Science has learned that the letters, sent by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), targeted U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins and NIH researcher Stephen Suomi, revealing their home addresses and phone numbers and urging their neighbors to call and visit them. The tactic is the latest attempt by the animal rights group to shut down monkey behavioral experiments at Suomi's Poolesville, Maryland, laboratory, and critics say it crosses the line.

44 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. It shows how powerful misinformation is by damn_registrars · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The PETA folks occasionally have valid points, but this is not one of those times. They latched on to some information that is - at best - partially true and now they are trying to destroy someone's career over it. These people are no better than the "Earth Liberation Front" that "released" a bunch of study animals only for them to be quickly run over by cars.

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      PETA is a PITA. Their aims may be noble, but their methods border on criminal. They once picketed a hospital I worked at for doing animal research - which had never been done there. They apparently based the idea on the fact that there were some dog pens behind the hospital. Those were for guard dogs that had been used at the boiler plant many years ago and are all overgrown with weeds now.

    2. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Their aims may be noble

      Nope. Not even close.

      PETA is a criminal nut-cult, run for the sole purpose of propping up the ego of its crazy founder. It might as well be scientology.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    3. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So you ok with assaulting people in their homes if they do something you don't like.

      I am glad I live in a country where shit like this does not fly.

    4. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What do you think was the point of posting his address and phone number, at the very least it was to encourage verbal assault. Posting his physical address is encouraging more then verbal assault though, it is encouraging harassment and and possible bodily harm. Seriously what other use is there for posting his physical home address? So people go over there and have a polite conversation with him? Yeah right.

    5. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Dog-Cow · · Score: 5, Interesting

      PETA are hypocrites because people are animals too, and they don't give a shit about how humans are treated by others, or even what they themselves do to humans.

    6. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by phishybongwaters · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Destroy someones career? They are basically asking their followers to murder these people.

    7. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Dog-Cow · · Score: 2

      Nature. All species prey on weaker species. If you don't want to be part of nature, please immolate yourself.

    8. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by phishybongwaters · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I don't think anyone disputes that some humans treat some animals badly. PETA puts more animals to death each year than they save. But I guess their moral superiority gives them that right. The right to "euthanize" my pet because it's better to be a dead cat than to be "forced to live in captivity" PETA is a joke and I put them in the same bin as the nutso "pro-life" murderous thugs.

    9. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Informative

      If more than one person treats an animal badly, then it is proper English to say that "people treat animals badly"

      It might be "proper English," (as are many misleading statements) but it's disingenuous because "people" would usually be taken to mean humanity as a whole in that context, rather than "more than one person."

      People, on the whole, or even on average, do not treat animals badly*.

      *which is subjective, anyway.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    10. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by rahvin112 · · Score: 4, Informative

      And the irony is that PETA puts down dogs that could otherwise adopted because the head of Peta doesn't believe in pets.

    11. Re: It shows how powerful misinformation is by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      Actually, you could extend that to "Most "first-world" humans treat some animals really badly" at least by proxy.

      Not to mention the mass slaughter of millions of animals every year by trucks hauling California vegetables cross-country.

      Obligate-localvore vegans I give an ethical pass to, though.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    12. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And the irony is that PETA puts down dogs that could otherwise adopted because the head of Peta doesn't believe in pets.

      Peta once "discarded" a dozen dead cats on the cars of a fast food joint I was at. Really creepy that was.

    13. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 2

      Medical research on monkeys is worth doing, iff it's done properly. I fully agree it should not be done lightly, but I also really disagree with calling it torture. Especially with monkeys, every effort to reduce their suffering is made that can be, without changing the results. There are stringent guidelines for determining when an animal is suffering too much and has to be removed from an experiment.

      --
      Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
    14. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      Humans treat people animals poorly, yet PETA doesn't ever speak out on that. Why? Does PETA hate humans? PETA, because "misanthrope" isn't hipster enough.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    15. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Coren22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Their animal shelters also kill more animals than any other shelter. They are not for treating animals well, they are for destroying things. They love to pour oil on people's "fur" coats, without even checking if it is animal fur or manufactured fur, and without even considering that the people who wear a fur coat will just replace the coat if it is destroyed, therefore killing another animal.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    16. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by Coren22 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Vegitarians are monsters, they kill plants! They hack them apart, and grind them into mush, then swallow them! How disgusting can you get?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    17. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      The plural of person is people. There is no other way to word it.

      My point - which you seem to have missed entirely - is that "people" doesn't always just mean - and isn't always only inferred to mean - "more than one person."

      That you attach so much emotion and subtext to words

      I'm simply talking about the way people actually use words, which is what defines English.

      "The people", "humanity", "human kind" and hundreds of other ways can be used to include everyone.

      Yes, they can. So can "people."

      What would you have them use for the plural of person? Persons? That's no longer in common usage.

      I wouldn't have them say anything. I'd suggest they say "some people," which mitigates the ambiguity.

      Also see AC's reply here which sums it quite nicely as well.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    18. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by khallow · · Score: 2

      The problem with that thinking is we shouldn't fight injustices by whatever means are at our disposal if they are illegal.

      It depends on the degree of injustice. It's worth noting here that no one has actually demonstrated that injustice is going on with medical research or that it matters to PETA, if it were. Further, minor injustices would not justify the law breaking.

    19. Re:It shows how powerful misinformation is by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This isn't a crime like jaywalking or littering. It's an activity that possibly puts people and their families at risk. Just because you feel animals have equivalent rights to people doesn't make it so. To attempt to terrorize people who are simply performing a legal job because you have some extreme view of animal rights is not acceptable. This is why PETA will never be effective. Their actions discredit their message.

    20. Re: It shows how powerful misinformation is by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Not to mention all the insects killed by having vehicles crash into them. They're animals too!

      Don't get PETA started on that too

  2. Maybe PETA is angry... by mamono · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because the monkeys have better behavior than they do and they are jealous.

  3. Humans are animals, too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Humans are animals, too. How is this treating these victims ethically?

  4. Easy by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All PETA members and their families should be identified.

    If they should ever turn up needing medical services, they should only receive services that were not devised/tested via animal experimentation.

    I expect they'd quickly be whistling a different tune.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Easy by quantaman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      All PETA members and their families should be identified.

      If they should ever turn up needing medical services, they should only receive services that were not devised/tested via animal experimentation.

      I expect they'd quickly be whistling a different tune.

      I don't think that's entirely fair since their belief is those same medical services could have been produced without animal experimentation.

      I think they're mostly wrong of course, and more than a bit loopy, but I'd rather treat them with well deserved scorn than trying to saddle them with our version of what we think they want.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    2. Re:Easy by grimmjeeper · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think that's entirely fair since their belief is those same medical services could have been produced without animal experimentation.

      Then let the PETA members volunteer to be experimented on in place of the animals.

    3. Re:Easy by Aaden42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Given that PETA’s former director of research Mary Beth Sweetland is an insulin dependant diabetic, I’ll go with a “nope” on that one.

      http://www.humanewatch.org/per...

      That said, she constructed a convenient out for PETA members whose lives rely on animal-tested or derived treatments. Because she’s working for animals, it’s for the greater good. So as long as you’re a PETA member, you can benefit from animal testing and stay alive with modern medicine so you can keep fighting to make sure no one else can. Everyone else has to die though. Wouldn’t be ethical for them to receive treatments that they’re not fighting to prevent anyone else from getting.

  5. Not news. by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

    "...People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), ... crosses the line..."

    Stating a tautology is not news.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  6. PETA is worthless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    https://www.petakillsanimals.com/

    PETA's "animal shelters" would do Auschwitz proud.

    1. Re:PETA is worthless by david_thornley · · Score: 2

      The "no-kills" near me just have very long waiting times. You have to wait for them to either get enough animals adopted or die of natural causes to get down to your name on the list.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  7. Re:Science learning? by Immerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, but Science IS the title of a magazine. The one linked to for the article in fact.

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    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  8. Hypocrites by Nemyst · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about you start by treating people ethically, PETA?

  9. Goose meet gander by fred911 · · Score: 4, Informative

    PETA President's home address
    Ingrid Newkirk
    40 Rader St Apt 407
    Norfolk, VA 23510

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    1. Re:Goose meet gander by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Is this really what Slashdot has become? Flamebait stories that cause commentators to start doxing people?

      How is this even news for nerds, stuff that matters? It's clickbait of the worst kind.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  10. End tax-exempt status... by MikeRT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The only thing they've done is further prove the case for abolishing all tax exemption for political activism and making contributions to the same not a valid deduction on the income tax.

  11. Re:Science learning? by keith_nt4 · · Score: 2
    Perhaps it should have read something like

    Science Magazine has learned...

    You know, some kind of indication that "Science" in this context is some kind of organization or group people versus a "method of study". Too much to ask?

    --
    "UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
  12. This is brushing the lines with actual terrorism.. by RevDisk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Trying to influence government officials with threats is a very good way to end up with prison sentences.

    Sure, PETA is trying to outsourcing harassment of government officials by misleading information and probably omitting very pertinent information. If anything happens to them, I sincerely hope the responsible folks at PETA are charged as accessories. PETA may or may not have decent points. But the crazies in their leadership negate any possible positives.

  13. Re:Science learning? by PvtVoid · · Score: 2

    No, but Science IS the title of a magazine. The one linked to for the article in fact.

    It's a pity the magazine wasn't Nature. GP's head would have exploded.

  14. The E in PETA should be I, for idiot. by whitroth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    First of all, this is harassment.

    Second, all of them are ignorant idiots. Anyone who wants to discuss this, let me know, and I'll post a link to the official NIH book on the ethical design of experiments, including both human and animal guidelines.

    Third... have *any* PETA members *ever* volunteered themselves to replace animals in medical trials, bearing in mind that if they don't work, the side effects could be dangerous?

                      mark

  15. Re:./ logic by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 2

    So doxing is completely unethical but torturing animals is OK?

    Actually, the only logical inconsistency would be saying that either both doxing and animal experimentation are ethical or that both are unethical.

    Doxing is unethical because it is an single person or small group anonymously inciting a larger group to retaliatory action against an individual. Did the individual deserve it? It's possible, but not important because the larger issue is that there is no oversight or consequence to those who incite action if they are wrong. If doxing is ethical, then the individual is the ultimate determinant of the moral justification to cause a chain of events.

    Institutional animal experimentation is ethical because it is a group performing potentially harmful acts upon living beings for the possibility to prevent or alleviate further harm to other living beings in the future. Was the research worth the suffering? It's possible that they weren't, but that's part of the reason why peer review and government oversight exist in the realm of animal testing. If animal testing is ethical, then the collective is the ultimate determinant of the moral justification to cause a chain of events.

    PETA believes that doxing is ethical but animal experimentation is unethical. The slashdot community appears to mostly believe that doxing is unethical but animal experimentation is ethical. Both positions are logically consistent. They just come from opposite views on where moral authority should ultimately lie.

  16. Re:Science learning? by tbannist · · Score: 2

    Why? To prevent snarky cynics from embarrassing themselves with stupid rhetorical questions? Where's the fun in that?

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    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  17. I'd give a neighborly visit.... by dfenstrate · · Score: 2

    ....and offer my support and ask if he needed anything. I'd also stand watch on his porch for a few hours a week to chase off loons if necessary.

    --
    Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
  18. Re:Unbelievable by phishybongwaters · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Considering you'd be putting their lives at risk, I think the law would beg to differ. And that's why Doxing is a big deal and "the gubment" is actively engaged. PETA knows their supporters are batshit crazy. They know exactly what the outcome would be after releasing names numbers and addresses of people PURPORTED to be involved with animal testing (behavioral testing?). Threats, harassment and violence. To follow your analogy, you send out the personal information about your neighbor, enabling their insane internet stalker to find where they live. While you likely wouldn't be liable once that porn start got murdered, I'd hope you'd feel a little guilty.

  19. Re:Redundant by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 2

    Most studies that use non-human primates don't use chimps. Macaques are much more common, as they're cheaper, easier, and safer to work with. PETA is upset about all non-human primates, not just the chimps - although they are undoubtedly happy about that news.

    --
    Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.