"A gross act of stupidity"- taking the law into your own hands

Tokis-Phoenix

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"A landowner has said Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activists who let his herd of red deer escape committed a "gross act of stupidity";

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/5087400.stm

Full report:
When the animals broke out from their Wiltshire home in May, it was thought fence-removing vandals let them out.

But now a notice has appeared on an ALF website claiming responsibility.

Michael Petley of the Potterne Deer sanctuary said: "What has escaped them is that this is a sanctuary for deer, not a breeding house for meat."

The ALF struck at the sanctuary on 25 May, releasing more than 20 red deer.

Fallow deer

Their website says: "We had to leave a group of baby deer imprisoned at the farm because they were too young to fend for themselves.


This is a gross act of stupidity and unkindness to these animals.
Michael Petley, Potterne Deer Sanctuary

"We will return, and these deer will be saved from certain death. We will not let these innocent animals end up on the dinner table. This is just the beginning."

But Mr Petley pointed out they had targeted a sanctuary rather than a farm and had threatened to come back for baby deer which were actually a herd of mature fallow deer.

"This is a gross act of stupidity and unkindness to these animals.

"It saddens me enormously to see our Deer Sanctuary at Potterne subject to such extensive and malicious damage," he said.

Mr Petley, a fund manager who works in London, said: "If it was done with the mistaken intent of liberating these animals the reality is they have done anything but.

"This was a herd that was living happily and securely. They were watered and fed and now they are in unknown territory in which they are not suited or used to.""



This is one of the things that gets me, not just about a lot of animal rights activists, but organisations like this in general.
Whatever your cause, i do not agree with committing criminal acts like this at all- IMO, i always believe there is always another way at the very least. I do agree with the various plights of a lot of animal rights groups and so forth, on the other hand i often see animal rights activists spinning lies and properganda to aid their cause; in this case, misinformation lead to the destruction of a deer sanctuary owners land, and most likely the deaths of many deer to come. How ironic. I've even seen members on forums like this preach to people that it is acceptable to commit violent or destructive acts to "aid their cause" such as animal rights.
And animal rights is certainly not alone in this behavior- many things from christian leaders/churches to anti-abortion activists are usually guilty of this sort of behavior in one way or another, wether it works out for their cause or not.

What are your views on people taking the law into their own hands? Are there circumstances/situations where you would agree with it, or places where you wouldn't etc?
 
I cannot really comment on the actual story, as I don't know if the ALF activists might've been right that these deer eventually did become dinner, or if they hadn't tried other recourses.

These days, it seems harder and harder to get people's attention on things that probably need to change, or ways people themselves could change. Do so, and one is labelled 'preachy', even if one tries to walk softly.

Some people have said that past generations had a cause to fight for, but that the current generation is the generation of apathy. Well actually, that's a different topic.
Tokis-Phoenix said:
What are your views on people taking the law into their own hands?
Well of course I disagree with the person extracting revenge, or being a vigilante.
Tokis-Pheonix said:
Are there circumstances/situations where you would agree with it, or places where you wouldn't etc?
Say a person was trying to keep a village from being uprooted for land development, and this person had the public media's attention, and the police arrived and asked this person to just come with them quietly. What would be the best recourse in this situation?
 

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