Cover: © Harry Bliss

A message from Ingrid E. Newkirk

In This Animal Times Issue: Pamela Anderson and PETA "Steak Out" Heftiest Hometowns What Do You Mean, You ONLY Eat Chicken? Dogging Circuses's Heels — On Wheels They Die Slowly… Snappy Comebacks "Keep Your Cool" Cuisine Be a Sport with Dan Shannon EPA: You Make Me Sick! Wish You Were Here Weekend Warriors Go the Distance Actions & Updates You Did It Purrs & Grrrs

Animals are the victims of the longest—running undeclared war in history.

Dear Animal Times Reader,

War is a frightening thing even if we are not directly involved in fighting it like the young military men and women we saw here in Norfolk, Va., setting off for the Middle East. I remember when I was in boarding school in the Himalayas and everyone was talking about a Chinese invasion. We children wondered if our bus would be able to go down the mountain safely and if we would ever see our parents again. To this day, my mother talks about what Londoners like her felt when they listened to bombs falling.

Every day, millions of animals, who pledge allegiance to no particular nation and have done nothing to provoke aggression, are the victims of the longest-running, largest-scale war in history. They are killed simply because someone is powerful enough to steal their land, take their babies for food or experiments or the circus and rob them of their very lives. They can never feel secure.

It will take a monumental amount of humility for human beings to realize that there's something hideously wrong with failing to treat all beings, regardless of whether they look like us or not, with respect, compassion and understanding.

People grow up thinking that it's all right to be a supremacist. Nowadays, they know they can't be overtly racist or sexist, but they have yet to give up the ludicrous yet comforting illusion that "we" (by virtue of our religion, our country, our race or our species) are superior to all others. It is quite a task to convince all these "special" beings that it was all just an accident of birth that they weren't born a chicken or a cow.

It is biologically indisputable, if inconvenient to accept, that we are all animals - different tribes of animals, yes, but just one of the many different kinds of beings who live under the same stars, struggling to stay alive, to avoid pain and to experience joy. When we have finally persuaded enough people to embrace this basic concept, then the saying "Animal liberation is human liberation" will be shown to be true, for defending animal rights leads to the protection of human rights. Please do all you can to open people's eyes, minds and hearts. As they say, we won't have peace unless we actively work for it.


For the animals,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

Tiny Deer in Big Trouble When an employee at the Bombay airport heard rustling sounds inside a crate at the cargo terminal, he immediately called PETA India. Inside the crate were four tiny deer, members of the endangered Kirk's dik-dik species. The animals were crammed into compartments so small that they couldn't move and had gone for at least 24 hours without food or water. One deer had suffered a broken leg and others had gaping, bloody wounds on their elbows where nails protruding into the crate had stripped away their skin. The deer were taken to the Byculla Zoo to receive treatment, and authorities are investigating.