"He does wrong who shoots birds, hunts animals, digs up the larvae of insects, frightens nesting birds, stops up burrows, carries off nests, wounds pregnant animals, [or] does not permit man and beast to rest." - Kan-Ying P'ien (The Book of Rewards and Punishments), Sung Dynasty, China (960-1227 A.D.)

For centuries, philosophers have pondered the idea that Creation in general and animals in particular are deserving of some sort of "rights." In the ancient past, such thought was primarily restricted to religious sects, such as Taoism and Hinduism. Today the philosophy of animal rights (AR) has gained widespread acceptance on a global scale, particularly in western cultures.

The modern AR movement has evolved into nothing less than a religion with the expressed core belief that "animals are people, too." The rhetoric is laced with terms like "beliefs," "morality," "ethics," "reverence," and "right and wrong." The names of deities are frequently invoked, as in the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) group's ill-fated "Jesus was a Vegetarian" campaign. (Amarillo residents didn't take kindly to the billboard-it came down.)

Even government recognizes the AR faith. In one example, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ordered reinstatement of a vegetarian bus driver fired for refusing to pass out free hamburger coupons to riders. In a written determination, EEOC found the city guilty of discrimination against the driver for his "strongly held moral and ethical beliefs."

The animal rights battle has gone to the classroom. Pre-teen and teenage hunters—especially young ladies like 11-year-old Elizabeth Vasquez—are being presented with AR propaganda in school, and we as hunters must counter that trend with information on the realities of conserva-tion and sportsmanship.

With talk of "kindness" and "compassion," AR philosophy is outwardly attractive and altruistic. On closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that AR is a religion of bigotry, intolerance and hatred that advocates human wrongs in the interest of animal rights. In fact, at their very core, AR true-believers are motivated not by their professed love for animals, but by a hatred for people.

A strong statement, to be sure. But consider the evidence.

In a June 1990 Reader's Digest article, PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk declared, "Humans have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth." In a Washington Post article, Newkirk further observed, "Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses." In other articles she has stated that even if animal-based medical research produces a cure for AIDS, "we'd be against it," and "I do not believe human beings have the 'right to life.' "

"Human life is crap," says a member of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) anonymously quoted in a college newspaper. Paul Watson, explaining his motivation for the founding of Greenpeace, said, "I got the impression that instead of going out to shoot birds, I should go out and shoot the kids who shoot birds."

After giving the speech "Animal Rights, Human Wrongs" at the University of Wisconsin, North Carolina State University philosophy professor Tom Regan was asked, "If a boat containing a dog and a human baby capsized in the ocean, which would you save?" His answer: "If it were a retarded baby and a bright dog, I'd save the dog."

On a more personal level, I have received numerous insulting and threatening communications from AR believers. After I debated PETA's national campaign coordinator Bruce Freiderich on a coast-to-coast radio broadcast, I received dozens of written and telephone messages wherein I was called everything from "pig" to "fascist." One anonymous E-mail expressed the wish that I be shot and killed by one of my "fellow murderers" (AR-speak for hunters).

Another said, "I hope you get cirrhosis of the liver, get Cruzefeldt-Jakob disease from eating meat, and have a quadruple bypass operation to unclog the fat from your heart, before you die a painful, horrible, death" (sic). As outrageous as these statements are, they are not in the extreme by AR standards.