H.T. for the photo: FurIsDead.comFrom Olympics Fanhouse:
In Wake of Threats, Johnny Weir Goes From Fox to Faux
Animal rights groups can leave Johnny Weir alone now.
Weir will replace the fox on his costume with faux fur after receiving "hate mail and death threats" from animal rights activists, agent Tara Modlin said Thursday.
"He's changing it because he needs to focus on skating," she said.
To non-violent, peace-loving animal rights activists, let me say that I disagree with you that animals have rights (the assertion is actually incomprehensible to my conception of rights), but that I appreciate your earnestness and respect you for finding creative, humorous, and non-violent ways to spread your message and advocate for your cause.
To the violent ones that send people death threats and destroy people's property- let me ask how that is consistent with your non-violent philosophy toward animals? So violence toward animals is bad, but threatening violence to human beings is okay? Behavior like this makes it really easy to separate true believers from violent nuts.
Far be it from me to try and characterize everyone by the actions of a few (as tempting as it may be). Every group has its members that it is not so proud of. Take the pro-life movement for instance. While most would never dream of brandishing a firearm against an abortionist doctor, there are those one or two who make headlines for gunning down a doctor.
But notice how every time it happens, every major pro-life group in the country sends out press releases disavowing violence in the name of the pro-life cause and condemning the "pro-life" killer? I'm bothered that Peta's blog post about Johnny Weir, makes no mention of the violent threats that came along with Peta's professional requests, much less a condemnation.
You folks have to police your own movement and throw the violent nutjobs under the bus (not literally- that would make you violent) as loudly and publicly as possible to maintain your legitimacy and keep militancy on the fringe where it belongs (or better yet, altogether removed from anyone's thoughts).
