Long story short. A couple of years ago a well established, deep rooted, family business, Schumacher's Furs, had a business in down town Portland. The animal rights activists took them on as a target and harassed, badgered, vandalized, etc. this store right out of business. Absolutely no help from the Portland police or the city council. In fact, Randy Leonard (you know, the one I said was really the mayor a few months ago) told this company to go to an indoor mall where they would have better protection. Randy was blowing smoke. The same freaky activists also targeted and harassed a local pet shop inside a local mall and put them out of business.
Well no matter what you think about the fur trade, to harass a business out of business with some of the obscene and disgusting tactics these groups used is horrible. So here is what hit my headlines yesterday.
Olympic skater, Johnny Weir, has white fox fur on his costume! Gasp! No joke, the dude should be so lucky to not live in Portland. And his statement to the activists? Phhhht! He takes on causes that address human suffering, not animal suffering, because humans matter. Click here. I like this guy! Finally someone with the fortitude to say it like it is, and take on these folks. I am not joking, he is very lucky he isn't here. His house would become activist central, and he would be a target, for a very very long time.
And then we have this guy. Here's how ignorant I am, I had no idea another fur store would have the courage to stay open in this city after what happened to the Schumacher's. Apparently, there is. Yesterday, an apparent extremist decides to douse himself with gasoline, screaming "animals are dying", lights himself on fire and attempts to enter the store while in flames only to find it locked. Local police chased him around the sidewalk with a fire extinguisher. He later dies from his injuries. Click here. Only if you are in a kind of macabre, funky, slightly disturbed state of humor.....read the comments from the local community in this article. I have to admit, a little sleep deprived, I was laughing at some of them last night. It is extremely sad, and someone has lost their life for such a senseless reason. Someone who has parents, siblings, and close friends now have to live with senseless loss.
There you have it. We have people starving in Haiti. Just read the headline this morning that the homeless kids on the streets of Haiti are already being targeted by icky people for human trafficking. We have our men and women living in the sand in the Middle East to defend our rights and protect our country. Our country is in economic depression and there is no fast solution. People are losing their jobs and homes.
And yet for some reason there is a faction of our communities that think animals go to the top of the list, to the point of taking their own life.
I don't get it.
UPDATE:
And to add to the insanity, here is what the anti-fur people emailed to a local news outlet just today. Do I see an outcry as to the tragedy of this young man? Nope. Do I see a grief at the loss of a human life? Nope. I see them saying, "If you feel you must set yourself on fire, then do it!" They are as crazy as this young man was disturbed. It also shows their relentless harassment ('continued their bloody business despite protests for three years now') is fully intended to be constant and won't stop until the business shuts down, and the city doesn't do diddly to help them from such frightening extremism.
Every day is a battle for this legal business to be opened. I still contend, if this were an abortion clinic (and I, by no means, advocate for violent or harassing demonstration like this as a staunch pro-life person) and a protester stepped on one blade of grass on the wrong side of the sidewalk, the Portland police would have them arrested for trespassing. Instantly. I have sat in on a silent, vigil type, peaceful, sit in type of protest at a local abortion clinic. I was quickly schooled in where I was allowed to walk, not walk, stand, sit, etc. I was warned if I crossed those boundaries and was seen, I would be arrested. Those boundaries were very far from the front door. Yet these extremists can break windows, vandalize the building, spray red paint, bang on doors, block doors (seriously that is a huge no-no for abortion clinics--don't block the door), and the police don't do a thing, and refuse to by direction of the city council.
"This unedited email was received by KATU News before Daniel Shaull's death was announced.
The Portland Anti Fur Campaign was just alerted to the action outside Nicholas Ungar Furs earlier today [Wednesday].
We do not know who this person was nor do we know what his intentions were. If his intentions were to raise awareness of unnecessary animal suffering and killing done in the fur industry, and by businesses like Ungar Furs, then we wish him well.We are not saying that we want people to light themselves on fire and run into fur shops, but we do understand that sometimes you have to make noise and make a scene to stand up for the animals. It is really unfortunate that one would feel as if they must take such drastic measures, yet, this Fur Store has continued their bloody business despite protests outside for 3 years now.If the person's motivation was to bring media attention to the issue, they obviously achieved their goal.
Raise your fist, and your voice, Fox and Mink have no Choice!"
I am with Johnny on this one. I value people more than animals, and the glaring juxtaposition of these two stories is disturbing.
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