Radical speaker denounces animal cruelty

Gary Yourofsky showed a group of PSC: 372: American Radical Thought
students a four-minute video about vulgarity toward animals Friday.

He urged them not to shut their eyes.

Yourofsky, an advocate for Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today
and Tomorrow (ADAPTT), spoke to students about speciesism, which he
said is discrimination against animals, and how being a vegan is a very
important part of his life.

“This will be one of the most informative speeches you will hear in
your lifetime,” he said.

People can avoid many problems if they stop eating meat, he said.

Every meat eater consumes more than 3,000 land animals a year,
Yourofsky said, and 10 billion land animals are slaughtered annually.

If people find racism obscene, they should feel the same way about
speciesism, he said.

“His perspectives were definitely interesting,” said Plymouth senior
Stephanie Kivell. “Everyone hears about cruelty to animals but it
doesn’t resonate.”

Yourofsky has been arrested 13 times for his “random acts of
kindness,” one of which was releasing caged minks that were to become
coats.

He said people wouldn’t have to worry about their cholesterol and
saturated fat intake or bird flu and mad cow disease if they stopped
eating meat.

Eating anything that once had a face, a mother or a bowel movement
is unnatural, Yourofsky said.

Holt senior Katie Wolford said it was interesting to hear from
someone who is living the vegan lifestyle.

 “I have been considering going vegetarian for a while,” she
said. “It drove the point home.”

ADAPTT is a non-profit animal rights organization that assists in
the abolition of animal experimentation, rodeos and other
animal-oriented entertainment and transforms circuses into all-human
shows.

Yourofsky said his intent Friday was to give students another
perspective and to spread awareness about animal treatment.

He has given 958 lectures this semester and has been to 33 colleges
and will continue to lecture across the country.