Animal rights supporters threaten botanist

Press, 1 November 1984, Page 20

Animal rights supporters threaten botanist

NZPA-AAP London The British conservationist and television botanist, David Bellamy, has received death threats and hate mail from animal rights supporters for his refusal, to condemn hunting, shooting, and fishing because he believes they can actually help preserve the countryside, the “Mail” reports. Professor Bellamy described the new militant animal liberationists as “idiots, the lunatic fringe.” “I can see why people get cross with the society we live in, but they must realise that there is a rational point of view. “I will go on supporting the Chicken Libbers who want the whole battery-hen farming set-up looked at by the law. I am against all forms of factory farming.” But he said he would continue to defend the countryside’s need for those who hunt, shoot, and fish. “If we did not shoot rooks, we would have no grain,” he said. “If it were not for the protests of fishermen, our rivers would all be polluted and the fish would die anyway. “If you took the grouse hunting away from the moorland next door to where I live, it would all become uneconomic. “Land management is a complicated business. While we have hunting, shooting, and fishing interests in this country, we will have better landscape management.” The animal liberation movement took a new turn recently when a newly

formed group called the Hunt Retribution Squad threatened to attack people in the fight for animal rights. The new group was criticised by more established groups who said that violence would set the cause back years. Professor Bellamy said, “How on earth can people who profess to love animals be violent to human beings?” He said he also disagreed with recent tactics of breaking into animal experimentation laboratories, stealing records, and setting the animals free. “My Chicken Lib people simply get intelligence about battery hens where there is cruelty and inform the Ministry, getting them to move a bit fast,” he said.

“They do not go round letting the chickens out, hitting people, or breaking the law.”