Jerry Vlasak
Encyclopedia
Jerry Vlasak is an American trauma surgeon
and animal rights
activist. He is a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office
, a former director of the Animal Defense League
of Los Angeles, and an advisor to SPEAK, the Voice for the Animals
.
Vlasak came to public attention in 2003, and 2004 and again in 2008, when he made statements that appeared to justify the use of violence against animal researchers. He responded that he had been quoted out of context and strongly denied having said anything to encourage violent action. Nevertheless, as a result of his statements, he and his wife were banned from entering the United Kingdom in 2004, on the grounds that their presence, according to the Home Secretary
, "would not be conducive to the public good."
from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1983. He was an animal researcher
himself, and saw no problem with it at the time. According to the Los Angeles Times, he conducted research on dogs' arteries in a laboratory at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
, during or after which the dogs were killed.
He has worked as a surgeon for several hospitals in southern California, including the Riverside Community and Parkview Community hospitals in Riverside County, and Community Hospital and San Antonio Community Hospital in San Bernardino
.
, who is currently president of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
in the U.S., Vlasak became active in promoting animal rights in 1993. He became a spokesperson for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
, although he is no longer a member, and was a board member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
His principal role in the animal liberation movement
is as a liaison between the movement and the public, publicizing the movement's "underground" activities in his role as a press officer. He acknowledges his medical background provides a "certain amount of credibility" to the movement.
Vlasak explained his opposition to animal testing to a U.S. Senate committee in 2005:
, which he attended on behalf of the Sea Shepherd Conversation Society. No charges were brought in connection with the attack. Vlasak was Sea Shepherd's treasurer for many years.
During the same hunt, he was one of 11 activists convicted of violating Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans regulations, because they watched the hunt without a permit. He was sentenced to 22 days in prison, which he served in a Prince Edward Island jail in 2006.
in 2006 of "targeted protesting" for demonstrating against euthanasia
at animal shelters outside the home of a Department of Animal Services employee. He was sentenced to 30 days' electronic monitoring. He has appealed the decision.
Following the August 2, 2008 firebombing of a house belonging to University of California Santa Cruz animal researchers, Vlasak was quoted as saying "This guy knows what he is doing. He knows that every day that he goes into the laboratory and hurts animals that it is unreasonable not to expect consequences."
wrote that Vlasak had told him during an interview: "I think violence is part of the struggle against oppression. If something bad happens to these people [animal researchers], it will discourage others. It is inevitable that violence will be used in the struggle and that it will be effective."
Vlasak responded in a press release that the allegations were part of a smear campaign
against him. He wrote: "I was outraged by Jamie Doward's article in the Observer stating that I, a medical doctor who spends my entire life SAVING lives, is calling for or encouraging the assassination or killing of any being, human or non human." He continued:
He told the BBC's Today program: "I am personally not advocating, condoning or recommending that anybody be killed. I am a physician who saves lives. I spend my entire day saving people's lives. All I am saying, in a historical context, violence has been used against us as animal rights campaigners and against the animals and is no different from us using violence on the other side."
On Australian television a few months later he said: "Would I advocate taking five guilty vivisectors' lives to save hundreds of millions of innocent animal lives? Yes, I would."
(SHAC), an animal-rights campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences
. The Home Secretary told the couple that their presence in the UK "would not be conducive to the public good."
Vlasak is one of two animal liberation press officers who have been banned from entering the UK. Steven Best
, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas, El Paso, was banned in 2005 to prevent him from addressing an animal rights conference there.
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
and animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
activist. He is a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office
Animal Liberation Press Office
Animal Liberation Press Offices relay anonymous communiques, photos and videos to the media about direct action undertaken by the Animal Liberation Front , Animal Rights Militia , Animal Liberation Brigade, Justice Department, and other leaderless resistance within the animal liberation movement...
, a former director of the Animal Defense League
Animal Defense League
The Animal Defense League is an internationally active grassroots animal rights organization fighting to put an end to animal exploitation and abuse...
of Los Angeles, and an advisor to SPEAK, the Voice for the Animals
SPEAK (animals)
SPEAK, the Voice for the Animals is a British animal rights campaign founded in 2003 that aims to end animal experimentation in the UK. It has to date fought against two projects. The first was a proposed non-human primate research facility at the University of Cambridge, which was abandoned in...
.
Vlasak came to public attention in 2003, and 2004 and again in 2008, when he made statements that appeared to justify the use of violence against animal researchers. He responded that he had been quoted out of context and strongly denied having said anything to encourage violent action. Nevertheless, as a result of his statements, he and his wife were banned from entering the United Kingdom in 2004, on the grounds that their presence, according to the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
, "would not be conducive to the public good."
Education and career
Vlasak graduated with an M.D.Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1983. He was an animal researcher
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
himself, and saw no problem with it at the time. According to the Los Angeles Times, he conducted research on dogs' arteries in a laboratory at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Harbor–UCLA Medical Center is a 570-bed public teaching hospital located at 1000 West Carson Street within the unincorporated Los Angeles County area of West Carson, California...
, during or after which the dogs were killed.
He has worked as a surgeon for several hospitals in southern California, including the Riverside Community and Parkview Community hospitals in Riverside County, and Community Hospital and San Antonio Community Hospital in San Bernardino
San Bernardino
San Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:-Landforms:*San Bernardino , a torrent that flows through the Italian province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola...
.
Political activism
Inspired by his wife, former actress Pamelyn FerdinPamelyn Ferdin
Pamelyn Ferdin is a former American television and film child actor, active both in live action and as a voice actress in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and has since appeared in several voice acting roles as late as 2009...
, who is currently president of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences , Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates...
in the U.S., Vlasak became active in promoting animal rights in 1993. He became a spokesperson for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., which promotes a vegan diet, preventive medicine, alternatives to animal research, and encourages what it describes as "higher standards of ethics and effectiveness in research." Its primary...
, although he is no longer a member, and was a board member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
His principal role in the animal liberation movement
Animal liberation movement
The animal-liberation movement, sometimes called the animal-rights movement, animal personhood, or animal-advocacy movement, is a social movement which seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, an end to the status of animals as property, and...
is as a liaison between the movement and the public, publicizing the movement's "underground" activities in his role as a press officer. He acknowledges his medical background provides a "certain amount of credibility" to the movement.
Vlasak explained his opposition to animal testing to a U.S. Senate committee in 2005:
Sea Shepherd activism
Vlasak has been active in opposing the seal hunt in Canada, which occurs every year, mostly in March and April. He was punched in the face by sealers during the 2005 hunt on Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
, which he attended on behalf of the Sea Shepherd Conversation Society. No charges were brought in connection with the attack. Vlasak was Sea Shepherd's treasurer for many years.
During the same hunt, he was one of 11 activists convicted of violating Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans regulations, because they watched the hunt without a permit. He was sentenced to 22 days in prison, which he served in a Prince Edward Island jail in 2006.
Conviction
Vlasak was convicted in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 2006 of "targeted protesting" for demonstrating against euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
at animal shelters outside the home of a Department of Animal Services employee. He was sentenced to 30 days' electronic monitoring. He has appealed the decision.
Views on violence
Vlasak has been criticized for appearing to legitimize the use of violence against animal researchers. He told an animal rights conference in 2003:I think there is a use for violence in our movement. And I think it can be an effective strategy. Not only is it morally acceptable, I think that there are places where it could be used quite effectively from a pragmatic standpoint.
For instance, if vivisectors were routinely being killed, I think it would give other vivisectors pause in what they were doing in their work — and if these vivisectors were being targeted for assassination ... — and I wouldn't pick some guy way down the totem pole, but if there were prominent vivisectors being assassinated, I think that there would be a trickle-down effect and many, many people who are lower on that totem pole would say, "I'm not going to get into this business because it's a very dangerous business ...
And I don't think you'd have to kill — assassinate — too many vivisectors before you would see a marked decrease in the amount of vivisection going on. And I think for 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human animals.
And I — you know — people get all excited about, "Oh what's going to happen when the ALF accidentally kills somebody in an arson?" Well, you know I mean, I think we need to get used to this idea. It's going to happen, okay? It's going to happen.
Following the August 2, 2008 firebombing of a house belonging to University of California Santa Cruz animal researchers, Vlasak was quoted as saying "This guy knows what he is doing. He knows that every day that he goes into the laboratory and hurts animals that it is unreasonable not to expect consequences."
Interview with The Observer
The controversy continued in July 2004 when Jamie Doward of The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
wrote that Vlasak had told him during an interview: "I think violence is part of the struggle against oppression. If something bad happens to these people [animal researchers], it will discourage others. It is inevitable that violence will be used in the struggle and that it will be effective."
Vlasak responded in a press release that the allegations were part of a smear campaign
Smear campaign
A smear campaign, smear tactic or simply smear is a metaphor for activity that can harm an individual or group's reputation by conflation with a stigmatized group...
against him. He wrote: "I was outraged by Jamie Doward's article in the Observer stating that I, a medical doctor who spends my entire life SAVING lives, is calling for or encouraging the assassination or killing of any being, human or non human." He continued:
People have been killed over absolutely ridiculous things like oil, power and money. It would be "speciesist" of me to say that in a battle for the moral and ethical high ground ... that there will never be casualties. I'm not encouraging or calling for this, I am simply stating that the animal rights movement is and has been the most peaceful and restrained movement the world has ever known considering the amount of terror, abuse and murder done to innocent animals for greed and profit. If by chance violence is used by those who fight for non human sentient beings, or even if there are casualties, it must be looked at in perspective and in a historical context.
He told the BBC's Today program: "I am personally not advocating, condoning or recommending that anybody be killed. I am a physician who saves lives. I spend my entire day saving people's lives. All I am saying, in a historical context, violence has been used against us as animal rights campaigners and against the animals and is no different from us using violence on the other side."
On Australian television a few months later he said: "Would I advocate taking five guilty vivisectors' lives to save hundreds of millions of innocent animal lives? Yes, I would."
Banned from entering the UK
As a result of the Observer article, the British government announced in August 2004 that Vlasak and his wife were banned from the UK. Vlasak had been due to attend a conference organized by Stop Huntingdon Animal CrueltyStop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences , Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 animals every year, from rats to primates...
(SHAC), an animal-rights campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences
Huntingdon Life Sciences
Huntingdon Life Sciences is a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952 in England, with facilities in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; Eye, Suffolk; New Jersey in the U.S., and Japan...
. The Home Secretary told the couple that their presence in the UK "would not be conducive to the public good."
Vlasak is one of two animal liberation press officers who have been banned from entering the UK. Steven Best
Steven Best
Steven Best is an American animal rights activist, author, talk-show host, and associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso...
, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas, El Paso, was banned in 2005 to prevent him from addressing an animal rights conference there.
Further reading
- "Anti-sealing group denounces director's comments", CBC News, April 21, 2005.
- Website of the Animal Defense League of Los Angeles.