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Leader-author calls for 'major' animal rights counter-movement

You could say Patti Strand of Portland, Oregonwrote the book on the animal rights movement.

Strand, who is the founder and chairperson of the National Animal Interest Alliance, authored a book 17 years ago entitled “The Hijacking of the Humane Movement: Animal Extremism”. Strand has been battling theanimal rights movement ever since and she says it’s not going away.

“So I would say that the people who imagine that they can just keep doing their own thing and the bad guys will disappear are living in a bit of a fantasy land at this point,” says Strand.”They’re not going to go away. This is how these groups earn their living. They’re conflict fund-raising groups. They need conflict in order to make money.”

Strand’s group—the NAIA—includes dog breeders, research scientists, hunters, farmers, ranchers andothers. She says she would like to see agriculture get more involved in their counter-movement.

“I believe firmly that we all need to be working together,” says Strand. “We need to understand each other’s issues, and we need to organize to fund a majorcounter-movement to them.”

Strand believes the animal rights counter-movement can succeed. “I have a lot of faith that when people understand what we understand, they will side with us—and I don’t think we’ve done a good job at all of getting our messageout.”