Animal-rights letter apparently astroturf

By: David Martosko
Newspaper: Tucson Citizen

It seems like a new group of opportunistic propagandists finds a way to hitch its wagon to Earth Day each year, and this time around it was the animal-rights nuts pushing the envelope.

Not only were the claims in Travis Connley's recent anti-meat letter wrong-headed, but it wasn't even his own letter to begin with. ("It's not about changing light bulbs any more!" April 21).

While the United Nations claims that global livestock production may account for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, data from the Environmental Protection Agency show that here at home, domestic meat production contributes only 2.4 percent.

Since American farmers are far more eco-friendly than their counterparts overseas, eating home-grown meat is a great way to be "green."

More disturbing, however, is that Mr. Connley's letter - the same exact word-for-word message - also appeared in more than 50 other newspapers this month. In each case, a different "author" signed it.

This isn't a coincidence. It's a program of the deceptive Farm Animal Rights Movement, a Maryland-based radical group that misleads countless Americans by hijacking hundreds of newspaper opinion pages every year.

There's absolutely nothing environmentally unfriendly about eating a balanced diet, including meat and dairy foods. And anyone who wants to claim otherwise should articulate his own opinion instead of letting an agenda-driven form letter do the talking.