Washington – Seven California lawsuits filed yesterday against restaurants that serve grilled chicken are motivated by animal-rights ideology, the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) said today. The deceptively named “Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine” (PCRM) is actually a wealthy animal rights group, not a mainstream health charity.
PCRM’s goals include transitioning Americans to a strict vegetarian diet. And publicly available tax records show that two-thirds of the group’s operating budget now comes from Nanci Alexander, an animal-rights millionaire who operates a Florida vegetarian restaurant. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has also contributed over $1.3 million.
Yesterday in Los Angeles, City News Service reported that the American Medical Association has in the past called PCRM an organization that uses “unethical tactics” and is “interested in perverting medical science.” City News Service also noted that “a Newsweek article in February 2004 stated that less than 5 percent of its members are doctors and it has ties to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights group, which has drawn criticism for some of its tactics.”
PCRM lead attorney Dan Kinburn, who filed the California lawsuits yesterday, has also appeared protesting alongside PETA activists against the use of animals by medical research laboratories. A photograph of Mr. Kinburn participating in such a PETA protest can be viewed at www.consumerfreedom.com/kinburn.jpg
CCF Director of Research David Martosko said: “When will people realize that this phony ‘physicians’ group is just PETA with a lab coat? The animal rights activists at PCRM would rather save lab rats than cure cancer and AIDS. They don’t deserve a say in whether or not anyone eats a chicken sandwich.”
Martosko continued: “The federal government and the American Cancer Society agree that there’s nothing dangerous about eating a chicken sandwich. But letting animal rights activists slowly force us into vegetarianism could be hazardous to everyone’s health. The last time I checked, Americans were getting sick from spinach, not grilled chicken.”
To learn more about the radical animal rights activists behind the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, visit www.PhysicianScam.com.
