Animal rights activist sparks outrage with Holocaust analogy
Animal rights activist Tash Peterson has drawn parallels between the Holocaust and the animal suffering caused by the meat and dairy industry.
In a recent incident that has sparked widespread debate and condemnation, animal rights activist Tash Peterson has drawn parallels between the Holocaust and the animal suffering caused by the meat and dairy industry.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Alex Ryvchin told The AJN, “The life of an animal is not equal to that of a human being. It requires complete immaturity or absolute indoctrination to think otherwise.”
Defending her use of the analogy, Peterson told The AJN, “The definition of a holocaust is ‘slaughter or destruction on a mass scale’. Each year, approximately three trillion non-human people are murdered for human food consumption. They are literally murdered by the billions each week, so these statistics clearly show that it’s the largest holocaust in history.”
Peterson, who calls herself a disruptive animal rights activist, was charged last week by Western Australia Police after she and a group of fellow animal rights activists stormed a Perth restaurant, playing the sounds of squealing pigs and shouting, “The sounds you hear now are pigs screaming for their lives in CO2 gas chambers” and “You are responsible for their murder if you are not vegan.”
Acknowledging the criticism she has received, Peterson said, “People are often outraged when I call it the animal holocaust, and the reason for this is simply because they are non-human animals. That’s exactly the issue at hand, our society discriminates and oppresses others for being a different species to us. They are sentient individuals; have the desire to live; feel pain and suffering.”
Ryvchin explained that “Treatment of animals and humane methods of slaughter are serious matters, but rather than sparking a discussion, this sort of activism only fuels contempt for these activists and complete indifference to the issues they supposedly care about.”
He added, “Change is effected through outreach, education, having conversations with those who disagree with you. Equating victims of the Holocaust to livestock and implying that anyone who eats meat is complicit in a new holocaust might get them some emotional gratification but nothing else.”
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