Mob Rule Tramples Businesses

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The Los Angeles City Council recently voted to ban the use of ankuses, a metal rod used by trainers to guide elephants – effectively banning the circus from coming to town, starting in 2016. Whether or not you’re a circusgoer, this latest instance in an ongoing animal rights campaign across Southern California is a cause for alarm. It’s an indication that mob rule can take down any business.

For animal liberation groups, the script goes something like this: mobilize activists to show up at a council meeting (as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Society of the United States did in Los Angeles), repeat claims of animal abuse over and over, wait for the vote to come in favor of your ordinance and then pat yourselves on the back.

The only trouble? The mob tends to trample reasonable – and credible – voices in the business. That’s because of the dynamics of this anti-business lobbying strategy.

Consider the use of elephant guides by the circus. The American Veterinary Medical Association notes that an elephant guide “is intended to produce a light physical contact which the elephant finds mildly unpleasant” – which was very different from the hyperbolic portrayal of the activists. The American Association of Zoo Veterinarians backs the AVMA’s support for such guides, noting that this policy “results in a safer environment for the elephant, the elephant handler and the veterinarian.”

The guide is a tool that helps extend a handler’s reach – elephants can stand more than 10 feet tall and weigh more than 10,000 pounds. Trainers need a tool to help control these large animals. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires circuses to use guides for handling elephants. By banning guides, the City Council has effectively banned circuses that use elephants.

PETA and the Humane Society claim the guides are cruel, though they have few veterinarians on staff and little credibility on animal welfare. They make their bread and butter in producing emotional appeals. The council, for instance, viewed a one-sided PETA video showing misuse of guides, which helped the ban cruise to a unanimous vote.

But imagine this logic applied to other issues. One could show videos of car accidents. Does that mean we should ban all cars? Or set speed limits at 25 miles an hour everywhere? The abuse of a tool does not preclude legitimate use.

Despite this, the unruly mob tactics prevailed.

The trouble is these groups have developed a grassroots network of activists and have their own employees. The Humane Society has a Hollywood office with staffers. PETA opened an L.A. office a few years ago. These people are in the business of producing propaganda and simple messages, and rallying the troops.

Their grassroots campaigns turn out people while business people are hard at work running their business. Activists might be retired or unemployed – which means they have plenty of time on their hands to call legislators and show up to midday council meetings.

There’s no negotiating with an ideology that doesn’t want animals used for entertainment, food, breeding or other purposes. The circus in particular has had the kitchen sink thrown at it over the years, with a cabal of animal rights groups dragging Ringling Bros. into court in 2000 over its use of the elephant guide. (After nine years of litigation, Ringling prevailed and is now suing the animal rights groups under anti-racketeering laws for stealthily paying the key witness in their lawsuit more than $100,000.) But jurisdictions in Southern California have also banned the sale of fur or pets.

That might be a unique problem to animal enterprises, but what’s not unique is that a business can face noisy pressure from activists. It could be environmental activists, tax-hiking activists and so forth.

The solution is that businesses need to get tough and prepare for a battle. The easiest way to do this is to engage customers and keep them informed of key issues. Build an email list and, when an important event is going on, get your customers knowledgeable and ask them to take action. If they enjoy buying your products or services at a good price – or simply having the choice to buy them at all – you can have your own voices against the professional activists.

Will Coggin is a senior research analyst at the Washington-based Center for Consumer Freedom, which operates HumaneWatch.org to monitor animal rights activists including PETA and the Humane Society of the United States.

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