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Meet the Heroes in An Earth Divided: Crucified For Caring
Sunday, March 04, 2007 3:23:00 PM
by Share Bond
| Nature |
| Short excerpts about the animal advocate and environmental heroes discussed in Share Bond''s upcoming book. |
Every one of the heroes Share Bond covered in her book “An Earth Divided: Crucified For Caring” has their own methods in achieving their successes, and not all agree with each other’s methods, but the end result is the same. They all have a dream of how to heal Mother Earth and make it a more compassionate place to inhabit for all living beings. What gives us courage and inspiration is the unsung heroes that exist everywhere in this world.
PAUL WATSON, Founder of Sea Shepard Conservation Society, has rammed whaling ships and fishing trawlers; boldly sailed into Soviet waters; and challenged the governments of all seafaring nations to live up to the laws they have agreed to and signed. His mission is to publicize and stop the atrocities committed against the world’s ocean creatures.
Paul and his volunteers have been charged, jailed and unfairly fined and treated numerous times, but never convicted. He and his group have been shot at with bullets, even machine guns; explosive harpoons; had flares and tear gas dropped on them; and even knives hurled at them. Yes, at times like this they have been terrified, but all they have to do is remember why they are doing this, and the courage returns.
CLEVELAND AMORY (1917 - 1998), Founder of Fund for Animals, was as well-known for his great love of animals, as he was for his writing. He was widely credited with launching the anti-hunting movement, and sought to curb wildlife exploitation and domestic-animal abuse.
He helped establish the violent, fishing-boat-ramming Sea Shepherd Conservation Society by giving them money for ships, and helped put PETA on the fundraising map by aiding its undercover investigation in a primate researcher’s laboratory.
Cleveland liked to step back and cause people to think about what they were doing, but he did it with humor instead of moral outrage. His passion for animals had its roots in a bullfight he was assigned to cover in Arizona. He was so sickened that when the animal's ears were cut off as a trophy, he picked up a cushion and threw it at the matador.
CHRIS DeROSE, former Hollywood actor, founded Last Chance for Animals (LCA), exposed the inherent cruelty of vivisection. In the organization's early years, he led teams of dedicated activists employing non-violent strategies modeled after social movements led by such leaders as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he dedicates his life to exposing and fighting against pet theft and other forms of animal exploitation. As the head of LCA, he has busted pet-theft rings and spoken out against the folly and injustice of animal experimentation.
But when one fights for social change, justice, and for the rights of the most oppressed and exploited of all populations on Earth (animals), you bump into some very powerful heads. Chris has been arrested eleven times and jailed on four of those occasions for actions he's taken on behalf of animal rights. He once got shot in the back by an FBI informant who claimed he had the same beliefs.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., nephew of the late President Kennedy, is one of the nation’s most successful environmental lawyers. He has won cases against companies and government agencies for committing serious crimes against the environment. Waterkeeper Alliance has filed multiple legal actions against Smithfield Foods, Inc., the world’s largest hog raiser and processor, charging that the company has for years knowingly and systematically violated environmental laws.
Robert is trying to use his political clout to help save the earth and its inhabitants, but is meeting with a lot of friction because of his feather ruffling. Articles titled “Kennedy Bombs in Midwest”, and “Beat It, Bobby, Jr.” are used to discredit his work. It’s true that his famous political relatives were also trying to make positive changes in politics, but it cost them their lives. This kind of work makes one a large target when big business and government are being exposed.
Very derogatory comments have been made publicly on the Internet against Robert’s views and information, but mot of America is either asleep, brainwashed (which is intended), or really don’t want to know the truth. Then again, there’s a good chance that the comments were made by the industry and government that had the whistle blown on them.
Those of us who stir the pot normally do have to duck mud slinging, but then again…sticks and stones . . .
HENRY SPIRA was founder of the animal rights movement and architect of the U.S. animal rights movement's first successful campaigns to limit the use of animals in medical testing and went on to become a vigorous, courageous, wry, testy, ingenious, and globally-famous advocate of more humane treatment of farm animals.
Henry brought half a lifetime of activism in the labor and civil rights movements to the animal rights world when he became involved at the age of 45.
Henry's penchant for bridge-building often extended to establishing working relationships with opponents in an effort to find common ground as a building block for progress. He contended that the destructive raids by the underground Animal Liberation Front on laboratories were counter-productive.
He published Campaign Strategies For Activists, a collection of papers documenting how he got things done working alone where big groups couldn’t make headway.
The FBI tried hard to discredit Henry, but his research and character withstood the test.
JULIA “BUTTERFLY” HILL lived in a 200-foot tree for over two years surviving storms, frostbite, harassment and threats, and even little tree critters.
Many activists that do tree-sits have their eyes swabbed with pepper spray by police during the peaceful protests. Pacific Lumber threatened to blow up the tree, took an axe to her, did reckless cutting and gambled with the lives of those there that cared about the environment.
If Julia had made even the smallest mistake, the government would pounce and exploit her as much as they possibly could. And by discrediting her, they would have stripped others of their credibility. That was a huge weight put on her.
Helicopters sprayed napalm until the whole area was billowing with smoke and flame. The fires lasted six days and Julia was tortured beyond belief - her eyes swelled shut, her nose dried until it bled uncontrollably, her throat, lungs and sinuses burned, but worse of all was the psychic misery she suffered.
Later, Pacific Lumber started placing demands that would limit, restrict, and control her right to free speech, but she refused to sign away her values, morals, beliefs, and rights!
DAVID “GYPSY” CHAIN, along with some other activists trying to protect Julia “Butterfly” Hill and Luna, had been out trying to stop logging operations that were being carried out in an area too close to endangered species without a Timber Harvest Plan. One of the loggers, A. E. Ammons, became enraged and screamed at the activists stating that he wished he had his gun so he could shoot them. Thirty minutes later, David Gypsy Chain was dead.
People wanted this man held accountable. They also saw that the government was refusing to do anything about it. After Gypsy was killed, the law enforcement agencies refused to cordon off the area as the scene of a crime, let alone the scene of a death. So activists had to keep the loggers out, which is what law enforcement should have been doing. Hostile people would drive by and shoot guns in the direction of the activists at the gate. Once they threw a deer heart and a hoof at them.
Then in the wee hours of October 8, 1998, forty Humboldt County law enforcement officers in full riot gear stormed the blockage. The police declared it an unlawful assembly and told people either to leave or be arrested. They hadn’t done a thing to stop the violence against activists in the woods, but here they were in full force to prevent the activists from peaceably assembling.
So the day at court finally came, and right in the middle of the hearings, it was announced that the California Department of Forestry had suspended and didn’t renew Pacific Lumber’s logging license after investigating the allegations that had propelled Gypsy and the others into action. Because Pacific Lumber was already on probation for prior violations of the Forest Practices Act (averaging close to one hundred violations per year), the California Department of Forestry revoked its license. It was about time the company was held responsible for its blatant violations of the law, but it didn’t last long for within weeks, Pacific Lumber’s license had been reinstated, same as it ever was. In effect, its license hadn’t really been revoked at all, merely suspended for a slightly longer period of time than the usual slap on the wrist.
STEVE HINDI, president of S.H.A.R.K (Showing Animals Respect and Kindness), served a period of incarceration resulting from a hunter interference charge. After hunting for most of his life, Steve turned around when he witnessed a horrific example of live pigeon shooting. From that point on, compassion, not killing, became his life goal.
Steve, like so many other animal activists, constantly exposes and protests many forms of cruelty, but deals with so many corrupt people and organizations that flagrantly laugh at the existing laws, while our government agencies, like the USDA, look the other way. DNR and hunters, to name a few, devise plots to get Steve out of the way by fabricating charges against him to keep him in jail so he can’t exercise his freedom of speech and assembly.
MARTIN SHEEN was arrested on numerous occasions in protests against nuclear weapons and in defense of environmental issues. He went on two trips with Paul Watson to fight the harp seal slaughter and had his life threatened. He had seen plenty of anger on picket lines and seen protestors beaten by police in the past, but nothing like he witnessed in Canada.
Being a Catholic, Martin made an interesting observation while this was happening. As the Priest held the Mass across the street from them, the mob was dragging Paul Watson across the parking lot and persecuting him for believing in life. Our Lord was persecuted for the same thing. Seeing that contrast made him realize that a true Catholic fights for justice and for innocence against the might of the State. He summed it up that Roman and Canadian tyranny are the same thing.
DEXTER CATE, a field agent for the Fund for Animals, flew to Japan to help the dolphins. He sliced the holding nets and freed 300 suffering dolphins. He was placed under arrest and jailed three months. He didn’t consider the act of cutting the nets a crime but a moral act justified the need to save the lives of dolphins. The day before the release by Dexter, the Japanese had killed and fed 100 dolphins into a meat shredder.
PATRICK WALL also cut nets and released dolphins in Japan. He also served three months in jail.
FARLEY MOWAT is one of Canada’s great writers. Farley is passionate about wildlife. He may be a Canadian national treasure, but that hasn’t stopped his critics from savaging his credibility. Because of his animal rights affiliations - supporting Paul Watson’s causes, and through his writings, he has exposed some dirty secrets. Many of his writings point the finger at how Canada exploits wildlife and their native Inuits.
He was included on a U.S. government list of undesirables and was subsequently refused entry into the States for a lecture tour.
In his books “A Whale for Killing” and “Sea of Slaughter” he has rallied children to environmental action once they grew up. “Never Cry Wolf,” perhaps his best-known book, described his lengthy study of wolf behavior as he fought to save the animals from human hostility and government-sponsored extermination.
DIAN FOSSEY’s pioneering work with the gorillas has forever changed the ways animals are studied in the wild. Her observations of gorilla behavior dispelled myths about mountain gorilla violence. Dian became very involved with one particular gorilla, Digit, who was later beheaded by poachers, so she declared war on the poachers. She organized anti-poaching patrols and placed bounties on poachers’ heads. She called this “active conservation”. Her outspokenness, unfortunately, made her a target for violence.
She also was threatened to be kicked out by the government because she suspected the Rwandan government’s involvement with the poachers. She continuously had to legalize her paper and work permits to further her work.
Leakey was criticized for letting Dian return after a close call, but wrote to Dian, “If people like you and me, and Jane, Birute, and others whose work takes them into strange places, put our personal safety first, we would never get any work done at al.”
Dian Fossey was murdered by an unknown attacker in her cabin at the Karisoke Research Center in the Virunga Mountains in 1985. The attacker hacked her to death by what investigators believe to be a machete. No arrests have ever been made, but local authorities believe it to be gorilla poachers who were at odds with Dian and her anti-poaching brigade of but a few soldiers.
JOHN ROBBINS is best known for authoring the book “Diet For A New America” and joining PETA in suing the California Milk Board over their “Happy Cows Come From California” ad campaign. In this book and “The Food Revolution”, he detailed the horrific abuses inflicted by big business and government deceit.
As the only son of the founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire, he grew up eating plenty of ice cream and being groomed to take over the family business. However he became aware of the tremendous suffering of dairy cows and their calves and the devastating impact that large-scale animal operations, particularly those in California’s dairy industry, have on human health and the environment. Instead of following in his father’s footsteps, he turned away from the family business and committed himself to working for a more compassionate and environmentally-responsible world.
John Robbins certainly has stirred up the pot exposing the ugly business of dairy business and false advertising, but I’m sure just like the rest of us, he is suffering harassment on his journey.
ERIN BROCKOVICH is an environmental crusader whose investigation, legal triumph and personal challenges were chronicled in the blockbuster film, “Erin Brockovich” starring Julia Roberts. She said she is still overwhelmed over this heroic fight against “the big boys”. Since the movie, her life has been turned upside down. “For the most part it’s been a good experience, but there’s been some unpleasant sides to it. We’ve had thousands of toxic cases brought in.
It was a very difficult fight, but Erin is a survivor. She did have to deal with the sensationalizing tabloids as well. It is difficult to get exposure for major social issues, but it is nice to believe that your local political leaders can help you. It’s a good first step. It really depends on the social issue you have. She does feel that the Bush administration will hurt tort cases. He favors Corporate America, and in too many cases Corporate America has damaged the environment. She believes Bush can be a potential obstacle.
Law Offices of Masry & Vititoe are one of the leading firms in the national litigating environmental issues, chemical contamination, and toxic torts. They have become a loud voice in the environmental arena, and are making a difference in this world.
JAMES CROMWELL, who played the pig-owning Farmer Hoggett, has been a vegetarian since 1975, and became a vegan in 1994, while making the movie “Babe”. He is an animal rights activist as well. On July 3, 2001, the actor was arrested at an animal rights protest at a Wendy’s restaurant.
“I don’t regret the protest,” Cromwell said at his trial. “I regret animal abuses are still happening.” Outside the courthouse, protestors carried signs saying, “Please don’t eat Babe for breakfast”. He pleaded no contest, and the judge ordered him to stay out of Wendy’s restaurants in the county for a year and suspended a $1,000 fine. “In a just world,” Cromwell said afterwards, “factory farmers would have been on trial today”.
I greatly admire James Cromwell for taking a stand on behalf of compassion.. When he uses his celebrity status to advance the cause of caring, he does our world a service.
HOWARD LYMAN is the author of the book “Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat”, and President & Founder of Voice for a Viable Future This book is both an inspirational story of personal transformation and a convincing call to action for a plant-based diet - for the good of the planet and the health of us all.
Howard is a fourth-generation family farmer in Montana for almost 40 years, and speaks from a background of personal experience when he says that chemically-based agricultural production methods today are unsustainable, and therefore, ecologically disastrous. This impassioned, no-nonsense account of the dangerous and potentially-fatal practices of the cattle and dairy industries is told by a man uniquely qualified to blow the whistle.
In 1983, he sold most of his farm and started working for farmers in financial trouble. This led to working for the Montana Farmers Union and from there to Washington, DC as a lobbyist for the National Farmers Union, and got the National Organic Standards Act passed.
Howard Lyman’s testimony on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” revealed the deadly impact of the livestock industry on our well-being. It not only led to Oprah’s declaration that she’d never eat a burger again, it sent shock waves through a concerned and vulnerable public. Howard Lyman and Oprah Winfrey were sued by the meat industry and suffered tremendous expenses, but the exposure was worth it.
Like a stepping stone, each hardship taught us what we needed to learn so that we could reach the next step and the next. Somehow, they seemed to come in just the right way, giving us the knowledge to handle whatever came after. The universe may not always send us what we want, but it always sends us what we need and sometimes a little bit more to make us stronger.
BILLY McNAMARA, NIK HENSEY, RIC O’BERRY, ETC. were in Japan as part of the Sea Shepherd crew in November of 2003 when thirty pilot whales were brutally speared and stabbed by Taiji dolphin killers. Nik Hensey and television star Billy McNamara were unable to approach the whales because of gangs of fishermen guarding the nets around the clock. In the early morning hours, Nik and Billy had climbed the cliffs overlooking the captured whales. They were immediately assaulted by fishermen who threatened their lives repeatedly. Famed dolphin defender Ric O’Berry arrived during the last week in October for a two-week stay on patrol.
The plaintive screams of the whales echoed through the community of Taiji as the whole bay turned an obscene bloody crimson with the hot blood of the whales. The fishermen, realizing their butchering had been documented, started threatening and moving towards the Sea Shepherd crew, who called the police when they were assaulted by the angry mob. Rather than arrest the fishermen, the police arrested and carried away the Sea Shepherd crew on bogus charges.
The Taiji fishermen knew that while Sea Shepherd crew remained in the area, they could not commit mass murder of dolphins without it being documented and further exposed in the media, a major form of embarrassment in Japanese culture.
ROD CORONADO, NICK TAYLOR, ETC. was aboard the Sea Shepherd II during the first campaign to the Faeroe Islands to stop the pilot whale hunt which is a violation of the Berne Convention. The whalers were absolutely furious with the crew, especially the Faeroese delegation, since they were highlighting their annual whale massacres by flying anti-Faeroese whaling banners from their ship in constant view of all the delegates.
Rod Coronado and Nick Taylor were sent ashore the next morning to find missing crew members. The inflatable was spotted, so Rod went to cut it loose with a knife, but the police jumped into the inflatable and wrestled with both men. Rod and Nick were subdued by the force of numbers and dragged bodily from the inflatable, and taken to jail, where they found the three missing crew and two independent reporters taking photographs of the arrest.
When the Faeroese media approached the Sea Shepherd II (SSII), Paul said, “The fact is that your police state here has just taken people into custody without charges, without having committed a crime. We cleared Customs in the proper manner. We have the proper papers. We were invited here by the Faeroese delegate to the IWC, who said that all people are invited to come to the Faeroes and view this whale hunt.
Later the police contacted Paul and said they would like to make a deal - to return his crew, if he agreed to voluntarily sign an expulsion order barring them from any Scandinavian country for three years. This was extortion without precedent. An expulsion order signed under duress would not be morally binding as far as he was concerned, so he agreed. They got their signature in return for the crew members and their two inflatable boats.
The Sea Shepherd II left, but came right back to the Faeroes. The deck crew barricaded the ship behind barbed wire. They knew they would be deliberately violating the expulsion order and had no intention of making it easy for the Faeroese to board.
The Coast Guard assaulted the SSII with tear-gas grenades, shotguns, and a volley of machine-gun fire was fired across the Sea Shepherd’s bow, as well as trying to foul SSII’s prop. But they were met by SSII’s non-violent flares and water cannons, and they were able to render one of the boats dead in the water. Before the Coast Guard could pull the triggers of their automatic rifles, Rod unleashed a torrent of banana crème pudding onto the crew of the closest boat. The second inflatable retreated before the onslaught of 45 gallons of cherry-pie filling.
During the three-week period in June that SSII lay in Faeroese waters, not a single whale was killed. It is a fact, and one that supports our belief, that direct action speaks louder than words and confrontation achieves more than rhetoric. Red Coronado and David Howitt, and the rest of the crew, had shown great courage under fire in the Faeroes.
WOODY HARRELSON, actor and environmentalist, is a man who is not afraid to speak up for what he believes in. Woody has channeled his energies into various environmental causes, including the saving of the California redwoods and other endangered forests. As an environmentalist, he came to see the legalization of industrial hemp as a solution to the worldwide fiber shortage crisis. He became a vocal champion of this much-maligned cause, even risking imprisonment. In June 1996, he planted four certified industrial hemp seeds to challenge the constitutionality of the Kentucky State law which does not distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana.
In November 1996, Woody and eight other environmental activists scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to hang up a banner in protest of logging of the Headwaters Complex.
Woody wrote a letter to the IRS on April 15, 1996, where he decided to hold out a small percentage of his income tax that year as a protest against the way this government does business. Instead of giving ten thousand dollars to the IRS, he told them he donated it to aid the development of a domestic hemp industry.
He said, “Two hundred and twenty years ago, we embarked on an historic journey to “form a more perfect union” because we refused to submit to taxation without representation. Until my tax dollars stop going to subsidize destructive industries like timber, I cannot in good conscience continue to give. We the people must recognize the power that we have as consumers and tax payers when our votes do not work. I refuse to continue to submit to taxation without representation. If boycott and tax resistance are the only avenues left to use, then that’s the route I will take.
Excerpts of Woody’s post-arrest press release said, “The law is not all that is wrong; the enforcement mechanism is wrong. I planted industrial hemp and got arrested because someone must highlight this difference and, in order to truly know the law, one must test the law. I think it is time for all of us to make a stand against corporate welfare and for environmentally-friendly, rural economic development.
ROBERT REDFORD is a well known actor and establisher of the Sundance Film Festival, but not everyone knows that behind the scenes he preaches the clean-energy gospel at the grassroots, in the pages of newspapers, and on the big screen. As far back as 1975, Robert began working on short films and documentaries promoting solar power. His environmental activism has gone beyond renewable-energy advocacy, from lobbying for the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act in the 1970’s to holding international conferences on global warming in the 1980’s to campaigning for pro-environment Democratic politicians in the 1990’s.
Robert’s biggest concern is that the Bush administration has advocated the most destructive polities he has seen in the more than three decades he’s been working on these matters. And what makes our Republican leadership, both in the White House and Congress, seem all the more stupendously ignorant is that they’re implementing these backward policies at a time when they could be pushing forward a new era of solutions - tremendous technological advancements related to things like energy efficiency, renewables, sustainable building, and agriculture that are so incredibly exciting.
It’s not a time for subtlety, and so, therefore, it has to be kind of in your face, loud and commercial. We need to get people to see, to get the attention, in order to move through the incredible paralytic apathy in the American mainstream.
TED DANSON, actor and co-founder of the American Oceans Campaign (AOC) has steeped himself in the environmental issues. While lobbying on Capitol Hill he has been known to chase senators into elevators. One of the reasons that they picked oceans is that it’s a great metaphor for everything that happens environmentally. Everything that we do on land ends up in the coastal waters, one way or the other. Global warming, the ozone layer, everything has an impact on the ocean. It’s like a mirror, reflecting the health of the planet.
Between 1988 and 1992 there were over 7,700 beach closures or advisories in the U.S. AOC has developed the first-ever beach closure protocol for Los Angeles County.
One of the things that excites Ted the most about AOC is that they have learned to reach out to the people that they do battle with. He feels you can no longer take satisfaction in just throwing a brick. You really need to work with the private sector, because they are the ones that are usually at the center of the pollution, and Washington is so slow and so political.
JEFF RUCH is executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a service organization helping federal, state, and local agency scientists, law enforcement officers, land managers, and other professionals to uphold environmental values within public service.
More often, public agencies work behind the scenes to intimidate employees from sharing information with the public, their true employers. Agencies typically use gag orders or vaguely-worded nondisclosure policies as the principal tool to keep their people quiet.
When these specialists cannot speak out about environmental problems, we are all deprived of vital information affecting our health and well being. Usually, this information is embarrassing to the very agencies charged with enforcing pollution protections, because bad news implies or demonstrates negligence, or worse, on behalf of the department.
JANE TIPSON, a dedicated conservationist and animal rights activist, was murdered in St. Lucia in the early morning hours on September 17, 2003. She was shot in the head at close range and killed by an unknown assailant. An article about Jane’s murder eluded to the probability that the contract killing was carried out because of her work against the Dolphin Fantaseas’ plan to create a dolphin encounter tourist attraction in St. Lucia and other islands in the Caribbean region. This group has a very shady past. The crime scene was contaminated by police officers and little forensic evidence was found.
Jane co-founded the Eastern Caribbean Coalition for Environmental Awareness and was responsible for the ECCEA regional program in St. Lucia. She also created the St. Lucia Whale and Dolphin Watching Association and promoted the development of a now-flourishing whale watching industry in that country; and she led anti-captivity campaigns. She founded and dedicated her time and entire income to the St. Lucia Animal Protection Society (SLAPS) alleviating the intense misery of hundreds of wild and domestic animals in a way few people have ever done.
As is the case with many environmental and animal activists, there was an ongoing attempt to discredit Jane and she was continuously harassed and threatened by those whose profit at any cost methods were threatened by her activities. Captain Paul Watson said, “I remember my life being threatened when Sea Shepherd’s ship was last in St. Lucia, and my experience there illustrates to me just what a courageous heroine Jane was in continuing to champion the animals and habitats in the face of very real threats of violence.”
To date, nothing has happened and her grieving family remain in deep distress, when it seems clear that the criminals are known to local police.
JOHN MUNSELL, known as the “Meatpacking Maverick”, is a Montana meatpacker in an against-the-odds struggle for improved food safety. John became an activist because of bad meat. His family never had a reason to doubt the integrity of the food-safety system, until the tainted beef arrived. It was USCA-approved and vacuum-sealed at Montana Quality Foods. But his opinion of USDA’s inspections changed after the meat he ground for hamburger tested positive for E. coli, a potentially deadly pathogen found in cattle feces that sickens thousands ever year.
Instead of tracking the contaminated meat back to its source, the USDA launched an investigation of John’s own operation. John warned the district USDA manager of a potential public-health emergency. USDA moved immediately and aggressively, only not to recall meat from Greeley, but to shut down John’s grinding operation, a punishment that lasted four months.
Despite his continued whistle blowing, the USDA failed to address the alleged contamination. Then in 2002, his worst fears came true - E. coli-tainted burger from Greeley killed an Ohio woman and sickened at least 35 others. ConAgra then recalled 19 million pounds of beef, one of the largest recalls in history.
After months of lobbying, he persuaded Senator Burns to convene a congressional hearing in Billings, where John testified on the failings of USDA inspections. He also convinced the Government Accountability Project (GAP), the nation’s leading whistleblower organization, to investigate the USDA’s handling of his case. In July 2003, GAP released a major report titled “Shielding the Giant: USDA’s ‘Don’t Look, Don’t Know’ Policy for Beef Inspection”. “The ConAgra-Munsell scandal,” it concluded, “perpetuates a long-standing USDA pattern to blame the messenger and scapegoat the victims, rather than stand behind its seal of wholesomeness.”
Because of the negative publicity from the USDA’s shutdown of his plant, John put his operation up for sale. What haunts him is not his decision to go public, but the fact that he almost decided to stay quiet, just to protect his own livelihood.
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