"Hog producers are greater threat to US than Osama bin laden," says RFK Jr.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.Four months after telling an April 5 rally in Clear Lake, Iowa, that "Large-scale hog producers are a greater threat to the U.S. and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network," Waterkeeper Alliance president Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shows no sign of backing away from his remarksand has posted not just one but two denunciations of factory-style hog farming originally issued in April at the <www.keeper.org> web site.
The conservation-oriented Water-keeper Alliance is only peripherally involved with animal issues other than protection of habitat from pollution, and Kennedy himself has rarely said much about animals, but after other Waterkeeper Alliance spokespersons tried to tone down his Clear Lake statements or claim they were taken out of context, Kennedy spoke equally forcefully on April 18 at Briar Cliff University, a Catholic institution in Sioux City, Iowa.
Kennedy said he was misquoted, but not about his main points, said Des Moines Register staff writer Mark Siebert.
"I lost my law offices in the 9/11 blast, and I lost many friends, so I don't say this lightly," Kennedy told the Briar Cliff audience. "What I believe is that the threat that is offered by an outside terrorist like Osama bin Laden, who is clearly evil," is less than that of "an industry that is lawless in almost every respect."
Reported Siebert, "He made references to religion, saying that in the Old Testament, God told Noah to collect two of all the animals, not just those who provide economic gain. In the New Testament," Kennedy reminded, Jesus "was born in a manger surrounded by animals."
Said Kennedy, "I wonder what Jesus would have thought about the inside of one of these hog factories."
Siebert wrote that most of the crowd of about 300 people gave Kennedy a standing ovation, despite vehement on-the-spot response from Iowa Corn Growers Association president Dave Boettger.