October 23, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Former CHA ‘star’ now on animal rights crusade (not animal welfare)
by LEN LEAR

Mary Finelli, a member of RPA (founded by David Cantor), holds a protest banner at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) in front of the Washington Hilton. The banner refers to the financial connection between the universities and the meat and dairy industries.

To dream the impossible dream; to fight the unbeatable foe; to bear with unbearable sorrow; to run where the brave dare not go … This is my quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far … to fight for the right, without question or pause, to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause … (from “The Impossible Dream” in Man of La Mancha)

David Cantor, 53, was the graduation speaker when he finished his senior year at Chestnut Hill Academy in 1973, where he was fourth in his class. He also worked as a volunteer at Morris Arboretum, and he was a Water Tower Baseball League all-star. His family lived in Mt. Airy until he was 2, then on Rex Avenue in Chestnut Hill until he was 14 and then in Wyndmoor. Cantor lives in Glenside today with his wife of 29 years, Elizabeth Holt, 54, a professional choral singer, piano teacher and speech-language pathologist. The couple, who have no children, have both been vegans for 19 years. (David’s mom, Betty Sherman, 75, previously taught art at Springside and Miquon Schools; his dad is deceased; he has a brother, Paul, 52, a 1974 CHA grad, who works for Bank of America in Seattle.)

While obviously an outstanding student, Cantor led a rather conventional life for several years. He graduated as an English major from Grinnell College in Iowa, earned an MFA in English from George Mason University in Virginia and taught literature and fiction writing courses for six years at George Mason and for four years at American University.

In addition to his animal rights work, David is a nature photographer and musician who has performed at Mermaid Inn and many other local venues. His CD, Songs of Now and Then, is available at Hideaway Records at the top of the Hill.

But then David, also a talented musician who has performed at Mermaid Inn and several other area venues (his CD, Songs of Now and Then, is available at Hideaway Records at the top of the Hill), took a job with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). First he was an assistant to the executive director and then was a researcher/investigator for six years, which changed his life dramatically.

“I learned about many forms of animal abuse and exploitation,” explained David, “such as raising animals for food and clothing, factory farming, transport, slaughter, zoos, circuses, dog racing, laboratory experimentation, hunting, fishing, trapping, breeding, killing deer and geese living where people decided there were ‘too many,’ and others. I learned about laws and regulations governing these practices and agencies charged with enforcing them – and the lack of meaningful laws because nonhuman animals have no legal rights.

“I managed efforts to end foie gras production, destruction of birds and bats in thousands of small oil and gas extraction devices owned by large oil companies, conservation organizations’ abuse of wildlife in the name of conservation, the keeping (and injuring and killing) of ‘classroom pets,’ the use of nonhuman primates in laboratories, and on and on. I worked full-time as an animal advocate (for PETA and other groups) for 13 years.”

Cantor eventually became disillusioned with PETA and many organizations like Humane Society of the U.S., Fund for Animals, Friends of Animals, World Wildlife Fund, etc. He insists these organizations are wrongly labeled as “animal rights” organizations when they are actually “animal welfare” organizations. The average person would probably not recognize or care about this difference, but Cantor felt the difference was (and is) of monumental importance, so much so that in 2002 he started his own animal rights organization called Responsible Policies for Animals (RPA), Inc., which currently has about 140 members. The number is relatively small, but the CHA grad is quick to point out that the abolitionist movement of the first half of the 19th century was extremely small and was considered too radical by almost everyone in the north and south.

According to Cantor, almost all of the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of organizations working on behalf of animals are basically applying band-aids to a cancer that has to be completely ripped out. “Newspapers are always calling people ‘animal rights’ advocates when they are in fact ‘animal welfare’ advocates,” he said. “The animal rights movement is more than just about compassion. It’s about justice. As long as animals are viewed as property, there will be extreme cruelty. It is inevitable.

“Animal welfare people think if they make life expensive and difficult for puppy mill owners, for example, they will go out of business, but industries get exemptions, and laws are not enforced. As long as animals are viewed by the law as property, there will be no end to abuse. The efforts to fight cruelty are like going after twigs and branches instead of the roots. Rights are powerful; that’s why the Second Amendment has been used by gun owners to stop all rational attempts to control guns.

“The fact is that it’s unjust to breed dogs, even when you’re doing it with loving kindness. I realize this is a very hard  concept for most people to accept, so look at it this way: Martha Washington supposedly showed loving kindness to her slaves. Does that mean slavery is justified?”

According to Cantor (who has no pets), despite the proliferation of what he calls animal welfare organizations in the past generation, a basic rights movement for nonhuman animals is just as lacking today as it was when the animal rights movement was declared about 30 or more years ago. “Lowering the bar by calling all kinds of things ‘animal rights’ that are not really animal rights only dooms today’s billions of animals and billions more yet to live to the double standard that only true animal rights can end …

“So much is said about animal rights — as if they already existed in the real world outside of our beliefs, plans and aspirations — that it is easy to confuse ‘saving’ animals, giving animals good homes, eating plants only, purchasing only ‘cruelty-free’ household and personal-care products, and doing other good things for animals with actually advancing their rights. So I see the primary task of the animal rights movement as educating as to what animal rights is (and is not) and moving people to help advance animal rights or to get out of the way and stop impeding animal rights and supporting human supremacy.”

Some of the activities RPA has been engaging in are:

•They sent four letters to the presidents of 50 U.S. land-grant universities (these contain colleges of agriculture), one in each state, explaining why their schools’ teaching of “animal science” should cease, how it violates nonhuman animals’ moral rights that RPA seeks to establish in law and custom, and why it is extremely destructive to nonhuman animals, ecosystems and human beings.

•They held a protest — probably the first of many –— at the Washington, D.C., Hilton Hotel when the National Association of State Universities & Land Grant Colleges was holding its annual meeting there; they handed out fliers and displayed a banner reading “Our land-grant universities’ assignment: Serve the public, not the flesh, milk & egg industries!” and provided RPA’s name and website address.

•They spoke to the local chamber of commerce, of which RPA is a member, explaining what animal rights is, what the movement’s goals are and how animal rights will benefit nonhuman animals, ecosystems and human beings. They also gave similar presentations to other civic and student groups.