Gary Yourofsky | |
|---|---|
 Yourofsky in 2013 | |
| Born | (1970-08-19)August 19, 1970 (age 54) |
| Occupation(s) | Lecturer, activist |
| Known for | Speeches promoting animals rights |
| Website | www |
Gary Yourofsky (/jʊəˈrɒfski/; born August 19, 1970)[1] is an Americananimal rights activist and lecturer. He has had a major influence on contemporaryveganism.[2]
Yourofsky was sponsored byPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) between 2002 and 2005, and has given many public lectures promoting veganism. In 2010, Yourofsky's popularity quickly accelerated around the world (especially inIsrael[3]) following the publication of aYouTube video[4] of him giving a speech at theGeorgia Institute of Technology. The video garnered millions of views and has been translated into tens of different languages. Yourofsky has been admired[5] and criticized for his views that are often alleged to be extreme. He was arrested 13 times between 1997 and 2001 and spent 77 days in aCanadianmaximum security prison in 1999 after raiding afur farm in Canada and releasing 1,542mink in 1997.[6][7] He has been permanently banned from entering Canada and the United Kingdom.[8]
On March 30, 2017, Yourofsky announced the end of hisactivist life on hisFacebook page, stating: "My tank is completely empty, so I will no longer be online or active in any capacity besides helping students with animal rights projects and answering emails from people who are beginning their vegan journeys."[9]
Yourofsky was born into aJewish family[10][11] inDetroit,Michigan,United States. He grew up inOak Park.[11] Yourofsky has "a giant tattoo of himself, wearing a mask and holding a rabbit, covering most of his right forearm."[12]
In a 2013 interview, Yourofsky described himself as having been a "troublemaker" in high school. He recalled that he did not sign up for any math classes during the entire four years, in deliberate defiance of the requirements; at the end of his senior year he challenged the principal to hold him back, but she approved his graduation instead.[13] He holds a B.A. in journalism fromOakland University and a radio broadcasting degree fromSpecs Howard School of Media Arts.[14]
In 1996, Yourofsky founded Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow (ADAPTT), a vegan organization opposed to any usage of animals. By 2001, the organization had around 2,200 members.[11]
On March 30, 1997, Yourofsky, alongside 4 other members of theAnimal Liberation Front (ALF), raided a fur farm inBlenheim, Ontario, Canada, and released 1,542mink.[14] The raid reportedly caused damage estimated atC$500,000 to the farm.[15] Yourofsky was arrested, tried, and sentenced to six months in a Canadian maximum-security prison in 1999.[16] Of the sentence, Yourofsky served 77 days.[14] The experience affected Yourofsky, who said "[he] was no more than an animal in the zoo. It wasn't pleasant", and that it has reinforced "[his] empathy and understanding of what these animals go through".[17]
In the fall of 2000, Yourofsky received$10,000 from PETA to fund the broadcasting of a commercial against "the animal slavery enterprise known as the circus". The commercial was broadcast 69 times on a local television channel.[11]
In 2001, Yourofsky began facing financial problems, such as credit card debt of US$30000, that curtailed his activism for three months of 2001.[11]
In early 2002, Yourofsky resigned as president of ADAPTT, due to financial troubles. A day after sending his resignation letter, he received atelephone call fromIngrid Newkirk, president of PETA, who offered him a job. Employment negotiations between the two concluded on May 20, 2002, with Yourofsky being made the organization's official national lecturer.[18]
In 2002, Yourofsky told a reporter that he would "unequivocally support" the death of medical researchers in ALF-related arson fires.[19][20]
In 2003, a Yourofsky lecture atEast Tennessee State University was canceled as a result of an altercation. A faculty member had placed a stack of pamphlets in support ofanimal testing on a cart outside the lecture room. After Yourofsky saw the pamphlets, heated words were exchanged. Yourofsky grabbed the cart and propelled it, causing the pamphlets to scatter across the floor. The lecture was canceled and Yourofsky left the building.[21]
Yourofsky was invited to give a talk on "Ethical Veganism" to a class atUniversity of Southern Indiana on April 2, 2007. The university handbook contained a provision that outside speakers must "not advocate violation of any federal or state law", and a professor at the university presented material from Yourofsky's website that he found to be infringing that policy to the university provost, resulting in the cancellation of Yourofsky's talk. After objections from free speech advocates at the school, the policy was revised and Yourofsky gave his talk.[22]
Part of Yourofsky's well-known speech on veganism was featured in the 2012 anti-speciesism movie,The Superior Human?[23][24][25]
Yourofsky visitedIsrael in September 2012 and was interviewed byIsraeli television Channel 2.[26] Lectures scheduled for Yourofsky in public schools were canceled by theIsraeli Ministry of Education.Nobel Prize laureateJ.M. Coetzee commented, "Children are naturally sensitive. They can easily be shocked and disturbed by spectacles of gross cruelty. It is therefore understandable that education authorities in Israel should be reluctant to allow animal advocates like Mr Yourofsky access to the classroom. On the other hand, there is an argument to be made that the treatment of animals by the food industry is so excessively heartless, and such an affront to natural justice, that we who by our silence tacitly consent to these outrages deserve to be shocked out of our sleep. In the long run, Mr Yourofsky may well be doing us a larger moral service by confronting us, including the most sensitive of us, by the spectacle of the crimes we participate in."[27]
In a 2005 interview, Yourofsky criticized theHumane Society of the United States, the strategies used by PETA, and its president, Ingrid Newkirk. Yourofsky has been criticized for using terms such as "concentration camps," "concentration camp trucks," and "Holocaust" incomparison to the animal agriculture industry. Yourofsky has been banned from entering Canada and Britain as a result of his activism.[10]
In 1997, he was arrested for helping to release around 1,500 animals from a Canadian mink farm and was sentenced to six months in prison.
In that period he was still a meat eater. But one day, when he was filming the trucks that transported animals to slaughter, his gaze encountered that of a pig.
He lives in a tiny apartment with his ancient dog, Rex, and probably could fit all his worldly goods into his car.
For a brief time, he was on staff of PETA, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but he found that too confining.
and was sentenced in 1999 to six months in a Canadian maximum-security prison for a felony raid on a fur farm.
Getting a call and/or a request from Ingrid is like getting a call from the Godfather's Don Corleone. It's an offer one can't refuse.
ETSU public safety officers attempted to keep things from getting out of hand, but the lecture was soon canceled and Yourofsky left the building.
However, the lecture was almost scrapped by the college because of a policy concerning outside speakers. SPJ members stood tall for free speech and worked to have the policy revised.
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