JERUSALEM (AP) — Sasha Boojor squirmed and struggled as black-clad
masked men yanked him out of a cage and branded him with a hot iron.
While the smell of seared flesh was disturbing, he said, this shocking
and painful act was worth it: He was showing solidarity with animals
that suffer branding on farms around the world.
Boojor claims 30
people have brand themselves worldwide, and thousands more support their
effort to make the case for animal rights. The group, like other animal
liberation movements, opposes the use of animals for human consumption,
research or entertainment, going far beyond demands by more moderate
groups for humane treatment and painless slaughtering.
Critics, including some animal rights sympathizers, believe this movement is going too far.
A
public branding in Tel Aviv last year launched the movement, called
269Life. Since then it has spread, with brandings in Italy, the United
States, Argentina and elsewhere. On Wednesday, 11 people branded
themselves in the Czech capital, Prague.
The group's name derives
from a number branded on a calf that activists encountered at an Israeli
dairy farm last year. They chose its number, 269, as a way to
individualize the calf, which is still alive.
"We
aim to bring the pain and horror other animals face each and every day
out of the suppressed darkness and into the realm of everyday life," the
group states on its website.
In recent months, the group has
staged sensational and sometimes gruesome stunts in Israel. They have
freed chickens from coops and defaced fountains with severed cow heads
while dyeing the water blood-red.
The brandings set them apart from other animal rights groups.
Last
October, Boojor and two other activists sat in a mock pen in a central
Tel Aviv square, caged in with barbed wire, with tags bearing the number
269 dangling from their ears. One by one, they were hoisted out by men
in ski masks and held down to be branded, as bystanders watched in
horror.
In video from that event, Boojor is seen writhing on the ground before his forearm is stamped with the number 269.
"What's
really unpleasant is the sensation — a feeling of the skin being torn
off — and you can smell the flesh burning," said Boojor, a 27-year-old
from Tel Aviv who works odd jobs. "You feel out of control, and it's
easy to understand how animals feel when they are in that situation."
The
video of the branding has nearly 270,000 views on YouTube and was a key
factor in the group's growth. The group was active on Facebook early on
— the international movement's page has more than 33,000 "likes" — and
has received inquiries from activists elsewhere interested in starting
their own branches.
The movement is loosely organized. The
different branches are in touch but choose on their own what works
locally. Boojor said activists from Holland were attending Wednesday's
Prague branding to learn how to stage their own. Leading activists from
each country report to Boojor on how many people have been tattooed or
branded, and the group uploads photos of those markings to its website.
Eleven
activists, including four women, participated in Wednesday's event in
square in central Prague, branding themselves with a hot iron on various
parts of their bodies. The activists wore black underwear with metal
chains around their necks and were taken one by one behind a wire fence
where they sat and waited to be branded.
A few dozen people watched, while the smell of burning flesh wafted in the air. Some onlookers applauded at the end.
"As
I expected it is a very intense experience," said Ondrej Kral, one of
the activists. "Now, I feel even more motivated to fight for the rights
of animals."
As 269Life has raised its profile and increased its activities, it has also run afoul of Israeli police.
Police
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said nine people were questioned in
connection with the fountain stunt, and that an investigation is
underway into the group's activities. He called the group a "cult" that
"seems quite extreme."
"Going to jail doesn't disturb me," Boojor said. "The captivity of animals is what disturbs me."
Boojor
said the branding should have a special resonance in Israel, because
Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust of World War II were marked with
permanent identification numbers in concentration camps.
The
use of that imagery sparks outrage. Uri Hanoch, an 85-year-old survivor
from the Dachau camp in Germany, said such a comparison is "a sin."
He said, "Branding animals is a matter of identification. Doing it on humans is a disgrace."
Boojor
said he has seen progress on the issue of animal rights in Israel, with
an increasing number of vegan restaurants sprouting up and vegan
products available to a greater degree. Still, he has yet to persuade
barbecue-loving Israelis of his view that animals have rights similar to
those of humans.
Israel passed an animal welfare law in 1994 that
protects animals from abuse and explicitly permits the slaughter of
animals for food. Critics charge that police enforce the law selectively
and tend to ignore abuses in the farming industry.
Last year an
Israeli TV program exposed ill-treatment of animals at a large
slaughterhouse in northern Israel, where workers were filmed beating and
shocking calves and lambs. Lawsuits demanding the closure of the
slaughterhouse were launched, and the cases are ongoing. Most abattoirs
in Israel slaughter animals according to Jewish dietary laws, which
profess to be humane.
The country has a multitude of animal rights groups with different approaches.
Ben
Baron, a spokesman for the Israeli animal liberation group Shevi, said
he does not oppose 269Life's approach but called it "aggressive," adding
that he thinks educating people on animal rights is a more effective
way to raise awareness.
"I understand and relate to the pain, but I don't think that is the way, personally," he said.
The
international animal rights organization People for The Ethical
Treatment of Animals said the brandings spark important discussions
about the issue.
"It's an eye-catching and a head-turning way to
draw attention to a very serious message," said Ashley Fruno, a senior
campaigner for PETA Asia-Pacific, which oversees the Middle East. PETA
itself has been criticized for extreme projects on behalf of animals,
sabotaging testing facilities among other activities.
Israeli activist gets a tattoo of the digits 269 during a gathering of activists for Animal rights
Fruno said several PETA activists have tattooed themselves with the number 269.
"This is a badge of honor for these people," she said.
Associated Press writer Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.
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