‘Puppy killers,’ says animal experiment protester about companies and execs

Young, tattooed, pierced, and intense, Adam Ortberg might fit many people’s stereotype of a protester for animal rights. After talking with him for a few minutes, though, they might sense things they hadn’t expected: a subsurface tranquility, a strategic intelligence, and even a measure of fragility.

And they might find themselves unsettled—in one moment nervous over his descriptions of what he does in his campaign to “name and shame” the people he says are responsible for animals suffering in research laboratories, and in another moment tempted to cheer him on.

What’s clear is that 29-year-old Ortberg himself is sure that what he’s doing is right. He’s also sure that what’s being done by certain corporations—the things that have made him and his group Defending Animal Rights Today and Tomorrow (DARTT) choose them as targets for a “direct action” campaign—are very, very wrong.

The following is a transcript of Animal Policy Examiner’s (APE) audio interview with Ortberg at last July’s AR 2010 [Animal Rights] conference in Washington, D.C

Organized by Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), the conference featured four days of gourmet vegan meals, seminars on topics ranging from how to get a job in animal advocacy to how to avoid getting jailed, and presentations by animal protection movement stars such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Gene Baur of Farm Sanctuary, as well as encounters with in-the-trenches foot soldiers like Ortberg.

For info about AR 2011, coming up on July 21 - 25 in Los Angeles, contact FARM.

Please note:

Because the following interview was conducted nearly a year ago, making some of the information therein out of date, this article is intended not as a news item but as a snapshot of the AR 2010 conference.

Check this page soon for an update on Ortberg and DARTT, including information about the lawsuit that Goldman Sachs filed against him and the group, as well as about the lawsuits that DARTT has filed against the Metropolitan [D.C.] Police Department and Verizon Center in connection with its demonstrations against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus.

All of the companies named by Ortberg in the following interview have been contacted for comment. Any responses will be posted in follow-up articles when received. 

Q&A WITH ADAM ORTBERG, DEFENDING ANIMAL RIGHTS TODAY AND TOMORROW (DARTT)

ANIMAL POLICY EXAMINER (APE): Adam Ortberg and his group are preparing to go out for a direct action this afternoon. Their target is going to be a company called Huntingdon Life Sciences. Adam, I think the first question for you is what motivates you to be here today and to take part in this action?

ADAM ORTBERG: Well, at Huntingdon Life Sciences there’s been a campaign going on for over ten years. They’re a weak point in the vivisection industry and it’s a strategic move to strike at the heart of the vivisection industry and strike fear into all companies that test on animals, that a relatively small group of grass roots activists globally come together and actually make a difference. We’re here to close this hell hole once and for all.

APE: What makes it a hell hole?

ORTBERG:  Huntingdon Life Sciences is a contract research organization with facilities in England and in New Jersey, where 500 animals each day of the week are cut, burned, tortured, murdered for products like bleach, Splenda, tanning lotion, Viagra—things that we don’t need. And it wouldn’t matter if we did need them. It’s still wrong.

They’ve been exposed in seven undercover investigations with workers punching beagle puppies in the face, dissecting live primates, and mutilating rabbits just for the highest bidder. They’re the most notorious animal testing lab because they’ve been the most exposed.

APE:  What are some of the other things that you understand that this company does that you object to?

ORTBERG: They’ve violated all animal care standards several times. Workers come to work drunk and on drugs. It’s just not science. It’s insanity. They’re in it for the money. They’re killing and mutilating and destroying life just for greed and money. It’s not acceptable. Any animal testing is not acceptable whatsoever. It’s outdated and useless.

APE: If I can ask you to get a little more detailed just to paint a mental picture for listeners who might not be aware of these issues, what exactly do these animals have to go through, as far as you understand it?

ORTBERG:  I can give you an example. For instance Splenda was tested at Huntingdon Life Sciences, where 12,800 beagle puppies were force-fed gallons and gallons of Splenda. So you can just imagine, putting yourself in their places. Twelve thousand eight hundred beagle puppies where killed for Splenda.

Animals are also hooked up to respirators where they’re forced to inhale chemicals. They’re burned with chemicals. They do cosmetic testing. They do a lot of different things.

I’m sorry. I’m like on no sleep right now. This conference has been unbelievable but I haven’t had much sleep.

APE:  No worries. You’re doing a good job of getting your point across. Adam is referring to the Animal Rights 2010 conference put on by Farm Animal Rights Movement here in Washington, D.C., and this is day four of a pretty intense conference.

Adam, if I could take a couple more minutes of your time… I know you’re preparing right now to do a direct action this afternoon at Huntingdon Life Sciences. Could you tell me what those actions consist of?  What are you preparing to do?

ORTBERG:  It’s not actually at Huntingdon Life Sciences. Like I said, they have two in England and one in New Jersey. But we’re going to the customers of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the customers and collaborators.  A company cannot function without its customers, so it’s something that everyone in the world can go after. Over 288 have dropped. So we’re going to go after the top customers of Huntingdon Life Sciences—Novartis, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Sanofi Aventis, and Bristol Meyers Squibb.

These are all pharmaceutical companies. They have the largest contracts with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

We’ve gone to their offices, we’ve gone to executives’ homes here in D.C., to make sure they know they need to sever all ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences and also make an official statement vowing never to do business with them again.

Our demands are very simple, and this is an ongoing D.C. campaign where we actually go out and hold weekly demonstrations at the offices at 7:30 in the morning when the employees are going in. We call it “meet and greet” protests. We “meet and greet” with bullhorns to put direct pressure on companies that contract with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

APE: I think you’ve been holding actions every day during the course of this conference as well?

ORTBERG: Yes, there have been actions happening—not every day, but Saturday and Sunday, and now Monday.

APE:  Sometimes, you said, you conduct these actions at the residences of the workers or of these companies that you’re targeting?

ORTBERG:  That is correct. On the weekends and during the week. Residences of key executives and key employees that have the power to stop the contracts and to tell their companies that they need to sever all ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences. 

This weekend was also the launch of D.C. Goldman, where DARTT is going after Goldman Sachs. It’s tertiary targeting. Goldman Sachs is a major shareholder in Fortress Investments. Fortress Investments is the life support system for Huntingdon Life Sciences. Fortress has bailed them out, they’ve given them loans. They’re a predatory loan company. When no one else will do business with a company to get their loans, then Fortress will be there.

They’re the lowest of the low, and they bailed out HLS recently. HLS owes Fortress over 70 million dollars. HLS is now $100 million dollars in debt. Without Fortress, HLS would cease to exist. Goldman Sachs and also Legg Mason. Legg Mason owns a sixth of the Fortress company, so we’re going after the shareholders of Fortress, because the shareholders do have power to make company decisions to sever all ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences. If they pulled off their loans, then HLS would not be able to get up after that. And then we could move on to the next lab.

APE:  You’re using the term “going after.” What specifically do you do? For instance when you go to the place of residence of one of these employees?

ORTBERG:  Well, first what we do is we have flyers with the individuals’ names, and we go around and flyer the neighborhoods about a week before any protest to educate the neighborhood that this individual lives there and they’re responsible for killing 500 animals each and every day at Huntingdon Life Sciences. And that we’re concerned citizens trying to put an end to the cruelty and murder that happens inside these labs, and this individual could have the power to stop it.

We give flyers out to the whole neighborhood, usually about 100 flyers and saturate the entire neighborhood. And then next time we show up, we show up with the bullhorns and signs to educate the neighborhood and to name and shame the individual who has the dealings with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

APE:  So you’re standing next to the house? In the yard of the house?  Across the street from the house? And what do you do there? You’ve got the bullhorns. What do you do with them?

ORTBERG:  We do chants, we do speak-outs, and we stand on public sidewalks. We are above-ground. All our protests are legal. However because of the frequency of protests that happen—we do a lot of protests—we average about 215 demos a year—so because of the frequency, the D.C. City Council and the police aren’t too appreciative. And the individuals being targeted, they don’t like it.

For instance one individual that we were targeting, we showed up to her house and she was having a dinner party. And she has a bunch of protesters out in front of the home letting them know exactly what she is. And what they are, whatever the target may be, exactly what they are. And they are puppy killers. They are animal abusers. They are corporate scum. And they need to be held accountable, and they need to be named and shamed.

APE:  What are you hoping to achieve in the minds of the people you’re targeting? Are you feeling that it’s sort of like peer pressure?  That they’ll be so uncomfortable with this “naming and shaming,” as you put it, that they’ll either decide to quit their jobs, or alter the course of their companies?  Are you ever concerned that it will backfire?  That they’ll become more entrenched in their position because they’ll feel cornered or attacked?

ORTBERG:  We’ve also tried diplomatic ways, for instance to Goldman Sachs and Legg Mason, and all of the companies, we’ve issued letters, we’ve requested meetings, and they just don’t care. We try to give them information. We have DVDs with seven undercover investigations showing these animals brutally murdered—like four-month-old beagle puppies being punched in the face—it’s really horrendous. Primates being dissected alive without anesthesia, and while they’re doing it other workers behind them cheering them on.

I don’t see how any individual can look at that and keep on doing what they’re doing, or at least not try to change their company’s decision.

We’ve requested the meetings and it hasn’t worked. They don’t want to listen, they just want to keep on doing what they do. They care about one thing, and that one thing is money.

One of the chants we use is “Your money, your fault. Your greed, your fault.” And it is, it definitely is. We’ve tried diplomatic ways to change their hearts and minds, and to have them see the light, and it just has not worked. The companies pretty much laugh at us when we try to say that we’re here speaking on behalf of all the animals that are locked inside the laboratories.

I mean, right now that we’re standing here, there’s over 70,000 animals imprisoned inside HLS. And that’s just one facility alone. Covance, which is a larger one because they haven’t been the recipient as much of a ten-year campaign, they’re much bigger now. I can’t cite the exact numbers of all the animals dying inside all laboratories, but there are millions and millions and millions of animals that are going to be spending their night in the laboratories, with no option, no hope of even survival.

So some people might say, “You’re not changing hearts and minds,” and some people might not necessarily agree with these tactics, but we’ve tried diplomatic ways of talking with these companies.

With these companies, there isn’t so much a customer base. Like, you can’t go out and tell the public, “OK, tell Novartis they need to cut their contracts with Huntingdon Life Sciences.”  It doesn’t have the demand side for the general public. So that’s the difference.

I participate in vegan education with leaflets and everything. We do vegan education and other things like that. There’s time and places for different uses of different tactics. I believe this is a proven tactic. The results speak for themselves. Ten years of a campaign going on has resulted in over 288 companies that have pulled out, that have severed all ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences, vowed never to do business with them again.

Huntingdon Life Sciences was a billion-dollar industry. Now they are over 100 million dollars in debt. HLS cannot get a bank account, cannot get insurance. They are a sinking ship. They’ve been having to get bailout after bailout because of these tactics. These tactics have been proven to work.

I want to focus my energies, and really help animals, and if it’s shown that these tactics work, then I want to use tactics that are effective, not necessarily that make people feel good.

It is very uncomfortable going to people’s houses and things like that. I mean, I don’t want to be out there. I wish we didn’t have to do this. But I’m dedicated to stop the suffering in laboratories, and this is one aspect that we can change.

The whole vivisection industry is watching what happens to HLS. If HLS goes under, that’s a precedent. Both sides have everything invested in this campaign and to see who’s going to win. I believe strongly that we’re going to win, and that we can overcome the greed, and the state of oppression, and the police and everything like that. Because we have the compassion, and the drive, and we’re not being paid to do this. We’re here donating our time and doing everything we can.

APE:  Adam, at the end of the day, what drives you?  Or I guess I should ask what inspired you, originally? What gave you this powerful feeling or this connection to animals, so much so that to help them you are willing to spend your time doing something that’s uncomfortable for you?

ORTBERG:  I saw videos, actually. I went vegetarian when I was 14, and vegan a few years later, because I went to punk [band] shows, and they had literature out, and they had the songs like “Meat is Murder,” and all that type of stuff. And seeing the videos and seeing the literature and seeing what actually happens—these lives being just discarded and used as nothing but commodities—was something that I would not support, and something that I needed to fight against.

APE:  You’re pretty young, at 28, and you’re spending a lot of your time on these actions. What do you see for the rest of your life?  And what are you doing in the rest of your life?  Round yourself out as a person for us. What connection might listeners have with you, aside from this work you’re doing on behalf of a cause you care about?

ORTBERG: I pretty much just go to work. My day job is I work with Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM). I’m actually doing the FARM Underground program, in which we try to educate younger audiences about veganism, and take an abolitionist stance on it.

APE: So this really is your whole life. You’ve really devoted your whole life to this.

ORTBERG:  Yeah, I’ve been working with FARM for four years. So yeah, I work for FARM, and then in my spare time I do stuff for DARTT.

APE:  You mentioned how uncomfortable this is. It’s not easy to target people, especially at their homes, I imagine. How do you deal with the emotional side of it, within yourself?

ORTBERG: I just remember the images of these animals, and remember that these animals right now are trapped inside the laboratories, while I get to go home.  There’s no comparison.

I just keep remembering the animals that are locked inside laboratories, that are locked inside farms for food, or farms for fur, or trapped in the wild that are live-caught. I mean, all these animals, all these oppressions that are happening.

I just keep remembering that, and how privileged I am to be part of a species where I don’t have to encounter such horrific oppression. And being part of a species that does that to another species, I think it’s our moral obligation to do something to end this, to make the world a better place.

APE:  What can most people who don’t have the time or the ability or even the motivation, perhaps, to go to the lengths you’re going to with these direct actions—  What can you suggest that the ordinary listener, if there is such a thing, can do if this is an issue they care about, in terms of lab animal research? 

ORTBERG:  Well, certainly. People can write letters to the companies mentioned—Novartis and AstraZeneca and also write letters to Fortress, at least. It doesn’t take much time. There’s a bunch of sample letters if you just Google it and look on line.

And just make sure to live and stay vegan. That little bit of action. Anything you can take, take it. Get out there. Take it to the streets. Try to end this genocide that’s happening.

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