Learning lessons from the past is crucial for shaping our future. By delving into the rich history of the Animal Rights Coalition (ARC), we gain valuable insights into the struggles and triumphs that paved the way for today’s animal advocacy. Understanding the mission and values that motivated the founders of ARC not only reminds us of their pioneering spirit but also reinforces the principles that continue to guide us today. Knowing our history helps us appreciate the depth and breadth of ARC’s impact and honors those who have led the way.
ANIMAL RIGHTS COALITION
OVER FOUR DECADES OF ANIMAL ADVOCACY
From 1980 Until Every Cage is Empty
Research and Text by Heidi A. Greger, Ph.D.
Layout by Chelsea Youngquist
Kona the Dog. Minnesota Gray Wolves. Sparrows in the University of Minnesota Crop Fields. Tina the Baboon. Caesar the Bear. Northwest Airlines Beagles. Minnesota Sled Dogs. St. Paul Pigeons. Minnesota Science Museum Frogs. St. Louis Park Deer. Scott County Cows. Animal Humane Society Rabbits. Renaissance Festival Elephants. Viola Gophers. Marcus the Cat. Cecil the Lion. Loring Park Canada Geese. Paradise Car Wash Macaws.
What do all these animals – and multitudes of others – have in common? Suffering, at the hands of humans. And in every case, the Animal Rights Coalition (ARC) has worked tirelessly to end that suffering. Striving to bring non-human animals to their rightful place on this planet – as co-inhabitants with humans – has been the work of ARC for over 40 years.
Persevering in the fight for animal liberation for this long is no accident. It’s the result of ARC’s guiding principles – abolition, nonviolence, change, diversity, respect, courage, integrity, and financial accountability – plus the selfless work of literally thousands of compassionate people.
This is the story of how and why the Animal Rights Coalition was formed and how it became one of the longest-standing and most successful grassroots animal rights organizations in the United States.
In the late 1970s, the animal rights movement in the U.S. was in its infancy. Anyone in the Twin Cities interested in animal rights was obliged to work with the few large national groups that existed at the time. These national groups were sitting on large coffers but accomplishing little for the animals, spending the bulk of their time sending out heartbreaking mailings with graphic pictures of animal abuse asking people for money. Progressive Minnesotans who were part of the social justice movements of the 60s and 70s, on the other hand, were accustomed to taking action and getting results for their efforts.
Impatient with the lack of progress by the national organizations, a handful of these Minnesotans, including ARC’s President Emerita, Mavonne (Vonnie) Thomasberg, came together in the Twin Cities in 1980 to form what is now the Animal Rights Coalition. They met in Powderhorn Park and each of the seven chipped in $25 to start a bank account. A board of directors was quickly established, and ARC was officially incorporated as a non-profit the very next year, a testament to these activists’ tenacity given the time-consuming work associated with incorporation.
It was agreed ARC would work on areas of animal exploitation that neither overlapped nor duplicated the work of other local groups, and further, that ARC would support the efforts of those groups where possible, hence the coalition part of ARC’s name. The board decided that ARC’s main efforts would focus on animals used in research, animals used in entertainment, and animals used as food, none of which were being addressed by other local organizations.
The choice of concentrating efforts on farmed animals was especially daunting. Although animal agriculture accounts for about 95% of all animal suffering, this horrific abuse was largely unknown or ignored by the existing animal-protection organizations of the day. ARC was the first to take on the plight of farmed animals, as noted here by Jim Mason (activist, author, founder of The Animals’ Agenda magazine):
[No organization] that I can recall had any kind of program dealing with farmed animals. Even some early animal rights activists didn’t know about it and the few who did, didn’t want to tackle it. One prominent activist of the day told me in so many words, “Forget about it, it’s a mountain. We should stick to things we can win.” The Animal Rights Coalition was one of the first to take on that mountain. ARC was at the forefront of activism for farmed animals. [ARC’s] courage was contagious. [Their] first steps for farmed animals encouraged other grassroots activists to tackle the issue.
ARC’S ORIGINAL BOARD MEMBERS
Richard Kramer
Pauline Laybourn
Richard Laybourn
Ken Lyons
Paul Manley
Greg Paffel
Ron Sadowsky
Leslie Thomasberg
Vonnie Thomasberg
Pam Wiehoff
The direction of ARC’s work agreed upon, the board next established an event calendar for 1981, resolving to hold two large-scale events with several small-scale events scattered between. Although we were operating on a shoestring budget, a mere handful of volunteers, and no office other than Vonnie’s basement, we jumped headlong into the first big event: World Day for Animals in Laboratories (WDAL). WDAL was initiated in 1979 by the National Anti-Vivisection Society in London, England, to raise awareness about the millions of animals suffering in research labs around the world.
After considerable planning and outreach to activists around our region, on a cold and windy April afternoon, ARC led the march at the University of MN (U of MN) from Northrop Auditorium to Diehl Hall where appalling addiction experiments on primates were being conducted.
Clasping hands, hundreds of activists encircled the entire health sciences building and blocked the entrance to the biomedical library.
Although the mainstream media chose not to cover it, this event drew the first public attention to the U of MN’s dreadful addiction experiments on primates. We were delighted to discover that all research had been discontinued for that day and security had been heightened. It was then we realized our movement had power. Animal users and abusers were beginning to get nervous.
With this success under our belts, work on our next big event began: the first of four ground-breaking national conferences ARC would organize over the next six years, each one more comprehensive and well attended than the last. Indeed, by our third conference leaders in the animal rights movement from across the country were requesting to speak and participate.
At the first three-day conference, “Concern for Animals – The Rising Tide,” Dr. Michael Fox of the Humane Society of the United States and Cleveland Amory, founder of The Fund for Animals, were keynote speakers. Panels and speeches covering wildlife, animal agriculture, companion animals, and vivisection were presented, and nearly 300 people from across the country attended.
ARC’s first national conference brought another first: the earliest factory farming workshop ever held at an animal rights symposium.
Although this initial conference was vegetarian all subsequent conferences were vegan – ARC itself was evolving within the evolution of the animal rights movement.
Around the time of the conference the gruesome case of the Silver Spring Monkeys and their tormentor, Edward Taub, broke nationally.
This was a defining moment for the movement; it marked the first time a researcher was convicted of cruelty to animals, and the first time the National Institutes of Health suspended funding for research on the grounds of cruelty.
Despite Taub’s conviction being overturned on appeal, the Silver Spring monkeys became the symbol of the animal rights movement for years afterward. Their case led to the formation of countless grassroots groups across the United States. The plight of the Silver Spring Monkeys raised the consciousness of many, and this expanding awareness of the brutalities perpetrated on animals helped our movement grow. The tide of concern for animals was indeed rising.
Domitian, one of the Silver Spring monkeys, in one of the images distributed by PETA to newspapers. Around the time of the conference the gruesome case of the Silver Spring Monkeys and their tormentor, Edward Taub, broke nationally. This was a defining moment for the movement; it marked the first time a researcher was convicted of cruelty to animals, and the first time the National Institutes of Health suspended funding for research on the grounds of cruelty.
In May 1981, PETA’s Alex Pacheco began working undercover in the lab, and alerted police to what PETA viewed as unacceptable living conditions for the monkeys.
In what was the first police raid in the U.S. against an animal researcher, police entered the Institute and removed the monkeys, charging Taub with 17 counts of animal cruelty and failing to provide adequate veterinary care.
He was convicted on six counts; five were overturned on appeal by 1983.
It’s worth mentioning here that hundreds of grassroots groups began springing up across the country and lit a fire under the large moneyed groups that had been sitting on their laurels for years. Infuriatingly, many of them took credit for the victories and campaigns of the smaller grassroots groups, ARC included, but there was little recourse except to push on.
Note that in the early 80s the animal rights movement was still in the ridicule stage of social justice movements.
Activists were subjected to tremendous personal abuse, making it difficult to recruit volunteers. Voicemail and caller I D had not been invented yet, and the ARC office received countless threats by anonymous callers.
ARC began holding general monthly meetings and publishing a hardcopy newsletter to engage more people in the movement, letting them know they were not alone and keeping them updated on the issues.
ARC began holding general monthly meetings and publishing a hardcopy newsletter to engage more people in the movement, letting them know they were not alone and keeping them updated on the issues.
ARC NEWSLETTER
A directory of local animal rights and animal welfare groups was published to connect like-minded people, and the ARC newsletter
highlighted the successes of other groups as well as our own.
ARC formed a Speakers’ Bureau and began doing presentations throughout Minnesota at schools and colleges.
We were getting the word out about animal exploitation, and it was stirring people to action.
In 1983, Vonnie Thomasberg became the first elected president of ARC and was asked to be the Minnesota coordinator for the massive “Mobilization for Animals” campaign founded by Ohioan activist Dr. Richard Morgan. Rallies were scheduled all over the country. Four of the most egregious primate research centers were targeted in the hopes of reversing the practices of abuse and neglect inflicted on primates in labs. One of these research centers was in Madison, WI, and on WDAL, buses and carloads of people from Minnesota descended on Madison to protest the cruelties of primate vivisection. Altogether at least 3500 activists attended the Madison rally. Our movement was gaining ever more momentum, and thanks to ARC’s alliance with the Mobilization for Animals campaign, our membership grew dramatically and added to our visibility.
Signing up more volunteers enabled ARC to form designated committees for fundraising, letter writing, the newsletter, and special events. Protests, including those against fur, dog racing, and the slaughter of harp seals, multiplied.
ARC began participating in all national events such as Meat Out, World Day for Farmed Animals, Fur Free Friday, and numerous others. We hosted fundraising concerts, served vegan food at places like Peavey Plaza during the lunch hour on World Day for Farmed Animals, and held protests and marches at events and companies that exploited animals.
A community of compassionate people wanting to volunteer for animals was burgeoning as ARC began doing outreach at more and varied venues.
ARC’s second national conference (also called “Concern for Animals: The Rising Tide”) took place in September 1983 at St. Catherine’s College in St. Paul, a good choice because of their food services’ willingness to experiment with new food. In fact, some of the vegan dishes served at ARC’s conference went on to become staple offerings for students!
About 45 speakers and panelists from across the country participated in the conference, including Tom Regan, Jim Mason, Alex Hershaft, George Cave, Steven Wise, Alex Pacheco, Donald Barnes, and Ingrid Newkirk. ARC also invited the opposition to take part but the only ones who formally accepted were representatives of industrial livestock operations and the President of the Livestock Conservation Institute of Minnesota. We discovered later, however, that conference attendees from the opposition were there as “spies.”
The hog producer who participated in the conference was very proud of his farm and brought a slide presentation to impress us – with the same kinds of images we show in our brochures depicting the horrors of animal agriculture! This really opened our eyes to the long struggle we faced.
Ironically, the ARC conference received more publicity and coverage from our opposition’s publications (e.g., Vealer and Farm Report) than from anywhere else. Unfortunately, this was par for the course, as we rarely garnered much media attention except from the student newspaper at the U of MN, The Minnesota Daily.
Disinterested media notwithstanding, an especially satisfying experience for ARC came in 1984 when three volunteers bought tickets to attend Schlampp’s Fur Fashion Show at the grand opening of Williams Nightclub on Hennepin Avenue.
The three women were dressed to the nines but underneath their dress jackets were bright yellow t-shirts that read, “Fur Coats Cause Agony.” As the three meandered around the club showing off the anti fur message, they provoked quite a reaction from the other guests before they were bounced out of the club for not adhering to the dress code. Schlampp’s never held another fashion show and shut their doors for good in 1991, in no small part thanks to ARC’s anti-fur protests and educational outreach about the cruelties of fur.
ARC would remain at the forefront of the anti-fur movement for years to come with many protests outside businesses like Saks Fifth Avenue and Dayton’s. Not infrequently police officers showed up to these protests, sometimes with police dogs in tow. Media began showing up more regularly to cover ARC’s activities. And when we were very lucky, we’d get some help from nationally known animal activists!
This year’s conference offered workshops by experts on how to utilize the media on behalf of animals and how to debate with the research community (much appreciated by all), as well as presentations on alternatives to dissection and the interconnections between violence toward animals and violence toward the Earth, issues rarely discussed in mainstream media.
Speakers included Syndee Brinkman, Laurie Hennings, Holly Jensen, and Dr. Michael Klaper. In addition to the time-consuming work of organizing and hosting the conference, ARC racked up many hard-won victories for the animals that year.
We were a plaintiff in a successful lawsuit against the federal government to prevent a “sport” hunting season on the Minnesota Gray Wolf.
We were also successful in convincing Minneapolis city officials to take over responsibility of animal control rather than contracting it out to the lowest private bidder because of the atrocities happening at the Minneapolis pound. Pound seizure was in effect then, and we found many instances of animals being sent to the U of MN to be experimented on and killed – animals who were wearing identifying tags or collars.
We also lobbied local businesses and persuaded them to discontinue offering fur items as prizes in raffles and sweepstakes. The sale of lion and zebra skins as home décor was discontinued at Dayton’s Department Store because of an ARC letter writing campaign. The department manager later said he’d always been uncomfortable with this type of merchandise and was relieved he wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore.
Another victory was stopping a class at the Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield that taught children how to make doll house rugs from mouse carcasses. The mice originated from a research facility and were then sold to a pet store. The pet store in turn sold them to Wood Lake Nature Center. These mice suffered from birth to death.
It took many letters, numerous phone calls, individuals talking to the center’s program director, and Richfield citizens’ letters to the editor at local newspapers, but the class was finally discontinued.
In 1985, the message of World Day for Animals in Labs was carried from Duluth to St. Paul during a grueling three-day marathon by ARC Board member and public health official, Ron Sadowsky. Ron ran from Duluth to the receiving facility for animals used in research on the St. Paul campus of the U of MN, generating a lot of public interest along the way.
Joined by ARC Board member Dana Soule in her wheelchair for the last few miles, Ron arrived at dusk just as a planned candlelight vigil was starting. Together, he and Dana delivered a plaque with the inscription, “In commemoration of the animal victims of medical research at the University of Minnesota and their Duluth branch, April 24, 1985.”
Without much time to recover, Ron Sadowsky yet again raised public awareness for the plight of animals by participating in ARC’s Animal Rights America Run on the Fourth of July that same year. The theme was non-violence toward both animals and humans. Ron started the run in Boston and ended it eight months later the following March when he ran jubilantly into the rolling ocean waves near Los Angeles. Ron received many donations and tremendous media coverage throughout the run at speaking engagements and potluck dinners.
The outpouring of support from beginning to end was spectacular, an indication that animal rights was gradually becoming part of the national consciousness. The tide of concern and action for animals was rising higher.
The National Trapper’s Association Convention was held in Duluth in the fall of 1985. ARC supported Duluth’s Animal Allies protest by sending a busload and several carloads of volunteers. Two ARC members attended the convention – we could spy too! And we were discovering that more and more conventions, seminars, and other gatherings of animal users and abusers were devoting large blocks of time to discussing activists and the animal rights movement and how to stymie and discredit both. The U of MN even published a manual on how to deal with us – and not a small one either at 50+ pages! We considered this a win. It seemed the time was right for tackling more at the U of MN. We began with efforts directed at the U of MN Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). In 1985 the IACUC was meeting only twice a year with poor attendance by committee members. In all the pages of meeting minutes there was never a mention of the animals, only of transportation, cage cleaning, administrative paperwork, and the like. ARC decided to become the “squeaky wheel.” We were verbally abused, thrown out of meetings, and hung up on, but because of pressure from ARC, the IACUC began meeting every two weeks with some actual discussion about the animals used in their experiments.
1986 also brought Betsy Beaver, a faux-fur-covered 22-foot inflatable balloon, to Minneapolis from England by British activist Peter Millington who was traveling coast-to coast promoting legislation to ban the leghold trap. While ARC volunteers were handing out anti-trapping literature at the Lake Harriet Bandshell and kids were dragging their parents over to see Betsy, a police officer told Peter to take Betsy down.
Instead, Peter took Betsy for a stroll around the lake, and Betsy was arrested, deflated, and stuffed into the paddy wagon. The precinct captain was contacted, barked that he had better things to do than arrest people with inflatable balloons, and Betsy was freed.
While Betsy’s visit to the U.S. convinced some states to adopt state-wide bans on leghold traps, Minnesota was not among them. These barbaric traps are still legal in some municipalities in Minnesota today. Time for another campaign?
At the World Day for Animals in Labs event in 1986, thirty ARC members staged a three-hour sit-in at the U of MN’s Diehl Hall to protest the abuse and living conditions of two rhesus monkeys who were being used to test the effects of alcohol and a chemical sweetener. Once again, the university shut down all research for the day, and half a dozen university police officers were on hand to keep an eye on the peaceful sit-in.
At the World Day for Animals in Labs event in 1986, thirty ARC members staged a three-hour sit-in at the U of MN’s Diehl Hall to protest the abuse and living conditions of two rhesus monkeys who were being used to test the effects of alcohol and a chemical sweetener. Once again, the university shut down all research for the day, and half a dozen university police officers were on hand to keep an eye on the peaceful sit-in.
The next year, ARC activists made Minnesota history on WDAL 1987. A group of protestors linked arms to block the entrance to Diehl Hall and subsequently entered the biomedical library. Five of the protesters became the first animal rights activists in Minnesota to be arrested for civil disobedience when they sat down and refused to leave.
This historic event reflected the increasing number of people who were not only incensed by animals suffering in labs but also willing to sacrifice their own freedom to change animals’ lives.
World Day for Animals in Labs, Protest of Animal Experimentation at University of Minnesota’s Diehl Hall, 1987
Photo credit: Beverly Fahnhorst
1987’s World Day for Animals in Labs also brought the first protest against Apollo Farms in Brainerd, MN. The owners, Dr. Charles Extrand, a veterinarian at the Brainerd Animal Hospital, Ray Norrgard, and Bob Crozier, raised dogs for medical research. The “farm” consisted of 250 dogs in a windowless 40’x180′ metal building.
The fourth and final ARC conference of the decade, “Change for Animals: A Rising Tide,” was held in the fall of 1987. Speakers included Paul Watson, Country Joe McDonald, Connie Salamone, and Rachel Rosenthal. We broadened this conference’s focus to recognize the commonality of purpose and intent that the animal liberation movement shares with the struggle for peace and justice, women’s rights, civil rights, and environmental protection. We were way ahead of the game with respect to intersectionality!
That same year a move to a larger office in the Uptown Park Office Building was necessary as membership and attendance at meetings
continued growing. More volunteers meant greater attendance at events and protests and that meant greater amplification of our message of compassion toward animals.
Change for animals was becoming a reality. We won many battles in the latter years of ARC’s first decade: The Minnesota legislature passed a bill instructing the U of MN to study alternatives to using animals in experimentation. By student vote, the U of MN gave students the right to
refuse dissection. Minnesota legislator Gerry Sikorski began issuing animal rights updates to constituents. Working with a local advertising agency, ARC also produced three provocative posters designed to make people think about ways animals suffer. ARC created compelling and evocative anti-vivisection posters that were displayed at bus shelters throughout the Twin Cities, getting the animal rights message out to a wide cross-section of people.
1987 Wins for Animals
- Maplewood City Council banned live animals as prizes at carnivals and raffles.
- Tonka Corporation agreed to stop testing products on animals.
- The face branding of dairy cows in Minnesota was banned.
- ARC began broadcasting animal rights issues on local cable.
- A bill to end the use of the decompression chamber as a method of euthanasia was signed into law.
- A bill to outlaw live animals as lures in greyhound training and racing was introduced and finally became law in 1991.
As ARC’s first decade ended, the animal rights movement transitioned from the ridicule stage to the discussion stage. The phrase “animal rights” entered public discourse. Media coverage, though spotty, was improving. The concept of animal rights was being taken seriously, and that meant animals were gaining status.
To illustrate, in 1989, Vonnie and another ARC member were invited to appear on KUOM, a local radio talk show, with two U of MN researchers who used animals. Halfway through the discussion Vonnie realized ARC wasn’t on the defensive for a change; the researchers were. The station was overwhelmed with callers and booked ARC for another hour two weeks later. One of the researchers evidently spent the entire two weeks preparing for the second encounter; he was loaded down with papers and books to support his position, but to no avail – the second hour went even better than the first!
Finally, 1989 was the year of Kona, a local 7-year-old shepherd-collie mix who was starved, brutally beaten, blinded in one eye, and left for dead by his “owner.” Just as the Silver Spring Monkeys became a symbol for the national animal rights movement, Kona became the symbol for abused companion animals in Minnesota.
Thanks to pressure from ARC, its members, and the public, the “Kona bill” was passed in the spring of 1990 and gave judges the power to remove companion animals from the custody of anyone convicted of animal cruelty. The bill also gave judges the authority to set a probation period during which an abuser could not have custody of an animal, require that periodic visits be made by an animal control officer, and require community service and behavioral counseling.
Outrageously, Kona’s abuser escaped justice; after failing to show up at two hearings he skipped town altogether and fled to Michigan. Law enforcement did not pursue the case further.
Luckily, a happy ending awaited Kona. ARC volunteers ensured that he lived out the rest of his days in comfort with a family who tended to his special needs because of the trauma he suffered. ARC’s work on this very disturbing and frustrating case brought scores of compassionate Minnesotans forward.
The organization’s membership and volunteer numbers swelled further, requiring a larger office… again, but this time it was just across the hall in Suite 105 of the Uptown Office Park building. Many of the people who were introduced to ARC by Kona’s ordeal became long-time members and were some of the most committed volunteers ARC ever had.
During ARC’s earliest years, most of the work was done by a core group of five to ten people. Fundraising, producing newsletters, planning national conferences and local events, networking with other groups, answering hundreds of phone calls, leading meetings – all this was accomplished by a small, feisty group of extraordinarily dedicated volunteers without cell phones, voicemail, or the internet. These are the people who, decades ago, poured their hearts and souls into creating an organization that would endure. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude, and we thank them for launching ARC into its second decade well-prepared to continue working on behalf of animals. It started with a simple concept – concern for animal suffering – and grew into action and change for the animals. Part Two of “Four Decades of Action for Animals: A History of the Animal Rights Coalition” highlights what actions resulted in change for the animals during ARC’s second decade!