ASK anyone to describe an animal rights activist, and you get a picture of an anaemic looking string-bean weirdo who goes around wearing a balaclava and attacking people with a pick-axe.
This is so far removed from reality, it is verging on the absurd!
There will always be some people in every organisation who take things a bit too far.
But it should be mentioned that not a single person has ever died at the hands of an animal activist. It can't just be pure luck: the ARs movement has been going for decades.
I have been an activist/campaigner for around 17 years now and never in all that time have I met anyone that fits that description - and believe me, I have met with quite a few.
I have even written to a couple of activists who are spending time in jail for making a nuisance of themselves.
Put it this way - if they had been common thugs, they would have been let off with a tap on the wrist or community service.
I recently had a letter from Joe Harris, a brilliant young scientist working on a cure for bowel cancer.
He got three years for threatening businesses associated with HLS. He was found guilty of putting glue into the locks of vehicles used by those companies.
The Sun newspaper described him as a thug, yet when I mentioned this to Joe, he said he hadn't seen the article and was surprised to hear himself described that way - in fact he saw himself as just the opposite.
That's his story, and I believe him! I myself have often been described as a nut, a fanatic, and even a vegan freak!
After receiving death threats from extremist hunt supporters who left threatening and abusive messages on my answering machine, there's no doubt in my mind who the thugs are, and it’s most definitely not us!
The truth about animal rights is that we come from all walks of life and, yes, some of us may not be too bothered about our appearance.
Personally speaking, I am!
It's important to look groomed, even when wearing jeans,
because it helps to get our message across.
I think it's important to make a good impression - though if you were to ask the man in the street to describe the dress code of an activist, he would say, ”Oh that scruffy lot in jeans”.
Odd that, since I never leave the house unless I am well groomed - though I do wear jeans quite a lot.
In a perfect world it wouldn't matter a jot how we project ourselves; all that would matter would be our compassionate nature. But this is planet Earth and we are judged by the care we take in our appearance.
The one common factor that unites ARs people is the urgent desire to see an end to deliberate animal abuse.
Some activists do go over the top - like the ones convicted of the macabre desecration of Gladys Hammond’s body.
But, God almighty, they paid dearly for it with up to 14 years in prison!
And, remember, they never even killed anyone.
Now that's what I call rough justice.
It particularly gnaws at me when I read how the infamous South Shropshire hunt master Otis Ferry, son of Brian Ferry, got away with storming Parliament and, more recently, a drink driving offence.
Even the most sceptical can't deny there seems to be one law for the rich and another for the rest of us - with ARs taking the brunt!
Whenever I get angry about cruelty issues and feel like doing something rash, I remember the words of Tony Banks MP who said: “We should never allow ourselves to become broken, because we are in this for the animals - this is why we should never give the public, the press or the politicians a reason to ignore us.”
You can't argue with that!
