Extremism in Vancouver
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:
VANCOUVER, B.C.––Turning 40, the Van-couver
Aquarium celebrated by granting free admission to anyone
born in 1956 for a week in June, just after alienating
supporters in the animal protection community with a
17,000-piece mailing denouncing “animal rights extremists.”
The mailing was to rally opposition to a referendum
proposal, which may be on the November city ballot,
that would ban keeping whales in Stanley Park, where the
aquarium is located. Despite offending some otherwise sympathetic
recipients, the mailing succeeded, inundating the
Vancouver Parks Board with 6,000 petition signatures,
2,000 preprinted postcards, and over 100 letters of support.