Luke Steele is an odd sort of cove. The 28-year-old is Campaigns Strategist for the pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a role and a body for which, having started his animal activism at the age of 13, he seems wholly suited. For one so young he has notched up quite a track record of court appearances and convictions, especially given that he is a law graduate. Although in recent years he has learned to stay on the right side of it (just), this has not, alas, resulted in his becoming at all reticent. Of course he is a serial tweeter never missing an opportunity to alert the rag bag contingent of cat loving spinsters, middle class city dwellers, students and just plain angry people who comprise the animal rights lobby, to what he sees as the latest atrocity. And like his followers he occasionally betrays the warped logic which underpins the animal liberation ideology. A splendid example of this appeared last November when Steele sent out a Remembrance Sunday tweet to his followers. Accompanied by a picture of a soldier and a dog it said: “The freedoms we use daily have come at a heavy cost. To those who gave their lives to uphold democracy and protect us from tyranny, thank you. We will remember them”.
It isn’t clear from this who was to be the principle object of this sentiment. The dog or soldier, possibly both. Either way it offers an intriguing insight to the way in which Steele’s mind works and, we might presume, those who share his views. For by his past actions – which have included violence and intimidation and his current if passive support for the activities of anti-hunt protestors, violent vegans and opponents of vivisection et al, Steel has shown himself to support the tyranny of the mob with the aim of stopping others going about democratically and legally upheld activities. Clearly, in Steele’s mind, the sacrifice which he urges us to remember, was made on behalf of some but not all of us.