Len Lear

How did your views become more radical?

It started about ten years ago, when I became a vegetarian. I always loved cats, and somehow it occurred to me that I would never eat a cat, so why should I eat other animals? Then I began rescuing a lot of stray animals. I would find homes for them, or at least take them to a shelter that I could trust, one that does a decompression chamber.

Did rescuing stray animals lead you to the A.L.F.?

No. That was something different. For many years I was a waitress, a file clerk and so on, but I was going to school at night for a science degree. In the course of doing research in the library for a couple of papers, I read about things that were being done to animals in laboratories. I was really shocked. I had no idea whatsoever that these atrocities were going on. I could not believe it. Animals are used in the most cruel and horrible ways, and it's not as if it's being kept secret. It's right there in any medical library.