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All creatures great and small

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BY CHERYL BENTLEY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 14, 2008

by the cartoons of hunters he watched. He starting crying, pleading with the elder Martin to spare the animal's life.

His father has always remembered that incident. "He brought it up when I became a vegetarian a few years ago," Randon, now 18, recalled.

For the record, Alain had no intention of killing a chicken. The ax he carried was to chop wood. Now a French chef at Cabana Grill & Bar, in Clearwater, Alain fully supports his son's vegetarianism, as does Randon's mom, Barbara Martin.

"He's a gentle person who's trying to change the world," said Barbara.

Starts group

That began when he started walking his talk by becoming a vegetarian. Martin later established the Student Coalition for Animal Rights at Dunedin High School, in 2006.

The cause has evidently touched a number of students. When he promoted the meetings adequately, there were enough attendees to fill a classroom, Martin noted. The group convinced the school to have a Meat Out Monday, encouraged healthy vegetarianism and educated students about the mistreatment of animals in factory farming.

Students have been receptive.

"When they're coaxed into paying attention to what's going on, it bothers them a lot," said Effie Trihas, the group's faculty sponsor, said of young people. "They never imagined some of the abuse taking place."

That abuse was highlighted recently when an animal investigator secretly videotaped workers at a supplier for fast-food chain KFC in Moorefield, W. Va., laughing while kicking and stomping chickens.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, about 280 million egg-laying hens are kept in cages so small they can't spread their wings and have no room for instinctive behavior such as nesting, dust bathing and perching.
Factory farming
The society also faults factory farming methods that keep both breeding pigs and calves who are only a few days old but have already been removed from their mothers in crates so small the animals can't turn around.

Such stories encouraged the young Martin to become a vegetarian in the ninth grade and a vegan in his sophomore year. Vegans not only swear off meat they don't eat animal products, including dairy and eggs.

Martin was inspired by punk rock, an anti-establishment musical movement that became popular in the 1970s.

He was especially taken with some of the band Conflict's lyrics. Some songs, including "Meat Means Murder" and "Slaughter of the Innocent" made an impression on the young Martin.

"They put animals and humans on the same level, rather than animals being lower," he noted about Conflict.

That revived something the little boy who feared for the life of a chicken had always instinctively known. "I believe animals have intrinsic value regardless of their usefulness to humans." He prefers to think of animals and humans as fellow beings on the planet, Martin noted.

To continue

Martin graduated from Dunedin High School this year and hasn't decided on his next educational step. His vision for the future, however, includes making a better world for animals, one that will ultimately benefit humans, he said, because the two are inextricably linked. The animal organization he founded will continue at the school, according to Trihas, the faculty sponsor.

The organization has its work cut out for it, said Martin.

"Animal abuse in our culture is so omnipresent, but no one ever sees it. We're supporting it financially. We're eating it, and we're wearing it. It's so everywhere that no one pays much attention to it."

Cheryl Bentley can be reached at 727-815-1069 or cbentley@suncoastnews.com.

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