Controversial UTEP prof risks much in fight for animal rights

People have judged Steve Best many ways during his 30 years in academia. Some have called him a troublemaker, a radical, and even a domestic and international terrorist because of his vocal and often confrontational stance on animal rights. He said it is his tenured position that has kept him on the payroll as a philosophy professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. But even Best knows he is gambling with his career when he protests against the school's environmental policies with a bullhorn outside UTEP President Diana Natalicio's office, or when he openly supports a movement that undertakes criminal activities to save animals from research laboratories and slaughterhouses. "Hey, if Martin Luther King was not afraid to lose his life, I shouldn't be afraid to lose my job," Best said. Best travels around the country and as far away as South Africa to speak about animal abuse. The United Kingdom in 2005 banned Best from its four countries for his views on the use of violence to defend animal rights...read more