In the audience, rancher John Harris and Dave Wood, chairman of the Harris Ranch beef division, gave the speakers' presentations -- and California State University, Fresno's, role in bringing them to campus -- bad reviews.

Mark Somma, an associate professor of political science, organized the two-day conference and had described it as a look at the radical environmental movement's evolution and tactics.

Harris, a Republican rancher, had joined community and agricultural leaders who discussed their concerns about the conference with university President John Welty on Monday.

Harris was present to hear several speakers Thursday night but said he heard no opposing viewpoints, no dialogue, as speakers made their cases before an audience of about 700.

Steve Best, chairman of the philosophy department at the University of Texas at El Paso, commended Fresno State for going ahead with the conference despite opposition.

"The university has chosen the pursuit of truth over the pursuit of profit," he said.

The speakers and Harris viewed environmental issues as if describing two different ends of the elephant.

The speakers described a planet losing its species and suffering foul air and polluted water. They pledged to save animals from inhumane treatment, experimentation and torturous processing.

Several mentioned their beliefs as vegetarians or vegans, people who consume no animal products, and they compared raids on animal facilities to tactics used by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.

Harris, who grows and markets Harris Ranch Beef with Wood, said outside the conference that his company and the American livestock industry in general adhere to humane conditions.

"Basically, we have been a society of carnivores for thousands and thousands of years," Harris said. "The key is humane treatment."

Said Wood: "We are the best stewards of our animals, both Harris Ranch and the livestock industry. We adhere to humane processing standards."

Inside, speaker Gary Yourofsky of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals told of liberating 1,542 caged animals "from an animal concentration camp" in Canada.

Yourofsky called it "extremely silly" to characterize the animal rights movement as radical. American society has let go of human slavery, he said, but still embraces animal slavery.

Yourofsky showed a film of animals being slaughtered, hanging from hooks, whimpering in stalls. Some in the audience looked away.

Speaker Craig Rosebaugh, former spokesman for Earth Liberation Front, linked abuse and killing of animals to the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children, which he attributed to American sanctions, since the Persian Gulf War. What connects the killing of animals and the deaths of children, he said, is the need for compassion.

When he freed caged animals, Rosebaugh said, "I walked in the footsteps of Gandhi."

Rosebaugh said the Earth Liberation Front's members will stop breaking laws, "but only if they achieve their goals." He commended $45 million in damage caused by ELF actions against "corporations that don't care."

Campus police and California Highway Patrol officers stood guard outside as speakers won applause from the audience.

Kim Marks of Earth First! lamented the disappearance of ecosystems and the wiping out of 100 animal species per day. "It is not radical to try to save the rest," she said.

Outside, Harris was unimpressed.

"I'm terribly disappointed that the university has chosen this path," he said.

Wood cited the agricultural and business communities' longtime support for Fresno State, and said, "Many supporters are reconsidering."

"This sore will take a long time to heal," Harris said.

He and Wood called it "an outright lie" that conference organizers made an earnest attempt to include agricultural interests in the program.

The conference was "a circus," they said, as speakers inside condemned circuses for abusing animals.

The reporter can be reached at jsteinberg@fresnobee.com or 441-6311.