Archive for 2002
Paul McCartney Gets 99.44% Pure on Tour
TheSmokingGun.Com, a web site that specializes in posting scans of legal and other documents, recently discovered an oddity in the standard rider that Paul McCartney used during his 2002 tour. Specifically, the rider calls for venues to provide the singer and his entourage with “24 Large Bars of Ivory Soap.”
Ivory Soap is not only a Procter and Gamble product, but the major ingredient in the soap is animal fat mixed with vegetable oils. As The Smoking Gun puts it,
So, while Paul won’t sit on a leather couch, the Liverpudlian is apparently lathering with beef tallow.
Source:
Paul McCartney Tour Rider - 2002. The Smoking Gun, Accessed: December 15, 2002.
Tags: Paul & Linda McCartney
Anti-Stephens Protester Continues Appeal of Sentence
Mike Durschmind, 42, was one of those arrested in 2001 at a Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty-sponsored protest at a Stephens Life Insurance building in Little Rock.
Durschmind spent three days in jail and was found guilty of misdemeanor disorderly conduct in January 2002. He appealed that sentence to Pulaski County Circuit Court which this week affirmed the conviction and fined Durschmind $100.
Not finished yet, however, Durschmind’s lawyer says he will appeal the County Circuit Court’s decision.
Source:
Stephens protester fined $100. Associated Press, December 12, 2002.
Tags: Huntingdon Life Sciences, Michael Durschmind, Stephens Group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
David Barbarash Search Warrant Quashed
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge agreed with Animal Liberation Front spokesperson David Barbarash’s legal complaint and quashed a search warrant that had been executed by police at his home on July 30, 2002.
In a written decision this week, Justice Elizabeth Bennett ruled that the evidence used to support the search warrant — a single photocopied newspaper article — was not sufficient grounds for issuing the warrant. Bennett wrote,
I conclude that the information to obtain does not contain reliable information upon which to base reasonable grounds for the search warrant . . . The search warrant is quashed.
Still up in the air is the status of Barbarash’s property seized by police. Among other things, police removed two computers, dozens of computer discs, about 100 video tapes, and numerous papers and documents. All of that property will remain sealed until a scheduled hearing in 2003 at which police plan to seek permission to turn some of the seized property over to U.S. law enforcement.
Source:
Animal rights warrant quashed. Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun, December 12, 2002.
Tags: Animal Liberation Front, David Barbarash, Terrorism
David Blenkinsop Receives Prison for Animal Rights Bombing Campaign
British animal rights activist David Blenkinsop, 36, was sentenced this week to five-and-a-half years for his role in an animal rights bombing campaign. Blenkinsop is already serving a four-and-a-half year sentence for other a break-in at a guinea pig farm and his role in the assault on Huntingdon Life Sciences managing director Brian Cass.
Blenkinsop admitted that in August 2000 he made incendiary devices and helping Animal Liberation Front activists place the devices under trucks owned by a meat processing plant and cars owned by employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Blenkinsop tried the “change of heart” routine in which his lawyer said he was a fundamentally “decent man” and read a letter from Blenkinsop in which the activist said he had turned his back on animal rights violence (only after being punished with prison for such activities, of course).
Sources:
Animal rights man jailed for car bombs. Cambridge News, December 13, 2002.
Animal activist bomber jailed. Ananova, December 12, 2002.
Tags: Animal Liberation Front, David Blenkinsop, Huntingdon Life Sciences, Terrorism
Pigs Off to Slaughter After Passage of Florida Amendment
In November Florida voters passed an amendment to their state constitution banning the use of gestation crates for pigs. Rather than try to comply with the law, the two pig farmers affected by the law have decided to get out of the pig farming business altogether and send their animals off for slaughter.
One of those farmers is Henry Mathis who had about 250 sows covered by the amendment. Rather than comply with the law, which Mathis maintains would be too expensive, he decided to sell his 250 sows to be made into sausage, as well as dumping the other 2,000 hogs on his farm.
Fellow pig farmer Steve Basford, the only other Florida pig farmer covered by the law, has also reportedly begun sending his pigs to slaughter.
And what do animal rights activists who pushed for the law think about its passage leading to farmers sending their pigs for slaughter? Some of them love it.
Mike Winikoff of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida told The St. Petersburg Times,
We think that’s an excellent thing. And hte factg that some of the pigs might get slaughtered earlier, in the big picture, we see that as a good thing. It’s going to lessen their suffering and hasten the end of their miserable lives.
Slaughter early, slaughter often.
Source:
Amendment is final straw for pig farmer. Wes Allison, St. Petersburg Times (Florida), December 13, 2002.
With narrow stalls banned, pregnant pigs face slaughter. Jennifer Maloney, The Miami Herald, December 12, 2002.
Tags: Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, Florida, Mike Winikoff, Pigs, United States
Princeton Township Ban on Feeding Deer Upheld
A Superior Court judge this week upheld a Princeton Township ordinance that foribds property owners from feeding deer.
Princeton Township’s efforts to manage its deer population have attracted animal rights attention after the township brought in marksman to thin the deer herd.
The township also passed an ordinance forbidding peopel to feed deer on their property, whcih brought a legal challenge from the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance and 30 other groups and individuals who argued the ordinance was arbitrary and unreasonable.
Judge Linda Feinberg agreed with the township that,
Put simply, the artificial feeding is causing exactly the effects the township is trying to combat, namely, that the deer are concentrating on properties in alarmingly high numbers resulting in a deterimental imapct on the environment and neighboring propertis.
Plaintiffs attorney Bruce Afran told The Princeton Packet that the plaintiffs would appeal the decision saying it violated the rights of property owners and that the township had not sufficiently proven that deer feeding posted a real threat to the environment and people of Princeton Township.
Sources:
Township’s deer-feeding ban upheld by court. David Campbell, The Princeton Packet, December 13, 2002.
Ban on feeding deer upheld. Robert Stern, The Times (New Jersey), December 13, 2002.
Feed deer, get fined in NJ,. Associated Press, December 13, 2002.
Tags: Deer, New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance
Dutch Virgin Mary Ad Campaign Causes Controversy
Dutch animal rights activists created a controversy there with an ad campaign featuring the Virgin Mary.
The ad shows the Virgin Mary cradling a dead, bleeding hare. According to Reuters, hare is traditional Christmas fare in the Ntherlands.
Christian Democrat Annie Schreijer-Pierik denounced the ad in the Dutch parliament this week.
Source:
Animal rights Christmas ad sparks uproar. Reuters, December 13, 2002.
Dutch animal rights Christmas ad sparks uproar Reuters, December 13, 2002
Tags: Rabbits
Number of Foxes Killed in Scotland Increases After Ban
Hunts in Scotland claim that since hunting with dogs was banned, the number of foxes killed by hunts has skyrocketed to 250 since August, compared to a total of 140 foxes killed in all of 2000 (there was no hunting at all in 2001 due to foot-and-mouth restrictions).
Under the ban, hunting foxes is allowed to eliminate pests, but the foxes have to be shot rather than killed by dogs — except if the hunter can prove that he intended to shoot the fox but the animal was killed by the dogs.
Joe Scott Plummer of the Buccleuch Hunt told Scotland on Sunday that by December 2000, his hunt had killed 30 foxes, but by December 2002, they had killed 65 foxes. According to Scott Plummer, the increase was due to a combination of there being more foxes to hunt because of the 2001 restrictions, as well as it being easier to kill a fox with a gun than with dogs. Scott Plummer said,
Traditional hunting was the natural cunning of the fox pitched against the natural cunning of the hounds, but as soon as a gun is introduced then the odds become heavily weighted against the fox surviving. In the past there would be a possibility that a fox would be able to escape the hounds, and often they did. However, with the guns, however fit or fast a fox, once it’s been flushed out then it doesn’t really stand a chance.
Scotland on Sunday quoted Les Ward of Advocates for Animals as being skeptical of the claims of increased killings of foxes saying, “They would say it’s business as usual, but I can tell you that it’s not.”
Source:
Hunts claim fox deaths soar after ban. Claire Gardner, Scotland On Sunday, December 8, 2002.
Tags: Advocates for Animals, Foxes, Hunting, Les Ward
Prison Is a Very Lonely Place for Jeff Luers
The Earth Liberation Prisoners Newsletter recently circulated and appeal for help with the case of Jeff Luers. Luers, you may remember, was sentenced to more than 22 years in jail for several acts of arson (including attempting to blow up a gasoline tanker).
Activists are trying to raise money for Luers’ appeal of his sentence (Luers made the boneheaded mistake of failing to plea bargain to lesser charges — his buddy Craig Marshall received only 5 years). But they also want people to send letters to help Luers pass the time in a lonely prison,
Prison is an extremely lonely place and sending letters to [Luers] asking how you can help, sharing stories, telling him about what is going on in the world is a great way to help.
Awww, poor Jeffrey. So if you want to write a serial arsonist with tales of the outside world or share some stories, please by all means don’t let me stop you. His address is:
Jeffrey Luers, #13797671
Oregon State Prison
2605 State Street
Salem, OR 97310
USA
Source:
ELP Information Bulletin, December 7, 2002.
Tags: Craig Marshall, Jeff Luers, Terrorism
18 Activists Arrested at British anti-HLS, Cambridge Protest
Eighteen activists were arrested earlier this week after 200 people participated in a Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty-organized protest outside a Huntingdon Life Sciences facility and the proposed cite for Cambridge University’s primate research center.
The activists were arrested for not having a permit for their protest, and were charged with “public order offences” according to Cambridge News.
A spokesman for the police told the newspaper,
People have the right to demonstrate but those demonstrations must be lawful. We have worked closely with demonstrators in the past to ensure they can carry out their right to protest without breaking the law but unplanned protests are irresponsible and we will not tolerate them.
Source:
Animal rights demo members arrested. Cambridge News, December 9, 2002.
Tags: Huntingdon Life Sciences, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty