Archive for 2002
Center for Consumer Freedom on SHAC
The Center for Consumer Freedom published an excellent report this month on Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty’s recent protests against Huntingdon Life Sciences designed to coincide with the company’s 50th year in business (though, the activists got it wrong and it was, in fact, Huntingdon’s 51st anniversary).
The report included the following “unedited quotes, taken directly from videotapes of the recent SHAC protests,”
“Animal liberation is not a campaign. It is not a struggle. It is a war! It is an all-out bloody war!”
-Robin Webb“As long as we emptied the labs of animals, they are still easily replaced. So that’s when the ALF in this country, and my cell, started engaging in arson.”
-Rodney Coronado“We’re a new breed of activism. We’re not your parents’ Humane Society. We’re not Friends of Animals. We’re not Earthsave. We’re not Greenpeace. We come with a new philosophy. We hold the radical line. We will not compromise! We will not apologize, and we will not relent! Vivisection is not an abstract concept. It’s a deed, done by individuals, who have weaknesses, who have breaking points, and who have home addresses!”
-Kevin Jonas“We’ll sweep the police aside. We’ll sweep the government aside. We’ll sweep Huntingdon Life Sciences aside, and we’ll raze this evil place right to the ground.”
-Robin Webb
Source:
Special Report: The New ‘Nonviolence’. The Center for Consumer Freedom, December 5, 2002.
Tags: Center for Consumer Freedom, Huntingdon Life Sciences, Kevin Jonas, Robin Webb, Rodney Coronado, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
More SHAC Activists Jailed in Great Britain
According to the North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network, three more activists affiliated with Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty have been jailed in Great Britain.
A December 7 ELP Bulletin said that Sarah Gisborne received 12 months in jail, and Jonny Able-White and Gillian Bradley each received 9 month sentences for criminal acts related to animal rights extremism.
Meanwhile, British animal rights activist Robin Webb is having difficulty obtaining release after his arrest at the December 1st protest against Huntingdon Life Sciences in the United States.
Webb was jailed on a $50,000 bond. Activists managed to raise the bond, but the court also demanded that Webb surrender his passport as well as furnish his birth certificate. As this writing, Webb has been unable to comply with the court’s requirements and so remains jailed.
Source:
Urgent ELP! Bulletin. North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network, Newsletter, December 7, 2002.
Tags: Huntingdon Life Sciences, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, Terrorism
PETA Protestors Allegedly Threw Red Paint at Boston Police
Lisa Franzetta, 28, of Oakland, Calif., and Christina Hrul, 26, of Cambridge, Mass., were arrested after allegedly throwing red paint on Boston police officers.
Franzetta and Hrul were participating in a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protest against Nieman Marcus. The two were in a fake bear trap and had spread what they claimed was washable red paint on the doors and sidewalks of the store.
When two police approached them, Franzetta and Hrul allegedly showered the officers with paint. They were both arrested and charged with malicious destruction of property and disorderly conduct.
Source:
2 antifur protesters arrested downtown. Jenny Jiang, Boston Globe, December 7, 2002.
Tags: Fur, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
ALF/ELF Claim Responsibility for Pennyslvania Mink Farm Fire
Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front activists claimed responsibility this week for a Nov. 26 fire at a mink farm in Eerie, Pennsylvania.
The fire destroyed a barn at the mink farm. An anonymous e-mail issued by the group threatned that if the owner of the farm doesn’t abandon the mink business, “the rest of the mink ranch WILL be demolished.”
Farm owner Forrest Mindek issued a response through Fur Comission USA saying,
It’s bad enough that they try to destroy our livelihood, but they put the lives of our animals, our family and the firefighters at risk
The e-mail also claimed responsibility for the release of foxes from an Eerie fox ranch in June; the release of mink from a fur farm in New York in September; the destruction of two genetically modified plant demsontration sites in Pennsylvania; an Aug. 11 fire at the Northeast Research Station in the Allegheny National Forest that did $700,000 in damage; and the March 2002 destruction of a construction crane in Eerie that did an estimated $500,000 in damage.
Well, if these activists wanted the attention of law enforcement, I suspect they just got it.
Source:
Environmental, animal groups claim responsibility for mink farm fire. Dan Nephin, The Associated Press, December 3, 2002.
Tags: Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front, Fur, Pennsylvania, Terrorism, United States
Labor Proposes Compromise on Fox Hunting Ban
Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael unveiled the Labor government’s proposed compromise on fox hunting with dogs which avoids a ban in favor of a licensure procedure which would judge most hunts on a case-by-case basis.
The proposal would assign individual bureacrats to evaluate license applications for fox hunts. In order to be approved, a hunt would have to demonstrate that it would not be cruel while simultaneously demosntrating that the hunt was necessary as a form of pest control. Those decisions could then be appealed to a tribunal which would have the final say in the matter.
The Labor govenrment also proposed an outright ban on hare coursing and stag hunting. Ratting, rabbitting and falconry, however, will all be allowed to continue without futher hindrance.
Predictably, this sort of half-measure didn’t satisfy either side of the fox hunting debate, with pro-fox hunting groups saying it constitutes a de facto ban, while anti-fox hunting groups saying it doesn’t go nearly far enough to end fox hunting.
Sources:
Hunting compromise outlined. The BBC, December 3, 2002.
Britain expected to propose fox hunting compromise. Reuters, December 4, 2002.
SHAC Protest Fizzles
For the past several months, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty sent out press releases and posts on e-mail lists calling for a massive demonstration at a Huntingdon Life Sciences facility in New Jersey. The protest was supposed to mark the 50th anniversary of HLS’s operations (SHAC couldn’t even get that right — this is actually the company’s 51st year in business).
But like SHAC’s campaign against HLS in the United States, the protest fizzled with only 200-300 activists showing up to join Kevin Jonas and company in protesting SHAC.
Robin Webb, a British spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front, was the only person arrested. He was charged with trespassing after violating a court order that allows only 50 people to mass in front of HLS’ front gate at any given moment. But not before Webb voiced his opinion of HLS researchers, shouting that, “They’re evil! They don’t belong on this planet.”
Kevin Jonas tried to spin the poor turnout by decrying the large number of police on-hand — 65 of local police plus county and state cops. Jonas told The Star-Ledger (New Jersey),
Overkill is an understatement. We’ve got grannies here from different parts of the country. They’ve got guns.
What Jonas didn’t have was much of a turnout.
Sources:
No violence as animal activists mark an ‘unhappy’ 50th birthday. Jeff Diamant, The Star-Ledger (New Jersey), Monday, December 02, 2002.
Animal rights group holds Doylestown protest. Hilary Bentman, Philadelphia Intelligencer, December 3, 2002.
Hundreds protest lab testing on animals. News12, December 1, 2002.
Animal-testing rally held outside labs. Jeff Linkous, Associated Press, December 2, 2002.
Tags: Huntingdon Life Sciences, Kevin Jonas, Robin Webb, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty
PETA/PCRM and The Foundation to Support Animal Protection
Via Americans for Medical Progress comes word on Animal People’s annual roundup of animal rights groups finances, which were down somewhat this year.
Of special interest is Animal People’s focus on the The Foundation to Support Animal Protection which is little more than a front group set up to hide the financial ties between People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Physicians Committe for Responsible Medicine.
According to Animal People (emphasis added),
The Foundation to Support Animal Protection board consists of PETA cofounder and president Ingrid Newkirk PCRM founder and president Neal Barnard, MD, and Nadine Edles. The sole function of FASP, according to IRS Form 990 is to ‘Provide support to various charitable, educational and scientific organizations specified in the Corporation’s Certificate of Incorporation,’ identified as PETA, and four PETA subsidiaries, plus PCRM and the Washington (DC) Humane Society, which was granted $5,000 in 1999 but nothing since. In fiscal 2001 FSAP apparently continued as in past years to pay the mortgage on the PETA headquarters and lease the site to PETA; did mailings in the names of the beneficiaries; and granted $160,000 to PCRM, 55% of the total PCRM budget. The major purpose of FSAP appears to be to enable PETA and PCRM to evade public recognition of their relationship, the real extent of their direct mail expenditures, and the real extent and nature of their assets. If FSAP, PETA and PCRM were seen as a joint fundraising unit, as the existence and activities of FSAP indicate they should be, their total spending came to $18,846,016; their declared overhead was $5,194,418, 28% of budget. Their total assets were $10,471,309, 55% held by FSAP, including 58% of the cash and securities. The combined FSAP, PETA and PCRM payroll was $4.64 million, of which FSAP paid $1.3 million: 28%.
PETA and PCRM — dishonest, through and through.
Source:
AMP News Service Special Report: AR Finances. November 26, 2002.
Tags: Americans for Medical Progress, Animal People, Foundation to Support Animal Protection, Ingrid Newkirk, Neal Barnard, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Animal Liberation Front Steals 128 Dogs from Italian Research Facility
Animal Liberation Front activists broke into an Italian dog-breeding center on November 24, 2002 and stole 128 beagles. The dogs were to be used for medical research according to police.
Police estimated about 10 people broke into the farm and stole the animals as well as spray painting animal rights slogans such as “Murderers” and “ALF will free all” at the facility.
Despite that last slogan, the ALF activists left behind the 800+ remaining dogs at the breeding center.
Source:
‘Terrorists’ steal 128 beagles. The Herald Sun (UK), November 24, 2002.
Tags: Animal Liberation Front, Dogs, Terrorism
Hotel Chain Ends Arrangement with HSUS
The Washington Times reported this week that the national Accor Economy Lodging hotel and motel chain has ended a partnership with the Human Society of the United States after receiving complaints from hunters.
Accor owns Motel 6, Red Roof Inns and Studio 6. Last summer the company began actively promoting HSUS’s “Pets for Life” and “Disaster Recovery” programs. At the time, an Accor spokesman said that the company was “proud to support the efforts of the Humane Society of the United States.”
According to the Times, however, a campaign led by the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance resulted in enough letters and calls to the company to convince it to drop the partnership with HSUS.
Times sports columnist Gene Mueller quotes U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance vice president Rick Story as saying,
Hunters, trappers and anglers from across the country made a point to contact Accor to help its administrators better understand where the promotion of the Humane Society of the United States could lead. It will not lead to the salvation of millions of homeless dogs and cuts, but it could easily lead to the downfall of outdoor traditions enjoyed by millions of sportsmen
Sources:
One way to hunt for a perfect gift. Gene Mueller, The Washington Times, November 27, 2002.
Motel chain angers hunting advocates. Gene Mueller, The Washington Times, June 19, 2002.
Tags: Fishing, Humane Society of the United States, Hunting
USA Today on Farm Sanctuary’s Turkey Efforts
On November 26, USA Today ran a very positive profile of Farm Sanctuary’s efforts to convince people to stop eating turkey for Thanksgiving.
The story featured a profile of Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-a-Turkey program, noting that,
Each Thanksgiving, Farm Sanctuary sees surges in turkey adoptions (around 50; they’re adopted in pairs or more because they get lonely) and sponsorships (more than 1,000), in which a $15 donation toward the care and feeding of the bird gets you a color photo of your [turkey] . . .
Of course as even the USA Today reporter was forced to concede, that is 50 turkeys adopted by Farm Sanctuary vs. 45 million turkeys that were eaten for Thanksgiving — as many as 95 percent of American households will include turkey as at least part of the Thanksgiving meal.
USA Today mentioned Florida’s largely irrelevant vote in favor of a ban on gestation crates for pigs, which Farm Sanctuary played a major role in promoting. It failed to mention, however, Farm Sanctuary’s numerous violations of Florida election laws.
Farm Sanctuary’s Gene Bauston told USA Today (emphasis added),
Farm animals everywhere are subject to a lot of cruelty. But once Americans know about a problem and see how behind the times we are, they usually move to stop it.
Once Americans know that Farm Sanctuary considers itself about state election laws, maybe they’ll move to stop donating to and supporting it as well.
Source:
Plucked from the platter. Marco R. della Cava, USA Today, November 26, 2002.
Tags: Farm Sanctuary, Florida, Gene Bauston, Pigs, Turkeys, United States