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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (5904)	2/23/2006 3:46:36 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

why does the gov have so much land?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (5904)	2/25/2006 9:07:20 AM
From: paret	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Did animal activists cross the line? NorthJersey.com ^ \| 02.20.06 \| WAYNE PARRY One woman said she received an e-mail threatening to cut her 7-year-old son open and stuff him with poison. A man said he was showered with glass as people smashed all the windows of his home and overturned his wife's car. Many others said they were besieged by screaming protesters outside their homes at all hours, deluged by threatening phone calls, and sent pornographic magazines they had not ordered. The trauma that employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences and other companies say they experienced at the hands of radical animal rights advocates is on display during the federal court trial of a Philadelphia-based group and six of its members on domestic terrorism charges. The trial continues in Trenton this week. Many targets testified that the harassment made them look over their shoulders when walking or driving, change their phone numbers or even move, keep their kids from playing outdoors, and prompted several to buy guns. Sally Dillenback said her young son would often crouch by the door brandishing a 5-inch kitchen knife when the doorbell rang, promising to protect his mommy. "He told me not to worry," she testified last week. "He said he was going to get the animal people. Once I found him at the garage door with a knife. That was his state of mind. He was a 7-year-old boy." Dillenback broke into tears as she recounted an anonymous e-mail that threatened her son. "The person asked how I would feel if they cut open my son, Brad, and filled him with poison the way Huntingdon does with the animals," she said, breaking into tears. "That was devastating for me to see something like that." Huntingdon Life Sciences is a laboratory in Franklin Township, Somerset County, that tests drugs and consumer products on animals. A group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty has waged a five-year campaign to shut it down, extending its pressure tactics beyond the lab to companies that insured it, traded its stock, lent it money, provided security for it and conducted other business with it, according to prosecution testimony. The tactics worked in many instances as firms, including the insurer Marsh USA, dropped Huntingdon as a client after being targeted, the lab's lawyer said. The group notes that its members are not charged with carrying out any of the illegal acts described in court, and denies inciting anyone to break the law. It says its activities were all legal and protected by the First Amendment. Postings on the Web site recounting acts of harassment or vandalism at the homes and offices of targets are no different from news reports by mainstream media organizations, the group asserts. Like almost all the others targeted by the group, Dillenback, a Marsh executive in Dallas, saw intensely private information about her family posted on the group's Web site. It listed their names, address, home phone number, where their children went to school, and even the name of her son's teacher and the fact that he sings in the choir. Prosecutors say the postings were designed to terrorize the targets, and incite others to commit violence against them. The defendants are charged with animal-enterprise terrorism, conspiracy and interstate stalking. The trial of Kevin Kjonaas, Lauren Gazzola, Jacob Conroy, Joshua Harper, Andrew Stepanian and Darius Fullmer will likely hinge on whether prosecutors can prove the group did more than simply publish information online. There has been no testimony that the group directed anyone to break the law. Some Huntingdon workers in New Jersey also say they were targeted. Henning Jonassen, the lab's necropsy director, testified he was watching TV at home in Somerville when someone smashed all his ground-floor windows, and turned his wife's car over. Toxicologist Carol Auletta said she saw her face on "Wanted" posters all over downtown Princeton, calling her a mentally ill murderer.

To: Skywatcher who wrote (5904)	2/25/2006 9:08:14 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 36917

Animal rights activists face trial under terror law Yahoo News & Reuters ^ \| June 3, 2005 \| Jon Hurdle PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - New Jersey is using an anti-terrorism law for the first time to try six animal rights activists charged with harassing and vandalizing a company that made use of animals to test its drugs. Prosecutors say the activists, who will stand trial next week, used threats, intimidation and cyber attacks against employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a British company with operations in East Millstone, New Jersey, with the intention of driving it out of business. The six, members of a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), are charged under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, amended in 2002 to include "animal enterprise terrorism," which outlaws disrupting firms like Huntingdon. If convicted, the group and its accused members face a maximum $250,000 fine and three years in prison. SHAC argued that the charges are a violation of free-speech rights and it is the victim of a government crackdown on dissent. "This is a frightening step in the Bush administration's path to war on domestic dissidence," the group said on its Web site. (Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

To: Skywatcher who wrote (5904)	2/25/2006 9:09:17 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 36917

Animal Rights Extremism a Priority for FBI AP on Yahoo ^ \| 6/21/05 \| Paul Elias - AP PHILADELPHIA - Violence by environmental and animal rights extremists against U.S. drug makers has increased so much in recent years that it's currently the FBI's top domestic terrorism issue, a top agency official says. "There has been an increase in the use of incendiary devices as well as explosive devices," said John Lewis, FBI deputy assistant director in charge of counterterrorism. "There's a very clear indication that there's no move to slow down or stop — in fact, just the opposite is true." The agency has about 150 open cases of arson, bombings and other violent crimes associated with militant environmental and animal rights activists protesting the experimental use of animals in medical research, he said. Lewis made the comments Monday in an address to some of the 18,000 biotechnology executives gathered here at the four-day Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual convention. Some of the same groups associated with the wave of violent attacks on biotechnology companies said they planned demonstrations outside the convention center Tuesday. Though the protesters vowed to be peaceful, convention organizers and Philadelphia police were taking no chances. Security was high inside and outside the convention center. A helicopter hovered over the National Constitution Center on Sunday night while police on the ground formed a corridor through a small smattering of jeering demonstrators to ensure the conventioneers could arrive unmolested to a party inside. Meanwhile, as the attacks nationwide increase along with hits to companies' bottom lines and worker morale, industry leaders and their crisis consultants are advocating a radical shift in strategy. They are beginning to fight back aggressively. Chiron Corp. of Emeryville, Calif., which was bombed in 2003 and is still the subject of actions that include credit card fraud against some of its employees, won a restraining order in a California court against a group allegedly involved in much of the activity. The company also refused to renounce its ties to the protesters main target: Huntingdon Life Sciences, a Millstone, N.J. laboratory that does animal experiments for biotech and drug companies. "We believe if we just kept our heads down, it would go away," said John Gallagher, director of Chiron's corporate communications. "That was unrealistic." Gallagher said the attacks have cost Chiron at least $2.5 million, much of it associated with heightened security at public company events such as analyst meetings. "That money would have been much better spent on drug development," Gallagher said. The FBI is searching for the fugitive Daniel Andreas San Diego, who has been charged with the Chiron bombing and another at a Pleasanton, Calif. cosmetic maker. Neither bombing wrought serious damage or injuries. San Diego has ties to several animal rights groups, including one called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, which is better known as SHAC. SHAC and its adherents have waged a decade-long campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. Some of the tactics used against Huntingdon and the companies it contracts with include the vandalizing of executives' cars and houses, harassing employees and their families and the posting of personal information on public Web sites. Six SHAC members face federal charges of conspiracy and interstate stalking that carry maximum penalties of between three and five years, plus fines up to $250,000. They are charged under the federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act, a 1992 law that was expanded in 2002 and equates their alleged activities with domestic terrorism. A judge in Trenton, N.J., declared a mistrial in the case Monday after the lawyer for one of the defendants was too ill to continue with the trial. The case is not likely to come to trial before September, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

To: Skywatcher who wrote (5904)	2/25/2006 9:10:46 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 36917

Eco-Nut: 'Terrorism Can Be OK' the center for consumer freedom ^ \| 1.8.03 \| center for consumer freedom Craig Rosebraugh, the former Earth Liberation Front (ELF) “spokesperson” who invoked the Fifth Amendment over 50 times during a Congressional hearing last year, is far more open and candid with Portland’s Willamette Week. “Terrorism can be OK” and “can be justified,” Rosebraugh now says. Whether you agree with Rosebraugh or not, the ELF is certainly contributing a good deal of terror to the equation. Early New Year’s Day, ELF vandals firebombed four new sport utility vehicles on an auto dealership’s lot near Erie, Pennsylvania. The site was just miles away from a mink farm where ELF, along with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) set fire to a barn in November. The Erie Times-News notes that a total of seven violent crimes, including several arsons and a tree-spiking incident, have been attributed to the ELF in that region since last March. Elsewhere, the Boston Herald reports that ELF criminals have followed up their Virginia SUV vandalism spree with a similar one in Newton, Massachusetts. Activists on the animal-rights side of the terrorism ledger have been equally busy lately. In the UK, an ALF-affiliated group called the Animal Rights Militia (ARM) claimed last month that it added paint stripper to 300 jars of Oil of Olay. ARM is apparently upset that Procter & Gamble uses animals in safety assessments of its products. The same group announced just before Christmas that it had sent holiday cards containing razor blades to eight Britons, including four poultry farmers and one shareholder in Huntingdon Life Sciences. Also in Great Britain, activists burned an animal feed business to the ground on December 26, and spray-painted animal-rights slogans on a church. And ALF criminals attempting to “liberate” 7,000 chickens from a Dorset farm were surprised to find, after breaking in, that it had been converted into a “free range” facility. In the ensuing panic, over 150 hens were killed as a result of these “compassionate” activists trying to “free” them. Closer to home, the Center for Consumer Freedom has learned that convicted ALF arsonist Rodney Coronado is scheduled to speak at a Wilmington, Delaware church two Sundays from now. We’ve written to Elsmere Presbyterian Church pastor Thomas Stout in the hopes of persuading him to kick the bully out of his pulpit.

To: Skywatcher who wrote (5904)	2/25/2006 9:14:02 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 36917

January 6, 2003 Thomas Stout, Pastor Elsmere Presbyterian Church New Road And Ohio Avenue Wilmington, DE 19805 Dear Pastor Stout, It recently came to my attention that Elsmere Presbyterian Church is planning to host a speaking engagement on Sunday, January 19, at 3:00 pm. The scheduled speaker is Rodney Coronado, and his appearance is being promoted by two animal rights organizations: “Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty” (SHAC) and “Delaware Action for Animals.” A Wilmington resident named Marion Smith is also promoting the event on Internet animal-rights mailing lists. I urge you to reconsider allowing Rodney Coronado to use your church as a platform for his violent message. Coronado is a convicted felon who spent over 4 years behind bars for the animal rights-related arson of a research laboratory at Michigan State University. In addition, he has publicly admitted to other acts of arson, theft, and willful private property destruction, all in the name of animal rights. Many churches, of course, minister quite legitimately to those with criminal backgrounds, and I don’t mean to suggest that Coronado’s crimes alone should disqualify him as a speaker at Elsmere. But such a ministry usually aims to showcase a speaker’s penitence, allowing the congregation to learn an appropriate moral lesson in the process. Rodney Coronado has demonstrated that he has no interest in expressing remorse or atoning for his crimes. In fact, the sole purpose of his current speaking tour is to encourage other animal rights activists to engage in violent, illegal activities. Five weeks ago, at a similar event in New Jersey, Coronado told an audience of 400 activists: “I wish I didn’t have to stand up here and talk about and justify and encourage direct action – encourage breaking the law, encourage burning down buildings…. But I do.” Coronado continued: “A lot of people think that – oh my god, that’s going too far, you know. People can support bringing animals out of labs, but they can’t support arson. Well, I’m sorry. I’m not here to please people.” In the course of Coronado’s 60-minute November 30 speech, he admitted to four arsons and three other destructive break-ins, all in connection with the Animal Liberation Front, a criminal organization that the FBI considers America’s “single most serious domestic terrorism threat.” In addition, Coronado encouraged his audience to revolt against the U.S. government: “From day one, the United States has been about oppression…. I don’t believe that we can change that government. I think we need to just tear the whole damned thing down and start all over again.” I would be happy to send you a videotaped copy of Coronado’s November 30 speech, so that you may make an informed determination about whether his promotion of terrorist violence is an appropriate theme for your church’s support. Please consider my offer seriously. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, David Martosko Director of Research The Center for Consumer Freedom ______________________________________________________________ consumerfreedom.com

To: Skywatcher who wrote (5904)	2/27/2006 10:43:21 AM
From: paret	Respond to of 36917

Federal protection has led to wolves unafraid of people Juneau Empire & AP ^ \| February 26, 2006 \| AP Some ranchers say the wolves in the Madison Valley have grown increasingly brazen and are apparently unafraid of people. State wildlife officials say such behavior is to be expected, given the federal protection the predators have had in the decade since being reintroduced in the Yellowstone National Park. Jack Atcheson Jr. said he was spooked on a recent hunting trip, when three men and three mules got within 47 yards of a wolf that was staring right at them. The Butte hunting outfitter, who books international trips, said he had never seen wolves in Alaska, Asia or other places act so boldly around people. "It was approaching us with the wind right in its face — we were standing around the animals, but he was focused on us," Atcheson, 55, said. "He was not afraid at all." The wolf finally stopped when one of Atcheson's hunting partners chambered a rifle, while Atcheson snapped a photo. Even then, the wolf merely lay down and stared at the hunters before eventually walking away. Sunny Smith, manager of the CB Ranch near the Madison Range, said the wolves are "just like domestic dogs." And with calving season just weeks away, that lack of fear has ranchers worried about the prospect of the wolves attacking livestock. Barb Durham, a rancher whose herding dog was killed by wolves in 2004, said if ranchers had had more leeway to shoot wolves when they were hanging around ranches that year, federal officials might have needed to kill only a couple wolves instead of eliminating the whole pack. Wolves have already wandered around their bulls this year, although none of them attacked, she said. "They have no fear and that's been our contention all along," Durham said. "We don't hate wolves; we just want them to be a natural, wild predator and to be afraid of humans. "If you don't let us educate them, then there's always going to be conflicts." Wolves in Montana remain protected under the Endangered Species Act, but their recovery has led the federal government to turn management of the animals over to the state. State officials said stories such as Atcheson's are a major concern. "It's totally inappropriate for wolves to be that close," said Carolyn Sime, wolf coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. But she added that it's not that surprising. Wolves in Alaska have been hunted, trapped and harassed for years. And if they spot a human, they immediately run away. Montana wolves, however, have been protected under federal law for years. Most of them have never been shot at or harassed, and none of them have been hunted. Sime said elk in the valley pastures are also attracting wolves to the area, and thus closer to homes and livestock. "If you look at where wolves are setting up, it's not in the backcountry, it's in the valley bottoms and foothills where people live and raise livestock and where ungulates spend winter," she said. Sime reminds ranchers that with state oversight of the wolves, they have more flexibility to kill or harass wolves that are causing problems. It doesn't allow wolves to be killed on sight, but ranchers don't need a special permit to shoot a wolf that's about to attack livestock. She said officials hope people take more aggressive action when a wolf is acting brazenly. In Atcheson's incident, he could have fired a rifle shot over the wolf's head to scare it. "If wolves have uncomfortable experiences around people and livestock, that would be a good thing," she said. "By harassing them now, we may prevent problems later."