ANIMAL RIGHTS NEWS OCTOBER 98
By: Staff Date: 10/31/1998 Category: | Animal Rights Extremism |
PeTA tags chicken parts
A six-foot-tall yellow chicken and her companion entered a Kroger supermarket in Charleston, South Carolina, early in September and tagged packages of chicken with a message from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: "Warning! This package contains the decomposing corpse of a small, tortured bird."
According to Brad McElhinny in the Charleston Daily Mail, store managers didn't realize the protesters were in the store for about 10 minutes. The manager told the demonstrators to leave, but they would not; while the manager called regional headquarters, the demonstrators finished placing the stickers on the packages and left the store.
A Kroger spokesman said that removing the stickers tore some packages and ruined the chicken. He said that if PeTA tries the same trick again in a Kroger store, managers will probably call the police.
ALF is on the rampage in Belgium
The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for firebombings of several restaurants in Belgium, including the destruction of a McDonald's Restaurant near Antwerp.
According to Reuters News Service, ALF spokesman Robin Webb told a television reporter: "It has only just begun in Belgium ... and will continue as long as animal abuse continues."
McDonald's has tightened security and plans to rebuild the torched restaurant as quickly as possible.
Henry Spira dies
Animal rights campaigner Henry Spira died in September at 71 years old.
Spira is well-known for his campaigns against product testing on animals, particularly the use of the Draize test for cosmetic research and the LD/50 test for determining lethal doses of chemicals and drugs.
A vegetarian, Spira often angered animal rights groups because he preferred a gradual approach to reducing meat consumption and praised companies such as Procter & Gamble for reducing the number of animals used in testing.
Activist gets seven years; more arrests in Utah
Douglas Joshua Ellerman, 20, a confessed member of the Animal Liberation Front and the Straight Edge movement, was sentenced on September 10 to seven years in prison and $750,000 in fines for bombing a fur breeders cooperative in Utah.
The same day, Ellerman's brother Clinton Colby Ellerman, 21, was among those charged in the same bombing. The elder Ellerman is currently serving a prison term for freeing mink and for an attack on a leather store.
Joshua Ellerman was convicted in April, but he ran away before his sentencing hearing. He turned himself in at the end of June. His lawyer said that Ellerman took off because he had been threatened following media reports that he was cooperating with authorities; Ellerman apologized to the judge for leaving the jurisdiction.
Others charged with Clinton Ellerman are Andrew Bishop, 24, of Ithaca, New York; Alexander David Slack, 23, of Sandy, Utah; and Adam Troy Peace, 20, of Huntington Beach, California. The three are also facing charges of releasing mink from two farms in 1996.
The fur cooperative bombing took place on March 11, 1997, at 2 a.m. Several people were on the property at the time, but no one was hurt.
Law enforcement officials estimate that 2000-3000 Utah young people are members of Straight Edge, a movement that sometimes translates campaigns against smoking, drinking, sex, and meat-eating into violence. Some Straight Edge members were recruited into the anti-fur campaign by the Coalition Against the Fur Trade, an activist group that promotes anti-fur activities, including releases from mink farms.
Through the internet, ALF support groups publish lists of activists serving time for crimes against animal owners and encourage financial and emotional support by other activists. The North American ALF Supporters Group in Canada has issued a communiqué that cautions activists against supporting either of the Ellermans while they are in jail because the brothers are suspected of informing on other ALF members.
"All too often in recent memory we've seen apparently "dedicated" activists turn traitor at the drop of a hat, grassing out friends and comrades in a desperate attempt to kiss up to the state. One year, two years, seven years later these informers may again join the free world - but their actions will never be forgotten or forgiven," the communiqué said. "At this time, the Supporters Group is removing Colby's and Josh's names from our prisoners listing, until in (sic) can be concretely shown, one way or the other, that they are involved with giving evidence against others."
ALF promises internet actions against animal owners
On September 16, the Internet Division of the Animal Liberation Front announced a cyberspace campaign against people who use the internet to conduct animal-related businesses.
"We will take offensive actions to damage animal abusers on the Internet in any way possible," the communiqué said. "This may include Denial of Service attacks, Virii attacks, e-mail bombing, hacking web servers. We have already cracked numerous computer systems and borrowed useful data, in the future we will destroy data."
Last Chance for Animals targets Target
Last Chance for Animals has threatened Target Stores with boycotts if the stores continue to sell computer software that teaches children about hunting. If the company does not stop the sales, LCA will ask that Parent Teacher Associations condemn the company's sale of the software; call for a boycott of the stores; and organize a leaflet campaign at Target stores throughout the country.
About The Author
All Authors Of This Article: | Norma Bennett Woolf |
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