NAIA E-News (September 3, 2003)
By: Date: 09/3/2003
NAIA provides up-to-date articles and factual information about animals and the environment, and about the war being waged against nature's stewards by animal rights and environmental extremists and terrorists. NAIA Trust advocates responsible positions on animal and environmental issues.© 2003 NAIA
In this issue:
SHAC speaks, and a laboratory is bombed
NM governor appoints animal rights agent to animal task force
Natura and Pataki 'just say no' to animal rights advocates
Headline news you may have missed
SHAC speaks, and a laboratory is bombed
August 28, 2003: Two homemade bombs exploded and a third was safely detonated on the campus of Chiron Corporation, a biotechnology company in Emeryville, California.
No one was injured and no major damage was done.
Animal rights activists have harassed Chiron executives for months because they contract with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a biomedical research testing company. Operating like anti-abortion terrorists, they maintain a website that demonizes Chiron employees and lists their home addresses along with actions taken against them. Activists have protested at their homes, noisily awakened families in early morning, left fake tombstones and rubbish on lawns, and vandalized an executive's car. The extremist group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) posted an announcement on August 27 that claimed a massive overload of e-mail accounts belonging to company officials and their families and promised: "Until next time Chiron!"
The FBI has labeled the bombing as domestic terrorism and has joined the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to aid Emeryville police in the investigation.
SHAC has waged a four-year campaign to destroy Huntingdon Life Sciences and uses violence, harassment, property destruction, vandalism, and other forms of economic sabotage and intimidation against that company, its stockbrokers, and its clients. Chiron is one of several client companies caught in the crossfire.
SHAC spokesman Kevin Jonas, who sometimes uses the alias Kjonaas to spare his own family from harassment, told the Associated Press that he didn't know if the bombing was connected to any animal rights protests, "But it looks like an action we would support."
On August 29, the SHAC website report on the bombing said that the group supports economic sabotage but opposes terrorism.
Bad summer for California
The Chiron bombing was the latest case in a summer-long string of animal rights and eco-terrorist firebombings and vandalism in California. On August 1, arson caused $50 million in damages to an apartment complex under construction in San Diego. Three weeks later, extremists burned an auto dealership building and burned or vandalized sport utility vehicles at that dealership and two others in the Los Angeles area causing $1million in damages. The Earth Liberation Front issued public statements admitting these crimes.
On August 15, radicals broke into a new restaurant, poured dry concrete down the drains, turned on the water, and flooded the restaurant and two adjacent buildings. They painted slogans on the walls, electric outlets, and fixture - all to protest the serving of pate de foie gras, a goose liver product. Earlier this summer, activists vandalized the homes of the restaurant's two owners and published their names, addresses, and telephone numbers on the Internet. PeTA has a national campaign against the country's three foie gras producers. Damage was estimated at $50,000.
In June, vandals damaged SUVs in Santa Cruz, California, attempted arson of a new house and a shopping center under construction in Chico, and harassed employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences and a company that supplies software to HLS.
The future of animal rights and eco- terrorism
Rodney Coronado, an ex-con who served time for the 1992 Michigan State University animal rights arson and has received support from PeTA, warned in the August 30, 2003 Pasadena Star-News that the pace of terrorism will pick up now that two years have elapsed since September 11, 2001.
"We refrained from actions following 9/11. Then our side realized, why refrain from these actions? It's ridiculous not to carry forward in light of the destruction of the environment and the exploitation of animals," he said.
For more information
Statement of James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, Counterterrorism Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, on The Threat of Eco-Terrorism Before the House Resources Committee Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, February 12, 2002
Animal rights and environmental extremists use intimidation and violence to achieve their ends, NAIA website.
Group vows to strike again, by Karen Rubin , Pasadena Star-News, August 30, 2003
Blasts close Emeryville's Chiron by Matt Krupnick, Judy Silber and Guy Ashley, Contra Cost Times, August 28, 2003.
NM governor Richardson appoints animal rights spy to animal task force
August 2003: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson appointed animal rights spy Michelle Rokke to the state's new animal task force. The task force will examine the state's animal ownership and welfare laws but includes no breeders or purebred dog enthusiasts.
Rokke now represents Animal Protection of New Mexico, a radical animal rights organization, but she gained her stature in the animal rights movement by spying on animal enterprises for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Her dubious credits include infiltration of several research laboratories and a veterinary clinic. Rokke used a hidden camera to tape hundreds of hours of activity, which PeTA distilled to a few minutes of theater and used to accuse its targets of cruelty. In 1996, while waiting for an undercover job at Huntingdon Life Sciences, Rokke went to work at a nearby veterinary clinic. During her stopover there, she secretly taped the veterinarian at work. PeTA edited the tape, added voice over disinformation about what was being shown on the film and used it to accuse the veterinarian of cruelty. He was convicted based on Rokke's testimony and the misleading video, but the appeals court ruled that she was an unreliable witness and overturned the conviction. He has since filed suit against Rokke and PeTA in federal court in NJ. The trial is scheduled for early fall.
Richardson has joined New Jersey's Governor James McGreevey in naming ridiculously lopsided panels to audit state animal welfare laws. New Jersey 's 30-member animal welfare task force includes one dog breeder.
The New Jersey task force held four public forums this summer and will present its findings to government officials. According to a New Mexico dog fancier, Governor Richardson's task force will discuss its findings in November.
For more information
"PETA sued"
"PeTA admits faked photo"
Pataki and Natura 'just say no' to animal rights promoters
August, 2003: New York Governor George Pataki and Natura Pet Products have something in common: they both had the integrity to say "No!" to animal rights radicals.
Governor Pataki
New York Governor George Pataki weathered a storm of pleas by animal rights groups and did the right thing: He vetoed a bill that would have banned hunting on private property. Rather than cave into the demands of activists determined to codify bad bills into bad laws that have unintended consequences, Pataki said in his veto message:
"This bill represented a well-intentioned attempt to expand the current ban on unethical hunting practices. I recognize that more can be done to protect animals from cruel and unethical hunting practices. Nevertheless, we must do so in a way that looks to the actual conditions at a particular facility, rather than banning the activity entirely."
He said that some hunting preserves may operate unethically but that he prefers to license hunting preserves rather than ban them.
Pataki's gutsy move drew condemnation from the Fund for Animals and the Humane Society of the US, leaders in national and state efforts to manipulate urban voters and their elected lawmakers into supporting policies that have destructive results. Fund for Animals, HSUS, and other animal rights organizations supply financial resources and influence public sentiment in sensational misinformation campaigns that often result in laws or regulations that handcuff wildlife manager and make a mockery of private property rights. Pataki withstood the pressure.
Natura
Natura officials searched for an animal charity to tie into the Karma promotions and selected DDAL for its educational material promoting animal care. However, educational material is just the tip of the iceberg in this animal rights group.
Following an influx of mail from dog fanciers informing Natura of DDAL's connections and activities, Natura Pet Products decided not to donate a portion of the proceeds from its new dog food brand to the Doris Day Animal League, an anti-breeding organization that lobbies against responsible animal interests and led a multi-year effort to force the federal government to license all dog and cat breeders.
"Unfortunately, after receiving assurances that the Doris Day Animal League had no connection with PETA, Natura discovered web site links and confirmed cooperative efforts between the two organizations," said a company spokesman in a response to dog fanciers. "Natura Pet Products disagrees with the extreme methods and practices employed by PETA and therefore will not support any affiliated organization - no matter how small the tie-in."
A portion of the proceeds from Karma Organic dog food will go to animal charities, the spokesman wrote, but donations will not be tied to a single organization.
Dog fanciers can respond to Natura's heroic stand by purchasing their products. Natura manufactures Innova, California Natural, and Healthwise brands as well as the new Karma.
Headline news you may have missed
1. Freed mink attack Sultan farms, by Christopher Schwarzen, Seattle Times Snohomish County Bureau
August 29, 2003: Mink released from a Washington State fur farm by animal rights terrorists are taking a toll on chickens, ducks, and cats on farms in Snohomish County. About 10,000 minks were set free by these criminals. Wildlife biologists fear that if many of the mink survive the winter, they will increase in population and become serious predators on waterfowl and small mammals as well as farm animals.
2. Ban on drug firm protestors, by Nicola Woolcock, London Telegraph online
August 28, 2003: The British High Court has granted protection to subsidiaries of Huntingdon Life Sciences under the Protection from Harassment Act, a law that protects victims from stalkers. The temporary order prohibits activists from protesting outside the homes of drug company executives until a hearing in October. A similar ban was granted HLS a few months ago; that action will be challenged in court in November.
3. Judge silences Navy's plan to use new sonar devices, by Jane Kay, San Francisco Chronicle
August 26, 2003: A federal judge nixed a Navy plan to deploy submarine-hunting sonar in 14 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean because the devices may endanger populations of marine mammals and fish. However, Congress is considering legislation that would effectively allow wider use of sonar technology despite the judge's ruling.
4. Seven Elephants Arrive at San Diego Zoo, Washington Post AP story (No longer online)
August 23, 2003: Seven African elephants made the journey from Swaziland to two US zoos in spite of months of protests from animal rights activists. As a last ditch effort to indicate their disapproval of the transfer, demonstrators dumped a truckload of horse manure outside the San Diego Zoo entrance. The elephants were sent to zoos in San Diego and Tampa, Florida, in an attempt to relieve overcrowding of the huge animals in their environment.
Note: Links to news articles in NAIA E-News worked at publication time but may have become invalid since that date.
NAIA E-News and NAIA Trust E-News provide updates to continuing stories, alerts subscribers to new threats to animal interests, and highlights success stories about animal care, legislation, and other matters of concern to animal owners, fanciers, and enthusiasts. To help NAIA and NAIA Trust succeed, join one or both today.
Join NAIA Join NAIA Trust
Did you find this issue of NAIA interesting? Why not forward it to a friend?
Did you receive this NAIA E-News from a friend?Get your own subscription
on the NAIA website.
