February 17, 2003
"You have been targeted for a terrorist attack. If you bail out now, you, your business and your family will be spared." The e-mail message was not sent by a member of al Quaeda but by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) to a Chicago insurance executive, as described in the Chicago Daily Herald on June 16, 2002.
"The employees are not good people, and do not deserve to enjoy the holiday season. Lets make this one so stressful, they wont be able to balance their hot cider between shaking hands." That warning was from a SHAC email message dated Dec. 15. 2002.
"Todays terrorist is tomorrows freedom fighter," SHAC leader Kevin Kjonaas said at the Animal Rights 2002 convention.
And should you think its only SHAC that spews this kind of rhetoric, consider the comments of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk, as recorded by the Boston Herald, Aug. 25. 2002: "More power to SHAC if they can get someones attention."
SHAC threats have proven anything but empty.
Brian Cass was getting out of his car at his home in England on a clear night in February 2001, when he was surrounded by three men wielding heavy, wooden objects. Some news reports describe them as baseball bats, others as pickaxe handles. Whatever their weapons, they started to beat the 53-year-old Cass on the head and body without any warning. In a few short moments, his hair and jacket were soaked through with blood.
A neighbour tried to intervene and help him, but was immobilized by a spray of CS gas, in the face, by one of Casss attackers. Months later, when the lead attacker was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, Casss marketing director Andrew Gay was attacked on his doorstep with a chemical spray to his eyes, leaving him temporarily blinded and writhing in pain in front of his wife and young daughter.
Brian Cass and company were targeted because of their connection to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a scientific research firm that, in its search for cures to diseases like cancer and AIDS, uses animals in its work.
Before new medicines for diseases like AIDS, Parkinsons, and various cancers can be given to human beings, common sense requires that the proverbial "guinea pigs" are given the medicines first (actually, rats make up about 90 percent of the test subjects). In addition, new surgical techniques and promising treatments for nerve disorders--Christopher Reeves paralysis, for instance--are routinely tested on animals, to make sure that the kinks are worked out before human trials begin.
Todays animal rights zealots are not fond of this arrangement. Those who believe, as PETAs Ingrid Newkirk once put it, that "a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy," loudly object to the sacrifice of a rat so that a boy might live longer. Newkirk, in fact, has put PETA on record saying: "Even if animal testing resulted in a cure for AIDS, wed be against it."
Environmentalists preoccupied with Moothane Gas
According to Fox News, scientists trying to get to the bottom of global warming are having a cow--to blame, that is.
"Researchers say methane-producing bovines are passing way too much gas and it is contributing to the environmental challenge.
"Weve got to be proactive on everything so were taking it seriously," said Bob Feenstra of the Milk Producers Council.
"So whats the straight poop? Dairy animal waste produces so much methane gas, theyre becoming targets for environmentalists and energy companies.
"Vacuum trucks scoop up cow pies in the field and dump them in digester facilities that turn the methane into clean energy.
"But theres no way to trap it all. Twelve percent of greenhouse gases that are believed to contribute to global warming are from methane.
"Landfills are the top methane producer in the United States; livestock is second. Now dairymen and ranchers are looking at ways to make cows less gassy.
"We have expert veterinarians that remove the waste from the cows and analyze it, whats in it and what gases are being produced, Feenstra said.
"The most common remedies are injecting the animals with hormones, altering the feed and disposing of their waste quicker.
"But some scientists are skeptical of these methods.
"Theyre being fed higher quality feed, so theres going to be less methane being generated from cows. So its not a situation thats going to get worse, its going to get better, said environmental researcher Nathan de Boom.
"Even so, he added. Its kind of hard to believe it would have some kind of significant contribution to the environment.
"Canadian farmers have already taken steps to reduce their impact on global warming, and landfill operators in the U.S. have dealt with stricter methane rules for years. So some dairymen worry regulations may target them next even though many think the whole issue is a lot of hot air."
Liberating lobsters
The U.S. Midwests largest lobster distributor, accused of being responsible for the deaths of more than 1 billion sea creatures over the last 25 years, paid with cut lines to brakes and refrigeration systems in a fleet of Villa Park seafood company trucks.
In an e-mail titled "ALF Communiqué," the group wrote of the sea creatures, "Their lives cannot be returned, but we will continue to strike at them until future generations are truly free."
Referring to Groundhog Day, the day of the cut lines, the group asked: "Didnt know groundhogs were such fans of sea creatures, did you?"
Company officials discovered damage to 48 trucks when a driver got into one of the trucks, according to a company official who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.
"He pulled the truck out and goes to hit the brakes, and he had no brakes," the company official said. The truck came to a stop before leaving the parking lot and did not hit anything or anyone, according to police and company officials.
Vandals wrote "ALF--No Brakes" on a bay door of the Supreme Lobster and Seafood Co. building.
Investigators believe ALF stands for Animal Liberation Front, a loose group of animal rights activists whom the FBI considers active domestic terrorists.
Exxon sues Greenpeace
Exxon Mobil has filed a suit against Greenpeace, the worlds largest environmental group over a protest last year in Luxembourg in which activists chained to fuel pumps brought business to a standstill.
Exxon said it wanted compensation after 600 campaigners shut down its 28 Esso petrol stations in the country for 14 hours last October. Exxon is the parent company of Esso.
Greenpeace said the company was suing it in Luxembourg and the Netherlands for 225,000 euros ($233,400).
Exxon said it wanted the suit to be an indictment of Greenpeaces actions, which it called blatantly illegal and a violation of its freedom to do business.
"Esso Luxembourg not only wishes to ask reimbursement for the incurred economic damage, but also to condemn the serious misconduct of Greenpeace militants," Exxon said in a statement.
"Esso is simply trying to squash all opposition by dragging anyone who dares to protest against its behaviour through the courts," said Pascal Husting, executive director of Greenpeace Luxembourg.