Month: June 2004

SHAC's Lunatic Delusions about UK Injunctions

Courts in Great Britain have granted Huntingdon Life Sciences and some of its affiliates temporary injunctions over the past few months, and the High Court there is now considering whether to make those injunctions permanent.

Four Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Activists — Greg and Natasha Avery, Heather James and Claire Percy — have asked for a trial before the court on whether or not the injunctions should be made permanent, while Huntingdon Life Sciences argued that the trial was unnecessary. Mr. Justice Mackay ruled that the issue should go to trial for resolution.

In making the ruling, according to a Press Association account,

Mr. Justice Mackay said that he believed the claimants, HLS and Mr. Cass had a “formidable” case and one which appeared likely to proceed, but he was not satisfied there was no real prospect of a successful defence for the four defendants.

Based on that reasoning, Greg Avery declared that HLS had suffered a “spectacular” failure and told the Press Association (emphasis added),

The judge has recognized that SHAC is now a peaceful organization. The temporary injunctions were granted on the basis of unchallenged evidence. We shall now have our day in court.

Aside from Avery’s delusional reading of Mackay’s ruling, it is interesting that Avery said that SHAC is now a peaceful organization. Of course anyone can see that SHAC has been a violent organization in the past, and by now a peaceful organization, Avery apparently meant for the length of time it took him to finish that sentence.

As for those covered by the temporary injunction who did not challenge the proceedings, Mackay made permanent the injunction against six individual defendants and London Animal Action.

Source:

Animal rights protesters given go-ahead to challenge harassment injunction. Cathy Gordon, Press Association News, May 26, 2004.

HLS First Quarter Revenue and Profits Reach Five Year Highs

Huntingdon Life Sciences reported in early May that its revenues and operating profit for the first quarter of 2004 were the highest the company has reached in the last five years.

Revenues for the first quarter were $37.2 million, an increase of 16.7 percent above the company’s revenues in the first quarter of 2003.

HLS president and managing director Brian Cass said in a press release announcing the results,

When we announced our results for 2003 I noted that new business enquiries remained strong and that we were seeing indications of strong order demand in the beginning of the year. I am pleased to report that net new orders in the first quarter were a record for this company, 34% up on the first quarter of 2003 and 29% ahead of the last quarter of 2003. This growth in orders has increased backlog, and helped support the continuing growth in revenues. Toxicology and pharmaceutical chemistry, two of the company’s core competencies have shown strong growth in orders.

Source:

LSR Announces Q1 2004 results. Press Release, Huntingdon Life Sciences, May 6, 2004.

Arizona Governor Vetoes Animal Rights/Environmental Terrorism Legislation

On May 12, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed legislation that would have modified that state’s racketeering laws to cover some acts of animal rights and environmental terrorism.

The bill would have modified Arizona’s statutory definition of racketeering to read,

1. “Animal activity” means any activity that involves the use of animals or animal parts, including hunting, fishing, trapping, traveling, camping, production, preparation or processing of food or food products, clothing or garment manufacturing, medical or other research, entertainment, recreation, agriculture, biotechnology or any other service involving the use of animals.

2. “Animal facility” includes a vehicle, building, structure, research facility, nature preserve or other premises where an animal is lawfully kept, handled, housed, exhibited, bred or offered for sale, including a zoo, rodeo, circus, amusement park, hunting preserve and horse and dog event.

3. “Animal or ecological terrorism” means any felony, including any completed or preparatory offense, that involves criminal damage, the use of a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument or the intentional, knowing or reckless infliction of serious physical injury with the intent to obstruct, impede or deter any person from participating in a lawful animal activity, from mining, foresting, harvesting, gathering or processing natural resources or from being lawfully present in or on an animal facility or research facility.

In her message vetoing the bill, Napolitano said the bill was “overbroad, unnecessary and susceptible to a host of unintended negative consequences.”

The full text of the vetoed legislation can be read here.

Source:

Napolitano vetoes ‘overbroad’ ecoterrorism legislation. Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services, May 13, 2004.

PETA Activists Pester Neighborhood Children After Arriving After School Closure

You remember People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, right? The group that Ingrid Newkirk insisted on national television doesn’t target children? Well, for some reason it sent three activists to Capitol Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in May to convince children that it is wrong to eat chicken

What the PETA activists did not realize is that the school had let out two hours earlier, it being the last day of the 2003-2004 school year for Capitol Middle School students. So what did the three activists from an organization that doesn’t target children do then? Of course, they pestered neighborhood children walking or riding by the school.

The Advocate newspaper reports the following exchange that PETA’s Matt Rice had with a child outside the school,

Rice asked Keshon Bell, also a sixth-grader at Capitol Middle, whether she eats chicken.

“I eat chicken,” she said.

“That’s too bad. They’re just like dogs and cats,” Rice responded.

“Like that dog over there,” Bell said, pointing out a dog, perhaps dead, which had been lying in the middle of Gus Young Avenue, the whole time.

Afterward, Bell said eating chickens is wrong, repeating what the activists were saying in her own way.

“I know you can’t kill dogs and cats,” she said.

For an organization that targets their message entirely at adults, as Newkirk said, PETA spends an awful lot of time targeting children.

Source:

Animal-rights group too late to take message to school. Charles Lussier, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), May 21, 2004.

Animal Liberation Front Claims Theft of Animals in Sweden

The Animal Liberation Front issued a release claiming that it on May 19 stole several hundred rats, mice and 20 chickens from a facility in Uppsala, Sweden, that bred the animals for medical research purposes.

According to the ALF release,

After the animals had been liberated, as much damage as possible were done: slogans sprayed all over the building and on vehicles outside, cages were destroyed, paint was poured over the floors and walls and other damage was done as well as documents taken.

Source:

Hundreds of animals liberated by Swedish ALF. Press Release, Animal Liberation Front, May 2004.

I Thought I Was Getting McAfee Anti-Virus

When people sign up as members to any of my sites, the server automatically sends an e-mail to whatever e-mail address just giving a heads up that somebody signed up under that e-mail address, giving them the password so they don’t bug me for it later, and some basic information and ground rules about the site.

A small but fascinating percentage send back often very rude or clueless replies. The rude ones I can have some sympathy with, especially when the person who has the e-mail account wasn’t the person who signed up.

But some of the clueless ones really leave me stunned. One I received a couple of days ago really takes the cake. This person sent me an e-mail asking to have his account deleted as he thought he was signing up for McAfee Antivirus. Considering that the word “McAfee” doesn’t appear anywhere on the site or any of the thousands of posts, that was a bit odd.