Tag: Europe

ALF/ELF Attack Spanish Mink Farm

The Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front took responsibility for a January 15, 2003 fire at a fur farm in Spain.

In a communique about the incident, the extremists responsible discuss how they first visited the site in 2002. Because there were dogs in the area where they wanted to firebomb, they settled for using bolt cutters to break into the area where the mink sheds were. When they entered the sheds, however, the cages were empty.

The communique continues,

Of course we returned some weeks later with a new plan. There was no wall, no fence or security strong enough to stop our determination in ending this aggression to the earth or to life.

Our second visit was a success and as we got closer to the farm we saw a group of hinds and deer gracing peacefully in the fields near the farm. We parked the vehicle in the same place as the first time and we went to Austwitch with four cans of kerosene. To get inside we used the same holes that were made the first time, we climbed the wall and we marked on it the exit holes with branches in case of possible problems. We ignited the incendiary devices and we took some photos.

A black cloud of smoke from the farm could be seen some miles away (the moon was near to full).

Whoever wrote that concludes with a flourish that the arson was “dedicated” to “the palestinian people . . . and Barry Horne.”

Source:

Spanish Mink Farm Fire – Communique! Arkangel, March 25, 2003.

Animal Liberation Front Released Mink In Ireland

In late February the Animal Liberation Front claimed that it released as many as 1,000 mink from an fur farm in Ireland.

Una Heffernan, the owner of the fur farm, disputed that number telling the Kildare Nationalist that although activists opened cages containing more than 1,00 mink, only about 50 were missing after the owners rounded up the mink the next morning.

Of the 50 that were not in their cages and not rounded up, Heffernan said that most were either subsequently returned to the farm or had been shot.

Source:

Farmers and anglers on “mink alert” after break out. The Kildare Nationalist, February 27, 2003.

Iceland Restored to International Whaling Commission

In a stunning turnaround due in large part to a misunderstanding over procedural maneuvers, the International Whaling Commission voted 19 to 18 this month to readmit Iceland.

Iceland quit the commission in 1992 and has had its efforts to rejoin the commission blocked by countries angered at Iceland’s plan to recommence commercial whaling in 2006. According to the New York Times, Iceland’s readmittance was largely the result of the Swedish delegation misunderstanding a procedural challenge by Antigua and Barbuda. In its confusion, the Swedish delegation ended up mistakenly voting in favor of a motion that led to Iceland’s readmission.

“We were not prepared in substance to accept Iceland as a member,” Carl Erik Ehrenkronoa of the Swedish Foreign Ministry told the Times, “but it happened anyway.”

As the Times notes, whaling countries are using the same tactics that anti-whaling forces used to enact the worldwide ban on whaling. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous anti-whaling countries joined the commission and the result was the ban.

Now Japan and other pro-whaling countries are encouraging (and, in some cases, outright bribing them) to join and tip the scales the other way. In the lead up to the ban, it was countries such as Switzerland and Austria who joined and tipped the balance toward the ban on whaling. Now countries like Benin, Gabon and Mongolia are joining, and all are solidly in the pro-whaling camp thanks to Japan’s promises of aid to such countries in exchange for their votes on the commission.

Iceland’s readmittance is a likely turning point, given that Iceland says that in 2006 it will join Norway in openly defying the worldwide ban on commercial whaling.

Overturning the ban on whaling is a long way off, given that it would take a 3/4 vote of the commission, but Rune Frovik, spokesman for a Norwegian whaling association told the Times that there was still a lot of value in just a simple majority,

You can do a lot with a simple majority. For many years, the commission has passed what we call hate resolutions calling on Norway and Japan to stop whaling. Soon they might not be able to pass those resolutions.

This change should make the next meeting of the IWC a bit more interesting.

Source:

Iceland joins whale panel, giving whalers stronger say. Walter Gibbs, The New York Times, October 20, 2002.

Police Investigate Animal Rights Protest in Finland

Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports that Finnish police are investigating a protest by Justice for Animals which appears to specialize in anti-fur protests.

In early August the group targeted a woman who owns a fur store. Although the store in Lohja, Finland, had been targeted for years, earlier this month half-a-dozen activists allegedly showed up at the woman’s home, telling her children that their mother was “a murderer,” that they should be ashamed of what she does, and allegedly telling the children that “your mother will kill that [family] dog.”

According to Helsingin Sanomat,

The entrepreneur said that since then the children have been fearful, have not been well, occasionally suffering nightmares. Both children have asked if “they” will come back. The older of the two has been especially concerned about the mother’s safety.

Source:

Animal rights activists suspect of harassing children of fur merchant. Helsingin Sanomat, August 14, 2002.

Activists Release Mink in Finland

Animal rights activists were the main suspects in the release of over 1,000 mink from a fur farm in western Finland in the early morning hours of Monday, July 22.

Somebody broke into the farm between midnight and 4:30 a.m. and managed to release a third of the 3,000 mink.

Finland is a major source of mink pelts, producing 2 million in 2001, and there have been a number of such animal releases over the past several years.

Source:

Activists work: more than 1,000 minks released on fur farm in western Finland. Canadian Press, July 22, 2002.

European Parliament Approves Ban on Cosmetics Testing on Animals

On June 11 the European Parliament approved a proposal to not only ban cosmetics testing on animals, but also to ban the import of any new cosmetics product that has been tested on animals anywhere in the world.

The proposal defined 14 specific tests used on new products in the European Union. For 11 of those tests, any new cosmetic sold in Europe after December 31, 2004 would have to have been tested in an animal alternative (no word on exactly how strict that standard is given that many animal alternatives in fact utilize animals). For the other three tests, companies would have until 2008 to develop alternative tests.

Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany already ban the testing of cosmetics products on animals within their borders, but the proposed ban on the importing of products tested on animals will meet stiff resistance from the European Commission, especially from France, where most European cosmetics animal testing occurs, and Great Britain, which argues that the law would violate international trade agreements.

In 1993, the European Parliament approved a similar ban which was later rejected by the European Commission.

Source:

Strasbourg votes to ban cosmetics tested on animals. Stephen Castle, The Independent (London), June 12, 2002.

Policy and politics: MEPs ban cosmetics tested on animals. Andrew Osborn, The Guardian (London), June 12, 2002.