Animal Liberation Front Sets Fire to Chicago Food Store

The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for setting a fire at a Chicago-area food store that had been used in an illegal exotic animal ring.

Czimer’s Game and Seafood in Lockport, Illinois, had been used by a ring of individuals illegally trading in endangered animals. The store sold the tiger and leopard meat killed by William Kapp. Kapp was indicted for his part in the scheme and convicted on 17 counts of trading in and selling endangered animals. Fifteen other people, including the owner of Czimer’s, were convicted of violating federal laws forbidding trade in endangered species.

The Animal Liberation Front issued a communique that read,

Under the cover of darkness, Animal Liberation Front operatives infiltrated the roof of Czimer’s Game and Seafood, setting it on fire. This action further extended the sentence handed down by federal courts on April 3, 2003 for William Knapp and Kevin Ramsey killing innocent tigers and illegally selling the meat at this store. Your crimes have not gone unnoticed and you are not innocent. These helpless animals were shot (murdered) in cages at point blank. Be careful, because we know who you are and where you live. Pray for extended jail time and enjoy your stay you sick fucking bastards.

Until the innocent can live in peace,

Animal liberation front

Of course — the people responsible for this illegal animal ring are going to prison, so why not go the extra mile and endanger the lives of a few firefighters by torching the Czimer’s building as well? Makes perfect sense.

Sources:

Animal rights group claims credit for torching Chicago Store. Mike Robinson, The Associated Press, April 5, 2003.

Animal rights group claims it set store fire. Annie Sweeney, Chicago-Sun Times, April 6, 2003.

Animal Liberation Front Damages Trucks at Seafood Company

Animal Liberation Front activists damaged 48 delivery trucks at Supreme Lobster and Seafood Co. in Villa Park, Illinois.

Activists cut the brake lines and destroyed the refrigeration units in the trucks. Total damage was estimated at between $50,000 and $75,000. The attack took place sometime on Feb. 1 or Feb. 2, but wasn’t discovered until Feb. 3 when a driver realized his truck had no breaks. Further investigation revealed an “ALF — No Brakes” slogan written in marker or spray paint on the door of a garage.

An e-mail communique from the group said that,

[Supreme Lobster is] responsible for the deaths of more than one billion sea creatures over the past 25 years.

The company was able to rent trucks to finish its scheduled deliveries.

Sources:

FBI investigates vandalism to local business. Larry Rogowin, The Lombardian (Illinois), February 5, 2003.

FBI investigating animal rights group attack on Supreme Seafoods. Ken Coons, Seafood.Com, February 4, 2003.

Supreme Lobster estimates damage of $50,000 to $70,000 from vandalism. Daily Herald (Illinois), February 5, 2003.

Illinois Students Start Carnivorous Club

Some students at New Trier High School in Illinois set up a club to promote vegetarianism, prompting two juniors to set up a competing Carnivorous Club to promote meat heating (though I hope they’re eating an omnivorous diet). According to a Chicago Sun Times story about the club, it’s got about 70 members and is planning its first formal meeting/grilling event this weekend.

The Sun Times quoted club co-founder Mike Deheeger, 16, as explaining that the club was formed because, “We are always hearing that meat is bad for you. This was a chance to get the other side of the story. And, so far, the response has been great.”

Source:

Student meat lovers take on vegetarians. Lucio Guerrero, Chicago Sun-Times, October 18, 2000.

Procter and Gamble Slammed for Agreement with the Pasteur Institute

After recently announcing
that it would end most animal tests, Procter and Gamble was slammed by
animal rights activists for signing a five-year agreement with France’s
Pasteur Institute. The Pasteur Institute is a world class microbiological
research center located in Paris. Procter and Gamble said the agreement
was for the development of products designed at improving household hygiene.

The Pasteur Institute is best
known for its research on infectious diseases and as a representative
of Illinois Animal Action put it, “This [agreement] means more animal
tests.”

Courts in New Jersey, Illinois upholds hunter harassment statutes

In separate cases appellate courts in New Jersey and Illinois have upheld statutes
designed to prevent anti-hunting activists from using protests to disrupt hunting.

In the New Jersey case, three New Jersey residents were represented by Anna
Charlton and Gary Francione of Rutgers Law School. Their lawsuit contended that
the statute unconstitutionally restricted the three resident’s right to free
speech. By restricting where and when the activists could protest against hunting,
the lawsuit argued, the state of New Jersey was unconstitutionally impinging
on their right to express their views to hunters.

The appellate court upheld the statute so long as it is used to establish standards
on the time, place and manner of anti-hunting protests rather than being used
to quash all anti-hunting protests altogether. As the court put it,

[t]his construction places a reasonable limitation on the reach of the Hunter
Harassment Statute in that it circumscribes the area where protesters may
not be free to express their anti-hunting ideas, while preserving areas outside
the immediate proximity of the hunting grounds for that purpose . . . By defining
interference as a form of physical impediment, coupled with the general and
specific intent requirements that solely implicate conduct, the statute is
not an overboard regulation of First Amendment rights.

In the Illinois case, a court there granted an injunction to the Woodstock
Hunt Club in Woodstock, Illinois, to bar members of the Chicago Animal Rights
Coalition from protesting on the road outside the club using megaphones, air
horns, sirens and other noisemaking devices. Chicago Animal Rights Coalition
member Steve Hindi was arrested in 1996 for flying a motorized paraglider over
hunters in order to scare away geese. Hindi was arrested and eventually sentenced
to probation for violating the hunter interference statute.

Previously the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a portion of the hunter interference
statute that unconstitutionally regulated the content of anti-hunting protests,
but upheld the portion of the statute that set time and place restrictions on
anti-hunting protests.

Which seems like an excellent compromise to me. Certainly animal rights activists
should have the right to protest hunting and to communicate their opposition
in public. On the other hand, this right to protest can be accommodated while
also preserving the right of hunters to hunt without activists intentionally
disrupting them.