The Face of Terrorism

I don't have much tolerance for terrorists of any kind, whether they are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or merely old-fashioned right-wing, racist paranoids.

Not all terrorists are religious zealots, racists, or right-wing paranoids, of course.

The "left" has its share of nut jobs too, and the latest to get nailed is pictured above.

He is Walter Bond, age 34, a self-proclaimed member of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) who was arrested in Colorado last week.

The criminal complaint against Bond outlines the case:

* On July 1st, investigators received a call from a confidential informant wishing to provide information on the Sheepskin Factory and Tandy Leather Factory arsons. The informant stated Bond had told him/her in a telephone call from the Salt Lake City library to refer to Voice of the Voiceless and scroll down to an article on the Sheepskin Factory arson to learn what he'd "been up to lately".

* On July 22nd, the confidential informant arranged a monitored conversation with Walter Bond in a Ramada Inn in Denver, Colorado. Investigators allege Bond was heard admitting to three arsons: Sheepskin Factory, Leather Factory, and Tiburon. Bond was arrested subsequent to the conversation.

Good luck to Mr. Bond in prison. By the look of things, he will fit right in.

As with the lunatics on the right, the actions of this man have nothing to do with core principles or well-founded logic.

This is the feeble-minded acting out of a psychopath with a narcissistic personality disorder.

Left or right, our tolerance for this kind of nonsense should be ZERO.

• Related Links:
  ** Animal Rights Terrorist Added to FBI Top 10
  ** Animal Rights: Terrorists and Clowns Behind Masks
  ** Ireland's Sinn Féin Joins the Animal Rights Loons?
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Who Rescued the Beagles and Why?

A beagle rescue story has slowly unfolded in my email box over the last week, but since there seems to be some confusion as to who rescued these beagles, and why, let me see if I can summarize the story in a few simple bullets:

• One hundred and twenty beagles and 40 monkeys were rescued from a bankrupt lab in New York state. Beagles and monkeys are stock animal-research subjects, and they are generally bred specifically for research purposes. Their welfare is supposed to be protected under license and inspection, but when Azopharma, the parent company of research lab AniClin, went bankrupt in April, the 120 dogs and 40 monkeys were put in legal and economic limbo.
  
  
• With bankruptcy of Azopharma, the dogs and monkeys were now owned by Bank of America, along with all other Azopharma assets. Bank of America hired Morris Anderson and Associates to deal with Azopharma in receivership. Morris Anderson tried to sell the animals to another research lab, but could find no buyers. The dogs and monkeys were safe in a locked lab facility with food and water, but they had only a skeleton crew of caretakers to take care of them, and they were moving nowhere and had no real stimulation for over a month.
  
  
• An Animal Rights group called Win Animal Rights (WAR) took the fate of the dogs and the monkeys to court, and on June 30 a judge issued an order putting the animals into the care of two animal rescues that had already been lined up by WAR -- one for the monkeys, and Pet's Alive in Middletown, New York for the beagles.
  
  
• The beagles appear to be healthy and not too poorly socialized, and a lot of adoption applications for them have come in very quickly. All good, and hat's off to Pet's Alive for their good work.
  
  
• Best Friend's Animal Society in Utah has helped raising money for the rescue effort. Their web site initially said they needed $250 per dog per day, but that appears to have been a mistake on the part of their web-tech; it was supposed to be $250 per dog per rehoming. Best Friend's Animal Society is raising the money and passing it on to Pet's Alive -- a sharing of effort, resources, and expertise. The money is being used to spay/neuter the dogs, worm, microchip, vet, house, feed, and handle the adoption paper work and transportation.
  
  
• Some folks are pointing out that Best Friends started out as an offshoot of a bizarre cult, which apparently is true. The founders were Scientologists who broke away from that group in the mid-1960s, and then drifted to California where they dressed in purple capes and called themselves "The Process Church of the Final Judgment." The founders of Best Friends (to their credit) tell the story themselves. They put it all down to confusion, youth, and the kind of spiritual-questing that was going on 30 years ago, but I assure you that not too many people were this confused for this long or in this way. That said, it should also be said that ALL religions start out as bizarre cults, and all have pretty much stayed that way. In a world in which the Pope wears a bizarre hat, winks at pedophilia, and stokes the fires of contempt for women and hate for gays, you will pardon me if I do not heap invective on folks who once wore purple-robes and who now help dogs, but otherwise do not seem to be doing anything quite as strange as eating the blood and body of Christ every Sunday (as so many traditional Christians do).

These are the facts as I understand them, and I do not think they ad up to scandal or concern, though I certainly understand the confusion as it relates to the internet fundraising pitch which appears to have simply been a fumble on the copy-editing end.

Of course, Best Friends and I are on slightly different wave lengths on a few things, but that's OK. These folks seem to be dedicated to "saving every life," but I long ago made my peace with some death, even if I find it regrettable.

Do I salute their "dependency model" of animal rescue? Nope, I do not. Rehousing a bunch of deeply aggressive dogs that cannot be released, while raising money through direct mail and the internet for the upkeep of those dogs, is nuts if you ask me.

But I am just one person, and there's more than one person, one opinion, or one solution in this world. If Best Friends can find people to donate, without lying to folks about what they are actually donating for, more power to them.

And, for the record, they seem to be doing that. I have no evidence they have misrepresented their work. In fact, most of what they seem to be doing is noble, even if some of it is impossibly idealistic.

As for the beagles, they are the real winners here. I suppose someone, somewhere will try to manufacture some contrived outrage that Bank of America lost the "value" of used dogs which no one actually seemed eager to buy.

But since Bank of America is stealing from Americans every day, and these same people do not seem very concerned about that, you will pardon me if I do not send flowers or a note of concern about the Bank's putative economic losses here. I am sure the bank will get over the situation. Without help from a lot of people, however, the beagles probably would not.


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My Justice Would Be Swift and Done With a Sword

A reader of this blog writes:

I read your blog every day and while I haven't as yet commented on any posts I am always interested in what you have to say. My daughter is a sophomore at The Ohio State University and is majoring in animal science. This is an email she sent me. I hope that you will read this and investigate this story. If what Mercy for Animals did to this dairy farm family is true, I am outraged! I told my daughter that this dairy farm could not stay in business for 80 years if they treated their animals the way you see them treated on this horrible video. I do not for a minute believe it and yet so many people will look at the video and they WILL believe it. Please help. Thank you for your time.

Feeling a little uneasy, I scrolled down to find an email allegedly written by Mariette C. Benage, Coordinator, Student Success, Department of Animal Sciences at Ohio State University. The email reads:

Dear Students,

Here is a story that I just learned about after class today. I'm passing it along to you as an example of both direct pressure and animal activist techniques that you, as young adults, need to be aware of. My personal opinions about this are unprintable!

All:

Ryan Conklin, a senior in our department, has asked me to put out this email to you to make you aware of a situation involving his family farm in Plain City. At 11:00 today there will be a news conference that will show terribly graphic footage their animals being mis-treated on their dairy farm. Ryan told me that a man was hired to work on their dairy last month that turned out to be an under-cover investigator for a group called Mercy For Animals, an affiliate-I believe-of HSUS. Ryan told me that this man from Mercy For Animals coordinated the video footage with another person working at the dairy, and he is the one seen causing the abuse on the video. The person recording the footage is the Mercy For Animals advocate, and he quit his position at the dairy on Sunday. The young man seen in the video was released of his duties at 6 am this morning.

I know some of you in the department know Ryan and his family very well, and I can tell you that they are very honorable people and that they would NEVER condone any of these actions. I believe they’ve been in the dairy business for close to 80 years, and they are certainly people that genuinely care about the well-being of their animals. This appears to be a trap that HSUS has set up to gain voter support in the state at the expense of a well-known dairy. This is a very difficult time for the family, and I know Ryan would appreciate any support that we can offer.

For those of you that are interested, here is the link to the video: http://www.mercyforanimals.org/ohdairy/

I will warn you…it’s not easy to see.

Now I was beginning to really feel uneasy.

You see, here was an employee of Ohio State University writing to students about an explosive and legally actionable issue, and suggesting to them that there was a smear campaign being waged against an "honorable" family farm that had never abused animals.

And yet this Ohio State University employee had quite obviously not taken a minute's time to actually investigate the situation!

"Who are you going to believe, me who has not bothered to investigage anything at all, or your lying eyes," she seems to be asking.

Wow! The stupidity of this email was dizzying.

Bracing myself, I went to the video tape.

When it comes to abuse, I thought I had seen it all. Apparently not.



I wrote back to the regular reader of this blog, trying to measure my words as carefully as possible.

How could anyone see this video tape and frame the story as if the dairy operator was the victim? My mind boggled:

Sorry, but this one does not pass the smell test and I will be going in the opposite direction.

I cannot speak to what the farm management knew or did not know (a court will decide that), but a couple of points need to be made here:

1. No one is going to voluntarily appear in a video showing this kind of abuse. The suggestion that this was a put-up-job is complete nonsense. What is shown in the video is extreme, shocking and totally unnecessary violence to animals, the kind that gets you a prison sentence in a place where your teeth are pounded out with a bar, and your assh*l* is stretched by your bunk mate. No one signs up for that tour. No one. Ever.
   
   
2. This is not just one person doing violence, and this video tape was not shot in one day. This video tape shows at least two people doing criminal violence to animals, and the change in clothing makes clear it was shot over at least six or seven days.
   
   
3. If farm management did not know what was going on here, they are criminally negligent. The employees shown here are overt sadists and sick twisted souls, and this fact would have been self-evident over even a brief period of time. The fact that this farm hired these people and retained them, speaks to negligent omission at best, and criminal comission at worst. They better get a damn good defense lawyer and throw the people on the video tape under the bus!

I do not feel sorry for this farm<; I feel sorry for these cows and the honest and hard-working dairy industry of Ohio which has been tarred by this horror. You want me to defend this farm and suggest Mercy for Animals or HSUS (allegedly, by inference and suggestion) put up some kind of fabrication? Nope. Sorry, but I am not blind or stupid. Very clearly, the managers, owners and administrators of this dairy, however, are. It is a horror. It is a sadness. And YES, someone needs to go to jail.

Put me on the jury and I assure you they will.

Any question of where I stand?

Just because I stand for farmers, do not salute every inanity of the animal rights community, and will not wink at the direct mail pettifoggery of the Humane Society of the U.S., does NOT mean I will ever defend true animal abuse.

Put me on the jury, and make me jury foreman, and I will see to it that the men in this video get the electric chair if that is at all possible.

Sadly, however, it is not.

You see, one of the people on this video tape has already been arrested.

But guess what?

The people beating and stabbing these poor cows and calfs are only going to be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $750.

Outrageous!

If an animal abuse case ever cried out for criminal prosecution with real jail time, this is it.

But in Ohio, farm animals apparently have no real protection even from this kind of wanton and horrific cruelty.

Should that change? Very clearly, YES.

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The Cull of the Wild

This book set out the tenets of wildlife management still in use today.

This post is reprinted from this blog circa June, 2005

Despite a three-fold increase in U.S. population since 1900, the U.S. now has more bear, cougar, buffalo, turkey, geese, duck, fox, raccoon, possum, alligator, groundhog, bald eagle, pronghorn, wolf, coyote, bobcat, and deer than at any time in the last 100 years. Beaver, turkey and river otter have been reintroduced into areas where they were wiped out, and wolf, elk and cougar are beginning to return to the east.

Though animal rights organizations decry sport hunting, the truth is that organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Trout Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Quail Unlimited, and the National Wild Turkey Federation are the backbone of true wildlife protection in the United States. These organizations, and their state and local affiliates, work to protect and improve habitat across the U.S., as well as fund wildlife reintroduction and research campaigns.

For their part, groups such as the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are little more than direct mail mills. Both organizations are entirely absent from all habitat protection efforts in the U.S., and neither organization runs even a single animal shelter in the U.S. despite the scores of millions of dollars they collect from the public. Instead these organizations send out millions of pieces of direct mail every year -- all of it highly emotional and designed to get suburban matrons to part with their "most generous gift of $10, $20 or even $50".

One of the perennial topics of animal rights direct mail campaigns is a push to outlaw trapping. Carefully staged photos and antique traps are used to pluck at the heartstrings, but donor beware! It should serve as a warning that blue-chip environmental organizations such as the National Audubon Society have sued the Humane Society (and won) in order to preserve the use of leghold traps as a wildlife management tool. All of the wolves now in the Yellowstone, for example, are routinely caught in leghold traps in order to inoculate them against rabies and distemper and to switch out the batteries on their radio-tracking collars. Modern leghold traps, properly set, are far more selective and less brutal than those that existed 100 or even 50 years ago -- a fact conveniently omitted from the direct mail literature of animal rights advocates.

Trapping for pelts in the U.S. is now largely independent of wildlife numbers -- when trapping numbers go down it is not because of a dip in the target species population, but because of a dip in pelt prices.

As of this writing, green (untanned) fox or raccoon pelts sell for between $8 and $12 dollars apiece -- not much considering the time and effort it takes to boil, dye and and wax a trap, set it out, check it daily, and skin and flesh the resulting catch.

That said, a surprising number of fox and raccoon are still trapped in the U.S. In the winter of 1999-2000, for example, when pelt prices were quite low, 29,739 fox were trapped in the state of Virginia (15,632 red fox and 14,107 Gray Fox), as well as 83,369 raccoon, 3,304 coyote, and 3,050 bobcat. In Pennsylvania that same year, 63,654 fox were taken (26,794 Gray fox and 36,860 red fox), as well as 107,407 raccoon, 9,508 coyote, and 58 bobcat.

For comparison purposes, the state of Virginia is 42,700 square miles in size, and Pennsylvania is 46,058 square miles in size as compared to England, which is 50,800 square miles and all of the UK which is 94,200 square miles in size.

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Bruce Friedrich Is a Certified Moron

Who is Bruce Friedrich?

He's the certified moron, media-whore and PETA bozo who has castigated Obama for killing a fly, and who is pictured at right.

What did I tell you?

A moron.

A media whore.

But wait. There's more.

You see, this is the same Bruce Friedrich who is also a self-described advocate for terrorism, telling an animal rights convention in 2001 that “blowing stuff up and smashing windows” is “a great way to bring about animal liberation.”

Friedrich went on to say:

"I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it's perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through the windows."

This is who PETA has speaking about the President of the United States: a self-admitted advocate for terrorism. And they think this is the way to persuade or move policy?

Losers. Pathetic, brain-coddled losers.

• Related Articles:
  ** PETA Lawyer Jeffrey S. Kerr is a Total Moron
  ** PETA's Slaughterhouse for Dogs and Cats
  ** Michael Vick or Ingrid Newkirk?
  ** Tails, Testicles and Tits
  ** Hair Dye Rots Your Brain
  ** PETA Spokes-Idiots
  ** PETA Told to Go to Hell
  ** Humane Society: Continuing to Rip off the Rubes
  ** Beyond the Blue Solution of Dog Shelter Death
  .

Barack Obama Kills With His Bare Hands, and on TV

Remember when we were told that Obama was an animal rights loon?

Right.

This man killed a living animal on national TV, and he did it with his bare hands and without so much as blinking.

Get 'er done. A true American. No apologies, no whining, and faster than a Shaolin monk. Pest control at its fineset.
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Ireland's Sinn Féin Joins the Animal Rights Loons?

From the Countryside Alliance Ireland:

Sinn Féin passed a motion at the recent Ard Fheis calling on the party to Ban all Blood Sports including Fox Hunting and Hare Coursing. This motion was opposed by a large number of delegates. This stance has now been adopted is now party policy.

Also on the Countyside Alliance Ireland web site:

A meeting took place between Mr. Lyall Plant, Chief Executive, Countryside Alliance Ireland, Mr. D.J. Histon, Chief Executive/ Secretary, ICC, and Mr. Martin Ferris, Sinn Fein at Leinster House on Thursday, May 21.

The following update was issued by Sinn Fein:

A motion passed at the Sinn Féin Ard Fhéis in February regarding the banning of hare coursing and hunting has caused considerable upset, not least among Sinn Féin members and supporters who are involved in the sport or who appreciate the tradition behind these sports and its place in rural communities the length and breadth of the country.

Apart from the tradition and the history associated with these sports, including my own part of North Kerry, I am also conscious of the conservation role played by hunts and coursing clubs and the contribution generated by both of these country sports in economic terms to the rural economy. There are thousands of people directly involved in the greyhound and equine industry as trainers and owners, not to mention the large crowds who attend events on an annual basis and the economic multiplier effect all of that has in terms of generating spending within the economy. It is for this reason that I pointed out in a report which was recently passed by the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee, that strongly rooted indigenous rural industries are maintained and developed.

The motion itself was tabled by a Dublin city cumann and was narrowly passed during a poorly attended section of the Ard Fhéis. Unfortunately I myself, who was to speak in opposition to the motion, was detained by a radio interview at the time and the two cumainn which had tabled motions supporting our previous position on hunting and coursing failed to provide speakers. That was a clear shortfall on our part.

Had there been a proper debate, and had coursing and hunt supporters had the opportunity to put forward the facts regarding their recognised activity, and to counter the misconceptions many people have about them, I have no doubt that the motion would have been defeated.

As things stand, however, I am bound by the motion but I am certain many cumainn around the country, will ensure that it is challenged at next year’s Ard Fhéis and that it will be defeated. The only assurance I can give in the meantime is that Sinn Féin will be part of no legislative effort to ban hunting and coursing either in the 26 or the 6 counties.

. . . . - Martin Ferris

Sadly, I more-or-less predicted things would go this way. It is an ancient axiom, but a true one none-the-less: If you lie down with dogs, you may get up with fleas.

The problem in Ireland is the same problem as existed in the UK before "the ban"-- there is no web site which affirmatively and positively defines ethical hunting with dogs while clearly fencing out the unethical, the illegal, the immoral, and the criminal. And no, the distinctions are not subtle!

Silence about bad behavior does no one any favors.

You have to define what you are, and what you are not, before the other side does.

You have to model ethical behavior and disavow those who engage in unethical behavior.

Of course, there will always be unethical young fools who will say "we are all in this together."

Nonsense! Ethical terrierwork has nothing to do with barbarism or savagery any more than God-fearing Muslims have anything to do with bomb-throwing terrorists, or skeet shooters have anything to do with beltway snipers.

But if you are silent or timid in the face of barbarism, who is to know that?

If you allow anonymous bulletin boards to be colonized by kids and kooks, and are not willing to reign in the "free speech" claims of the crazy and stupid, well just see what you get.

Is it too late for the Irish to define themselves and turn the tide?

I do not think so. But the tide is running fast and the time is getting short. What is needed now is not the followship of the group, but the leadership of an individual who will suit up and show up to create a solid and positive web site devoted to hunting with dogs in Ireland.

Who will stand up to do that?
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Gun Nuts & Zombies Come to the Aid of the HSUS

Sometimes I think no one embarrasses ethical hunters more often than right wing reactionaries.

A case in point: the right wing reactionary nuts who are now bashing Rush Limbaugh because he did a Public Service Announcement for the Humane Society of the U.S.

Now, I think regular readers of this blog know three things:

1. I have overt contempt for the Humane Society;
   
   
2. I defend ethical hunting 100% of the time, and;
   
   
3. I loathe people like Rush Limbaugh, not only for his message, but also his methods.

That said, hell will freeze over before I will join this pile-on against Rush, even though I loathe the man.

Why?

Well, first of all, I believe in free Speech. Rush Limbaugh can say and think whatever the hell he wants to, and I am got going to try to bully him into thinking something else.

Bullying is the right wing reactionary Republican way of doing business.

It is what you have to resort to when you are incapable of changing someone's mind through persuasion, education or example.

In the case of Rush Limbaugh's fan base, of course, bullying is their regular modus operandi. Most of them know nothing but intimidation because they are too lazy to actually "use the Google" to collect information on their own.

These folks are such brain-dead zombies, they describe themselves as "ditto heads."

Case made.

So what was Rush Limbaugh saying about the Humane Society of the U.S. that got all the right wing ditto heads so upset?

Not much actually.

It seem he did two radio Public Service Announcement's, one of which was to give a thumbs down to dog fighting, and other to give a thumbs up to faith-based morality and the notion that Good Original Design and Mother Nature might deserve a little respect.

Dog fighting? The right wing reactionary hunters are bashing Rush Limbaugh because he is opposed to dog fighting?

And God? The right wing reactionaries are opposed to the notion of morality and the idea that Good Original Design, as found in forest and field, might be worthy of some respect?

Are these people morons?

Well, YES. Didn't I tell you that at the beginning? Pay attention!

Now, here is what is so pathetically sad: In their attack on Rush Limbaugh, the right wing hunters have completely ignored what Rush Limbaugh actually said and instead have decided that "it's all about hunting."

Yes, that's right, the folks at Ducks Unlimited, the Masters of Foxhounds Association of Noth America, Boone and Crockett, Whitetails Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Federation, and 23 other organizations have managed to equate a thumbs down on dog fighting with an full-on attack on hunting.

Which is perfect as far as the Humane Society of the U.S. is concerned.

"It's all the same" say the folks at the Humane Society of the U.S.

"Yes it is,"say the brain-dead leadership of these organizations, which have been stampeded into panic by the "I'm scared of the woods" crowd at the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance.

In fact dog fighting and hunting have nothing do with each other.

Zero. Nada. Empty Set.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is simply strutting their ignorance and should STFU.

You want some more twist?

Consider this: the same ignorants who are bashing Rush Limbaugh because he did not do his research on the Humane Society of the U.S., are the same sort of people who say Rush is right about everything else.

Ha! Wonderful.

But wait .... there's more.

You see, while Rush has taken to the airwaves to denounce the torture of dogs and cats, he has simultaneously taken to the airwaves to salute and cheer the torture of human beings.

Water-boarding? Yes! Rush is all for that.

Smashing towel-heads into a wall until their brains are as loose as a coddled egg? Yes! Let's do more of that says Rush.

Rush Limbaugh wants the GOP to be the party of torture.

But only for humans.

He is a one-man cheering section for that.

Anyone else see the irony here?

Which brings me the real point of this post.

Please, God, let us strive to Kill All Zombies.

It's not too late for each of us to do a little research and think through the issues for ourselves.

Please, God, let us all take back our minds.

Let us pledge allegiance to simple common sense and independent thought based on a careful gathering of real facts.

If more people will do that, I will not fear for this nation.

But unless we begin to do that, all else is lost.

Terrierman's guide to shovels.
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Animal Rights Terrorist Added to FBI Top 10

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading directly to the arrest of Daniel Andreas San Diego (pictured above). From the FBI's Most Wanted web site:

An animal rights extremist wanted for allegedly bombing two San Francisco-area office buildings in 2003 has been added to our Most Wanted Terrorists list—the first domestic terrorist to be included with international terrorists such as Usama Bin Laden.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, 31, should be considered armed and dangerous. His domestic acts of terror were planned to destroy property, to cause economic hardship for the companies he targeted, and possibly to take lives—one of his bombs was laced with nails to create potentially deadly shrapnel. We are offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information directly leading to his arrest....

.... Animal rights and environmental extremism pose a significant domestic terror threat. To date, extremists have been responsible for more than 1,800 criminal acts and more than $110 million in damages. Currently, we are investigating approximately 170 such extremist incidents across the country.

San Diego, known to be involved with a group called SHAC—Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty—is wanted for his alleged involvement in bombing two biotech facilities that did business with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that conducts animal experimentation for the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

The first bombing occurred on August 28, 2003, outside Chiron Life Science Center in Emeryville, California. When authorities responded, a second bomb was discovered, but exploded before it could be disarmed, raising the possibility that the device was planted specifically to target first responders.

Less than a month later, another bomb exploded outside a company based in Pleasanton, California. That bomb was made with metal nails to create more powerful shrapnel and destruction.

Note that SHAC has been associated in the past with people working for and with the League Against Cruel Sports in the UK, and PETA in the U.S., and both organizations are linked to off of the SHAC web site.

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This is Good Political Advocacy

I would not normally write on this legislation because the bill is so poorly crafted and so poorly thought out, that I think it is has ZERO chance of getting out of subcommittee, much less full committee.

That said, I will give the campaign to kill this legislation a small boost because this is such a good outreach effort using Youtube (put a face on it!), connected to an internet web site (give them a place to get more information), and tied to interactivity (email congress and PLEASE CALL ALSO).

This is how you do it. >> Click here to help.

Hat tip to Kitty Caroll for sending this.

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Michael Vick or Ingrid Newkirk?

From today's sports column in The New York Times

Here’s a hypothetical. You have to give up your beloved family pet, a pit bull terrier, and you have the choice of entrusting it to Ingrid Newkirk, president and founder of PETA, or Michael Vick, trusting that whoever you pick will find the dog a good home. Who do you choose?

.... Humans are not necessarily born with an innate emotional bond to dogs, and it is not a sign of abnormal pathology when some individual lacks that bond and the compassion that it implies. It still leaves Vick as a bad guy, but a different level of bad guy — one who can conceivably reform.

In the meantime we have PETA, protector of animal rights and their leader, Ingrid Newkirk, a strange bird to say the least. Newkirk got her start in the animal rights business while working at a shelter in DC. Revolted by the living conditions of the animals there, she decided to do something about it. That something was euthanizing them. When she couldn’t get the administrators of the shelter to go along with her plans, she just took matters into her own hands: “In the end, I would go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself. Because I couldn’t stand to let them go through that. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day.”

This (killing as a means of rescue) continues as a common theme of PETA today. I have trouble sorting out exactly what it is that PETA and Newkirk regard as animal rights. I am clear that they don’t want animals used in any way that might be useful to humans, such as for food or research. Newkirk again:

“Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it.”

But the right to life does not seem to be an animal right that they put a lot of stock in. PETA as an organization euthanizes a higher percentage of the animals entrusted to them than just about any other animal “rescue” organization. As high as 90 percent in some years. Some breeds go higher than that.

Newkirk seems to have a particular problem with pit bulls, and recommends that all breeding of them should stop and that pit bulls be euthanized as a matter of course. She says this is because they are more likely to be abused than other breeds, but it is noteworthy that she has been attacked by a pit bull in the past.

... As to my hypothetical question? If I delivered my pit bull to Newkirk, I would at least know his fate — he’d be headed out the back door in a plastic bag by the time I drove back home. I couldn’t be completely sure about Vick, but I think I’d have to take my chances with him.

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PETA's Slaughterhouse for Dogs and Cats

This morning comes word that in 2008 PETA killed 95.8 percent of the dogs, cats and other pets put into its care last year.

In fact, during all of 2008, PETA found adoptive homes for just seven pets out of 2,216 animals taken in.

PETA has a long track record of killing healthy animals (see pictures here), and almost no discernible track record that I can find of placing dogs and cats in loving homes.

As Dana Cheek, the former director of the Norfolk SPCA wrote:

I often receive phone calls from frantic people who have surrendered their pets to PETA with the understanding that PETA will "find them a good home." Many of them are led to believe that the animals will be taken to a nearby shelter. Little do they know that the pets are killed in the PETA van before they even pull away from the pet owner's home … PETA refuses to surrender animals they obtain to area shelters for rehoming. If only the celebrity 'deep-pocket' donors on the west coast knew that their donations were going to kill adoptable cats and dogs here in Norfolk.

You will not find PETA's shelter in Norfolk, Virginia on Pet Finder, nor are there any visiting hours. Posters are not placed on coffee shop bulletin boards, nor do they work with PetSmart or anyone else to find homes for the dogs and cats relinquished to them.

Instead, PETA injects killing solutions into almost all the animals handed over to the them, and then it contracts with a waste disposal company to have several tons of animals a month trucked away, out of sight and out of mind.

Why? Simple: they believe a dog in a shelter is better dead than kenneled for even a few days or a few weeks, and they oppose pet ownership entirely. PETA's Norfolk staff cannot be bothered to take time away from media-whoring in order to do the tough work involved in actually rehoming animals. They leave that to real shelters.

PETA, of course, tries to hide all of this, but the state of Virginia is not having any part of it.

Virginia has a legal requirement that all shelters report out how many dogs, cats and other animals are surrendered, how many are placed, and how many are rehomed.

PETA refuses to fill out the forms as asked by the state of Virginia, however, and every year a little charade occurs. This charade appears to be designed to slow down the posting of PETA's kill information to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services website. PETA, it seems, is embarrassed by their own numbers. Not embarrassed enough to change what they do, mind you, but just embarrassed enough to try to keep comparative data away from the public's prying eyes.

And so, instead of reporting the data in the form requested, PETA mixes in unrelated spay and neuter data. They have done this for several years running now, and apparently they are doing it again this year, as the numbers are still not up on the Virginia state web site. PETA will eventually cough up the forms properly filled out, of course, but by then several months will have gone by. Heck, several months have already gone by.

To be clear, no other shelter in Virginia does this or even tries to do this. And you know why? Because the other shelters are not afraid of telling you what they are doing because most of them are at least trying to get dogs and cats adopted out.

PETA, on the other hand, seems to do virtually nothing to try to get animals placed. That's too much like work and there's no "look-at-me" publicity in it. The blue solution of death is so much easier. And so PETA injects, dumps, and runs off to do another titty-show protest somewhere. Yippee! Look at me. I am nekkid!

So how do we know what PETA's numbers are for 2008?

Simple: Just because PETA intentionally mangles the paperwork so that the data does not show up up on time on the Virginia state web site does not mean that they do not file something as a place holder. That paperwork does exist, and you can read it yourself right here and tease out the kill data, just as I have.

You can also compare it to the track record of other Virginia animal shelter facilities right here, and you can also compare it to past years of comparable PETA data by looking at the table below:



To cut to the chase, here's how the data breaks down for dogs and cats put in PETA's care in 2008:

• Of 584 dogs surrendered to PETA's "shelter" last year, 555 were killed by PETA and only 4 were adopted out. Another 21 dogs were transferred to the Virginia Beach SPCA, and 15 dogs were still "on hand" with PETA as of December 31, 2008.



• Of 1,589 cats surrendered to PETA's "shelter" last year, 1,569 were killed by PETA and only 3 were adopted out. Another 13 cats were transferred to the Virginia Beach SPCA, and 2 cats were still "on hand" with PETA as of December 31, 2009

Now here's the important part: PETA is very clearly in violation of Virginia state law.

Last year on this blog, I noted that PETA is licensed under Virginia law to run an animal shelter or humane society. But PETA does not run an animal shelter.

But don't take my word for it. Here what PETA's Daphna Nachminovitch said in court:

"PETA does not maintain an animal shelter. PETA has a couple -- we call them 'quarantine rooms' -- which are used to house animals that are held for one reason or another. And animals who are, who have a chance for adoption, are usually fostered in private homes. We do not have a public facility that's open to the public where people can stroll through and pick an animal. That's not a service that we are able to provide. We're an office building."

Right. You are an office building. Not a shelter.

But PETA's license to handle powerful killing chemicals did not say it was running an office building, but that it was running an animal shelter or humane society.

Under Virginia law, an animal shelter means "a facility, other than a private residential dwelling and its surrounding grounds, that is used to house or contain animals and that is owned, operated, or maintained by a nongovernmental entity including, but not limited to, a humane society, animal welfare organization, society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, or any other organization operating for the purpose of finding permanent adoptive homes for animals."

Under Virginia law, a humane society means "any incorporated, nonprofit organization that is organized for the purposes of preventing cruelty to animals and promoting humane care and treatment or adoptions of animals."

Under Virginia law, adoption means "the transfer of ownership of a dog or a cat, or any other companion animal, from a releasing agency to an individual."

In short, PETA is not running a legal shelter or humane society (as Ms. Nachminovitch conceded in court), and therefore their licensed access to killing chemicals should be revoked by the state.

PETA can then re-apply with the Virginia Department of Agriculture to run a slaughter house if they so choose.

And no, the slaughter house designation is not hyperbole.

In 2008, PETA's shelter in Norfolk, Virginia took possession of 2,216 dogs, cats, and other “companion animals” and killed all but 7 of them -- a 95.8 percent kill rate once the transfers are accounted for.

What's that look like? Well, if the average dog/cat weighs 30 pounds, that works out to be about 30 TONS of dead animals coming out of PETA's shelter every year.

Graphically, it look a bit like this, with the white-on-black animals being those that PETA killed, and the black-on-white animals being the ones they actually found homes for and did not kill.




















Want to do something positive about all this? Here's my suggestion: Send a letter to all the candidates hoping to be Virginia's next Attorney General.

Ask each of the candidates to make a pledge to investigate, prosecute and/or close PETA's Norfolk animal shelter, which is being run as an unlicensed slaughter house, not as a true animal shelter seeking to find homes for adoptable animals. Send them a link to this blog for the statistics and the law.

How to contact the candidates:

• Steve Shannon - Democratic candidate for Virginia Attorney General. Contact here (web form) or call (best): 703-218-3501
• Ken Cuccinelli - Republican candidate for Virginia Attorney General. Contact here (web form) or call (best): 703-766-0635
• John Brownlee - Republican candidate for Virginia Attorney General. Contact here (web form) or call (best): 1-888-523-6724
• Dave Foster - Republican candidate for Virginia Attorney General. Contact here (direct email) or call (best): 703-349-2820

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Animal Rights Loons Arrested for Murder

Two animals rights lunatics have been arrested for murder in the UK after a gyrocopter they were using to follow one of the mounted hunts struck and killed a hunt supporter, nearly decapitating him. Notes the London Times:

Protect Our Wild Animals, has been monitoring the Warwickshire and the Heythrop hunts from a gyrocopter over the past three weeks. Masters of the hunt told The Times that one of the low-flying aircraft had been reported to the Civil Aviation Authority and the police about ten days ago, amid fears that it was upsetting animals. It was said to have been swooping in an aggressive manner over the hunt.

In the United States, inteference with hunting is a crime and is prosecutable. It seems to me that's a law the British need to embrace.

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PETA Vs. AKC: The Killers vs. the Wreckers

NOTE: This is a repost from 2.13/08

What do PETA and the AKC have in common?

Quite a lot: Neither one gives a damn about dogs; it's all about human ego.

For the AKC ribbon-chaser, owning a blue-ribbon dog is a way of suggesting that the owner might also be a person of "good breeding."

In short, the ribbon chase is not about the dog.

For PETA, animals issues are all about ego-inflating publicity and holier-than-thou brow-beating of anyone who likes a hamburger.

Once again, it's not about the animals.

As to the PETA notion that all dogs are equal, I suppose that's true if you do not pay vet bills, if you do not own a working dog, and if you do not much care if a dog has a brain or not.

And, of course, you also have to completely discount the fact that dogs are different from one breed or type to another.

A chihuahua is not a Saint Bernard, is not a terrier, is not a border collie, is not a borzoi.

The ironic thing here is that the Animal Rights folks rose to prominence by playing footsie with the Kennel Club set, and they often draw from the same demographics to this very day.

To read more see: "Intertwined Roots: Rosettes and Animal Rights"

To read about PETA Killing Dogs:

• PETA Taking Dogs from Shelters to Kill Them
• How many dogs did PETA Kill in 2006?
• Read this Blog Post or I Kill the Dog
  

To read about the AKC Wrecking Dogs:

• Inbred Thinking
• The Francis Galton Dog Show
• Rosettes to Ruin: Making & Breaking Dogs in the Show Ring

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Respect Rat Dreams

Group Calls on China to Respect Rats
The Associated Press - Feb 3, 2008

An animal rights group called Monday for China to treat rats with kindness and respect, as millions across the nation begin to celebrate the coming Year of the Rat.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said it has asked the Chinese government to consider animal welfare laws for rats used in laboratory experiments. The group also recommended a series of guidelines for animals used in science.

"Rats sing, they dream, and they express empathy for others," Coco Yu of PETA's Asia-Pacific branch said in a statement.

Killing for Convenience in Arlington, Virginia

Killing a dog is easier than adoption oureach -- and more profitable too.


Let's compare and contrast the County-contracted open-door animal pounds for Arlington County, Virginia and Albermarle County, Virginia.

The Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA, is a contracted City/County Animal Pound in Albermarle County, Virginia serving both the County and the city of Charlottesville (the county seat). As of Census 2000 Albermarle County had population of 80,000, of which 85 percent were white, and the median family income was $63,400 a year.

In 2006, the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA adopted out 1,085 dogs and euthanized 180, an 86-to-14 percent adoption-to-death rate. Albermarle also transfered 67 dogs to other releasing agencies within the state and 169 dogs to releasing agencies out of state (we assume this means a breed-specific rescue). Another 8 dogs died in the facility, 24 were classified as "miscellaneous" (we have no idea what that means), and 149 were on hand waiting possible adoption as of December 31st.

The Animal Welfare League of Arlington, is a contracted City/County Animal Pound in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington is a densely-settled urban-suburban County across the river from Washington, D.C. As of Census 2000, Arlington had a population of 190,000 people, of which 65 percent were white, and the median family income was over $116,000 year.

In 2006, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington adopted out 310 dogs and euthanized 155, a 67-to-33 percent adoption-to-death rate. Arlington also transferred 8 dogs to another releasing agency within the state and 3 dogs to releasing agencies out of state (we assume this means a breed-specific rescue). Zero dogs died in the facility, 158 were classified as "miscellaneous" (we have no idea what that means), and only 17 dogs were were on hand waiting possible adoption as of December 31st.

What do the numbers show?

Simple: Though residents of Arlington County have almost twice the income of Albermarle County residents, and though our local dog pound has one-third the number of abandoned dogs as Albermarle County, our local dog shelter is killing twice the percentage of Albermarle County.

Why is this happening?

Simple: though Arlington County is one of the most well-educated and wealthiest counties in the country, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington does almost nothing to reach out to the community in order to get dogs and cats adopted out.

I have spent 30 years in Arlington County and have never seen an Animal Welfare League posting at Starbucks (14 in the County) or any other coffee shop, at a grocery store, at a Pet Store, or at any of the numerous dog boutiques in the County (we even have a dog bakery in this animal-loving County!)

Unlike Arlington County, Albermarle County and the City of Charlotesville have dedicated themselves to actually trying to get dogs and cats rehomed.

Charlotesville's SPCA does more than simply advertise their dogs and cats on "Petfinder" -- they work closely with breed rescue groups, and they are willing to hold dogs and cats longer, rather than rush them to the "Blue Death."

Arlington, however, is pretty quick with the "blue death" solution. The practice in Arlington is to manage the budget and the facility through euthanasia. With the County paying a fixed amount of money to AWLA every year, a dead dog means not only less food, and a cleaner facility, but less work, fewer personnel needs, and more "open" cages. As a consequence, overcrowding will never be a problem at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington!

To be fair, there are many other animal shelters out there with higher kill numbers than Arlington. What is notable about Arlington however, is that we have so few stray dogs, such incredible wealth, so many people with nice back yards, and so little outreach by the local County-sponsored shelter. Killing, it seems, is simply more convenient than actually running an agressive adoption outreach effort.

To read more about how how America's "humane" movement has lost its way, read Redemption by Nathan Winograd. A summary can be found here, but read the whole book.
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How Many Dogs Did PETA Kill in 2006?

Bill S. sent me the latest PETA shelter data for 2006.

For those who don't know, the PETA runs a notorious kill shelter in Norfolk, Virginia where for many years they have done nothing to encourage adoption, and instead marched almost every dog that was not claimed by an owner into the gas chamber.

Not content to kill nearly every dog that enters their building and that is not claimed within a few days, PETA actually sends its young zombie adherents out to other shetlers in Virginia and North Carolina in order to round up more dogs to kill. What do they tell the shelters they are visiting? That they are going to "rescue" and "rehome" the dogs! What do they really do? They kill them on the side of the road and dump their bodies into dumpsters on their way home. Sound unbelievable? Read the stories here, here, here and here. Of course these dogs never make it into PETA's stastics data -- data that is only reported because it is required by the State of Virginia.

In 2006, PETA took in 1030 dogs surrendered by owners and 11 strays, with 2 dogs carrie over from the last few days of the previous year. A total of 25 dogs were transferred to other facilities, 8 dogs were adopted out, and 988 were euthanized.

For those who want a short cut to the math, that means PETA killed 95 percent of the dogs admitted to their shelter, transferred 4 percent to somewhere else, and adopted out less than 1 percent. Of the remaining 6 dogs, three "died in the facility" (unexplained) and three others are mysteriously allocated to "miscellaneous," which may mean their disposition was rolled over into the next calendar year.

Total count: Since 1998, PETA's Norfolk "shelter" alone has killed 17,400 pets.




Penn & Teller wear leather and fur while eating meat and explaining what PETA is really about. Just the facts ma'am.
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Those Clever Humane Societies!

The November 1937 issue of Popular Science featured this upbeat article about how the clever folks at the humane society in Washington, D.C. had managed to invent a kill room on wheels. Now those pesky dogs did not even have to go back to the shelter at all -- the dog catcher could just kill them on the way to the dump. And they talk about German engineering!

Increasing the speed and efficiency of dog killing is still a core part of the business plan of the American "humane movement. To read more, see >> Beyond the Blue Solution of Dog Shelter Death

Just before Christmas, the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control and department Director Marcia Mayeda were sued by the No Kill Advocacy Center which alleges the LA animal shelter:

4Kills healthy and treatable animals before their state mandated holding period;
4Kills lost animals without making reasonable attempts to find the animal's owners;
4Fails to provide adequate veterinary care to impounded animals, and;
4Fails to provide adequate nutrition, shelter and exercise to animals.

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First Hunting Act Case Reversed

The first U.K. conviction under the Hunting Act has been tossed. Tony Wright, huntsman for the Exmoor Foxhounds, was found guilty in August of last year of having used two hounds to flush foxes to be shot in February of 2005, and he was to have been fined £500 for his supposed transgressions.

The case was reversed this week, however, as Judge Graham Cottle said the law that forbids the hunting of animals with dogs was "far from simple to interpret or apply" and that Wright had clearly made a good faith effort to work within the law.

Since the Exmoor is one of only two fox hunts to have ever been prosecuted successfully, this reversal is a real blow to the nitwits, halfwits and fools at the League Against Cruel Sports who brought the action. To see the wildlife management theories of the League in practice, see >> "Animal Right Groups Starving for Logic".

Meanwhile, as the Countryside Alliance notes, "More people have been convicted of hunting rats under the Act than have been found guilty of illegal fox hunting."

So what now? Time to repeal the law ladies and gentlemen.

A law that only make a mockery, while doing ill, is a travesty. A legal travesty is a threat to Democracy, as it debases the coin of law and the state. Strike the law!

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Hair Dye Rots Your Brain

Hair dye rots your brain.

Everyone knows that. Dumb blonde jokes have gained traction for a long time for a pretty good reason.

Further evidence can be found by looking at the plethora of spokes-idiots that have "stood up" for PETA -- dimwits such as the dyed, injected, and lifted Pamela Lee, the vacuous Christina Applegate, the faded blossom that was once Alicia Silverstone, and the tattooed, pierced, and shocking "Pink" who seems to be a bit of a gender-bender fantasy for nearly everyone, and who also likes wearing high leather boots (God bless her).

Now, to put jelly on the mutton comes the latest news: It seems Madonna has dyed a bunch of her sheep pink for a Vogue photoshoot at her Wiltshire estate.

The RSPCA, which seems to have nothing better to do, has expressed outrage that Madonnas's sheep were dyed various cool colors, saying that "even though the dye may be safe for the animals, those who copy this stunt might not be so careful."

Huh? What the Hell? This is a problem? Are there armed gangs of roving lunatics roaming the English countryside and "improperly" dying sheep? Is there a "proper" way of dying sheep?

Surely I am making this up? Sadly, I am not.

It seems the RSPCA is very concerned about dyed sheep. They have put this front and center even though it is perfectly safe, as they themselves admit.

Meanwhile, animal rights lunatics have found nothing necessarily wrong with having sex with animals provided "no animal is harmed in the making of this movie." PETA guru Peter Singer has said so, and PETA itself has given a cautious endorsement.

And, as I recall, the ever-vigilant RSPCA was dead silent when Madonna came out with those pictures of her and the dog in that all-metal-covered sex book of hers.

And no, my copy is not for sale. Try Ebay.

The mind crumbles.



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