On May 21st, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) joined in a defense attorneys’ motion in the U.S. District Court in San Jose to dismiss U.S.A. v. Buddenberg, a federal prosecution of four animal rights activists in California—known as the AETA 4—for alleged conspiracy to commit animal enterprise terrorism. The four have been charged with conduct that includes First Amendment protected activities such as protesting, chalking the sidewalk, chanting and leafleting. The motion asks the Court to strike down the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as unconstitutional.

“To characterize protest and speech as terrorist activities is ludicrous,” said CCR cooperating attorney Matthew Strugar. “And it is not just animal rights activists who are in danger here. The AETA is so broad and unclear it could be used to suppress lawful protests and boycotts by any activists across the spectrum, no matter what the issue. The law must be struck down.”

Passed by Congress in November, the AETA is aimed at suppressing speech and advocacy by criminalizing First Amendment-protected activities such as protests, boycotts, picketing and whistleblowing. It targets animal rights activists, but includes language so broad and vague it could be used to prosecute labor activists who organize a successful boycott of Wal-Mart, or union folks who picket a university cafeteria. Pushed through Congress by a powerful lobby of corporations and research institutions, the AETA is an unconstitutional law, because it criminalizes a broad swath of protected First Amendment activities and is so unclear as to fail to give people notice of whether or not their conduct is lawful. Read more

The Center for Constitutional Rights created an online petition for people to write their senator and representative to demand that they repeal the AETA.

see also: Obama administration targets environmental and animal rights activists as eco-terrorists | Government files responses to AETA4 motion to dismiss

Previous coverage: Activists Arrested for Chalking Sidewalks, Protesting with Bandanas, and Leaflet Distribution

Buffalo Field Campaign volunteer patrols have been documenting the Montana Department of Livestock, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin National Forest and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks agents carry out massive and relentless hazing operations, harassing and harming America's last wild bison population.

On May 12th, agents were set to haze bison within Yellowstone National Park to "make room" for the bison that would be hazed off of Horse Butte. But Mother Nature had different plans: one group of bison the agents planned to target consisted of forty bulls who would follow none of the agents' orders. An incredible hail storm assisted and the haze was called off for the day. Local DOL agent Shane Grube's foot was broken after his horse stepped on it.

Every day of the week agents chased bison family groups, including newborn calves and pregnant mothers, off of the south side of the Madison River, and on May 14th they set their sights on cattle-free Horse Butte. In fact, all of the Gallatin National Forest lands where the buffalo roam are cattle free, yet livestock interests insist on assaulting them with mounted cowboys, ATVs, local and federal law enforcement and the DOL's helicopter.

Read More, Photos & Video

The animal advocacy group Mercy for Animals recently did an undercover investigation at New England's largest egg factory farm, Quality Egg of New England in Turner, Maine. The hidden camera video shot in early 2009 provided a glimpse behind the closed doors of one of the nation's leading egg producers, exposing the truth behind battery cage egg production — what Mercy for Animals calls "heinous cruelty to animals." As a result of the investigation, the state police and Maine Department of Agriculture raided the farm on April 1st.

Mercy for Animals's investigation, highlighted in a 5-minute video, revealed: rotting carcasses in cages with live hens still laying eggs for human consumption; workers and managers killing birds by grabbing their necks and swinging them around in circles; supervisors and workers throwing live birds into trash cans; birds suffering from broken bones, bloody open wounds, and untreated infections; hens confined in tiny wire cages so small they were unable to stretch their wings, move freely or engage in other basic behaviors; birds trapped in the wire of their cages or under the feeding trays without access to food or water; and management and workers kicking live hens into manure pits.

Read More with Video | Mercy for Animals updates

Some Previous Related Indybay Features: Prop 2 Passage Represents Landmark Victory for Animals in California | Are Tumors, Abscesses, and Downed Cows in your Hamburger? | Largest Beef Recall Ever After Video Exposes Downed Cow Abuse | Historic Egg Farm Cruelty Case Ends in Acquittal | Activists Score Big Victory in Fight Against Battery Cages | "Wegmans Cruelty" Filmmaker Sentenced to Six Months for Trespassing | Foster Farms Threatens East Bay Animal Advocates | Egg Industry Battery Cages Exposed by Activists

Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, writes: The Oceans are like the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. As long as it was alive it laid a golden egg each day but then the greedy farmer decided to kill it to get all the gold inside and found nothing and the Goose laid no more golden eggs because it was dead. For centuries, the oceans have fed humankind. But in the last century, human greed has raped and pillaged oceanic eco-systems remorsefully with an ecological ignorance that is staggeringly insane. I don't eat fish because I am an ecologist and I have seen the diminishment of fish in the seas all of my life.... We humans have waged an intensive and ruthless exploitation on practically every species of fish in the sea and they are disappearing. If we don't put an end to industrialized fishing vessels and heavy gear very soon, we will kill the oceans and in so doing, we will kill ourselves.... We are feeding fish to cats, pigs, and chickens, and we are sucking tens of thousands of small fish from the sea to feed larger fish raised in cages. House cats are eating more fish than seals; pigs are eating more fish than sharks; and factory-farmed chickens are eating more fish than puffins and albatross.

Read More | Sea Shepherd

Previous Related Indybay Feature: Sea Shepherd Returns From the Whale Wars

autonomous rebels for social collapse write: Last night, we attacked the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Mission St. Two stones cracked two windows and we melted back into the shadows. Property will never be worth more than the lives of living things. Solidarity with our poultry brethren; we may not be the same species, but we breath the same poison air.

We acknowledge that attacks like this do little to actually harm the infrastructure of capital or animal abuse. They are a great way, though, to become familiar with night action. We encourage all who feel a brooding discontent to find ways of expressing it. Read more

Since the passage of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), a sweeping new law labeling animal rights activists as “terrorists,” corporations and industry groups have been pushing the federal government to use their new powers. On February 19th and 20th, the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI arrested four animal rights activists as “terrorists” in the most sweeping expansion of the War on Terrorism and the “Green Scare” to date.

As background, a campaign is being waged across California against animal research at the University of California system. There has been a wide range of both legal and illegal tactics. Illegal tactics have included the destruction of UC vans. In August, an incendiary device was left at the home of a UC researcher; no animal rights group has claimed responsibility for this crime, but the university, the FBI and others have recklessly attributed it to activists.

These “terrorism” arrests are not related to that bombing, though. And they’re also not related to the destruction of property. These activists–Nathan Pope, Adriana Stumpo, Joseph Buddenberg, and Maryam Khajavi– were arrested for First Amendment activity. According to the FBI’s press release, the activists are facing charges for incidents which include: Protesting outside the home of a UC professor, chalking defamatory comments on public sidewalks, wearing bandanas to hide their faces, and distributing leaflets with contact information for several researchers.

Will Potter, a freelance reporter who focuses on how the War on Terrorism affects civil liberties, states, "At issue here is not the validity or morality of animal research, nor is it the efficacy of controversial tactics. Differences of opinion on those issues no longer matter. What’s at issue is whether the War on Terrorism should be used to target protesters as terrorists."

FBI Arrests 4 Activists as “Terrorists” for Chalking Slogans, Leafleting and Protesting | Federal Authorities Arrest Peaceful Protesters | Coalition to Abolish the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act | Will Potter on the Green Scare | 5 Reasons for Activists to Cover Their Faces at Protests | Update on Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act Four | Solidarity with the AETA 4! | Snitch Hunt

Previous Indybay Features: FBI Collects DNA Samples and Issues Grand Jury Subpoena in Santa Cruz || Affidavit Discloses UCPD "Cause" for Raid on Long Haul Infoshop || UCPD and Feds Raid Long Haul Infoshop in Berkeley || FBI Agents Visit Individual's Workplace in Oakland || Police Raid House on Riverside Avenue in Santa Cruz, Again || Home, Auto of UC Santa Cruz Researchers Set Ablaze || Police Raid Activist House in Santa Cruz || Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act Passes

Since December, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been pursuing and disrupting whaling operations by a Japanese fleet that illegally hunts whales in the waters around Australia and the Antarctic seas under the guise of "research." Confrontations included the Sea Sheperd ship, the Steve Irwin, lobbing rotten butter onto the decks of the whaling ships as well as directly ramming whaling ships on the open seas at times. The whalers in turn have used sonic weapons to retaliate against the crew of the Steve Irwin. After three months of operations attempting to prevent the illegal whaling, the Sea Sheperd crew are returning to better prepare for future battles with the whalers.

Captain Paul Watson summarizes recent events: "I have said always said that we would do everything we can short of hurting people to end illegal whaling in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. We have done everything we could with the resources available to us this year. We have shut down their illegal operations for over a month in total. We have cost them money and we have saved the lives of a good many whales. And although we are willing to take the risks required, even to our own lives, I am not prepared to do to the Japanese whalers what they do to the whales and the escalating violence by the whalers will result in some serious injuries and possibly fatalities if this confrontation continues to escalate."

Read More | Sea Shepherd Conservation Society | Indymedia.org coverage

Video: Ramming the Japanese whaling ship | Sea Shepherd collides with whaling harpoon ship | Whalers use acoustic weapon on Sea Shepherd in High Seas Confrontations
Audio: Two Sea Shepherd activists injured by whaler violence | Sea Shepherds sail out to confront whalers
Reports: Sea Shepherd Rams Harpoon ship while under Sonic Attack | The Battle for the Whales Turns Ugly in the Ross Sea | Taking on Goliath: Whaling and the Contradictions of International Conservation Law | Sea Shepherd: Whalers using Weapons in violation of Antarctic Treaty | Whalers refuse Sea Shepherd help in search for missing crew member | Whales to the slaughter as Sea Shepherd forced to Refuel | In the whale wars, the good guys wear black and fly the skull and crossbones | Ships Collide: Whalers and Sea Shepherd clash in Australian Antarctic waters | Sea Shepherd Clashes With Whaling Fleet in Australian Waters | Christmas Message from the Captain of the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin | Heavy Ice Conditions Hinder Sea Shepherd Pursuit of Whalers | Sea Shepherd in pursuit of Whalers in Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary | Sea Shepherd Has the Japanese Whaling Fleet on the Run | Sea Shepherd Will Oppose Japanese Whalers Alone - Why no Greenpeace?

Mark Hawthorne writes: One of the most exciting results of Proposition 2 — California’s successful campaign to ban battery cages for hens, gestation crates pigs and veal crates for calves — is that it energized activists across the United States, introducing a new generation of animal advocates to the horrors of factory farming. Many of these people had known little, if anything, about agribusiness practices. But they literally took up the Prop 2 banner, getting involved in the fight to end the use of intensive-confinement devices in California.

Now, taking advantage of the momentum generated by the California voter initiative, a group of activists has formed the Farm Animal Protection Project (FAPP). Located in Sonoma County, FAPP is an all-volunteer group that will use the knowledge, skills and tactics learned during the year-long Prop 2 battle and apply them to a permanent campaign for animals. The group will use leafleting, tabling, food outreach, film screenings, special events and other tactics to educate companies, schools and the public on how easy it is to reduce cruelty to animals, including not buying eggs from caged hens — or, better yet, not buying eggs at all.

Read More

Previous Indybay Coverage of Prop 2

On December 23rd, four out of five activists on trial at Winchester Crown Court, UK were found guilty of 'Conspiracy to Blackmail' Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) after a three and a half month long trial. The world's corporate media, prompted by police press officers, were quick to condemn Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) by providing examples of harassment against the employees of HLS and their customers, shareholders and investors.

Illegal actions taken against HLS, but not linked to those convicted, were pointed to as evidence of the defendants' extremism. Police spokesmen and the National Extremist Coordination Unit, the branch of the police set up to eliminate the animal rights movement and other expressions of the public's dissent, hailed the convictions as a victory. What was not examined in the media was the worrying development of the repressive use of the law which lead to the conviction of the four defendants.

The trial is part of a larger attack on the animal rights movement. In May this year, Sean Kirtley, an activist involved with Stop Sequani Animal Torture (SSAT), was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for updating a website with news about a legal, nonviolent campaign to close down Sequani laboratories in Ledbury. Read More

see also: SHAC v HLS | Strategic Importance of HLS in the broader anticapitalist fight | Indymedia UK SHAC topic page

A rescue effort by local animal protection groups has saved 650 hens from a California egg farm. The hens were rescued on Friday and Saturday from battery cages and will soon be placed in permanent homes. Coordinating the effort was Animal Place, a farmed-animal sanctuary and education center in Vacaville, about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco. Kim Sturla, Animal Place's director, is working with other local organizations to find homes for the hens. These groups include Marin Humane Society, Sacramento SPCA and Sonoma Humane Society. Although California voters recently approved a measure that will phase out battery cages and other intensive-confinement devices, that law will not take effect until 2015. Meanwhile, nearly 19 million hens languish in battery cages in California, making these 650 hens especially lucky. All the birds rescued were considered “spent” hens. The egg industry deems a hen “spent” when her egg production has dropped and it’s no longer economically viable to continue feeding her, typically after two years.

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On November 4th, 2008, California voters passed Proposition 2 by a 63% to 36% margin. The new "Standards for Confining Farm Animals" statute, originally known as the "The California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act," phases out some of the most restrictive confinement systems used by factory farms — gestation crates for breeding pigs, veal crates for calves, and battery cages for egg laying hens — affecting 20 million farm animals in the state by granting them space to stand up, stretch their limbs, turn around and lie down comfortably. The YES on Prop 2 campaign was run by Californians for Humane Farms, a coalition headed by Farm Sanctuary and the Humane Society of the United States. Farm Sanctuary's Gene Baur released a statement on the Prop 2 victory:

"The passage of Prop 2 in the country's largest agricultural state marks a monumental victory for farm animals. This campaign did an amazing job of raising public awareness about the cruel treatment farm animals endure at the hands of an industry that has consistently fought meaningful change for animals.... Today marks a significant change in the way we view and treat farm animals and falls closer in line with public sentiments and values of compassion. We look forward to seeing these confinement systems phased out nationwide."

Huge Victory for the Animals in California Factory Farms | Monumental Victory for Farm Animals | Landmark Day for Animals From Coast to Coast | Pointing fingers at Prop 2 will not help us repeal Prop 8

Previous Related Indybay Features: Anti-Cruelty Measure Certified for California’s November 2008 Ballot | California Bans Foie Gras (in 2004)

On October 13th, a protest held outside of UC Berkeley's new animal testing facility drew media and cops. Cops vigilantly watched although the protest was calm. The protest marked National Primate Liberation Week, which featured demonstrations and press conferences across the country. The still-under construction Li Ka-Shing Center's basement level laboratory will lead to a seventy percent expansion of the existing Northwest Animal Facility come it's completion in March 2010. The University already experiments on approximately 40,000 animals at any given time, including at least 15 primates.

Photos | More Info | USDA Report on Animals Used for Experimentation at UC Berkeley

For more info on Primate Liberation Week, visit: http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/event-nplw-announce.html.