An acrobat trained in China kept kids on the edge of their seats with juggling, unicycling, and handstands; the Raging Grannies turned people of all ages into kids again leading them in songs with vegetarian themes. These and other stage performances were punctuated with lectures by renowned vegetarian authorities in San Francisco's County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park on October 3 and 4. Other highlights of the 10th annual World Veg Festival included cooking demos, vegetarian friendly clothing booths, and international taste treats.

Presenter Howard Lyman told an enthralled audience why he is a cattle rancher but won't eat meat himself, and John Robbins provided tips for longevity from his book Healthy at 100. Other speakers promoted vegan or vegetarian diets, sharing tips for home cooking and gardening for maximum nutritional benefit.

The San Francisco Vegetarian Society and In Defense of Animals together presented the yearly event to commemorate World Vegetarian Day. Both co-sponsors manned heavily trafficked tables selling shopping bags and T-shirts with clever quips and gave advice to festival patrons mesmerized by the variety of booths, entertainers and demonstrations. In Defense of Animals is a national, non-profit organization based in San Rafael, dedicated to protecting and advocating for the rights, welfare, and habitats of animals. The San Francisco Vegetarian Society was founded in 1968 and promotes the nutritional, ethical, social and environmental benefits of a vegetarian diet.

Photos: 1 | 2 | San Francisco Vegetarian Society | In Defense of Animals

On Friday, September 11th, activists demonstrated in front of the Staples office supplies store in on Cleveland Avenue in Santa Rosa. Staples was targeted because they have been documented using unmarked vans to deliver office supplies to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). In recent years, HLS have been infiltrated and exposed multiple times for animal cruelty, including workers punching beagle puppies in the face. The protesters' goal was "to show Staples that if you deal with HLS, you deal with us."

People for Animal Liberation write: We unfurled the banner and began chanting to get the word across that we were there to protest the murder of 500 animals in the name of mock science. They have blood on their hands for their ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences. 4 People then entered the store and ran through the aisles chanting "Puppykillers". Knocking merchandise off the shelves, and staging a lockdown at the stores entrance, until the police came. No one was arrested.

Photos | Announcement | Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC)

Mark Hawthorne writes: Animal Place, an education center and sanctuary for farmed animals, is pleased to announce that in addition to our new location in Grass Valley, we will retain our current property in Vacaville, California. Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous supporter, Animal Place will keep our 60-acre location, transforming it into Rescue Ranch, which will serve as an innovative adoption and placement facility for farmed animals. Animals who arrive at Rescue Ranch will be quarantined, given veterinary care, rehabilitated and then placed in pre-approved homes.

The Ranch will be dedicated to finding loving homes for easily adoptable animals, such as chickens, sheep, and goats, though we will also be able to place pigs and cows under the right circumstances. With our history of successfully re-homing rescued “battery” hens, however, and with more and more people enjoying them as companion animals, we will likely focus our efforts on chickens. “Backyard chicken flocks are becoming increasingly popular,” says Animal Place Executive Director Kim Sturla. “We previously have rescued and placed thousands of hens who were retired from the egg industry. Instead of these birds being sent to slaughter, as they usually are, our hope is that many will come to Animal Place’s Rescue Ranch and then placed in new, loving homes.”

We hope to establish a network with farms, shelters and other rescue groups to maximize the options for the thousands of farmed animals who are abused, neglected and abandoned nationwide while we promote the idea that farmed animals can be companion animals. In addition, we will revive our dog-rescue program.

Read More | AnimalPlace.org

On July 17, 2009, People for Animal Liberation demonstrated in front of the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Healdsburg, California, just north of Santa Rosa. Demonstrators held signs and banners with a variety of slogans. Chants included "What do we want?? Animal Liberation!! When do we wwant it?? Now!!!" and "Colonel Sander! SHAME ON YOU! David Novak, SHAME ON YOU!" Activists report there were a lot of positive responses, but also some negative responses. Street theater included one activist climbing into a guinea pig cage, from which they were pulled out of the cage and murdered.

Photos | KentuckyFriedCruelty.com

On July 13th, defense attorneys for Joseph Buddenberg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope and Adriana Stumpo (the AETA 4) presented oral arguments on their motion to strike down the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). The AETA 4 are being represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC), and other well-respected civil rights attorneys, including Tony Serra. The defense demanded that AETA be struck down as unconstitutional before Judge Ronald Whyte of the United States District Court, Northern District of California in San Jose.

The AETA is being used for the first time since its passage by Congress in 2006 to do exactly what civil rights advocates feared it would do - criminalize activities protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The oral arguments presented on July 13th were not about the allegations as directly applied to the AETA 4, but rather that the whole case should be dismissed now because AETA itself is unconstitutional.

"The AETA is so overbroad and vague that picketers protesting labor practices at WalMart who mount a successful boycott could be charged with animal enterprise terrorism because WalMart sells lunch meat," said CCR Cooperating Attorney Matthew Strugar. "And it is impossible to know from the language of the law whether your activities might be covered. The AETA is unconstitutional, and if it remains on the books it will be a genuine threat to free speech."

The court did not make any decison at this time. The next court hearing is scheduled for Monday, September 14th. Read more

Also see: Petition to Congress: Repeal the AETA | Rights Attorneys File Motion Saying AETA Indictment in Violation of First Amendment | Activists Arrested for Chalking Sidewalks, Protesting with Bandanas, and Leaflet Distribution

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, 2006, 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