Feature Archives

The U.S. Navy is facing criticism for its training operations on the Pacific coast. Environmental groups say some areas should be off limits to weapons testing. The Navy wants to use nearly the entire U.S. coastline for weapons and warfare training including under water bomb detonations and mining, and the use of aircraft, missiles and sonar. Environmental groups say the use of sonar and bombs has long-range effects on marine life.

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.

Federal authorities have arrested four animal rights activists accused of protesting animal abuse at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, a FBI press release reported on Friday, February 20th. The activists are accused of "chalk[ing] defamatory comments on the public sidewalks", protesting while "wearing bandanas to hide their faces", and distributing leaflets with the contact information for vivisectors on them. All four will be charged at least in part under the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.

Since December, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been disrupting whaling operations by a Japanese fleet that illegally hunts whales under the guise of "research." Confrontations included Sea Shepard 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. 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.

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.

On January 22, police seized an Indymedia server in Manchester, England. Kent Police had e-mailed UK Indymedia earlier in the day in regards to two comments containing the address of a judge that had been posted to the site. It is believed the search and seizure was connected to postings about a recent Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) trial in the UK. The seizure specifically targeted a server named "Strummer" which functions as a mirror of the UK site and does not actually receive submissions from users. The server was reportedly handed over to police by hosting company UK Grid without a warrant being served.

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 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.