Feature Archives

A traveler who spends most of his time in SF and NY is being held at the Northwest ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. He is known locally from Food Not Bombs, Homes Not Jails, and various tenants' rights, homeless rights, bike rights and animal rights activities among other things. He was arrested at the end of May for trespassing to watch the sunset from a roof of a building in Seattle and spent some time in county jail. An ICE raid took place at the jail and he was transported to the Northwest Detention Center because his citizenship status is in question.

The campaign against science experiments on animals at the University of California continues to grow stronger, but not without opposition. Over the last several months, activists have been conducting frequent demonstrations outside the homes of UC animal researchers -- a handful of people with signs, a bullhorn and some literature to hand out to neighbors.

Farm Sanctuary, which operates the largest rescue and refuge network for farm animals in North America, and Animal Place, a nonprofit sanctuary for abused and discarded farmed animals, have responded to a call from Santa Cruz Animal Services and are coming to the aid of 14 neglected animals confiscated from a Watsonville slaughterhouse on May 1st. The rescued animals—12 goats, one cow and one sheep—were discovered at the Lee Road slaughter facility on May 1st by Todd Stosuy of Santa Cruz Animal Services, when he noticed a cow with a bloody horn from the road and initiated an investigation.

On April 9, 2008, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen certified an anti-cruelty ballot initiative for the statewide general election on November 4, 2008. Californians for Humane Farms, sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary and other animal protection groups, family farmers, veterinarians and public health professionals, said the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act will provide the most basic protection to nearly 20 million animals confined in industrial factory farms in California: that they merely be able to turn around and extend their limbs.

Science Hill tree-sit organizers and supporters write, "As you may have heard, on February 24th, some kind of protest took place at the home of a UCSC researcher who experiments on animals. Hyped-up news articles and administrative messages on campus have led some people to associate this protest with the Tree-Sit on Science Hill. We wish to take this opportunity to make it clear that the tree-sit is NOT affiliated."

On February 21st, the Bush administration finalized its controversial decision to remove the Northern Rockies gray wolf from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The removal of federal protections for the gray wolf puts its continued survival in the Northern Rockies at the mercy of the woefully insufficient state management plans developed by Wyoming, Idaho and—to a lesser extent—Montana. George Cadman of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM interviewed Mike Leahy, Rocky Mountain Region Director for Defenders Of Wildlife, about the recent decision.

On February 23rd, noted animal rights activist Peter Young spoke in Santa Cruz about his experiences with the animal liberation movement. His talk was followed by a screening of the film "Behind the Mask", a thought provoking film that gives an in-depth look at the lives and motivations of animal liberationists. The event was a benefit for the SHAC 7; six individuals whose 1st Amendment rights were violated when they were sent to prison for defending animals by merely drawing attention to the horrors that go on at an animal testing facility called Huntingdon Life Sciences.