Aussies Deny Foot-Dragging in Sea Shepherd Visas

The Australian government has denied accusations that they are delaying Visa applications for Sea Shepherd crew.

In response, Australian immigration has stated, “our standard procedure is to follow-up certain matters disclosed to the department in a visa application, and that’s what is occurring.”

The department went on to state that the delay may be linked to the fact that Watson is applying to enter Australia on a short-term business visa, rather than a tourist visa, with which he previously entered the country.

Michael Vick Refuses to Visit Victims

Coward.

Appeal Denied for Six Activists Convicted Under AEPA

It was a 2-1 decision by the US Court of Appeals.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer...

Six members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty were convicted at a 2006 trial in New Jersey of conspiracy to violate the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act. The law, since revised, aimed to protect animal research laboratories from illegal, sometimes violent protests.

The group was formed to protest the activities of Huntingdon Life Sciences in Franklin Township, N.J. The company had been a target of animal activists since video footage surfaced on television in the 1990s depicting animal abuse at its laboratory in the United Kingdom.

Huntingdon used mostly mice and rats , but also some dogs, monkeys, fish and guinea pigs , in its research in New Jersey.

The activists posted the home addresses of Huntingdon officials and contractors on the group's Web site, and harassment, vandalism and violence sometimes followed.

New Book Shows Mark Twain an Early Advocate Against Animal Cruelty

A new book by author and Stanford professor Shelly Fisher Fishkin reveals that Mark Twain was an early advocate against animal cruelty. Called Mark Twain's Book of Animals, the book contains a number of his writing about animals. From the review:

Twain writes about cruelty to animals in a range of contexts, criticizing, for example, the insensitivity involved in the exploitation of animals for sport or entertainment. Twain may have been the first American to call attention to the brutality of the so-called sport of cockfighting, which he describes in graphic detail.

Several pieces express Twain’s contempt for the idea of hunting for sport, including a memorable passage from a sequel to Huckleberry Finn in which Huck shoots a bird and feels immediate remorse and shame (“Huck Shoots a Bird”). Another text in the book--from an unpublished piece of autobiographical writing -- makes it clear that Twain based this account on an experience he had himself as a child (“Assassin”).

Twain wrote a searing account of an English earl’s behavior on a buffalo hunt (in “Man’s Place in the Animal World”) and wrote an impassioned anti-bullfighting novella (A Horse’s Tale).

Interesting. The book also contains writings by Twain against vivisection.

You can buy it here.

Factory Farming and Latin American Devastation

Here is an interesting 10 minute documentary about the effect of growing cheap animal feed in Latin America for European factory farms and how it effects the environment and people.

Man Kills Goldfish in Domestic Violence Attack, Gets Probation

Wow. I'm posting the whole article because it's so short. Another example of how animals (even goldfish!) become victims of domestic violence.

I know some people may think it's just a goldfish and this punishment is too much, but he wasn't just stabbing the goldfish, he was symbolically stabbing his girlfriend. A lot of times the perpetrator is simply taking out his anger against the victim by attacking something she cares about. Who knows what the next step could be?

I hope she has some kind of protection against him.

From Pets News...

PORTLAND, Ore. — A 27-year-old man who attacked his ex-girlfriend and killed her pet fish has been sentenced to two years probation and a psychological evaluation. Court documents say Donald Earl Fite III wanted to reunite with the woman in July, but she wasn’t willing. Fite shoved her against a wall and tossed her against a bathtub. The woman fled, then returned to find her fish on the floor with a knife through it.

Court documents said Fite told an officer, “If she can’t have me, then she can’t have the fish.”

The Oregonian newspaper reported Fite declined comment Tuesday. His attorney, Tom Macnair, said stabbing the fish was “a very low point” in his client’s life.

Fite pleaded guilty to animal abuse and domestic-violence assault.

Why No Fuss About Michael Vick?

Michael Silver, some Yahoo Sports guy, has a column about why Michael Vick's return to the NFL has turned out to be so anticlimactic (I was wondering the same thing myself recently.)

These are his thoughts....

I know plenty of people still detest Vick for what he did, but if there are protesters at his games or outside the Eagles’ training facility, I haven’t heard about them. And in his cameo appearances in the two games since NFL commissioner Roger Goodell lifted his suspension, Vick hasn’t done anything to cause a commotion, either.

It’s now clear that the odds of Vick starting a game for the Eagles are roughly equivalent to those of coach Andy Reid being named Mr. Universe. McNabb has played brilliantly in his two starts, reaffirming his status as The Man. During the two games McNabb missed with a fractured rib, third-year backup Kevin Kolb repositioned himself as Philly’s quarterback of the future, throwing for more than 300 yards in each of his first two career starts, something no NFL passer had ever accomplished....

It’s starting to look like the Eagles’ signing of Vick was essentially a courtesy to a fallen star, a chance to let him transition back into the league and break a slight sweat on Sundays without figuring in anything important.

The Eagles are probably good enough to afford that luxury. I’m not so sure how good Vick is anymore, or whether he’ll ever get another chance to be an NFL starter. Those are questions that, barring a dramatic change of events, will be answered in another city in another season.

I don't understand why there hasn't been more outrage or rowdiness. Certainly, he's on his best behavior and the Humane Society is using him to battle dog-fighting rings. But where's PETA? I don't get it.

If the Eagles offered a courtesy to this guy by signing him, I'd say that the $1 million contract he received would be charity best spent elsewhere.

Nike Reaches Non Agreement with Michael Vick

Nike does not have a contract with Vick!

"Nike does not have a contractual relationship with Michael Vick," Nike said in a statement yesterday. "We have agreed to supply product to Michael Vick as we do a number of athletes who are not under contract with Nike."

Right. They just want to give him free stuff. But that doesn't mean, like, they endorse a guy who hung and electrocuted dogs to death. Geez, they just want to give him some free stuff so people will see him wearing the stuff on TV!

Quote of the Week

When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Student Researcher Says "Hooray for Animal Research"

This kid is a biochem major at the University of Southern Mississippi. He's helping to investigate possible drug cures for obesity.

Listen to this...

Freeman says that the most difficult thing he has encountered so far in his research comes not from the lab, but from people’s attitudes about animal testing. He said this research, along with other research that could vastly improve human quality of life, could absolutely not be done without animal testing, and wishes more people understood that “animal research is not cruel or inhumane, it benefits us all.”

Interesting that animal research is not cruel or inhumane because it benefits US. Does it benefit the animals? Why do humans always have to get everything we want and we have to do it at the pain and expense of animals?

And by the way, I can tell you the cure for obesity. Diet (eat less!), exercise (walk more!) and counseling to ease off the psychological dependence on food. Drugs are not the cure for everything, although they are very profitable for whoever licenses them.

Another young person indoctrinated by the animal researchers.

Burning Bunnies in Sweden

In Sweden, the way they deal with rabbit problems is to shoot them and burn them for fuel.

The targeted rabbits are the unwanted inhabitants of capital Stockholm's parks, which are culled to protect the shrubs and trees which they gorge on.

Many of them are domestic pets released by uncaring owners which then go on to breed.

Six thousand were killed last year, frozen and their cadavers sent to a special heating plant in Karlskoga, central Sweden.

Animal Researchers Promote Sob Stories

I don't support animal research and I have no sympathy for animal researchers. I don't believe they are working for human welfare. I don't believe they want an honest dialogue about what they are doing to animals. I do believe they want prestige, tenure, royalties and patent rights. I believe they want to be gods in the laboratory. I don't believe they are "brave" for "standing up" to animal rights activists. I think they are clever cowards who use extremists to hide their work and to obfuscate the truth about what they do to animals and whether it is truly necessary.

I would never advocate violence against a researcher. It's not effective and it earns them undeserved sympathy. Plus it's hypocritical to take one life to save another. But as far as they are concerned, I am still an animal rights terrorist for the mere fact that I disagree with them.

I almost quit a book club a year ago because one of the members is a proponent of medical research. She is a data tech for a clinical testing company (for profit by the way.) I posted on this blog about quitting because of the New Iberia scandal in Louisiana in which the Humane Society found primates being abused. I got no support from my book club "friends" on this matter and I was going to leave in a huff.

Then I realized that if I left, then no one would ever challenge anything she said. The other women wouldn't. They're too busy eating their pot roasts, reading chick lit, and chasing after babies. I had to stay in that group because she must be challenged. All of this BS by medical researchers must be challenged. Otherwise, they portray themselves as the real victims and the rest of us as violent terrorists.

The title of this article is "Researchers to animal-rights activists: We are not afraid."

I'm sorry, but I am not moved.

Activist Indicted on Contempt Charges

I'm late on this one. The article is from October 5.

Fox 13 Now reported...

A federal grand jury has indicted an animal rights activist who refused to testify about the release of thousands of mink from Utah ranches. Jordan Halliday, 22, served several months in jail for contempt of court after he said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. When he was released in June, he was handed a federal grand jury indictment for contempt.

European Military Exercises May Threaten Dolphins

According to the BBC....

The moving of Europe's biggest military exercise to the outer Moray Firth poses a threat to bottlenose dolphins, conservations have claimed.

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) said noise from warships' sonar could harm the animals.

10000 Mink Released in Denmark

Animal activists released 10 thousand mink from two fur farms in Denmark.

Media in Denmark have reported that more than 10,000 mink were released from cages at Danish fur farms this week. During the night of October 6, 6000 mink escaped from a farm near Søndervig after cages were opened and fences surrounding the property were destroyed. Then, early on October 9, 5000 mink were freed from cages at a farm in Fousing.