Invasion Of The (Animal Rights) Body Snatchers

No one who follows today's animal-rights movement can deny that its violent tactics are escalating. Ten years ago, picketing a restaurant or tossing red paint on a fur coat was front page news. But times are changing. Following the advice of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign director Bruce Friedrich, leading-edge animal cultists have been busy "" They've cheerfully endorsed murder, issued a detailed "hit list," delivered life-threatening pipe bombs, set multi-million-dollar arsons, and harassed Americans in their homes and places of worship. And just when we thought they couldn't push the envelope any further, along come a few British grave robbers to prove the inhumanity of animal-rights activists.

Police and politicians are condemning last month's desecration of a human grave in England. Unnamed animal-rightists dug up and stole the remains of a woman whose family has long been targeted because they breed guinea pigs for medical research. While the perpetrators have already issued a letter threatening to steal a second body, UK Animal Liberation Front (ALF) leader Robin Webb has acknowledged that his group "could be" responsible.

It's equally likely that the grave-robbers come from the violent, PETA-linked SHAC organization, a single-issue animal rights campaign which began in Great Britain and now has several offshoots in the United States (click here, here, here, here, and our favorite, here). Seven of SHAC's U.S. leaders will soon be tried on terrorism-related charges in New Jersey, and another was the subject of a Joint Terrorism Task Force raid in Philadelphia last week.

British authorities have arrested and questioned at least two suspects in the October cemetery raid. One is John Curtin, a self-proclaimed "softie within the Animal Liberation Front," who has actually been involved with this sort of crime before. Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports that Curtin "was once jailed for trying to dig up the remains of the 10th Duke of Beaufort" in connection with an animal rights protest. (He intended to send the Duke's severed head to Princess Ann as a threat to would-be hunters.) Curtin later told the animal-rights magazine Bite Back that while he was in jail he received "an enormous amount of support ... sometimes an embarrassing amount of support" from "above-ground" animal rights organizations. Curtin's connection to SHAC is undeniable, as both are subjects of a legal restraining order related to a planned medical research lab in Oxford.

But the smart money may be on John Ablewhite, a SHAC activist described by the Sunday Mercury as "a vicar's son" and the "prime suspect." Ablewhite's claim to fame is a 9-month prison term for a "paint-and-stones" attack on the home of an animal-rights target. His victim was the brother of Brian Cass, a beleaguered Huntingdon Life Sciences executive whom SHAC activists had beaten with baseball bats the year before.

American militants with connections to SHAC -- including long-time Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine spokes-doctor Jerry Vlasak -- have been mum about the heinous tactic of disturbing a target's final resting place. Given Vlasak's disregard for the value of human life, we wouldn't presume he regards human death with much reverence either.

The same can be said of PETA's Bruce Friedrich, who acknowledged last weekend at an animal-rights conference in Berkeley, California, that he wants PETA to "obtain a human corpse [and] go and barbecue one … I actually think it'll be spectacular once we do it." [click here: http://consumerfreedom.com/downloads/reference/audio/041105_friedrichCorpse.mp3 ]. And last year PETA president Ingrid Newkirk told The New Yorker that her Last Will and Testament provides that "the 'meat' of my body, or a portion thereof, be used for a human barbecue."

Animal rights and environmental extremists use intimidation and violence to achieve their ends
Animal rights and environmental extremists no longer limit themselves to demonstrations, publicity stunts and radical legislative proposals. Today they embrace physical assaults, vandalism, harassment, theft, property destruction, and terrorism to achieve their ends. Over the past two decades these attacks have mushroomed into the following events:

October 17, 2004 Burton, Staffordshire, England: Animal rights fanatics have threatened to dig up the remains of a second person connected to Darley Oaks guinea pig farm. A letter to an elderly cleaner, who has worked at the farm, contained threats to desecrate the grave of her husband. The letter was intercepted by the police who routinely open the mail to the Hall family and people connected with them. Animal rights extremists have also sent hate mail claiming they are in possession of the remains, stolen earlier this month, of the mother of one of the owners of the farm. They further stated that they will not return the remains of Gladys Hammond until the Hall family stop breeding guinea pigs for medical research.

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October 12, 2004 Long Island, NY – Letter of Intimidation

October 12, 2004 Long Island, NY – The Animal Defense League - Long Island, received the following letter sent by ALF. In publicizing the letter ADL-LI states “…However the ADL - LI supports all forms of direct actions with the exception of violence towards any human or non-human animal.

It has become sad commentary that afinities have had to resort to these measures. No matter how uncomfortable the following read may be please remember that while Shankar and his family rest comfortably in their homes 70,000 animals are waiting to be tortured and killed inside Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The ALF are freedom fighters, not terrorists!

Copy of the letter:

A letter sent to Shankar Hariharan, the entire Forest Labs Management, and Par Pharmaceuticals: "We have been watching and following you Shankar, your wife Puspha, and your kid Ram. We've followed you to and from Forest Labs, xxx Commerce Drive, Hauppauge. We were watching you when you bought your new Mercedes-Benz. Wewent inside and told them they were accepting money from a murderer, and allowing a killer to drive from his home to the vivisection lab to kill animals. They were very sympathetic. Almost too sympathetic: Vehicle Id: WDBNG84J34A41xxxx. We even know the person who sold you the car - Helen Lamb (631 xxx-xxxx ex 23 hlamb@competitionbmw.com).

We've followed you again when you've gotten oil changes at the dealership (Competition BMW at xxx East Jericho Turnpike in Smithtown). One of the workers took down your plate number, memorized it, and said that if he ever gets the opportunity to work on your car, he's putting something other than new oil in it.

Puspha, we were spying on you the whole time you were in Macy's at the Smith Haven Mall and several times when you went to Sunny Farms (xxxx Jericho Tpke). We talked to the technician (Danny West) from Suburban Exterminating Service when they came to your house on June 15th. We followed you to the OB-GYN that day. We've seen you go into Starbucks. Your account number with 3M healthcare is HBWxxxx. We know about your account at Greenpoint Bank in Commack. Your credit card number is xxxxxxxxxxxx4265.

We've seen you go into your doctor's office (373 Route xxx) Esenbike Bek (NY lic no xxxxxx). We've contacted your doctor at 516 xxx-xxxx and told them about Forest's refusal to cut ties with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). Ourknowledge about your life has gotten a little to personal - we know you ****your wife with pink Durex condoms. Too bad the animals you poison will neverget to enjoy sex. Think about that the next time you're ****ing your ugly wife.

We realized you've left Forest now, so you can rest safe. Or can you? You left Forest to become the Chief Scientific Officer of Par Pharmaceuticals.

Since you have a history of using HLS, we suspect you might use them withyour new company. Hopefully you've got some brains! Want to really stop thestalking - convince your new company to come out with a press statement andpost it on your website (parpharm.com) informing us that Par Pharma willNEVER contract to Huntingdon Life Sciences/Life Sciences Research under anycircumstances. Or would you like us to talk to them for you? First we'llstart contacting them at work, and then at home. And we won't stop visitingthem or you. Save yourself and us the time.

WE KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU:

Shankar, Pushpa, and Ram
x Mike Lane
Smithtown, NY 11787
xxx xxx xxxx

end of comunique

-- Animal Defense League PO Box 1587 Huntington, NY 11743 ADL@riseup.net http://www.AnimalDefense.info http://www.InsideHLS.com

Note; xxxx substituted for actual phone numbers and addresses

October 10, 2004 Garrett County, Maryland: A group called “The Institute for Public Safety” sent a mass mailing of postcards to landowners in the county, suggesting that 40 percent of bear hunters are alcoholics, drug addicts or mentally unstable. The chairman of the group admitted they made up the statistic, and that they planned to mail more cards to landowners of the other county in the hunt area. Several animal rights groups have sued to stop Maryland’s bear hunt.

October 10, 2004 Philadelphia, PA: A major highway connecting the city to its western suburbs was shut down for several hours during rush hour as police and FBI bomb squads dealt with a metal box, with the letters ELF painted on the front, that was attached to an electricity transmission tower.

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