Free Republic

IN 1999, as a writer for The American Prospect, I went into a slaughterhouse undercover, with the help of some rebellious employees. The floor was slick with the residue of blood and suet, and the air smelled like iron. A part of my brain spent the whole time trying to remember which of Dante’s circles this scene most resembled. Today, under legislation being pushed by business interests, that bit of journalistic adventure could earn me a criminal conviction and land me on a registry of “animal and ecological terrorists.” So-called ag-gag laws, proposed or enacted in about a dozen states,...

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block condemned violence by animal rights activists in a university statement last week after two vehicles were torched outside of a Los Angeles home on Nov. 20. Students and Workers for the Liberation of UCLA Primates claimed responsibility for the attack which targeted a UCLA researcher. “Through these reprehensible tactics and reckless behavior, anti–animal research extremists demonstrate repeatedly that they are willing not only to risk the lives of those who spend their careers working to help others but also the lives of the unsuspecting general public, including children,” Block said in a UCLA statement. An improvised...

The sixties sex symbol said that Republican John McCain's running mate was "disconcertingly stupid" and that she hoped she would lose the November 4 presidential elections. Referring to Mrs Palin's now famous self-portrait as a "pitbull with lipstick", Mrs Bardot – who runs an animal rights foundation – said: "I know dogs well and I can assure you that no pitbull, no dog, nor any other animal is as dangerous as you are." "I hope you lose these elections because that would be a victory for the world," she went on. "By denying the responsibility of man in global warming,...

It's not the rabbit fur of the '60s or the big brushed pelts of the '70s and '80s. But fur is back. Just look at Canadian actor William Shatner. The Fur Council of Canada says the industry set records last year with $2 billion in sales across North America. Fur has become the new mark of cool. And the one demographic that's pushing the trends is twenty- and thirtysomethings. The people who follow the likes of P.Diddy and other hip-hop artists who have pushed fashion tastes toward beaver, or mink in a sheared look. Alan Herscovici, the council's executive director,...

<p>The federal indictment unveiled yesterday against Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is only part of a larger assault federal authorities have launched against alleged animal rights extremists and others behind what the FBI dubbed "special interest terrorism."</p> <p>"The FBI has made the prevention and investigation of animal rights extremists (and) eco-terrorism ... a domestic terrorism investigative priority," said John E. Lewis, a deputy assistant FBI director in counterterrorism.</p>