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Animal rights activists are behind the burning of cattle trucks at the Harris Ranch truck lot early Sunday, according to a statement from the purported arsonists. The statement, released Monday, describes how the fire, which heavily damaged 14 tractors and several trailers, was set and says the attack was aimed at "the horrors of factory farming." Spokeswoman Nicoal R. Sheen of the Animal Liberation Press Office, which released the statement, said the office doesn't take part in illegal actions but distributes communiqués from those who do. Fresno County sheriff's spokesman Chris Curtice said detectives are looking into the claim. He...

Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons has a message for those outraged by a four-minute video of an elephant hunt in Zimbabwe on his Go Daddy video site. More Video Watch: Hunter Illegally Kills Bear Using Pastries Watch: Nat Geo: Leopard Queen Watch: Hole Rips in Roof of Plane"I think if you had all the facts and you knew exactly what was going on and the difference it makes in these people's lives there," he told ABC News Radio, "you'd feel completely different." Parsons has said he participated in the hunt because the elephants were a nuisance destroying crops the local...

Maria Neal, 21, was part of a gang which attacked four branches in Hampshire in 2008 by daubing graffiti including the words "murderers" and "scum" on doors and gluing post boxes and cash machine slots. .... Miss Neal has the online identity "vegan23" on the website myspace. On it, she lists her reasons for wanting to defend animals and claims her aim is to become a political leader and cites her mood as "mischievous". ..."im very in to all aspects of animal rights! im anti everything that inflicts creuelty upon innocent animals as everyone should be. things such as using...

Even after parting ways with Gerald Posner, Tina Brown's internet concern hasn't kept its eyes off South Florida. Says Martin Mersereau, director of PETA's Emergency Response Division: "The last thing we need is a clumsy and crude massacre of these animals who, through no fault of their own ...ended up abandoned in the Florida wilds. If we need to get rid of these animals, they need to be rounded up and euthanized by qualified wildlife experts. Don't put a bounty on their heads and expect every yahoo with an itchy trigger finger to do this right."

The House Resources and Conservation Committee approved House Bill 531aa 13 to 3. This important legislation, sponsored by Representative Judy Boyle (R-Midvale), would amend Idaho’s existing law to limit public access to Fish and Game records of issued tags. HB 531aa would also prohibit future harassment, intimidation and threats relating to the lawful taking and control of fish and wildlife. As the law currently stands any person or organization can contact Fish and Game and request the names of all people who have been issued tags and what type of hunting tag they have been issued. Groups like PETA and...

PETA is calling on the Boy Scouts of America to retire its "Fishing" and "Fish and Wildlife Management" merit badges (to read PETA's letter to Milton H. Ward, president of the Boy Scouts of America, click here). Fishing is no longer considered a benign activity. It is hunting in the water, and the idea of a scout armed with a gun or rod, setting out to actively attack animals who were minding their own business, is not in keeping with the image of scouting, now or in the past. Fishing is also inconsistent with the Boy Scout law, which states,...

YERINGTON, Nev. — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling for the cancellation of a Nevada school's donkey basketball fundraiser, saying it teaches students cruelty to animals. PETA has posted an action alert on its Web site asking supporters to contact Lyon County School School District Superintendent Caroline McIntosh and urge her to cancel the March 1 event at Yerington High School. PETA contends that donkeys ridden by players in the offbeat games are often dragged, kicked, or hit by stray balls, and are sometimes seriously injured in falls.

The West Hollywood City Council has put an end to sales of dogs and cats in pet stores. In an ordinance that passed unanimously Tuesday night, sales of animals in stores are now prohibited in the city. The ordinance, unanimously approved at its first reading a few weeks ago, is just the latest piece of animal-welfare legislation the city has taken up. In 2003, West Hollywood became the first city in the country to outlaw the declawing of cats. The new law, called the Ordinance Prohibiting the Sale of Dogs and Cats in Companion Animal Stores, is aimed at curtailing...

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. — An animal rights group wants organizers of Pennsylvania's Groundhog Day festival to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic stand-in.

MEXICO CITY – Some 250 members of the AnimaNaturalis animal rights group staged a protest half-naked and covered with fake blood against bullfighting and to demand the prohibition of the practice in Mexico on the esplanade of Mexico City’s Fine Arts Palace. “Youths from all the states of Mexico, half-naked, covered with blood and with ‘banderillas’ sticking in them showed (on Saturday) with this demonstration the suffering that the bulls are subjected to in the bullfights,” Leonora Esquivel, one of the leaders of the organization in Mexico, said on Saturday. The “banderillas” are the long barbed darts bullfighters stick into...

CHICAGO (AP)—Friends of Animals posted an open letter to U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir criticizing him for having fox fur on one of his costumes and asking him to stop wearing fur... “I totally get the dirtiness of the fur industry and how terrible it is to animals. But it’s not something that’s the No. 1 priority in my life,” Weir said on Tuesday. “There are humans dying everyday. There are thousands if not millions of homeless people in New York City. Look at what just happened in Haiti. “I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause,...

CHICAGO (AP)—Friends of Animals posted an open letter to U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir criticizing him for having fox fur on one of his costumes and asking him to stop wearing fur. The animal advocacy group also contacted his costume designer, Stephanie Handler, on Tuesday.

Johnstown, PA (GlossyNews) – Local and state police scoured the hills outside rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after reports of three animal rights activists going missing after attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend. Two others, previously reported missing, were discovered by fast food workers “duct taped inside several fast food restaurant dumpsters,”

INDIANAPOLIS -- An animal rights group figures if KFC can use fire extinguishers and hydrants to promote its chicken in Indianapolis, it should be able to denounce cruelty to the birds on city fire trucks. People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals offered to donate $7,500 in a letter to Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard in return for advertising space on the vehicles, after the fast-food chain announced a deal this week to pay for fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in the city in exchange for advertising on them. The ad proposed by PETA shows a plucked and scalded chicken alongside...

Japanese vessel smashes into Sea Shepherd anti-whaling boat Ady Gil in Aussie waters. Sea Shephard wants police in Antarctica. Videos

Having defeated the Japanese fleet and faced down the Soviets, the U.S. Navy faces a new obstacle, one that hides behind a deceptively gentle, seagrass-munching façade. Manatees may rank lower than such traditional menaces as torpedoes and air-to-sea missiles. But a proposal to protect additional habitat for them, the Navy says, could end up reducing habitat for destroyers, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service soon will make a decision on whether to expand what's called critical habitat for the manatee in Florida and southern Georgia, in response to a petition from several environmental groups.

Two stars of the reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here" have been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly killing and cooking a rat to eat during filming. Chef Gino D'Acampo who won the viewer-feedback contest series, and actor Stuart Manning were charged after animal welfare activists lodged a complaint about a segment for the British TV program, which was filmed in Australia, the activists and British media reported Sunday. In a statement to The Associated Press, New South Wales state police said Sunday that two men, aged 33 and 30, were charged with animal...

A federal grand jury in Davenport is investigating a nationally publicized, animal-rights-related break-in at a University of Iowa lab in 2004, according to a 20-year-old woman from Minneapolis who says she is a possible target of the inquiry. Carrie Feldman refused to testify when she was subpoenaed to testify at the federal courthouse on Oct. 15, she said. She will refuse again at a second ordered appearance on Nov. 17, she said. Ultimately, she could be held in contempt of court and taken into custody. At least four masked people released hundreds of animals and caused hundreds of thousands of...

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is the smartest and richest animal rights group around.  Unlike PETA, it doesn’t openly proselytize that old animal rights religion, e.g., sentience gives moral value, “a rat, is a pig, is a dog, is a boy,” the quote from Ingrid Newkirk and title of a certain author’s soon to be published book. This strategy has been very effective, allowing HSUS a level of mainstream respectability that other animal rights groups can’t match.But make no mistake, HSUS is about animal rights–eventually ending all animal husbandry and human hegemony over fauna–and its head, Wayne...

Troutville, Va. (AP) - An animal rights group wants to rent a prison building the state plans to close and turn it into the nation's first chicken empathy museum. A People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals official sent a letter Monday to Gov. Tim Kaine asking to rent the Botetourt Correctional Center building in Troutville. Kaine spokeswoman Lynda Tran said the state doesn't lease to private entities except for cases grandfathered in when it purchases buildings.

Our proposed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein wants to ban hunting, animal agriculture and give animals the right to sue in court. His notion is that more can be accomplished by tweaking regulations like the Endangered Species Act to achieve his aims than straightforward attempts to give animals rights to sue in court and be represented by a lawyer as he has proposed. Senators Chambliss and Cornyn have put holds on his nomination, but they and our other representatives need to hear from us. The relevant part is 48 minutes into the video. You only need to listen to about two...

Within 12 months, the Japanese were killing more than 40,000 dolphins every year. Most were fed to children in school meals, with the rest being exported to China. Ironically, recent scientific research suggests that the Japanese authorities might be endangering the health of their own children through this practice. Dolphin meat is full of toxic mercury, cadmium, DDT and carcinogens such as dioxins and PCBs. Some cuts of dolphin meat have more than 5,000 times the safe level of mercury. Such levels can very quickly lead to severe nervous system problems and even insanity. The dolphin meat is so toxic...

Animal-rights activists plan to protest today against Camp Pendleton's use of live pigs in medical training for troops that they argue is antiquated and cruel but officials call life-saving. The demonstration comes on the heels of published reports that the base last week trained Marines at an avocado ranch in northeastern San Diego County owned by a retired Marine who is also an Escondido police officer. During the training, according to news accounts, 2- to 3-month-old pigs ranging from 140 to 200 pounds were sedated before instructors used scalpels to inflict wounds and then watched as Marines worked to keep...

Kids hoping to grab a Happy Meal from McDonald's might end up with PETA's Unhappy Meal instead. The animal rights organization lifted its moratorium on the McCruelty Campaign this year and since June has distributed Chicken McCruelty Unhappy Meals to McDonald's customers outside about a dozen restaurants around the country. "McDonald's markets its food to children by packaging it in brightly colored boxes with toys," Lindsay Rajt, a spokeswoman for PETA, tells Slashfood. "But most kids really love animals, and if they knew that McDonald's suppliers were breaking the wings and legs of gentle animals like chickens, I think that...

When General Electric Co. subsidiary GE Healthcare recently unveiled its plan to use human embryonic stem cells in its drug trials, the company proudly touted one of the plan's potential benefits: Using stem cells derived from the destruction of human embryos may make the experiments on rats unnecessary. "This could replace, to a large extent, animal trials," Konstantin Fiedler of GE Healthcare told a reporter, according to Reuters news agency. "Once you have human cells and you can get them in a standardized way, like you get right now your lab rats in a standardized way, you can actually do...

President Obama has appointed at least two Constitution wreckers as “czars” in his administration. Although Bill O’Reilly said on his show last night that these czars do not have any real power and are of little concern, I am not so sure. They demonstrate the dangerous journey that this president is taking us on, as he seeks to radically change our country’s 200 + years’ guarantee to “we the people” of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The first of these czars is Cass R. Sunstein, who is heading the White House Office of Information and...

The holiday home of Novartis chairman and CEO Daniel Vasella has been badly damaged by fire, a week after his mother's grave was desecrated by animal rights militants. Although police do not know who or what caused the fire early on Monday morning in the Tyrol, there is speculation that it is the work of the same group that took the urn of Vasella's mother on July 27. Her gravestone was defiled with a message saying the Basel pharmaceutical company must sever its ties with Britain's Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest contract animal-testing company in Europe. The recent attacks...

President Obama's choice to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs had Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, so upset that he blocked it - a move that puts only a temporary hold on the appointment. Now the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, a hunter advocacy group, says American sportsmen need to step in to make sure the block stays in place. According to the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, Cass Sunstein supports animal rights. This is an important office that has the authority to block rules, including those that protect hunting and conservation. The pro-hunting organization says Sunstein has mentioned the possibility that...

BERN, Switzerland – Drug maker Novartis AG said Tuesday that animal rights activists have stolen the ashes of its CEO's mother and set fire to his Austrian hunting lodge. Swiss authorities, however, said they didn't know who was behind the attacks. In the latest incident, CEO Daniel Vasella's Tyrollean lodge in Bach, Austria, was badly burned early Monday morning. "It was arson with a professional fire accelerator," Novartis spokeswoman Isabel Guerra said in Basel.

Glenn Beck reports that an animal-rights fanatic is on track to become President Obama’s regulatory czar. That individual is the radical legal theorist Cass Sunstein who has argued that: your money doesn’t really belong to you because the government laid the foundations for your success; Internet censorship is a good idea; animals should be allowed to sue people; (Snip) and Americans’ support for property rights and freedom of contract is an “incoherent” form “of so-called individualism.”

A consumer-freedom group says President Obama's nominee for "regulatory czar" is an "animal-rights zealot" who may make life difficult for hunters and meat-eaters. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) has placed a hold on the nomination of legal scholar Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Budget and Management. Cornyn is worried that the Harvard professor may push an aggressive animal-rights agenda in the White House. Sunstein has argued in favor of outlawing sport hunting and meat-eating, and written that animals should be allowed to file lawsuits "with human beings as their representatives." David...

Why Should This Photo Be Illegal? By Darren Warner Imagine going to the video store to rent a copy of your favorite hunting show, only to find the shelves bare. When you ask the clerk where they are, he tells you that the films are now illegal and that you can’t buy or rent them anymore.  This may sound like something out of 1984, but in United States v. Robert J. Stevens, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide this fall if photos like the one above, or video that shows hunters shooting at game, violate a 1999 federal law...

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is calling for tens of thousands of pythons believed to be in the Everglades to be hunted and killed, a proposal blasted by animal rights advocates. Nelson sent a letter on Tuesday to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, asking for permission to have deputized agents and volunteers kill as many of the snakes as possible during an organized hunt. The senator's request comes after a 2-year-old central Florida girl was strangled by an unlicensed pet python in her home.

Animal welfare activists threaten nation’s agriculture Producers need to tell their story By Elizabeth Barrett July 10, 2009 Clouds loom over agriculture today. According to Roger Berry, the average American is three generations removed from the farm while animal rights groups don’t understand the importance of animal agricultural. “We’re in danger of losing animal agriculture,” said Berry, the field director for the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture. Berry spoke to Gothenburg Rotarians at their noon meeting Monday at the Parlor Restaurant. A-FAN is a non-political organization formed to help Nebraska farmers and ranchers protect and preserve the quality of...

Chambliss blocks regulatory pick over animal lawsuits By Alexander Bolton Posted: 06/28/09 07:57 PM [ET] Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has blocked President Obama’s candidate for regulation czar, Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, because Sunstein has argued that animals should have the right to sue humans in court. Obama has picked Sunstein, his adviser and longtime friend, to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an office that has power to review and assess all draft regulations proposed within the administration. But Chambliss worries that Sunstein’s innovative legal views may someday lead to a farmer having to defend himself in...

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - According to a spokesman for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" (PETA), which recently decried President Obama's swatting of a fly during an interview, the organization urges "compassion even for the smallest and least of animals," but has no position on the killing of unborn human beings.A spokesman for the organization told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in an interview that it is "loathsome" and "grotesquely hypocritical" that pro-lifers oppose abortion, but are unconcerned about the mistreatment of chickens and other animals used in the food industry. Asked about PETA's criticism of President Barack Obama's killing...

Tuesday June 23, 2009 PETA Opposes Killing Flies, but Has No “Specific Position" on Killing of Unborn Humans: Spokesman Calls pro-lifers "loathsome" and "hypocritical" for not condemning mistreatment of chickens By Matthew Cullinan HoffmanWASHINGTON, June 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - According to a spokesman for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" (PETA), which recently decried President Obama’s swatting of a fly during an interview, the organization urges "compassion even for the smallest and least of animals," but has no position on the killing of unborn human beings.A spokesman for the organization told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in an interview that it...

PETA: Murder boys but not flies! Posted: June 20, 2009 By Humberto Fontova "Human beings often don't think before they act," laments PETA while explaining their reaction to President Obama's unthinking fly "execution." "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals." Close on the heels of their consciousness-raising campaign for fly compassion, PETA has launched a vegetarian campaign using Che Guevara's 24 year-old granddaughter, Lydia, dolled up in commie beret and topless, though strategically covered by twin bandoliers of carrots. "Join the Vegetarian Revolution!" reads the campaign's slogan, which will debut in Argentina (no...

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House. PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside. "We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals." During an interview for CNBC at the...

LONDON (AFP) — Beatles legend and famous vegetarian Paul McCartney was joined by John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono Monday to launch an appeal for "meat-free Mondays." McCartney said going vegetarian, even for just one day a week, was good for the environment because of research suggesting it cuts greenhouse gas emissions from the world's livestock population. "I thought this was a great idea. To just reduce your meat intake maybe by one day a week and this would seriously benefit the planet," he told reporters, alongside Ono and a bevy of other stars including Kelly Osbourne and Moby. Lennon's widow...

It was 4 o'clock in the morning when David Jentsch, a neuroscience professor at UCLA, awoke to a loud bang and the sound of his car alarm. He hurried to his bedroom window and saw the orange glow of his new Volvo luxury sedan burning in his yard. He suspected immediately that it was the work of animal rights activists. "Enough of my colleagues had been attacked that I had a feeling they were responsible," Jentsch said about the March 7 torching of his car. "Two days later the Animal Liberation Brigade took credit for it. The irony of the...

An American vegan who has made it his life’s mission to shut down a British animal-testing company has become the first domestic terrorist to be listed on the FBI’s most-wanted list of terror suspects. The name of Daniel Andreas San Diego, who is accused of carrying out the 2003 bombings of two US companies affiliated with Huntingdon Life Sciences, of Cambridgeshire, is listed alongside the likes of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Adam Yahiye Gadahn. San Diego, who is shown on the FBI’s most-wanted poster with short brown hair and glasses, is said to have several unusual tattoos that...

Solar Power Plant Construction Halted Due to Endangered Squirrel Discovery of the endangered red-cheeked squirrel has stopped construction of the world's largest solar power plant in southern California. (Dry Desert, California) The unexpected discovery of a nest of red-cheeked squirrels amidst the huge, partially constructed MegaPyre Solar Power plant has halted construction, casting doubt on the viability of what has been considered to be the environmentalist's crown jewel of renewable power facilities. The 20 gigawatt plant was expected to provide electricity to much of southern California, and was only 6 months away from completion when the nest of squirrels, which...

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — PETA is taking on what it describes as a new affront to animals: NASCAR fans doing the chicken dance. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked Guinness World Records Inc. on Monday to ignore an attempt to set a world record for the largest group chicken dance at the Talladega Superspeedway, site of the Aaron's 499 race on Sunday. The reason? KFC is the sponsor of the record attempt, and the animal rights group says the fast-food company is cruel to chickens. A KFC spokesman defended the company's treatment of animals and said it hoped...

The FBI on Tuesday will for the first time add the name of a domestic-terrorism suspect to its list of Most Wanted Terrorists, a post-Sept. 11 creation that until now has included only suspected Islamist terrorists, a law enforcement official told The Washington Times. Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old animal rights activist, is wanted in connection with the 2003 bombings of two companies in the San Francisco Bay Area linked to an animal-testing laboratory. San Diego will take his place on a list that has included notorious international terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri and Adam Gadahn,...

(AP) — LOS ANGELES -- As soon as he heard his car alarm blare and saw the orange glow through his bedroom window, University of California, Los Angeles neuroscientist J. David Jentsch knew that his fears had come true. His 2006 Volvo, parked next to his house on the west side of Los Angeles, had been set ablaze and destroyed in an early morning attack March 7. Jentsch had become the latest victim in a series of violent incidents targeting University of California scientists who use animals in biomedical research.

This is the terrifying moment a woman was attacked by a polar bear after jumping into its zoo enclosure. The 32-year-old leapt over bars at Berlin Zoo during the bears' feeding time yesterday. Despite six zookeepers' efforts to distract the four predators kept in the enclosure, the woman was bitten several times on her arms and legs. The brave keepers eventually managed to push the bear away and pull the woman to safety. She was bitten by one of the four older polar bears in the enclosure and not by the famous Knut, who took Germany by storm as a...

"Zoo keepers who saved the life of a woman who jumped into a polar bear enclosure at Berlin Zoo revealed on Monday that they were moments away from shooting the animals. Rifles had already been issued to marksmen and Heiner Kloes, a zoo spokesman, said: This woman's behaviour not only put her life in danger but also that of the staff who had to rescue her. However, we do have guns and we would have been prepared to use them without hesitation if it was felt it was the only way to save the woman. The woman known only as...

Hypocritical Animal Rights Group’s 2008 Disclosures Bring Pet Death Toll To 21,339 WASHINGTON DC – Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) published documents online showing that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed 95 percent of the adoptable pets in its care during 2008. Despite years of public outrage over its euthanasia program, the animal rights group kills an average of 5.8 pets every day at its Norfolk, VA headquarters. According to public records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 2,124 pets last year and placed only seven in adoptive homes....