News tidbits

Sorry I haven't updated in a week. Sometimes the rest of life can become quite busy. There has actually been quite a bit going on the wild, wacky, world of AR that deserves some mention.

First, some news from across the big pond that puts a smile on my face. The radical criminal AR group known has Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty ( SHAC ) has been denied a permit to solicit street donations on soccer match days. Police cited the fact that SHAC is a criminal organization that has been cited for 2,888 criminal incidents including blackmail by the leadership, harassment, improvised explosive devices, and property damage. Additionally, according to the report, SHAC's representative, Eileen Kinghorn, had not been truthful on the groups application for a solicitation permit, making the untrue statement that the group had never been investigated by police before. When one considers the breadth of SHAC's criminal activities, it certainly shouldn't come as any surprise that would have no qualms about lying on an application. That's choir boy stuff for a group like SHAC. Kudos to the Sunderland City Council for shutting out these thugs.

Also from the UK, there have been fewer protests and attacks at the homes of researchers and scientists. Police there report that AR criminal activity has declined in big way since they began a crackdown on AR-related crimes. A sweep of AR extremists in May netted 12 people so far being charged with AR extremism-related crimes. There's nothing quite like old-fashioned, hard-nosed, vigorous law enforcement to take a bite out of criminal activity.

Back over here in the good old U.S. of A., there is some refreshing news coming out of the Sunshine State. It appears that Florida is considering putting the inane "pregnant pig" amendment to the state constitution back to the voters for a possible repeal. Lawmakers want to convince the public of the negative economic impacts of the amendment, which bans the use of "gestation crates" for pregnant and nursing sows in hopes of possibly getting the amendment overturned. The amendment was passed in 2002 and backed by animal rights groups. This is good news considering that the campaign to get the amendment passed was an exercise in corruption by powerful out of state AR lobbies. The New-York based AR group Farm Sanctuary was fined $50,000 after being convicted of 210 counts of campaign finance fraud regarding the ballot initiative. Why no one from Farm Sanctuary went to jail for this kind of fraud, and why the election wasn't declared null and void because of such cheating, is beyond me, but hopefully soon, the damage might just get undone.


Finally, coming out of Arizona, is this news that the grossly misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a PeTA front group posing as a legitimate medical group, is suing the city of Chandler to stop the construction of a new lab facility owned by Covance, a research company that conducts animal testing. The city plans to fight the lawsuit, claiming it is without merit. What is surprising here is not that PCRM, a national group, would stick their noses into a local political matter, nor that they would resort to filing what is probably a frivolous lawsuit to get their way. What is surprising, and refreshing, is the very title of this article. It comes out and calls PCRM exactly what they are with no bones about it: an animal rights group. Kudos to the newspaper and the reporter for calling PCRM exactly what they are.


For some reason a couple of the links didn't take, so here they are:

Florida "pregnant pig" amendment story

Farm Sanctuary election fraud