Another Anti-Rodeo Action

In October, Action for Animals (AFA) and In Defense of Animals (IDA) filed an injunction seeking to keep the San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Alameda Unified School District from taking kindergarten through eighth-grade kids to the Grand National Rodeo. An alert from one of the radical animal-rights groups stated that: “Student attendance at the event is not only traumatic, it is also against the law. The California Education Code requires that teachers and teaching materials promote “the humane treatment of living creatures.”

(You have to feel just a little sorry for people who view circuses and rodeos as ‘traumatic events’. Maybe one day they’ll get a real life! In the meantime, riders, ropers, stock producers, circus owners, animal trainers, etc.: you need to start banding together to educate the public -- including school kids -- and to promote and police your industry, because these people don’t give up. -Ed.) 

The Sky is Falling... Again

“Given the severity of the biodiversity crisis, with extinction rates at 1,000-10,000 times the natural rate of extinction, effective action needs to be taken to address the devastation of native species. The focal species approach is one powerful way to address this crisis,” states the Forest Guardians‘ online newsletter.

Their solution? Quit managing for individual species, and manage on a landscape scale. Listing as ‘threatened or endangered species‘ ‘focal species’ (which it defines as ‘keystone, umbrella, and indicator plants and animals’) such as the black-tailed prairie dog and lesser prairie chicken could stop or decrease human actions on hundreds of thousands of acres at once and “safeguard extensive natural systems that are under assault and in decline...” asserts the radical organization.

(Preservationist organizations continually use this “extinction rates at 1,000-10,000 times the natural rate” without deigning to name even 100 species that have become extinct in the last decade. And gullible folks evidently continue to swallow this line. If you hear a radical environist use this line, please pin him/her down. Exactly which species have gone extinct? And exactly what is the “natural rate” of extinction? -Ed.)  

“...we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun

to implement justice, and provide the

needed protection for our planet ...”

(Excerpted from ELF communique, September 3, 2002)  

ELF Destroys Again

(The ELF “Press Office” released the following communique. It shows very well how far these radicals are prepared to go. -Ed.)

The Earth Liberation Front is claiming responsibility for the 8/11/02 arson attack on the United States Forest Service Northeast Research Station in Irvine, Pennsylvania.

The laboratory was set ablaze during the early morning hours, causing over $700,000 damage, and destroying part of 70 years worth of research. This lesson in “prescribed fire” was a natural, necessary response to the threats posed to life in the Allegheny Forest by proposed timber sales, oil drilling, and greed driven manipulation of Nature.

This facility was strategically targeted, and if rebuilt, will be targeted again for complete destruction. Furthermore, all other U.S. Forest Service administration and research facilities, as well as all DCNR buildings nationwide should now be considered likely targets.

These agencies continue to ignore and mislead the public, at the bidding of their corporate masters, leaving us with no alternative to underground direct action. Their blatant disregard for the sanctity of life and its perfect Natural balance, indifference to strong public opposition, and the irrevocable acts of extreme violence they perpetrate against the Earth daily are all inexcusable, and will not be tolerated. If they persist in their crimes against life, they will be met with maximum retaliation.

In pursuance of justice, freedom, and equal consideration for all innocent life across the board, segments of this global revolutionary movement are no longer limiting their revolutionary potential by adhering to a flawed, inconsistant “non-violent” ideology. While innocent life will never be harmed in any action we undertake, where it is necessary, we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice, and provide the needed protection for our planet that decades of legal battles, pleading, protest, and economic sabotage have failed so drastically to achieve.

The diverse efforts of this revolutionary force cannot be contained, and will only continue to intensify as we are brought face to face with the oppressor in inevitable, violent confrontation. We will stand up and fight for our lives against this iniquitous civilization until its reign of TERROR is forced to an end - by any means necessary.

In defense of all life, Pacific E.L.F.

(Distributed by FRONTLINE - NEWS, www.animalliberation.net) 

Environists Burn Vehicles

The Associated Press reported on January 4 that the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is suspected of the arson that destroyed three SUVs and a nearby car at a Pennsylvania auto dealership. A posting on the ELF website said that the attack targeted SUVs “to remove the profit motive from the killing of the natural environment.” Jugs of gasoline were put under six vehicles, but three failed to ignite.

FBI Special Agent Bob Rudge said that “I have no reason to doubt that it’s an individual who committed the acts on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front.” The FBI considers the Earth Liberation Front one of the nation’s most prolific domestic terrorist organizations. Over the past year, its name has been attached to a string of vandalism in Pennsylvania.

Last month, the group’s Web site said ELF members and cells from the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) set a Nov. 26 fire at a mink farm in Erie. The fire destroyed a barn, but no animals or people were harmed. The group also claimed responsibility for an Aug. 11 fire at an unoccupied forest research station near Warren and the torching in March of a construction crane at a bridge work site in Erie, Rudge said. 

It’s a Wilderness Out There!

A recent analysis of global wilderness areas produced the surprising conclusion that 46% of the Earth is largely uninhabited, occupied by only 2.4 per cent of the world’s population. The study, conducted by over 200 scientists led by Conservation International, found that the “wilderness areas” encompassed “a landmass equivalent to the six largest countries on Earth combined---Russia, Canada, China, United States, Brazil and Australia, but have within them the population of only three large cities,” said Russell Mittermeier, a primatologist and president of Conservation International.

The report was welcome news to Western Republican lawmakers. “Clearly this report debunks the sky is falling when it comes to protecting our environment. I am always pleased when sound science and research defeats liberal political science and hyperbole,” said Rep. Scott McInnis (R-CO), chairman of the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. Calling it a ‘sad day for environmentalists’, Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA), said: “I guess the world isn’t coming to an end after all. Send Greenpeace and the Sierra Club my condolences.”

(Source: www.libertymatters.org)

(Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, a major donor to Conservation International, bankrolled part of this study. Last year, Moore bemoaned the fact that his favorite vacation spots around the world were becoming developed, evidently preferring that their native populations remain poor and illiterate. According to this study, 68 million square kilometers is undeveloped and mostly unpopulated. We doubt that this is the outcome that Moore anticipated. -Ed.) 

No Takers for Anti-SUV Ads

Scripps Howard News Service reports that TV stations in New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles are refusing to air ads that link driving SUVs with supporting terrorism. The article by Joan Lowy asserts that “The media campaign is part of a growing national backlash against SUVs, which now account for 27 percent of the U.S. car market.”

In truth, however, the ‘backlash’ seems to be coming from radical environmentalists whose aim is to reduce people to walking, riding bicycles, or packing themselves into sardine-can vehicles. So far, their ‘save the world’ hype has not convinced people to stop driving vehicles with metal doors and leg room. So they’re changing tactics; now, they are claiming that SUVS use too much gas (average 20.7 mpg versus 27.5 for cars), and that buying that extra gas supports terrorists.

Eron Shosteck, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, responded in the article: “Eighty percent of refined oil (used in the United States) comes from outside the Persian Gulf. We as an industry are doing our part by offering consumers choices. We offer more than 30 different models that get 30 miles to the gallon or better, but very few consumers buy them.”

Well, there’s a good reason most people don’t buy them. We want safety for our families, comfort, speed, and versatility. And we know that there’s plenty of oil and that using it doesn’t destroy the environment. As for supporting terrorism, maybe that should be a reason to drill for oil at home!

AOL offered video clips of the ads and ran a viewer poll: 68% of the over 100,000 respondents said that all the ads have is shock value, and 32% said that the ads make a valid point. Is it ‘wrong’ to drive an SUV? About 72% of respondents said ‘no, they’re useful vehicles; only 28% said ‘yes, they’re unsafe and wasteful.’

There were over a thousand comments on AOL’s chat site about the SUV ads, ranging from ‘How come no one’s picking on the Rolls and Bentleys?’ and ‘I’ll drive whatever I want’ to “We have become a country of fat, greedy people who think that just because we are Americans we can do whatever we damn well please, without regard to the rest of the world. It is time we all made some sacrifices for the good of the entire planet.”

(If the planet really needed sacrifices, most of us would probably bite the bullet. However, it’s not necessary, so DON’T FEEL GUILTY! Enjoy your SUVs, air conditioners, boats, 4-wheelers, and refrigerators! -Ed.)

Critical Habitat Bugs Landowners

A new federal report estimates that it will cost $22.1 million to preserve habitat for bugs and spiders that live exclusively in Bexar County, Texas caves. U.S. Fish and Wildlife is proposing 9,516 acres as critical habitat for the insects, claiming they are essential to the well-being of the Edwards Aquifer. The $22.1 million is what it is estimated to pay for the land, but Gene Dawson Jr., president of Pape Dawson Engineering, says he thinks the cost will far exceed the estimation.

However, the government will attempt to keep its costs down by trying to get as many landowners as possible to sign conservation easements and set aside land for preserves. This method forces landowners to shoulder the burden of the costs and hire consultants to help obtain necessary federal permits to develop their own property.

And, in another situation involving cave bugs, GDF Realty v. Gale Norton is attempting to find the “take” provision of the Endangered Species Act unconstitutional. Oral argument was heard before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in November and a decision is expected in early spring. In that case, six listed bugs in a dozen sinkholes have held up development of 116 acres for over 15 years.

(Source: www.libertymatters.org | 22 March 2003 | 11:00AM)