When Does Activism Become Terrorism?

Wed Mar 20 21:38:02 GMT 2002

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi,

This guy is a real right-wing, wise-use asshole, but the story's interesting 
given the use of 'terrorism' tag on animal rights activists -- pretty much as 
the FBI wished it would happen without a prosecution taking place!

P.

- - -----

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,47951,00.html

Friday, March 15, 2002
By Steven Milloy

Should a second-year law student know better than to get mixed up with 
domestic terrorists, get arrested and then risk violating the terms of his 
bail  especially since dad is a prominent federal lawyer? 

Though the term "duh" springs to mind, "just do it" seems to have been the 
thinking of University at Buffalo Law School student  and animal rights 
extremist  Bryan Pease. 

His inability to resolve this simple problem begs the question of how well 
Pease and his compatriots have thought through their activities.

Our tale begins last Dec. 5, when members of the Animal Liberation Front 
classified by the FBI as a domestic terrorist group burglarized the North 
Rose, N.Y., facility of Marshall Farms USA Inc., stealing 30 beagles and 10 
ferrets. 

Marshall Farms is one of the largest breeders of animals used in life-saving 
medical research conducted at pharmaceutical company, university and 
government laboratories. 

Though no arrests were made, ALF claimed credit for the attack and threatened 
more. 

On Feb. 21, Pease was arrested at 1:15 a.m. while dressed in full camouflage 
for trespassing on Marshall Farms' property by a K-9 unit of the Wayne County 
Sheriff's Department. 

Pease was interrogated by the New York State Police Counter Terrorism 
Intelligence and released on bail again. 

Pease had been arrested previously in Conway, Ark., the month before, on Jan. 
14, and charged with commercial burglary, third-degree battery enhanced by 
violent criminal group activity, criminal mischief, resisting arrest, and 
fleeing. 

Police say Pease and other animal rights thugs stormed the offices of 
Stephens Inc., an Arkansas investment firm, through the back door and began 
kicking employees and destroying property. 

Stephens apparently earned the wrath of Pease and gang by helping rescue from 
bankruptcy Huntingdon Life Sciences, a British medical testing company that 
uses animals. 

Law student Pease may soon get more first-hand experience with the legal 
process. The Conway prosecutors' office says it will investigate and commence 
proceedings to revoke Pease's bail. 

Neither Pease's father, the chief civil attorney in the U.S. Attorney's 
Office for the Northern District of New York, nor University at Buffalo Law 
School Dean R. Nils Olsen Jr. would comment. 

Dean Olsen didn't even know that one of his budding lawyers seemed to be a 
serial criminal. 

Not everyone is as tongue-tied as Pease's elders. 

A spokesperson for the 63-year-old, family-owned Marshall Farms pointed out 
the value of medical testing that involves its specially bred dogs. 

Many cardiac procedures and devices, including by-pass surgery, angioplasty, 
pacemakers, and replacement valves and arteries, were developed through 
testing on dogs. Cardiac surgeons train using dogs. Research identifying 
insulin as the key hormone for sustaining diabetics was conducted with dogs. 

All drugs, including veterinary drugs, and many other consumer products must 
be tested on non-rodent animals  typically dogs, pigs or monkeys  before 
use. Safe levels of exposure to pesticides for farm workers and in food are 
established through dog testing. 

Marshall Farms is in good standing with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
which establishes and enforces rules for the proper care of animals raised 
for lab research. 

It's too bad the same can't be said of ALF's care of the animals stolen from 
Marshall Farms. 

One of the dogs "liberated" was later found abandoned in West Palm Beach, 
Fla., thin and hungry raising questions about the claims that ALF never 
injures animals and that the animals stolen from Marshall Farms will never 
have to endure "brutal conditions."

ALF, whose members are anonymous to shield them from prosecution, says it's 
non-violent. But Pease, an ALF sympathizer at least, was charged in Arkansas 
with violent crimes. 

While a student at Cornell University, Pease promoted a speech by an Animal 
Defense League member on the "historical uses of violence in liberation 
movements." Pease advocated the wearing of ski masks at a protest to show of 
solidarity with ALF and supported Mumia Abu-Jamal, the political activist who 
murdered a Philadelphia policeman. 

Pease has jeopardized his own legal career even before it begins and 
embarrassed his prominent attorney-father and law school. But this pales in 
comparison to the violent criminal he seems to be growing into and the threat 
that ALF represents to progress in medical research. 

Perhaps that's something young Pease might contemplate in the prison cell he 
may soon occupy.

Steven Milloy is the publisher of JunkScience.com , an adjunct scholar at the 
Cato Institute and the author of Junk Science Judo: Self-defense Against 
Health Scares and Scams (Cato Institute, 2001).

- - -- 
- - -------------------

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for
this party nor against the other but we are for justice and mercy and
truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation,
and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity
with God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burroughs, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations,
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864

email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey.html
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/keylist.html

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.4 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE8mQE6tEaNwM05jx0RAnYLAJ9A5d/zhDlAdRHyDymoTeK8U79/8QCgtIN7
pUdPDS6AOTw5KeYcrykmRI4=
=NFJJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----