Preventing Agroterrorism

Preventing terrorism in the food industry
By Geni Wren Friday, April 30, 2010

Agriculture and our food supply is not immune from terrorism, however, the good news is that the potential remains lower than one might think. History shows us that agricultural or food supply terrorism has traditionally not worked that well.

Speaking at the Animal Agriculture Alliance meeting in Arlington, Va., this week, Homeland Security Today editor David Silverberg described some early attempts at livestock and food supply terrorism that failed. For instance, during World War I, there was a determined effort by the Germans to kill their enemies’ horses and mules with anthrax and glanders in Romania, Spain, Norway, Argentina and the U.S. “It was one of the largest and well-organized animal sabotage attempts,” explained Silverberg (who showed a WWI photo of a horse wearing a gas mask),” but it just did not work very well.”

During WWII, Japan had an active biological program against the Soviet Union in Mongolia. He said that Japanese agents used anthrax and rinderpest and in 1931 tried to poison a League of Nations delegation with cholera-tainted fruit. That effort also failed.

More recently in 1979, the Arab Revolutionary Council poisoned Israeli oranges with mercury, disrupting Israeli trade. The problem with that tactic is that is damaged other countries’ trade. “It showed the unpredictability of agroterrorism,” Silverberg said. “They got everyone mad at them and did not achieved their larger political objective.” Read More

Agroterrorism certainly needs to be taken seriously. Besides the examples given in this article, there are many others. The FBI’s number one domestic terrorist threat is the Animal Liberation Front. These folks have terrorized many farms and ranches across the country. Whether it’s turning livestock loose, destroying research facilities, or trying to kill researchers, they employ terrorism as their main weapon. Taking precautions and keeping our eyes open for suspicious behavior in rural areas is our first line of defense for our food supply. Unfortunately that is the world we live in today so everyone needs to be part of the solution.

Judge Calls Animal Activist A Terrorist

Animal-rights activist gets 2 years in prison

By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 02/04/2010 07:45:06 PM MST

Depending on who you believe, William James Viehl is either Harriet Beecher Stowe or a terrorist.

U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson voted for the latter and on Thursday sentenced Viehl to two years in prison for releasing hundreds of minks from a South Jordan farm.

"I don't know any better word for it than 'terror,'" Benson said during a long explanation of his decision. "It's a form of terrorism."

Viehl last year pleaded guilty to one count of damaging and interfering with animal enterprises. On Aug. 19, 2008, Viehl helped release about 425 female and 225 male minks from the farm.

Vehicles hit and killed seven, seven died of stress and 20 were never recovered, said the farm's owner, Lindsey McMullin. Viehl and his co-defendant also are accused of removing pedigree tags, forcing the McMullins to sell the females for their pelts rather than breeding them.

The bandits also spray painted "ALF," for Animal Liberation Front, on a barn and the words, "We are watching." Read More

The judge in this case made it very clear that this type of behavior is pure and simple terrorism. He also made it clear that his goal is to make sure the punishment is painful enough to discourage this type of terrorism from happening in the future. Unfortunately, there will probably be more of these terrorist acts in the future waged against family farmers and ranchers. Groups like the Animal Liberation Front actively recruit young people and brainwash them into thinking that it’s alright to kill people if you have to do it in order to save an animal. It’s the standard practice of terrorist groups around the world. The only thing that changes is who or what they are trying to “save”. If you have to wear a ski mask to carry out the activities of your group, then you are probably a terrorist. And so are those that support these organizations.

OSU Bows To Activist Threat

Animal rights vs. research: OSU halts anthrax study
By Sharon Schmickle Published Wed, Dec 9 2009 9:49 am

Worried about stepped up activity by militant animal-rights groups, administrators at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater abruptly cancelled an anthrax vaccine study that would have killed dozens of baboons.

"There are regrettably some violent acts committed by animal-rights groups, and the president felt we should take our breath here and not do this project just yet," OSU vice-president of research, Stephen McKeever, told the journal Nature.

In Oklahoma, the project, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and led by Shinichiro Kurosawa of Boston University School of Medicine, had been approved by the OSU animal-care committee in September and was awaiting review by the biosafety committee when OSU President Burns Hargis vetoed it, calling the study "controversial," Nature reported.

Kurosawa had hoped to use the OSU animal facility because it has the required level of biosafety containment for anthrax. Along with collaborators, he had planned to investigate the biochemical pathways that lead to death following anthrax infection, and to test an anthrax vaccine.

Read More

The real controversy here is the fact that the OSU President felt that a potential vaccine for anthrax that could save untold millions of lives wasn’t worth it. The lives of the baboons and the threats from animal rights activists won out over the greater good. The threat of an anthrax attack is very real in today’s world. It’s unfortunate that this decision will perpetuate that threat rather than end it.

Vandals Kill 3800 Pigs In Iowa

Suspected act of vandalism kills 3,800 Northwest Iowa pigs

By Dolly A. Butz dbutz@siouxcityjournal.com Posted: Monday, November 16, 2009

HULL, Iowa -- A suspected act of vandalism at a hog confinement near Hull that caused the deaths of thousands of pigs last week has puzzled authorities.

"We have no idea why somebody would do something like this," Sioux County Sheriff Dan Altena said Monday.

According to Altena, someone entered the facility, 2739 Highway 75, and intentionally turned off the confinement's airflow and alarm systems sometime during the overnight hours last Thursday, causing 3,800 pigs to suffocate.

"These confinements have an alarm system that if something goes bad with the air handling unit it telephones to a certain location," Altena said. "They shut down both of those."

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, owner Todd Hasche, of rural Rock Rapids, Iowa, called police and reported that all of the feeder pigs at the facility were dead and that someone had tampered with the confinement's airflow system. Read More

It’s almost hard to read this story. Farmers and ranchers put everything they have into taking care of their crops and livestock and then on a whim, some criminal comes along and destroys it all. Hopefully they catch whoever is responsible for this very soon. To go along with this, does anyone think HSUS will come in and offer a reward on this case? If someone intentionally killed a dog or a horse in this manner, they would have already done so. I guess I won’t hold my breath, but it shows the hypocrisy of this group.

Update:
The HSUS did finally come forward with the offer of a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of these criminals. Thanks to my friend Sarah at HSUS for sending me the information. Now if we could only get them to reverse their policy and stated goals of eliminating all animal agriculture and forcing a vegan diet on everyone.

ELF/ALF Members Considered Terrorists

Domestic crimes may be considered ‘terrorist’ acts
by David Ziemer
November 12, 2009
Wisconsin Law Journal

Radical environmentalists may not see themselves as terrorists, but asked whether a terrorism enhancement applies to their sentences for destroying government property, the Seventh Circuit found the issue clear cut.

On Nov. 9, the court affirmed application of U.S.S.G. 3A1.4 to members of the Earth Liberation Front who destroyed several research projects at a U.S. Forest Service facility in Rhinelander.

In 2000, the defendants, Katherine Christianson and Bryan Rivera, and two others entered the facility and damaged or destroyed more than 500 trees that were part of a genetic engineering experiment, either by cutting them down or girdling them. (“Girdling” consists of removing a strip of bark from around a tree’s entire circumstance, causing eventual death.)

Christianson and Rivera were implicated in 2007, when one of the other conspirators was arrested for the attempted bombing of the Michigan Tech University campus.

Before addressing the merits, Judge Manion cautioned, “ELF and its members are not to be confused with the typical environmental protestor denouncing and peacefully demonstrating against such things as nuclear power, strip coal mining, cutting old-growth timber, offshore drilling, damming wild rivers, and so on.”

Instead, Manion observed, “ELF’s members take their activism to unconscionable levels: since ELF’s inception in 1987, its members have been responsible for bombings, arson, vandalism, and a host of other crimes. In fact, between 2000 and 2005, 43 of the 57 reported terrorist attacks committed on American soil were done by ELF members or their sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front. ELF’s terror attacks have caused over fifty million dollars in damage to public and private property.” Read More

If you are going to use violence, property destruction or threaten a person’s life in the name of your environmental or animal rights cause, you are going to be labeled a terrorist and dealt with accordingly. There terrorists are finding that out and hopefully others in their groups will realize this isn’t a game.

Animal Rights Terrorists Threaten Univ. of MN Researcher

Group targets U of MN animal scientist
By JIM SPENCER, Star Tribune
November 9, 2009

University of Minnesota police have increased patrols near the home of a Medical School animal researcher after a posting on an animal rights activist website displayed his name and photograph and noted that "... we should not be surprised when the unconscionable violence inflicted upon animals is justifiably visited upon their tormentors."

The Internet posting went up late last week on the website NegotiationIsOver.com in reaction to a Star Tribune story about a multimillion-dollar national campaign by biomedical researchers, including U Prof. Dick Bianco, to increase lagging support for medical and scientific tests using animals.

"The university police are patrolling around my house now," said Bianco, an associate professor of surgery and director of experimental surgery. "The FBI is involved to assess the threat."

Read More

Just last week, Wayne Pacelle suggested to a crowd of HSUS supporters that the use of violence would help force their agenda across the country. Now we have vegan animal rights terrorists targeting a medical researcher at the University of Minnesota. Because university employees and their families at other campuses have been violently attacked, these threats are taken very seriously. These vegan animal rights terrorists have stated in the past that they will try to accomplish their goals by any means necessary, including life threatening violence. ~TH

HSUS, Pacelle Suggests Using Guns To Force Change

Quote of the Week
Oct 30, 2009
Center for Consumer Freedom

Last night in Los Angeles, Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) president Wayne Pacelle showed why he’s been able to turn a group that sounds as if it’s all about protecting puppies and kittens into an animal-rights lobbying force with talons. He’s looking to sink those talons into people who have the audacity to eat or sell meat, wear leather, go to circuses, or enjoy hunting and fishing – in other words, 99 percent of America.

In front of a hand-picked crowd of HSUS supporters who attended last night’s “town hall meeting” at the Ebell of Los Angeles, Pacelle rallied the troops with a fight song:

"We have to create a clamor for change ... You can get further with a kind word and a gun than a kind word alone."

He attributed the latter quote to notorious gangster Al Capone, who seems like an odd inspiration for a supposedly peaceful movement. But animal-rights extremists are far from peaceful. One of Pacelle’s own staffers, Josh Balk, told the HSUS-sponsored “Taking Action For Animals” that “there are very few instances that companies just refuse to move with a friendly conversation … The animals can’t wait for people to come to a revelation themselves. Sometimes it does take force.”

HSUS sounds more and more like PETA and the terrorist Animal Liberation Front every day.
It’s been well documented that HSUS spends only a tiny fraction – less than four percent – of its budget directly funding animal shelters. If you’re wondering how it spends the other roughly $100 million in its budget every year, you might consider the cost of renting out the posh Wilshire Ebell Theatre, providing the supporters-only crowd with a catered coffee service, and hiring four burly security guards to keep out the riff-raff.

Sorry, Wayne. We got in anyway. Link

For someone who constantly tries telling the ag community that they aren’t trying to eliminate animal agriculture, it seems quite odd that he would be advocating the use of violence to do so. Apparently the HSUS is prepared to use violence against anyone who disagrees with them on animal rights.

AR Terrorists Illegal Activities Confirmed By Courts

Virtual Sit-Ins Doom Online Animal Rights Activists
By David Kravets
October 16, 2009

Setting aside claims of vagueness, a divided federal appeals court is upholding the constitutionality of the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, a statute that makes it a crime to encourage “physical disruption” or “economic damage” against animal-research centers.

Thursday’s decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (.pdf) was the first time an appellate court has grappled with the free speech issues raised by the law, reviewing the case of radical animal-rights activists who were convicted in 2006 of using e-mail and websites to encourage violence — including bombings — against a New Jersey animal-research center, its shareholders, office holders, bankers and others affiliated with it.

The six ranking members of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty group, some of whom were sentenced to up to six years in prison, argued that the 2002 statute, amended in 2006, has a chilling effect on speech because of its ambiguity.

The defendants maintained that, among other things, they simply espoused protests and released names and addresses of people who should be subject to protests, in a bid to pressure change at New Jersey’s Huntingdon Life Sciences. The company tests mice, rats, dogs, monkeys and guinea pigs for big pharma, agribusiness, veterinarians and medical-implant companies.

The court noted that “political hyperbole” or advocating violence that is not imminent and unlikely to occur is protected. But speech that constitutes a “true threat” is not. Read More

The vegan animal rights terrorists that continue to believe violence is going to help their cause are finding out that might not be the case. It seems the courts agree that it’s illegal to list names, addresses, and the time of day, along with the suggested physical violence to perform against individuals. And thankfully, law enforcement officials realize the threat these people pose. The message has been sent loud and clear that animal rights terrorism isn’t going to be tolerated in this country.

Researchers Not Afraid of Animal Rights Terrorists

Researchers to animal-rights activists: We're not afraid
By Thomas G. Watkins CNN

(CNN) -- Three research scientists have taken a rare public stand against animal-rights activists, describing them as terrorists for their threats and acts of violence in commentaries published in the latest issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

Since 2003, "we have seen our cars and homes firebombed or flooded, and we have received letters packed with poisoned razors and death threats via e-mail and voice mail," wrote Dario L. Ringach, a professor of neurobiology and psychology, and J. David Jentsch, a professor of psychology. They work at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Adding insult to injury, misguided animal-rights militants openly incite others to violence on the Internet, brag about the resulting crimes, and go as far as to call plots for our assassination 'morally justifiable,' " they wrote.

In telephone interviews with CNN, both men said they had been subject to harassment, threats and violence.

Last March, "they blew up my car while it was parked in front of my home at 4 a.m.," said Jentsch, who uses rodents and nonhuman primates in his research into how brain chemistry influences mental disorders. His 2006 Volvo was destroyed.

The Animal Liberation Brigade, which took responsibility for the attack in a Web site posting, announced "when we come back, it's not going to be the car, hint, hint," Jentsch said.

He said an FBI investigator described the incendiary device as "sophisticated."

"We have to take them on directly"

The practice long followed by many researchers of keeping quiet and hoping the activists will go away does not work, said the 37-year-old scientist. "We have to take them on directly; that's what we plan to do ... I'm not going to be afraid of these people; they're thugs." Read More

This is the second story this week where previous victims of these vegan animal rights terrorists have stood up and publicly announced that they aren’t going to be intimidated by them. The reason they are doing this is because they know the work they are doing with life-saving medical research is that important. This is the type of work that in the past has led to history changing breakthroughs and improved the lives of billions of people. Obviously it’s not easy, but these people are doing the right thing and my hat is off to them.

IA Hog Farmers Dodging Bullets

Bullets add to hog farmers' worries
By Elizabeth Ahlin
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER


A bad year for western Iowa hog farmers just got worse.

After months of consistent economic losses because of dropping hog prices and lower demand for pork, they can now add “shooting target” to their list of woes.

Several liquid propane tanks on hog farms have been hit by bullets from a high-caliber rifle, Calhoun County Sheriff Bill Davis said Monday.

The shooter or shooters appear to target hog farms in Sac and Calhoun Counties. All of the propane tanks that were fired upon were near modern, indoor hog barns, Davis said.

To date, no one has been injured, but the practice is extremely dangerous, said Aaron Putze, executive director of the Coalition to Support Iowa Farmers.

Speculation abounds as to what is behind the shootings. Are they some sort of prank? The action of ecoterrorists? Or something different entirely? Authorities have not named a motive or a suspect.

The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for vandalism to an animal laboratory at the University of Iowa in 2004 and for the release of minks from an Iowa farm in 2002 and 2000. A spokeswoman for the group does not believe ALF is involved in the shootings. Read More

While it’s unknown who is doing this, the fact that these attacks have only been against family farmers who use modern production methods would suggest that it could be some animal rights activists. It also fits in with the mentality of those groups who value the life of an animal more than they do people. Either way, these families shouldn’t have to be worried about being shot at while taking care of their livestock. Hopefully those that are responsible are caught very soon before they hurt someone.