Animal-Rights Activist Arrested at Gunpoint at Marine Center in Florida, Accused of ALF Affiliation

The pilot whale known as 300 rises on a stretcher Sunday at the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo for transport to SeaWorld in Orlando. The day before, Miamian Christopher Lagergren was arrested for trespass and vandalism at the conservancy.

A Miami police officer arrested animal rights activist Arnold Christopher Lagergren, 41 outside the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo, Florida on Saturday. The off-duty officer detained Lagergren at gunpoint after phone calls to police accused the man of taking pictures of the facility and tampering with a fence along the property.

Lagergren is charged with four misdemeanors for incidents at the marine center. Police reports accuse Lagergren of affiliation with the Animal Liberation Front.

The Marine Mammal Conservancy treats stranded dolphins and whales. The organization has come under criticism for turning two stranded pilot whales over to Sea World back in May.

Monroe County Court Judge Regan Ptomey set bonds totaling $30,000 on the four charges, according to court records.

“This is a very politically charged situation, obviously,” said Richard Wunsch, Lagergren’s defense attorney.

“It does raise concerns,” Wunsch said. “Anybody would wonder how you get hit with a $30,000 bond on four misdemeanors…”

Animal rights groups have criticized Sea World for its part in the captive whale and dolphin entertainment industry. The for-profit animal amusement park has been cited for  abuses of captive animals at its facilities.
For more information: KeysNet.com

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes: An Earth First! Film Review

by Russ McSpadden / Earth First! News

[The text of this work is free to share and distribute under the following Creative Commons License CC-BY-ND 3.0]

Thanks to a reel operator in a Scandinavian theater who kindly filmed the Rise of the Planet of the Apes for bootleg, the Earth First! Journal collective has had the opportunity to review the newest prequel in the film series.

While the characters and quality of plot are typical of Hollywood hogwash, some underlying themes and concepts of the film standout as worthy of discussion and excitement. Biotech, human supremacy, animal sentience, apes liberating themselves from labs, zoos, and pet-hood and defeating a fully armed riot squad of police, make for an ALF wet dream. Its a fantastical piece full of all the things the slightly misanthropic animal lover will love. PETA has come out and endorsed the film for its use of CGI apes, rather than living captive entertainment slaves, and its presentation of apes as sentient. I would guess a good bit of the endorsement is also subtle nod to the beautiful scenes of animals taking revenge on their human overlords.

Set in contemporary Bay Area, California, the film opens with an introduction to the world of capitalist biotech research on primates. The lead human character, Charles Rodman, who we as an audience are compelled to identify with, is a molecular researcher and vivisectionist searching for a cure to Alzheimers.  In the process of genetic tinkering, Rodman creates ALZ-112 and then ALZ-113, two gene therapy elixirs which consequently increase the cognitive function of apes beyond human cognitive development. As might be expected of capitalist ventures into genetic modification, ALZ-113 reacts adversely on humans. It promises, as is foreshadowed in the film, to infect and annihilate human existence.

The films central ape character, Caesar, is “saved” by Rodman and another primate handler, who nevertheless murders Caesar’s mother when an early test group fails to receive funding. Caesar is raised like a middle class child in the suburbs, learns to write, play chess, and draw.

Over several years Caesar becomes aware that he is a pet and his species are enslaved in laboratories and zoos by humans. He becomes aggressive and is ordered by the courts to a rather hellish dungeon “sanctuary,” awaiting extermination. There he organizes chimpanzees, orangutangs, and gorillas to break free. Of course, in another strange nod to biotechnology, Caesar provides them with ALZ-113, which pushes them to more anthropomorphic qualities of speech, upright bipedal postures, and apparently concepts of self liberation.

The apes rampage, de-arrest comrades, tear down power-lines, destroy cop cars and helicopters, and flee for a free-state in the Redwood forest.

The film left me wondering where all the human species traitors are? If such a scenario actually took place, die hard animal liberationists would be in the streets with their primate friends smashing police stations, biotech labs, spray painting ALF on the Golden Gate bridge, and working on solidarity campaigns raising funds for guns for the ape insurrection—perhaps the next film in the series. I look forward to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes II featuring Walter Bond.

[Editors Note: I work for a group actively fighting the Scripps Reasearch Institute, a biotechnology company which coincidentally tests on apes, engages in Alzheimer’s research, is trying to expand its facilities onto an endangered forest in South Florida, and works with Phillip Morris and Kraft Foods.]

Tasmanian Forest Defender Needs Support

Ali Alishah is a Tasmanian forest activist who is spending his second week in custody after standing up for what is right in Tasmania

What is not right in Tasmania is the proposed pulp mill, the continued logging of old growth and high conservation value forests, and the logging company Ta Ann. Ali Alishah has been fighting to protect ancient forests in Tasmania for over eight years.

The Tasmanian and Australian Governments as part of the forests peace process have promised to protect native forests but have failed to deliver on these promises. The industrial scale destruction of our world class forests continues right now. Ali has been on the frontline of environmental battles in 2011 to show that, despite promises to the Tasmanian people, our spectacular forests are still not being protected.

Ali Alishah was taken into custody after locking onto a truck entering the Gunns pulp mill site despite permits allowing work to commence lapsing in August. Ali is still in custody and our globally renowned forests are still being logged. What price do people have to pay to stand up for Tasmania’s unique forests?

Ali was arrested at Gunns proposed pulp mill site on Monday 5th Sep 2011. He was held in remand overnight, appeared before a magistrate on Tuesday 6th Sep and was remanded until the 26th Sep 2011.

This peaceful forest campaigner is an upstanding, educated and highly intelligent member of society. Ali was prepared to accept the consequences of standing up for what he 
saw was a great injustice to Tasmania’s globally unique environment. Ali has taken a peaceful and noble stance to stand up and speak out for our forests, our endangered wildlife, our air and water, and our climate.

During his participation in the pulp mill campaign with CODE GREEN and ongoing campaign efforts with the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Still Wild Still Threatened since 2003, he has been a very committed, articulate and professional activist. He was a defendant in the Triabunna 13 case, recently dropped by Gunns.

Ali’s commitment to act on his conscience through nonviolent direct action for our forests has lead to repeated convictions. Ali has volunteered as a campaigner over a long period of time in Tasmania, he has a deep understanding of the politics of Tasmania, and the history of the campaign to protect Tasmania’s wild forests. He is strongly committed to nonviolence, a commitment so valuable in a time when intense violence is perpetrated in society against the environment and people.

Ali is known as a man who thinks and cares about the environment and about everybody else around him, and puts these before himself.

The sorts of action Ali was wholeheartedly committed to will be continuing. Support is urgently needed right now to help protect Tasmania’s environment. Please contact CODE GREEN, Huon Valley Environment Centre or Still Wild Still Threatened to get involved.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1) This Friday 16 September we will be sharing a vigil for Ali on Hobart Parliament Lawns at 1pm. Join a community of concerned citizens who would like to show support for Ali while he is held in custody.

2) If you are not able to participate on Friday, we are inviting you to write a letter of support for Ali and send it to the Mercury and Examiner newspaper. Send it to us and we will print it off and pass it to Ali while he is in remand.

3) Pledge your support for Ali, write a sign of support with the words “Protect Tasmania’s Environment” and take a photo of your sign, wherever you are around the globe and we will print them and use them at our vigil. Email your messages of support to huonenvironmentcentre@gmail.com

4) Over the next few weeks community members we will be aiming for an action about the Gunns proposed pulp mill every day. We cannot do this with the amount of people currently in Tasmania. We are calling out to the Australian community to help us. You can take action from the local to the global level, by joining actions in Launceston or holding a solidarity event in your local city. How to get involved:
Email –codegreentas@gmail.com, pulpmillaction@gmail.com
Phone contacts: pulp mill action phone: 0488 451 501

New Documentary about Brandon Darby and the 2008 Republican National Convention Betrayal

Watch the documentary free here through October 6.

“How did two boyhood friends from Midland, Texas wind up arrested on terrorism charges at the 2008 Republican National Convention? Better This World follows the journey of David McKay (22) and Bradley Crowder (23) from political neophytes to accused domestic terrorists with a particular focus on the relationship they develop with a radical activist mentor in the six months leading up to their arrests. A dramatic story of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal, Better This World goes to the heart of the War on Terror and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in post-9/11 America.”

If Money is the Root of All Evil, then Earth First! is an Angel

Our online fundraiser through Kickstarter (which has 22 days left) is sort of tricky. If we reach our stated goal of 2,000 dollars we get the money. If we don’t reach 2,000 we don’t get anything. Yikes! We aren’t good at this sort of thing.  But from time to time we do need a little money to pay our rent and our print bill. Could you help us out? 

We’ll keep radical environmental news available in our print Journal and here online through our newswire. If you think that is worth one dollar please donate to us.

We are currently 10% funded. We need your help! Please spread the word.

You can also donate by check or money order through snail mail (or try our paypal) and we’ll put it into Kickstarter.  PO Box 964 Lake Worth Fl, 33460

Love,

those adorable, sweet, cuddly Earth First! Journal editors

 

Women of Blood Tribe block Murphy Oil’s fracking in Canada, calling “all strong-hearted people” to join them in defending their land

Blood Tribe's threatened land, photo by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers

Kainai Nation, Southern Alberta—Members of the Blood Tribe; Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Lois Frank, and Jill Crop Earred Wolf were arrested September 9, 2011 and charged with trespass in their own community on Blood Tribe land by tribal law enforcement and RCMP, after parking their cars in front of Murphy Oil’s fracking development site and vowing not to move until plans of fracking for oil and gas are stopped.

The women are part of the Kainai Earth Watch and have been active advocates to stop the fracking due to the major threat to human health, wildlife and livestock and the irreversible damage to the land and water on the Blood Reserve and surrounding areas.

Although they could have been booked and released from the tribal jail Friday evening, the chief, instead, held them all night and released them September 10, with the threat, that if they continued their blockade and protest each person would be arrested, charged and fined $1,500.

Photo by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers

In late 2010, Kainaiwa Resources Inc. (KRI) quietly signed off on a deal with the Calgary-based junior mining company Bowood Energy and the US company Murphy Oil. In exchange for the $50 Million, Bowood Energy and Murphy Oil gained a five-year lease to roughly 129, 280 acres, almost half of the Blood’s reserve, for oil and gas exploration.

Plans for construction begin this week. More actions are planned—and they are calling on more people to join them.

If you are interested in helping to support this action, find out more at ProtectBloodLand.ca

Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.) Liberates Elk from Oregon Farm

Article by Peter Young, reposted from Voice of the Voiceless

Animal Liberation Front cuts away fencing, release elk from farm

On the night of August 29th, the Animal Liberation Front raided the Damascus Elk Farm (23255 SE Highway 212) in Clackamas, Oregon. Fencing was stripped away, giving the animals a chance at escape. According to the communique received by the Animal Liberation Press Office, the ALF were forced to make a premature departure in the middle of the raid due to a “disturbance”.

This is the second deer farm raid in Oregon in the past year, and the third ever in the U.S. The previous raid took place in October 2010 at a deer farm in Molalla, Oregon. That action followed the same model: fencing was stripped away from pens, allowing the animals to escape into the surrounding countryside.

The full communique reads:

“On the night of August 29th, a small band of animal liberationists crept quietly onto the property of Damascus Elk Farm located at 23255 SE Highway 212 in Clackamas, OR. This farm raises dozens of Roosevelt Elk for commercial slaughter. Once we made it to the elk pens, wire cutters were used to successfully remove a large section of fencing from one of the pens. Unfortunately due to a disturbance, we had to cut our action short and we were unable to open the remaining pens. The total number of animals (if any) that got away is unknown, but the intent of our action should be made perfectly clear: to prevent directly the violence that is inherent to animal agriculture and to liberate sentient animal back into their native habitat.

Across the country there are thousands of elk and deer being held captive on farms, waiting to be liberated back into the wild. These acts of liberation are generally low risk and can directly save the lives of animals. Elk and deer farms have little to no security and the small size of the industry makes these farms particularly vulnerable to sabotage.

With this act we attempted to remove the last barrier between these wild creatures and their new, free lives. Link by link, these barriers will be dismantled in our society, to create a new ethic of freedom and accountability. Assist us in the struggle for liberation, or stand on the wrong side of history.

 For all those imprisoned.  -Animal Liberation Front”

Tortured HIV Lab Chimps Released After 30 Years of Testing

Chimps emerge from facility, Gut Aiderbichl Animal Sanctuary, near Salzburg, Austria

Like prisoners emerging from a lifetime behind bars, a group of chimpanzees step blinking into the sunlight with what appears for all the world to be a wave and a smile.

And they have much to be joyful about. For this is the first time they have felt grass under their feet and breathed fresh air for 30 years.

Though a few of the chimps were born in captivity, most were kidnapped from African jungles as babies and flown to Europe, where they were locked in metal laboratory cages to be used in a long series of experiments. The chimpanzees were taken from their mothers shortly after their births and brought to a research facility in Austria. Horrifyingly, their mothers – who would usually raise them for six years – were all slaughtered.

Scientists kept the animals in isolation and gave them HIV and hepatitis. Their ordeal finally ended in 1997 when the pharmaceutical company behind the research was sold.

The outing marked the end of a 14-year bid to re-integrate the 38 primates after they spent most of their lives cooped up inside.

To read more on the coverage:
Sun Article – With Video
DailyMail Article – With Video

Uncle Monkeywrench Wants You to Support the Eco-Resistance

We need you! to support 30 years of no-compromise, grassroots, direct action print media!

If you like the EF! Journal, the EF! Newswire and the promise of a wilder future (or would simply like us to stop asking for money), please donate a few bucks through our kickstarter fundraiser, paypal, or send a check to PO Box 964 / Lake Worth, FL / 33460

In the good ole days liberationists would expropriate bank funds for the movement! What did you do this summer? Ha ha ha wink wink nudge nudge Black Liberation Army, I.R.A., but seriously, can you throw down a few bucks or a few hundred to help keep the Journal alive and reporting from the frontlines of the ecological resistance?

Here is the break down of our needs:

4,000 bucks to go to print

1,000 bucks for new computers

something to cover the cost of the calories necessary to keep the editors alive long enough to produce the Journal

Peru approves ‘historic’ indigenous rights law

Cross Posted from Survival International

Today, indigenous people across Peru are celebrating President Ollanta Humala’s decision to approve the Prior Consultation Law. This is an important step forward for indigenous rights in the country.

On Tuesday night, Peru’s Congress unanimously approved a ‘historic’ new law that guarantees indigenous people’s right to free, prior and informed consent to any projects affecting them and their lands.

President Ollanta Humala says he supports consultation, and now has 15 days to sign the bill into law. It is a significant step away from the policies of former Peruvian President Alan Garcia, who vetoed a similar bill.

The ‘Prior Consultation Law’ complies with commitments set out in ILO Convention 169, the only international law designed to protect tribal people’s rights.

Peru ratified the ILO 169 in 1993 but has consistently failed to uphold it, causing widespread unrest amongst the country’s indigenous population.

Amazon Indian organization AIDESEP has welcomed the government’s decision, but warned this is just the first step to ensure indigenous rights are guaranteed.

‘We mustn’t fall into false triumphalism. It is now up to the government to form a national indigenous organization… that will uphold strict compliance with this new law.’

Under Alan Garcia, Peruvian Indians experienced unprecedented pressures on their lands as a result of his aggressive development policies.

More than 70% of the Amazon is now divided into oil and gas concessions often without the consent of the indigenous inhabitants.

Survival International’s Director, Stephen Corry, said ‘There are two factors at stake here. Firstly, Humala should support the decision of Congress to approve the Prior Consultation Law. Secondly, the Peruvian Government must commit to upholding it.’