Quakertown, PA: The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) visited a Pennsylvania plant nursery whose owner is planning to turn it into a breeding facility of non-human primates to be sold to animal experimenters. Owner Michael Hsu admits to tens of thousands of dollars in damages, and has seen his plans withdrawn from Thursday's agenda for the Richland Township Planning Commission as community opposition has grown.

Activists overturned and destroyed about 1,000 peonies, including some rare breeds last Thursday night. They poured paint stripper on two vehicles and spray-painted graffiti on buildings and greenhouses at Peonyland, 475 Church Road, Richland Township. They wrote phrases -- such as ''Fuck with primates, get fucked by us. ALF"; "the ALF is watching"; and "this will just be the start" -- on greenhouses and storage garages at the business owned by the Hsu family. "I can't say right now whether or not we'll continue," Michael Hsu said Friday.

The kennel supposedly would house up to 500 monkeys until they are shipped to medical research laboratories, where they would be subjected to painful experiments before being killed, usually years or decades later.

"Experimentation on animals has been shown to be outdated and unlikely to result in cures for human diseases", states Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a practicing surgeon and former animal experimenter himself. "The so-called scientists who kill animals in labs are frustrated clinicians who cannot or will not practice medicine that helps people. They are wasting millions of scarce health-care dollars on useless research that will never help one of my patients".

Resources: North American Animal Liberation Press Office (NAALPO) || Animal Liberation Front - USA || Animal Liberation.Net || Bite Back || No Compromise || IMC Animal Liberation pages @ Indybay, Portland and United Kollektives

Peter Young was arrested on March 21st in San Jose, CA. He has been "WANTED" since 1998 after being indicted on charges of violating the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act by releasing mink from five Midwestern fur farms.

Peter's support website is up, albeit bare bones, but you can still read updates, find out what he can and cannot receive in jail and most importantly an address to write him at. Peter loves mail and that's all he has right now to keep him connected to the outside. Take 5 minutes to write him a letter. If you can't afford .37 cents for a prisoner, visit SupportPeter.com and email him a letter! No excuses! :) - remember, all letters are read by the authorities.

He's in there for the animals, we need to be out here for him!

See Also: PDX-IMC Feature | Support Peter! | .pdf flyer

Background Information: ALF Suspect's Family Living in Fear | ALF Activist Receives Two Year Prison Sentence | No Compromise Special: Snitch Protocol | Staying Free and Avoiding the Activist Hall of Shame | Snitches Get Stitches?

In 2004, Bay Area Vegetarians joined organizations throughout the United States and abroad in supporting People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' campaign against KFC's inhumane practices and calling for welfare reforms. The campaign continued on Saturday, February 12, as several dozen animal rights activists protested at the Mission St. KFC.

Over 750,000,000 chickens raised for KFC (Yum! Brands) endure egregious and unnecessary abuses. Last year, PETA released a disturbing video taken by an undercover investigator in a KFC supplier slaughterhouse. Employees were deliberately kicking, stomping on, and slamming live chickens against a wall, spitting tobacco into their eyes, and ripping their heads and beaks off with their bare hands. Previously, a former employee of another top KFC supplier came forward with accounts of employees using "dry ice bombs" to blow chickens apart, snapping their legs for fun, and intentionally scalding them to death in feather removal tanks. These abuses are in addition to KFC suppliers’ routine practices of callously shackling chickens upside down, often breaking their legs in the process, and slitting the throats of conscious birds.

KFC has so far refused to implement comprehensive guidelines developed by its own animal welfare panelists to prevent these and other abuses. Until it does, compassionate people everywhere are protesting and choosing to steer clear of the Colonel.

Photos: [ 1 I 2 I 3 ]
Audio: KFC Protest in Santa Cruz

[ Progressive Animal Rights Alliance I KFC Demo in Santa Cruz - Oct 2004 I Giant KFC Protest in SF (2/5/05) I Kentucky Fried Cruelty ]

Newsflash!! New resource for Animal Rights!
The San Francisco Bay Area IMC has expanded to include a special Animal Liberation page.

Indybay.org, an open-publishing website, is providing a new home for animal activists, organizers, and the animal-conscious in the Bay Area and Northern California. Check it out for the latest on upcoming actions, news reports with photos and video, and a broad list of resources for vegetarian and vegan living.

IMCs with Active Animal Categories: [ Portland I Indybay I San Diego I United Kollektives ]

Feel free to post links you would like to see on this page in the comments below.

Family get-togethers nowadays can comprise many different diets. Often vegetarians and vegans present special challenges to family members who are not familiar with those dietary preferences. This article is for those family members. A vegetarian does not eat meat, but will eat dairy products and/or eggs. A vegan will not eat anything with meat, eggs, or dairy products. So a vegetarian can eat anything a vegan can eat, but not vice versa. With just a little forethought, these dietary preferences are not hard to accommodate. And your vegetarian/vegan guests will appreciate the efforts that show you cared. Often vegans and vegetarians resent the fact that no one cared about them having access to food that they can eat at family events, and with this little preparation, you can set the tone to be one of inclusion.

On September 12th 2005 The California Bat Conservation Fund held
The Day of the Bat at the Louden Nelson Center an informational event disspelling the myths of Earth's most unusual benifical mammal.

TV reporters in LA and Bakersfield are looking for freegans to interview.

A bird flu plan and prevention has not been made widely available to people with small numbers of birds. Please contact your local representatives and ask them to do the following:

- Publish and widely distribute a clear list of minimal biosecurity standards that must be met for a flock to not be automatically killed. Usually, it simply involves preventing contact with wild birds.

- Develop and publish a procedure for testing a biosecure flock so it doesn't have to be culled.

- If there are not resources for testing all of the flocks, then create and implement a plan for increasing resources so all flocks can be tested.

On November 5, a small group of animal rights activists demonstrated in front of the KFC on Mission St., a busy road which is also Highway 1 in Santa Cruz. The number of customers in the restaurant quickly dwindled and passing motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, KFC customers and an employee that encountered the protesters were either very supportive of the demonstration or willing to listen to and learn from the protesters.

I spoke with one activist to find out why he protesting in front of KFC. He spoke about respect and equal rights for all animals and the need for people to adapt a vegetarian diet.