An anonymous animal rights activist who describes him or herself as “Lone Wolf” has claimed responsibility for smashing the windows of a butcher shop in Berkeley, CA.  In a post on the website Bite Back, Lone Wolf says, “Cage free, organic, murder is murder.” Bite Back, which posts direct actions in support of animals, states on its homepage that it “does not publish news of actions in which the intent is to physically harm someone.”

Credit: Frances Dinkelspiel

I don’t know if vandalizing businesses that exploit animals helps or hurts the cause.   I would like to think that some people ask, “Is slaughter so cruel that it would drive someone to smash windows, risk their freedom and be labeled a terrorist?”  Perhaps Lone Wolf is merely seeking to avenge the violent deaths of innocent animals by holding at least one party responsible.   Take a look at Bite Back to see what types of direct actions are being conducted around the world.

The South African SPCA is suing the people responsible for the death of a blindfolded giraffe who smashed his head on a bridge while being transported in a trailer on a highway near Johannesburg.

One way to prevent tragic accidents with wild animals is to not move them in the first place!  The news media did not report on why these giraffes were being transported, but I can’t  help but think they were kidnapped from the wild for a zoo or another commercial enterprise.  To learn more about the inherent cruelty of zoos and find out how you can help, please visit Last Chance For Animals.

Actress and animal rights activist Pamela Anderson traveled to Denmark’s Faeroe Islands to join Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in calling for an end to the annual slaughter of 1,000 pilot whales.  She called a four century-old pilot whale drive a “barbaric, psychotic frenzy.” Sea Shepherd has led opposition to the drive since the 1980s.

What could be crueler than rounding up 1,000 gentle and intelligent pilot whales and mercilessly slaughtering them in the name of tradition?  Scandinavian countries are among the most progressive in the world, but the Danish are somehow able to celebrate or turn a blind eye to this annual bloodbath.  Please help Sea Shepherd put an end to what Pamela Anderson aptly describes as a “barbaric, psychotic frenzy.”

A pig attempts to escape from the truck taking her to a slaughterhouse.

If anyone doubts the intelligence of a pig, please show them this video.  Of course all farm animals, not just the smartest ones, should be free.  As 19th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham once stated, “The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”

According to the Chicago Tribune, “the lawyer for one of two California animal activists accused of sabotaging an Illinois mink farm and releasing about 2,000 animals into the wild last year said today he plans to challenge the constitutionality of the federal “animal enterprise terrorism” charges the men are facing.” The lawyer, Michael Deutsch, said that AETA “is overbroad and potentially criminalizes free speech rights protected by the First Amendment” and that it “unfairly brands activism as terrorism.”   The activists, Tyler Lang and Kevin Johnson (aka Kevin Olliff) spray-painted “LIBERATION IS LOVE” in big red letters on the side of a barn after liberating the mink. 

Kevin Johnson (Illinois Dept. of Corrections / July 29, 2014)

Let me get this straight: The “terrorists” are the individuals who free captive animals from intensive confinement and emotional and physical torture, and the “victims” are the people who are terrorizing the animals?  I would ask how that is even possible, but then I remind myself that mainstream society found ways to justify the slaughter of native Americans, the enslavement of people who look different and the deprivation of basic human rights to large fractions of society. The AETA must go.