by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Apr 28, 2012 | Human Supremacy, Reclamation & Expropriation
By Giornale Di Brescia
They broke through or climbed over the gate networks. They made their way inside the farm and opened the cages, taking away puppies, pregnant mothers, and all the little beagle puppies they could find. It was a raid organized by Occupy Green Hill to demand the closure of the mill.
The procession started at the parking lot of PalaGeorge, and was attended by about 1000 people from all over North Italy and also from the center. By way of the action Sepentone deflected, and instead of going towards Via San Zeno, the main road leading farm where he was deployed the cordon of police, groups of protesters cut through the fields and the lanes, coming close to the fences.
From then on, the situation has become confused with groups of demonstrators who tried to open gates in the perimeter and teams of mobile riot police and police deployed to contain them. On the side of the gates, however, the protesters opened a breach in the fence and broke into the farm, going into the sheds and taking away at least thirty dogs.
By the end of the day, police had arrested 12 people from the local police station Montichiari, and transferred them to Desenzano. Some protesters said they had suffered violence by officials.
Green Hill 2001 is a company located in Montichiari (Brescia), which breeds beagle dogs to vivisection labs. From this farm, more than 250 dogs each month end in the enclosures, in the hands of vivisectors and on operating tables. Dogs there are born to die and sentenced to suffer.
After the collapse of the other Italian breeder of laboratory beagle dogs, the Morini Stefano di San Polo d’Enza, it is likely that Green Hill has had a greater demand, expanding and becoming one of the main breeding dogs in the European market research animals.
Inside the Green Hill 5 huts are locked up to 2500 adult dogs, plus several litters. A lager made of animal shelters closed, aseptic, without open spaces without natural light or air. Rows and rows of cages with artificial lighting and ventilation system are the environment in which these dogs develop before being loaded onto a truck and shipped to hellish laboratories.
Among the clients of Green Hill, there are university laboratories, pharmaceutical companies and renowned trial centers as the notorious Huntingdon Life Sciences in England, the largest animal torture laboratory in Europe.
Who derives profit from this pain?
For some years now Green Hill was acquired by an American firm called Marshall Farms Inc. Marshall is a name infamous throughout the world as it is the largest “factory” dog lab in existence. The Marshall beagle is actually a standard variety.
Marshall’s dogs are shipped by air all over the world, but with the purchase of Green Hill as the European headquarters and the construction of a huge farm in China, Marshall is pursuing a plan of expansion and market monopoly.
In this it must also be seen that the expansion project includes the construction of other shelters in Montichiari, which would provide Green Hill with 5,000 dogs, making it the largest beagle dog breeder in Europe.
For a price from $600 to $1200 you can buy dogs of all ages. Those willing to pay more can also buy a pregnant mother.
Green Hill Farm and Marshall also offer its customers surgical treatments on demand, including the cutting or removal of the vocal cords.
For Green Hill and Marshall Farm animals are just merchandise, objects to breed and sell, without the slightest scruple about pain and suffering – mental and physical – that they will suffer.
From Negotiation is Over!
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Apr 10, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction, Mining & Drilling
By New Zealand Herald
The death of about 3000 dolphins on a stretch of Peruvian coast in recent months is being blamed on a controversial oil exploration technique.
However other experts are not convinced, and believe a virus or pathogen may be responsible for one of the largest dolphin die-offs recorded.
So far this year, thousands of dolphins have washed up on a 135km stretch of coastline in Lambayeque, in northwestern Peru.
Numbers differ between reports, with some reporting more than 3000 of the mammals have been found dead in the past three months. Others have the figure around 2800.
Ninety percent of the dead are long-beaked common dolphins, while the remainder are Burmeister’s porpoises.
Veterinarian Carlos Yaipen, director of Lima’s Scientific Organisation for the Conservation of Aquatic Animals told Peru21 the deaths were the result of sonar testing for oil.
“The oil companies use different frequencies of acoustic waves and the effects produced by these bubbles are not plainly visible, but they generate effects later in the animals.
That can cause death by acoustic impact, not only in dolphins, but also in marine seals and whales,” Yaipen said.
All of 20 of the mammals Yaipen examined had middle ear hemorrhaging, fractures to the ear’s periotic bone, lung lesions and bubbles in the blood. Yaipen said this indicated the animals were injured but still alive when they beached.
According to a report in the Environmental Health News, oil exploration has been undertaken in the region, however it is not known whether seismic testing was underway.
Peter Ross, a research scientist at Canada’s Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia, told the Environmental Health News stress or toxic contaminants may have made the dolphins more vulnerable to pathogens. He said there may be two or three factors responsible for the deaths.
From New Zealand Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10797875
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Apr 4, 2012 | Biodiversity & Habitat Destruction
By Jeremy Hance / Mongabay
Defying Indonesian law, slow lorises are being sold openly in Jakarta markets for the underground pet trade, according to wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC. In the last two weeks, TRAFFIC has recorded fifty different individual slow lorises on sale in the Indonesian capital.
“The openness of the slow loris trade highlights the fact that having one of the region’s best wildlife protection laws and promising to protect species is not enough—there must be stronger enforcement in Indonesia and the public should stop supporting the illegal wildlife trade,” says Chris R. Shepherd, Deputy Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, in a press release.
Slow lorises are big-eyed nocturnal primates found throughout Southeast Asia. Three of the five known species are found in Indonesia: the Sunda slow loris (Nycticebus coucang), the Bornean slow loris (Nycticebus menagensis), and the Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus). The Sunda and the Bornean are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List, while the Javan is listed as Endangered.
The slow loris pet trade has exploded since YouTube videos showed the small primates engaged in “cute” activities. However, researchers warn that slow lorises do not make good pets and that the trade is deeply cruel. Slow loris babies are stolen from their mothers in the wild, who are often killed. The baby’s teeth are removed without anesthetic to make them more “suitable” as pets. Dr. Anna Nekaris, an anthropologist who specializes in slow-loris research at Oxford Brookes University, told mongabay.com in 2009 that it’s estimated 30-90 percent of captured slow lorises don’t survive the stress of being stolen from the wild.As pets, slow lorises are unable to clean themselves and are often covered in feces and urine. In addition, due to complex dietary needs pet slow lorises often die of malnutrition.
In one market alone, TRAFFIC counted thirty slow lorises and notes that the animals are on sale daily out in the open.
“The authorities need to clean up these markets and Indonesia’s reputation as a major center of illegal wildlife trade,” says Shepherd.
In addition to the pet trade, slow lorises are also imperiled by deforestation and traditional medicine, which uses slow loris parts for some ailments.
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Mar 6, 2012 | Agriculture, Repression at Home
By Tom Philpott
On Friday, Iowa governor Terry Branstad signed a bill that will make it much more difficult for animal-welfare advocates to sneak cameras into Iowa’s factory livestock farms. The bill’s fate is being watched nationwide, because Iowa’s factory farms grow more hogs and keep more egg-laying hens than those of any other state.
The news got me to thinking of my own attempt, years ago, to peer inside of an animal factory.
I was on a tour of a rural Iowa county, given by some farmers who were angry that massive hog-raising facilities had been plunked down in their community (I wrote about it here). At one point, we got out of the van so I could gape at two rows of such low-slung buildings, each holding thousands of hogs. A vast manure cesspool separated the two rows.
Even more repellent than the smell—which nearly dropped me to my knees—was the large man who came barreling out of one facility to demand to know what we were up to. When we informed him that we were citizens standing on a public road, he reminded us that just beyond that road lay private property, and we’d be well-advised not to set foot on it. I asked him if I could have a look inside one of the buildings. He shot me a glare and turned on his heel, barking into his cellphone as returned to his lair. I took the response as a “no,” and we moved on.
The scene neatly encapsulated the terms of factory meat farming. The industry insists on its right to impose its excesses on society—the unspeakable buildup of toxic manure, which pollutes air and streams—but refuses to let society peer in to see what’s going on behind the walls. We are forced to smell, in other words, but refused the right to see.
For several years now, animal-welfare groups like the Humane Society of the US and Mercy for Animals have pursued a kind of guerrilla watchdog strategy for combating this state of affairs. They plant undercover agents to seek jobs at the facilities, and when they’re hired, the agents eventually sneak in cameras and document the scene. As the regulatory agencies like USDA, EPA, and FDA have shown little appetite to inform the public about factory farm practices—much less rein them in—these groups have become our shadow regulators, our eyes on the factory-farm floor.
Read more from Mother Jones: http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/03/will-agribiz-tied-governor-keep-iowas-factory-farms-shielded-view
by Deep Green Resistance News Service | Feb 18, 2012 | Repression at Home
By Will Potter / Green is the New Red
Utah is the latest state to consider new laws targeting undercover investigators who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms. A new bill would make photographing animal abuse on par with assaulting a police officer.
Rep. John Mathis calls undercover investigators “animal rights terrorists,” and says video recordings that have brought national attention to systemic animal welfare abuses are “propaganda” and fundraising efforts.
The bill, HB187, targets anyone who videotapes or takes photograph on a farmer’s property without permission. It creates the crime of “agricultural operation interference,” a class A misdemeanor which is elevated to a third-degree felony on the second offense.
It comes at at time when the FBI has considered “terrorism” charges against undercover investigators.
Rep. Mathis’ opening remarks at a hearing by the Utah House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on February 14th are indicative of the good ol’ boy network that is attempting to pass this legislation:
“It’s fun to see my good ag friends in this committee,” Mathis said. “… all my good friends are here.”
Mathis, the sponsor of the bill, said animal protection groups are solely using their investigations as “propaganda” efforts for fundraising drives. He went on to claim that animal welfare reforms, such as allowing chickens to spread their wings, are actually “detrimental to the welfare of animals.”
Exposing animal abuse is hurting animal welfare? Photography is terrorism? What Mathis leaves out is that these investigations have led to criminal charges against farm workers. Just this week, undercover video shot by Mercy for Animals at a Butterball farm resulted in six workers being charged with misdemeanors and felonies.
And a recent investigation by Compassion Over Killing (in Iowa, another state considering “Ag Gag” legislation) showed workers pushing herniated intestines back inside injured piglets, then covering the wound with tape.
Only token gestures of opposition were made during the hearing, such as one representative voicing concerns that the bill could target people who take “pretty barn pictures.”
But this bill isn’t about pretty pictures.
This bill, and similar attempts in Florida, Iowa, Minnesota and New York, is to criminalize anyone who exposes abuses on factory farms.
These disproportionate penalties are solely motivated by the corporate interests affected by animal welfare reforms. As Rep. Craig Frank, a Republican, noted: this bill makes taking a photograph of a factory farm in Utah a third-degree felony on the second offense, the same as assaulting a police officer.
He called it a “Blank Angus Ops” bill and questioned the need for new laws when trespassing is already a crime, but outside of making jokes he and the others on the committee offered no opposition.
In light of the recent criminal charges and systemic animal welfare violations, it’s startling to hear Mathis and supporters say the bill is the same as punishing someone who leaves a video recorder “under you and your wife’s bed.”
This isn’t about personal privacy.
It’s about corporations attempting to hide their criminal activity, deceive consumers, and deflect public scrutiny onto those who are dragging these abuses into the sunlight.
The committee voted 10-3 to move the measure as originally written to the full House. You can contact Utah representatives about HB 187 here.
From Green is the New Red
