Trinity writes about The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the seven ‘Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty’ (SHAC 7) members who were originally charged with violating the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Trinity La Fey is clear in her writing: we all need to act as one to stop the destruction.

The Rules

by Trinity La Fey

Josh Harper, from Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty and one of the SHAC 7, once said,

“People care about winning.  They care about victory and that’s the most beautiful thing about the Huntington Life Sciences Campaign: we’re not here to tell you how to behave.  What we’re here to convince you to do is to take the personal initiative to shut the fucking lab down.”

He knew how to write a speech.  He went on to do time as a consequence of his advocacy for animal rights. The lab did not get shut down.  It was bought out and he didn’t go down for a thing he had done, but for what he had said.  He knows about commitment.  He continues to speak.

His speech, however dangerous, terroristic, insidious or seditious it was deemed in a court of law, did not and could not end animal testing.  The only thing that gave the surviving victims of that institution’s abuse half a fighting chance were the people who physically broke into the laboratory and removed them.  Even then, at such a late stage, it is harm reduction, not amelioration or prevention.  The elusive source of this process: the belief in the necessity of, or disregard for, or pleasure taken in this suffering, simply got better at becoming invisible.

Daniel Sloss, a comedian from Scotland recently performed:

“Don’t make the same mistake I did, which is just sitting back and being like, ‘well, I’m not part of the problem, therefore I must be part of the solution.’ ‘Cause that’s just not how this fuckin’ shit works.  I believe and deep down I know, that most men are good.  Of course we are.  But when one in ten men are shit and the other nine do nothing, they might as well not fucking be there.”

He knows how to put on a show, but I don’t know if he is qualified to be the judge of goodness in man.  I know for sure that I am not.  My senses are my own.  I must judge for myself always.

At the time of the SHAC 7’s trial, snuff films of human women were already in existence.  While the jury was not allowed to see the snuff of a rhesus monkey that prompted the activists to so vociferously organize, the ACLU had long sided with pimps and pornographers, as they do today.  They didn’t stand a chance.  Not with so many humans mere demonic hosts for a Rabies of the Soul, or wetiko as Jack Forbes calls it.

People do care about winning, but victory is expensive.  For those to whom winning means leaving a living planet where we found one, there will be a different price paid than for one to whom it means ruling atop a technocratic pornscape.  Who can afford to pay what?  What are our commitments?

On the edge of a river she loves, Jennifer Murnan once told me,

“There are a few simple rules and it is everyone’s job to enforce them.”

She knows that river.  She knows the rules which are not ours to add or subtract, but to notice in time, as she has.  What’s right and wrong are simple, clear things, the few big things: don’t torture; don’t take more than you need and never all; give thanks; give everything back.

It is not my job to judge for you what your senses are saying, or what the lab is for you, where you are.  It is all of our jobs to shut the fucking lab down.

Trinity La Fey is a smith of many crafts, has been a small business creatrix since 2020; published author; appeared in protests since 2003, poetry performances since 2001; officiated public ceremony since 1999; and participated in theatrical performances since she could get people to sit still in front of her.