———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle - info [at] kinshipcircle.org
Date: Mar 20, 2007 3:33 PM
Subject: ACT TODAY/ Invite Congress To AETA Briefing On Hill

Kinship Circle Primary - PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST

Equal Justice Alliance Hosts AETA Briefing On The Hill
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 * 2:00 to 3:30pm

Do your elected officials know about the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA)? Do they understand its negative impact on First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly?

1. Copy/paste flyer below into an email to: YOUR federal Representative and Senators.

2. Include a brief note about why you want AETA repealed. See talking point in press release below flyer.

3. For a HIGHER RESOLUTION copy of flyer to Congress, email: kinshipcircle [at] brick.net

4. DELETE ALL REFERENCES TO KINSHIP CIRCLE BEFORE SENDING FLYER/COMMENTS TO REP AND SENATORS. The message is from YOU, not Kinship Circle

To identify your federal legislators and find contact info, try:
Congress.org - www.Congress.org
USA Senate - www.senate.gov
USA House of Representatives - www.house.gov
Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121

(more…)

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Last Chance for Animals - campaigns [at] lcanimal.org
Date: Mar 19, 2007 5:07 PM
Subject: Alert your Congressmen about AETA Panel

Ask Your Congressmen to Attend Important AETA Panel Wed. 3/21

After the passage of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) last November, it became clear that LCA had to make fighting this unconstitutional law a top priority. By partnering with the Equal Justice Alliance (EJA), we are now part of a powerful effort to increase public awareness regarding AETA’s potential infringement of First Amendment rights.

The EJA is also increasing awareness in Congress and has scheduled a panel to talk about the AETA this Wednesday in Washington DC. Representative Kucinich, who was the only representative to speak out against the AETA when it was up for vote, will be speaking at the panel, along with Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild and Will Potter, an award-winning journalist who testified in opposition to the AETA during the single House hearing.

To motivate congressional members and their staff to attend, please call your senators and representatives to voice your opposition to AETA and ask that they attend this important panel. Although they have already been notified of the panel, your voice will carry more weight since you are their constituent.

Take Action

Call your senators and representative and voice your opposition to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Ask that they attend the meeting this Wednesday. See below for sample phone call/email:

“Hello, I am calling as a constituent of (Sen/Rep name) to voice my opposition to the recently passed Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. I would like to invite (Sen/Rep name) to attend a panel on this very important issue on Wednesday, March 21st from 2-3:30pm in Rayburn 2255. Thank you.”

For the Animals,

Campaigns Department
Last Chance for Animals

Last Chance for Animals | 8033 Sunset Blvd. #835 | Los Angeles | CA | 90046

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts lca last chance for animals AETA Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act congress 110th congress free speech first amendment censorship terrorism animal rights terrorism eco-terrorism Will Potter EJA equal justice alliance activism freedom of speech

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Feb 26, 2007 6:38 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: IHT says Australian govt will change law to fight activists — plus Coetzee op-ed 2/26/07

In the US we have seen animal enterprise lobbies persuade lawmakers to rewrite law in order to punish animal rights activists, most notably with the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which includes language that threatens peaceful and legitimate forms of protest such as effective boycotts.

This week we see similarly troubling news from Australia. The International Herald Tribune website, February 26, includes an article headed, “Australia to help sheep farmers sue over wool boycotts.”

It opens:

“The government plans to change federal law to help sheep farmers sue for damages over an animal rights group’s peaceful campaign to prevent the sale of Australian wool, a government minister said Monday.

“People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, are lobbying clothing chains and fashion houses to stop using Australian wool because they claim the sheep are subjected to cruelty.

“The U.S.-based group is opposed to mulesing — the slicing away without anesthetic of folds of skin from a merino sheep’s rump to prevent maggot infestations.

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———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle - info [at] kinshipcircle.org
Date: Feb 14, 2007 10:42 PM
Subject: KC DIGEST: AETA Now, Puppy Bakers Get Break, Faux Fur From Cats, Dogs + MORE

Kinship Circle Primary - PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST AS WRITTEN

2/14/07: Kinship Circle DIGEST / ALERTS FROM MEMBERS
AETA Now, Puppy Bakers Get Break, Faux Fur From Cats, Dogs + MORE

Kinship Circle will be offline from:
Friday, February 16 - Friday, February 23
In New Orleans for Katrina Rescue/Feeding

IN FEBRUARY 2007 DIGEST:

1. Re-sentencing For Boys Who Baked Puppy Alive?
2. Faux Fur Found To Come From Dogs, Cats
3. Shadow’s Legacy: Companions Are Not “Property”
4. What Can We Do About AETA Now?
5. Ask Amazon.com To Stop Selling Animal Fighting Materials
6. Take Action For Carriage Horses
7. Cruel Treatment Of Sled Dogs In Greenland
8. Slovenia To Kill 106 Brown Bears In 2007
9. Pennsylvania Puppy Mills
10. Sea Shepherd Engages Japanese Whalers
11. Animal Lovers Win Extra Life For 400 Chinese Cats
12. PETITIONS TO SIGN

Each DIGEST includes:

* NEWS and CALL-TO-ACTION, submitted by Kinship Circle members.
* CONTACT INFO to reply directly to the activist who supplied the alert.
* Related KINSHIP CIRCLE LINKS for more background information.
* Submissions are from KC members and do NOT originate from Kinship Circle itself.
* If emails for letter recipients fail, contact person who supplied alert — NOT KINSHIP CIRCLE.
* Send submissions for KC DIGEST to kinshipcircle [at] brick.net
* Please “clean-up” submitted alerts, and do not send chain of forwarded messages.

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Earlier this week, I mentioned in passing that the Anna Nicole Smith anti-fur PSA that I’d favorited on You Tube had been inexplicably removed, and the uploader’s account suspended. Additionally, You Tube also appears to have an issue with atheists; Nick Gisburne, for example, is one in a long line of heathens to have their accounts suspended by You Tube. In this case, Nick’s reading of select (violent) passages of the Koran, sans commentary, seems to have offended You Tube’s delicate sensibilities. So I guess they no likey likey atheists or animal rightists. (My oh my, I wonder how they’d feel about yours truly, then? )

Now, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):

As an RIAA spokesperson famously put it when asked about the spectacle of file-sharing lawsuits against innocent grandparents, “when you go fishing with a driftnet, sometimes you catch a dolphin.”

Well, with its 100,000 DMCA takedown notices aimed at YouTube users, now it’s Viacom that is netting its share of dolphins. Among the 100,000 videos targeted for takedowns was a home movie shot in a BBQ joint, a film trailer by a documentarian, and a music video (previously here) about karaoke in Singapore. None of these contained anything owned by Viacom. For its part, Viacom has admitted to “no more than” 60 mistakes, so far. Yet each mistake impacts free speech, both of the author of the video and of the viewing public.

If they are making these kinds of blatant mistakes, who can tell how many fair uses of Viacom content they also targeted in their 100,000 takedowns? Hundreds? Thousands? If Viacom made a clear mistake and your clip contains no content from Viacom-owned copyrighted works, sending a simple DMCA counter-notice to YouTube may be enough to do the job. But if you’re attempting to make a fair use of Viacom’s works, it may make more sense to go to court to assert your rights. More information about your options is available at the Fair Use Network.

Has your video been removed from YouTube based on a bogus Viacom takedown? If so, contact information [at] eff.org — we may be able to help you directly or help find another lawyer who can. In this situation, as in so many others, EFF will work to make sure that copyright claims don’t squelch free speech.

Quite fittingly, the EFF recorded their call and uploaded it to You Tube:

Spread the word.

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Tagged: eff electronic frontier foundation animal rights animal welfare religion atheism You Tube censorship Viacom capitalism discrimination free speech

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Feb 7, 2007 7:44 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: Jane Magazine piece by animal rights activist — February 2007 edition

The February 2007 edition of Jane magazine includes a “true tale” piece by SHAC animal rights activist Lauren Gazzola, headed “I’m in prison for being a terrorist — and I literally wouldn’t hurt a fly.” (p 62)

Lauren writes about the day the FBI arrived at her house and cuffed and arrested her and two roommates. She explains that she was arrested under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (actually at the time it was the Animal Enterprise Protection Act but it has since been upgraded) “which punishes people who ‘physically disrupt’ places like fur farms and animal-testing labs.” She explains, “But we weren’t accused of doing anything violent… the charges… stemmed from our allegedly running a Web site that reported protest activity against one of the world’s largest animal testing labs , Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).”

As background to the campaign Lauren writes, “In 1997, an undercover documentarian got a job at HLS and recorded the staff punching puppies in the face and dissecting a conscious monkey.”

About the SHAC campaign tactics she writes, “There is no denying that some of the things people did in the name of the campaign were illegal. What’s crazy, though, is that when I stood in the courtroom pleading not guilty, neither I nor any of my friends had been charged with participating in window smashing, tire slashing or paint throwing. We were on trial for writing about it.”

She writes, “By the time you read this, I will have served two of the 52 months I am sentenced to in federal prison.”

Her final line is, “They can jail the activist but they cannot jail the activism.”

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People for the American Way, a progressive human rights organization that primarily works to protect and promote religious freedom, civic participation, civil rights, and constitutional liberties, has a new survey available online. Even if you’re not a member/supporter of PFAW, please take a moment to fill it out.

Specifically, question #7 asks “With regard to civil liberties and oversight, on what should PFAW work hardest?”. The options include “Restoring habeas corpus; Ending the warrantless surveillance of Americans; Protecting free speech; Restoring due process; and Restoring checks and balances/oversight of the executive branch.” Afterwards, participants are urged to share additional comments.

This is an excellent opportunity to encourage another civil liberties group to take a stand against AETA, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. According to the Equal Justice Alliance, PFAW has not yet joined the list of groups opposed to AETA. Let PFAW know that the rights of animal rights and eco-activists must be protected too!

Additional information and talking points available in past easyVegan.info posts.

Spread the word!

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalist environmentalism action alerts pfaw people for the american way activism free speech first amendment censorship aeta Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act civil liberties protest survey war on terror war on terra terrorism eco-terrorist animal rights terrorist

The ACLU’s got a new petition to Congress up; here’s the full-text:

It’s the beginning of a new year, the beginning of a new Congress and time for us to look ahead at where we want our country to be a year from now.

In the coming year, I will ask you to take a number of steps to enhance freedom and fairness for everyone in America. This year, my New Year’s resolutions include working with you to help:

1. Restore habeas corpus and due process
2. End torture in secret prisons
3. Stop warrantless eavesdropping on innocent Americans
4. Fix the Patriot Act and bring it in line with the Constitution

I hope you’ll make these resolutions a priority for 2007. By doing so, you and the Congress can reassert your Constitutional role as a check on the executive branch and ensure oversight of the president and the administration.

They also invite signers to “Tell us, and Congress, your own resolutions for moving freedom forward in 2007. What matters most to you?”

Please take a moment to sign it - because it’s the fun thing to do - and then, in the comments section, leave a polite rant about the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). Ask Congress to repeal it post-haste, and chastise the ACLU for their failure to oppose it.

New to easyVegan.info? Find out more about AETA here.

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Tagged: animals animal+rights animal+welfare action+alerts aclu american+civil+liberties+union aeta Animal+Enterprise+Terrorism+Act terrorism animal+terrorism activism civil+liberties free+speech censorship congress

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle - kinshipcircle [at] brick.net
Date: Dec 23, 2006 8:18 PM
Subject: [RELIEF GLOBAL] Animals In Disaster, Legislation - UPDATES

KINSHIP CIRCLE ANIMAL DISASTER RELIEF - PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST

12/23/06: [RELIEF GLOBAL] UPDATES - Animals In Disaster, Legislation
PAST NEWSLETTERS: www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/default.html

ANIMAL ISSUE OF THE WEEK: Slaughter On The Streets Of Serbia
TAKE ACTION

IN THIS ALERT:

GLOBAL ANIMAL DISASTER RELIEF NEWS:

1. Puppies From Israeli/Hezbollah Line Of Fire Safe In U.S. Homes
2. Happy Ending For Primates Stranded In Lebanon/Israel War

LEGISLATIVE/LEGAL ACTION FOR ANIMALS:

1. Jury Trial Set For Dogs Deserve Better Founder
2. Chinese President Hu Jintao Halts Mass Dog Cull
3. CONFIRMED: China Dog Massacre Stopped, But More Action Needed
4. President Bush Signs Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act Into Law
5. No Passage: Horse Slaughter Ban & Animal Fighting Bill
6. Arizona Voters Pass Historic Ban On Sow Crates, Veal Crates
7. Horses Hurt in Wreck are Spared from Slaughterhouse

(more…)

Previous posts on Schumacher Furs here and here.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: In Defense of Animals - takeaction [at] idausa.org
Date: Dec 23, 2006 9:29 AM
Subject: Writing Alert: Fur store eviction: Go now, not later

The Portland Oregonian ran a story about Schumacher Fur in Portland, Oregon receiving an eviction notice from their landlord. Please write a letter to the editor reminding readers that any compassionate person would refuse to cause animals to suffer for a vanity product. Send letters to letters [at] news.oregonian.com.

Read “Fur store eviction: Go now, not later” online.

Fur store eviction: Go now, not later

Downtown - Schumacher Furs & Outerwear is told by its landlord to vacate by 1 p.m. the day after Christmas

Saturday, December 23, 2006
SPENCER HEINZ

Schumacher Furs & Outerwear, the target of more than a year of anti-fur protests, is facing a landlord’s notice to swiftly vacate its downtown Portland location.

(more…)

Get right with D-O-G!:

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