• PETA Proposes erecting a statue to commemorate the deaths of chickens killed in a Salem, Oregon trucking accident on their way to the slaughter slaughter house.

• The San Diego City Council wipes out pet stores to get rid of “puppy mills.”

• Animal activists terrorize a San Diego family at their home and at their fur store.

Many people love animals and it’s easy to grant some slack to passionate individuals who undertake saving animals as a crusade, but this post is also a cautionary tale for the uninitiated, the gullible or the media.

The people of PETA, the vegan group that produces grand attention seeking publicity stunts (the chicken statue, calling milk racist because it’s white, seal cam ‘peep show’, meat suits, veggie sex Super Bowl commercial, circuses around the circus), includes some of the same people who hounded out a Portland fur store in 2006. Another Portland furrier is under constant assault by animal terrorists, one of whom tried to burn his store down by setting himself on fire. And it’s happening in San Diego.  

San Diego, of course, has seen its share of eco terrorism. An unfinished apartment complex was torched in 2005 by the Earth Liberation Front. And because of a long term federal investigation in Oregon we know that Eco and Animal terrorists are the same bunch.

At first, the San Diego news accounts of the attack on the store and the store owners’ home were fairly benign. Attack, blah blah, police investigating,blah blah, may have done some vandalism at their home blah blah. It was only after the Animal Liberation Front sent out a news release on July 21st taking responsibility that the real damage was revealed and the media started paying very close attention. From the ALF press release:

Every single piece of plate glass on this hideous enterprise was soaked in glass etching solution. The exterior of the store was covered in red spray painted slogans. Bottles of foul smelling butyric acid were sprayed into the interior, leaving this place of commerce smelling like death; identical to the odor present on every fur farm. We hope this is a costly clean up, and serves to drive away all patronage.

But they weren’t done. They claim to have “hiked” to the home of the owner and further terrorized and vandalized–anything not to admit they actually took a car out to do their terror for the Earth and Animals,

We then hiked to owner Ludi Graf’s home, at ***** *******Street in Spring Valley  [I’ve taken out the actual street address] . His home was given the same treatment. We paint stripped his luxury winnebago parked in the driveway. Slogans were painted in blood red on his garage and the winnebago. The windows of the winnebago were etched. The remainder of the etching solution was applied to the windows of his home. Concrete destroying muriatic acid was poured on his driveway.

Another “hike” to La Mesa to the home of another fur store owner,

It was another short hike to manager Kimberley Graf’s home at**** ***** Drive in La Mesa [real street address redacted]. Her luxury pickup truck was painted red and soaked in paint stripper. All windshields and windows on the truck were smeared with etching solution. We covered her house and driveway in spray paint. Muriatic acid was dumped on the porch.

(Let me add parenthetically here eschewing the use of cars and using the term ‘luxury’ in their minds justifies their felonious and terrorizing behavior against ‘the rich’. See the previous post on the yachts used by protesters at the Anti Coal rally)

And now we get to the San Diego City Council who gave these activists more credibility by passing an ordinance wiping out pet stories in the City and allowing the government to be nearly exclusively in the dog business. That’s right, one sweeping law, and pffft! the pet stores are now outlawed. Why? Because for the last several years the animal rights folks have introduced the term ‘puppy mills’ into the nomenclature.  My daughter who works with dog rescues uses the term ‘puppy mill’. But what does the term mean? It connotes a place where people churn out dogs and cats under inhumane conditions.

I can appreciate this overuse of animals. I’ve “homed” a rescue dog who was overbred. She was a great old gal and a gentle soul but was just worn out. She was overused and that’s horrible. But was she from a puppy mill? No.

For the moment, San Diego has left breeders alone. There’s also a term for breeders of dogs: “Back Yard Breeders.” Look for that term in a future city ordinance. It’s a way to demonize anyone who participates in breeding dogs. Because the aim of these folks is to give animals ‘rights’ like humans have rights, to regard them as sentient beings, and not be able to treat them like, well, dogs.

Let me give you a real world example. Oregon recently got rid of horse rendering plants. How inhumane! How horrible that people would deign turn horses into dog food and use all of their body parts for something useful! But it turns out that when a horse gets lame or is old and sick, it’s less useful and you can’t sell him. Feeding him is expensive. The horse rendering plant used to offer an alternative to keeping a useless and expensive horse. Now horse owners don’t have that. Animal rights activists got together with well intentioned lawmakers and outlawed them. And, as a result, Oregon has had a rash of horses being turned free, starved to death, or left to die in some abandoned barn or property that the people can’t afford to keep anymore. 

I’m all for not killing animals and I’m also against puppy mills–where they exist. But the San Diego City Council assumed with its decision that ALL pet stores use dogs and cats from inhumane mills. How do they know that? They don’t. They just guessed. Those nice animal people told them so. One pet store owner testified at council,

“You’re taking a largely regulated industry and going towards a shelter system that’s not necessarily regulated as much,” Salinas said. “All of our puppies — as we’ve already said — are vet-checked several times, so they’re pretty healthy.”

The Council didn’t care. They could have demanded all puppies and kitties at the stores be checked by a licensed Vet. But they didn’t. They didn’t dare keep those stores open. That’s a lot of stores they just hit with their ordinance. 

The result of the chicken statues, ALF terror, PETA PR stunts, seizing the language and outlawing what has been a respectable business (How much is that doggy in the window?) has resulted in getting closer to giving animals rights. That in turn will mean more laws against people who, in the animal rights world view, treat their dogs in an inhumane way. What will that mean? Anything they want it to mean. I didn’t walk my dogs yesterday. Someday that’s going to be against the law. Think I’m wrong? They starve horses, don’t they?

ALF STATEMENT: 

.July 21, 2013

Received Anonymously:

In the early morning hours of July 16, 2013, anarchists in San Diego took action on behalf of the millions of fur-bearing animals who are trapped, enslaved, and killed to sustain the global fur industry.

We first visited Furs By Graf at 7670 Claremont Mesa Boulevard in the Claremont neighborhood. Every single piece of plate glass on this hideous enterprise was soaked in glass etching solution. The exterior of the store was covered in red spray painted slogans. Bottles of foul smelling butyric acid were sprayed into the interior, leaving this place of commerce smelling like death; identical to the odor present on every fur farm. We hope this is a costly clean up, and serves to drive away all patronage.

We then hiked to owner Ludi Graf’s home, at *********Street in Spring Valley. His home was given the same treatment. We paint stripped his luxury winnebago parked in the driveway. Slogans were painted in blood red on his garage and the winnebago. The windows of the winnebago were etched. The remainder of the etching solution was applied to the windows of his home. Concrete destroying muriatic acid was poured on his driveway.

It was another short hike to manager Kimberley Graf’s home at ********** Drive in La Mesa. Her luxury pickup truck was painted red and soaked in paint stripper. All windshields and windows on the truck were smeared with etching solution. We covered her house and driveway in spray paint. Muriatic acid was dumped on the porch.

These actions were taken to vocalize the cries of the millions of wild beings yearning for freedom. This is in vain unless it inspires others to liberate and sabotage. Every fur farm prisoner deserves a jail break.

In solidarity with our comrades fighting in Vancouver,

Animal Liberation Front

[Press Office note: Imprisoned in cages for life, or mercilessly trapped with painful leghold traps in the wild, fur-bearing animals killed to make unnecessary fashion statements are forced to endure intensive confinement, compared to the miles of territory these still-wild animals would enjoy in their natural state. The natural instincts of these captive animals are completely frustrated; self-mutilation, sickness, infection, poor sanitation and the sheer stress of confinement lead animals in captivity to premature death. When they survive, animals of sufficient size are killed by anal electrocution or gassing, then skinned. In addition to liberating the wild animals destined for a certain, painful and agonizing death, another goal of liberationists is to cause economic damage to fur retailers and farms; dozens of stores and fur farming operations have seen economic ruin since “Operation Bite Back” began by the Animal Liberation Front in the 1990s.

The Animal Liberation Front utilizes economic sabotage in addition to the direct liberation of animals from conditions of abuse and imprisonment to halt needless animal suffering. By making it more expensive to trade in the lives of innocent, sentient beings, the ALF maintain the atrocities against our brothers and sisters are likely to occur in smaller numbers; their goal is to abolish the exploitation, imprisonment, torture and killing of innocent, non-human animals.]