Free Republic

The emergency landing made by US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River can only be describe as a miracle. Everything was perfect from the pilot's ability to make a controlled landing near ferries and tour boats, to the fact that no passengers were seriously hurt. While the NTSB has yet to make a final determination of the cause of the "crash" all initial reports point to Canadian Geese flying into and damaging both engines right after take off. It is interesting that on January 22, 2004 just short of exactly five years earlier, NY's Chief Moonbat, Senator Schumer announced...

More PETA Absurdity January 16, 2009 Congratulations to PETA for once again breaking the absurdity barrier. The group just launched a new campaign to rename fish "sea kittens." No, I am not making this up. Apparently, the feeling is the "what's in a name" effect will stop the cruelty of fishing. You know, if you imagine putting a hook in a little kitty's mouth, you'll be less inclined to drag those poor scaly creatures around with rod and reel. I don't care what you call them. I'm going to catch them. And eat them. I might even go for some...

Barack Obama’s pick for “regulatory czar,” Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein, may be the incoming president’s most popular appointment so far. Judging from his resume -- best-selling author, “pre-eminent legal scholar of our time,” and an endorsement from The Wall Street Journal -- we can almost understand why. Almost. Because as we’re telling the media today, there’s one troubling portion of the new Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator’s C.V. that has seems to have flown under everyone’s radar: Cass Sunstein is a radical animal rights activist. Don’t believe us? Sunstein has made no secret of his...

From FoxNews.com:How Birds Can Down a Jet Airplane January 16, 2009 "More than 200 people have been killed worldwide as a result of wildlife strikes with aircraft since 1988, according to Bird Strike Committee USA, and more than 5,000 bird strikes were reported by the U.S. Air Force in 2007. Bird strikes, or the collision of an aircraft with an airborne bird, tend to happen when aircraft are close to the ground, which means just before landing or after take-off, when jet engines are turning at top speeds. The incidents are serious particularly when the birds, usually gulls, raptors and...

Barack Obama’s pick for “regulatory czar,� Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein, may be the incoming president’s most popular appointment so far. Judging from his resume -- best-selling author, “pre-eminent legal scholar of our time,� and an endorsement from The Wall Street Journal -- we can almost understand why. Almost. Because as we’re telling the media today, there’s one troubling portion of the new Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator’s C.V. that has seems to have flown under everyone’s radar: Cass Sunstein is a radical animal rights activist. Don’t believe us? Sunstein has made no secret of his...

People don't seem to like fish. They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the small ones nibble at your feet when you're swimming, and the big ones—well, the big ones will bite your face off if Jaws is anything to go by. ------------ Snip

London, England (AHN) - The Winchester Crown Court found on Monday four rights activists guilty of blackmailing animal testing firms which supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences. Huntingdon, based in Cambridge, conducts animal testing for U.K. pharmaceutical industry. The four are members of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Five SHAC members were charged of blackmailing, but only Gerrah Selby, Daniel Wadham, Gavin Medd-Hall and Heather Nicholson were declared guilty. The fifth accused, Trevor Holmes, was cleared of the charges. They all denied conspiracy to blackmail which included threats such as claiming the managers of the animal testing companies were pedophiles, sending fake...

Norfolk, December 20: Oprah Winfrey, who features in the lists of world’s most influential, impressive and not to mention ‘the rich’ lists, has been bestowed with yet another honor: animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has named her its ‘Person of the Year.’Winfrey has used her "powerful voice to defend those without one," said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk on Friday.PETA will present her with a plaque and a letter of appreciation -- like when your kid gives you a "World's Greatest Mom" t-shirt.Winfrey used her famous talk show to throw some light on important concerns...

Though O.J. Simpson was sentenced for robbery and related crimes yesterday, thirteen years ago he walked on a double-murder charge. That might be an isolated case, but Gail Collins apparently believes there are tens of millions of murderers roaming free in America. We call them by a different name: hunters. Collins made her inane hunting = murder analogy in her column today in the course of taking one more gratuitous swipe at Sarah Palin. The gist of "The Senate, Snowe and Dinkytown" is that in a Senate where Democrats will fall one or two seats short of the magic 60,...

Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- Anti-animal research activists are claiming responsibility for torching two vehicles they thought belonged to a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. Activists connected to the Animal Liberation Front say they destroyed the vehicles on Nov. 20 to protest the work of Goran Lacan, a researcher who used animals while investigating treatments for morbid obesity and eating disorders. The group accidentally targeted the wrong address, . . .

PETA Condemns Sarah Palin's Turkey Slaughter News Conference By Samantha Chang The horrific video of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blithely discussing her failed vice presidential bid as a live turkey is slaughtered behind her has ignited a media firestorm. Palin, 44, was an unknown local politician until John McCain plucked her out of obscurity and chose her as his running mate on Aug. 29. Since then, Palin has come under fire for her vast ignorance of current affairs, incoherent babblings to the press and her lavish $150,000 wardrobe, courtesy of the Republican National Committee. But her latest scandal takes the...

Animals Rights Group Approaches Blue Cross Blue Shield People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont to raise health insurance premiums for people who eat meat and lower the premiums for vegetarians, Plattsburgh, Vt., television station WPTZ reported. ~snip~ Not sure how much we are allowed to post from IB

PARIS (AP) — U.S. actress Lindsay Lohan has been pelted with a flour bomb on arrival at a Paris nightclub wearing a fur stole. Animal rights activists showered the 22-year-old actress with flour when she went to the VIP Room Theater in the early hours of Saturday with her friend, disc jockey Samantha Ronson.

Sea kitten and chips, filet-o-sea kitten and sea kitten fingers would replace fishier dish names on restaurant menus, under proposals from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The rebranding is aimed at altering the “slithery and slimy” public image of fish, by highlighting their similarities to cuter, more popular animals.

Switzerland has adopted new animal protection legislation which specifies in great detail how fish and animals are to be treated — including how to dispose of unwanted goldfish. Under the new law, live goldfish cannot be flushed down the toilet — they must be knocked out and killed first. The new law also spells out in exhaustive detail how all domestic animals are to be treated, including pets, farm animals or those destined for scientific experiments. Wild animals are also covered by the law if they reside in zoos or circuses. The Swiss law also bans catch-and-release fishing and the...

You can call her CutoutDissection.com, Cutout for short, but just don't call her Jennifer. The former Jennifer Thornburg - whose driver's license now reads Dissection.com, Cutout - wanted to do something to protest animal dissections in schools. The 19-year-old's new name is also the Web address for an anti-dissection page of the site for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, where she is interning. "I normally do have to repeat my name several times when I am introducing myself to someone new," she told The Asheville Citizen-Times. "Once they find out what my name is, they want to know...

Madonna’s not the only one with an opinion about Sarah Palin. Or Lindsay Lohan. Or Diddy. Or Courtney Love. Ok, a lot of celebrities have an opinion about her! But Betty White is the latest star to share some choice words about the Vice Presidential candidate. She appeared on Craig Ferguson last night and referred to her as “one crazy bitch.” We love when old people curse! It makes it so much funnier. Check out the clip.

There are a lot of things about vegans that grate on my nerves, but the thing that bothers me the most is their zealotry. Like most left-leaning kooks, vegans follow an "ends justify the means" philosophy, and have no compunction about using hyperbole, overstatement, and, more often than not, out-and-out lies and deceit to hammer home their message. * * * * * I just found out about a new TV commercial that's being run by an organization called The Cancer Project. The worst part about it is ...

In these times of trouble and turmoil, financial crisis and contentious presidential campaigns, it’s nice to know we can always find some humor among the news stories. In this case, we turn once again to PETA, which provides us with some unintended comic relief. PETA's bold suggestion leaves them once again looking like boobs....

WATERBURY, Vt. -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman. "PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says. PETA officials say a move to...

We all know that Sarah Palin has been subjected to many unfair, untrue, and downright vicious attacks recently. Immediately after her selection by McCain, my wife began receiving dozens of emails from various groups claiming thet Palin was for aerial wolf hunting. The claims range from Palin offering $15 for the left front paw of each wolf killed, setting up high dollar hunts for "rich backers", to her pushing through the wolf hunts after the Alaskan people voted overwhelmingly against it. This is not a big issue for most of us, but the wife and MANY others, mostly women, participate...

Fun and games from the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, casting our heroine in the role of a cartoon sadist. Consider it a complement to WaPo hyperventilation last week about why she increased spending for teen moms by “only” $3.9 million instead of $5 million: An expansion in funding doesn’t fit the stereotype of Republican heartlessness, so they distorted the facts to make it sound like she cut funding by $3.9 million. The same Snidely Whiplash effect is on display here but this time it’s a sin of omission rather than commission, leaving the 99 percent of viewers who’ve never...

Switzerland is well on its way to becoming the most dignified country in the world, after its federal parliament decreed that goldfish must be protected against physical and psychological abuse. From September 1, Swiss aquariums must have an opaque side to allow the fish live in a natural cycle of day and night. The new law sets rigorous standards for the treatment of all "social animals". It will be an offence, for instance, to keep only one guinea pig or budgerigar. Or one rhinoceros, apparently, because the law also covers pet rhinoceroses. The Swiss are amongst the best educated people...

Gwyneth Paltrow has angered PETA, by wearing fur in a new advertising campaign for luxury Italian fashion label Tod’s. The campaign, which was shot in Capri by Mario Testino, features the 35-year-old actress in fox fur and wearing fur-lined boots.

Pope Benedict's fondness for fur trim on his hats and capes has come under fire from an Italian animal rights group, which has launched an online petition to persuade the pontiff to switch to synthetics. Benedict has taken a traditional approach to papal formal wear to match his conservative views on liturgy and theology, reviving the camauro, an ermine-trimmed red velvet hat favoured by 17th-century popes and last worn by Pope John XXIII in the 1960s, as well as donning a cape trimmed with ermine, which is the white winter coat of the stoat. But his use of ermine, long...

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. — An animal rights group has tried – and failed – to run a newspaper ad comparing the beheading of a passenger on a Greyhound bus last week to the treatment of animals by the meat industry. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said on its website it would run the ad in the Portage la Prairie Daily Graphic. However, city editor Tara Seel said the newspaper had no intention of running the ad, which uses imagery of “an innocent victim's throat” being cut, in reference to the slaughter of cows, chickens and...

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA: The FBI is investigating two bombings that targeted university scientists, the latest in a rash of attacks against biomedical researchers who experiment on animals, authorities say. Both scientists work at the University of California, Santa Cruz. One of them and his family were forced to escape from a second-story window early on Saturday when a firebomb was lit on the home's porch, Santa Cruz police said. An adult was treated at a hospital and released. Police Capt. Steve Clark called the bombing "an attempted homicide." Also that morning, a firebomb destroyed a car belonging to another researcher....

SANTA CRUZ — Firebombs were intentionally set on a porch and in a car belonging to two UC Santa Cruz researchers in separate incidents early Saturday in what police have classified as acts of domestic terrorism. Police are calling one of the bombings an attempted homicide. In one incident, a faculty member's home on Village Circle off High Street was intentionally firebombed about 5:43 a.m., according to police. The residence belonged to UCSC researcher David Feldheim, a neuroscientist who works with mice. He was one of 13 researchers listed in threatening animal rights pamphlets found Tuesday in a downtown coffee...

ROME (AFP) — One of Italy's leading animal rights groups said Monday it was launching an Internet petition to demand Pope Benedict XVI stop wearing fur during religious ceremonies at the Vatican.Lorenzo Croce, chairman of the Italian Association for the Defence of Animals and the Environment (AIDAA), denied being provocative or wanting to make an anti-religious statement."We just want to ask him in a message of love and peace to give a strong signal towards the protection of animals and the environment through a small but very significant personal sacrifice," Croce told the Italian news agency ANSA.Since his election Pope...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament voiced its support on Wednesday for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans. Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans. "This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity," said Pedro Pozas,...

Self righteousness can be a disease afflicting the true believers in any cause. But the animal rights movement seems to be home to more than its share of people who believe their cause is so right that they are excused from normal human constraints. They have no more consideration of others than the beasts they whose interests they place above humanity's. More than two decades ago, a childhood friend who grew up to become a world-renowned medical researcher, whose work has improved the lives of countless people suffering a horrible affliction (and who has had the extraordinary honor among medical...

Remember the campaign against smokers? It started quietly and grew to hysteria. From bans to added taxes, smokers were left to wonder what hit them. Tobacco was (and continues to be) a legal substance. Now, following the same pattern, a push has started against red meat.

SKOWHEGAN, Maine - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has sent a proposal to the Somerset County commissioners to lease their jail for the world’s first Lobster Empathy Center. The central Maine county is constructing a new jail and has put the century-old jail in downtown Skowhegan up for sale. The Realtor handling the sale called the offer "likely a publicity stunt." "A prison is the perfect setting to demonstrate how lobsters suffer when they are caught in traps or confined to cramped, filthy supermarket tanks," PETA wrote in a June 2 letter to the commissioners. "The center will...

Gotta love PETA. Just gotta love ‘em. Well, not really. One of the animal rights group’s more obscure pressure campaigns involves trying to convince the Queen of England to give up the natural black-bear fur hats that Buckingham Palace guards have worn for 200 years. Because — y’know — British monarchs have always responded so well to public pressure from nitwits. Are black bears endangered? Nope. The species covers most of North America. And black bear populations are growing in Canada, where Her Majesty’s funny hats come from. So what’s the big deal? PETA hates people who wear fur. And...

MADISON, Wis. - While the organizers of Madison's Brat Fest try to set a weekend record for brats consumed, another brat group has more modest expectations. The Alliance for Animals has teamed up with Whole Foods to offer tofurkey beer brats at the Veggie Brat Fest across town. Organizers say veggie brats are a healthier and more humane way to enjoy bratwurst, but they acknowledge it'll be hard for the trend to catch on in Wisconsin. Organizers handed out more than 600 veggie brats Saturday. That's less than one percent of the estimated 96,000 brats consumed by Saturday at the...

Canandaigua, N.Y. - After heavy lobbying from animals-rights groups including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Canandaigua Academy Principal Lynne Erdle has terminated the so-called “chicken project” which has a class of students each year raising chickens and killing them. Lindsay Rajt, manager of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said Friday that Erdle sent an e-mail to the organization saying that school officials “recognize the concern” and had discontinued the project, which had been part of a high school ecology class for the past three years. “In no way were we trying to create a controversy,” wrote...

VIENNA, Austria — Austrian authorities say they are questioning 10 animal rights activists suspected of arson, sabotage and other crimes. Investigators say six of the suspects have been placed in pretrial detention for their alleged involvement in militant animal rights groups. Officials allege that the suspects are behind numerous arson fires and vandalism targeting food, clothing, pharmaceutical and agricultural companies. Prosecutors say the 10 were arrested earlier this week after a monthslong investigation into radical animal rights groups. Austrian media reported today that one of the suspects has begun a hunger strike while in custody. Investigators say the suspects used...

Editor’s Note: Today’s story comes to us from the European Fishing Tackle Trade Association. Catch and Release fishing will be banned in Switzerland from next year, it was revealed this week. And anglers in the country will have to demonstrate their expertise by taking a course on humane methods of catching fish, under new legislation outlined by the Bundesrat - the Swiss Federal Parliament. The new legislation states that fish caught should be killed immediately following their capture, with a sharp blow to the head from a blunt instrument. Under the new regulations, the use of livebait and barbed hooks...

BERKELEY -- Berkeley police detectives investigating a two-month string of animal rights-related vandalism targeting the homes of UC Berkeley scientists will begin probing possible connections to a spate of similar crimes in Santa Cruz, including last weekend's attempted home invasion of a local biomedical researcher. Sgt. Mary C. Kusmiss, a Berkeley Police Department spokeswoman, said detectives have not identified suspects in the rash of sidewalk chalking, brazen daylight trespassing and bullhorn-powered yelling incidents that have unfolded every Sunday afternoon since New Year's Day outside the homes of at least six Berkeley researchers who use cats, mice, rats and other animals...

Santa Cruz, Calif. (AP) -- The FBI is investigating possible links between animal-rights activists in Southern California and a weekend attack on the home of a University of California, Santa Cruz researcher. Patti Hanson, an FBI spokeswoman, said the bureau was looking into possible connections to "domestic terrorism." A demonstration by six masked protesters in front of the UCSC scientist's Westside home Sunday afternoon turned violent when the group pounded on the door and were confronted by the researcher's husband, police reported. The incident invited comparison to recent attacks on UCLA researchers that were linked to animal-rights groups. No one...

Animal rights group asks Sri Lankan rebels to leave animals out of conflict after zoo attack COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - An international animal rights group called on Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tigers to "leave animals out" of the armed conflict, two weeks after a grenade attack blamed on rebels at the island's main zoo. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said in a letter dated Feb. 15 to Velupillai Prabhakaran, the reclusive rebel leader, that "the explosive device that was set off near the zoo's bird enclosures terrified many animals at the zoo." PETA president Ingrid...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Animals rights advocates are squawking at a measure that would make fried chicken Kentucky's official picnic food. State Rep. Charles Siler is sponsoring legislation to assign the designation to KFC's "finger lickin' good" chicken, first served by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1940. The late colonel's fried chicken deserves the title because of the worldwide attention and economic benefit it has brought to the state, Siler said. KFC, a subsidiary of Louisville-based Yum Brands Inc. (YUM), has 11,000 restaurants in more than 80 countries. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals bristles at the idea. The animal...

PETA Headstone Hides Anti-KFC Secret Recipe Animal Rights Group Erects Headstone Near Col. Sanders' Grave POSTED: 6:28 pm EST January 11, 2008 LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- An animal rights group placed a tombstone with a hidden message in the Louisville cemetery in which the founder of KFC is interred, reported WLKY-TV. The grave marker was originally approved by the Cave Hill Cemetery, but officials said they were tricked. Now they want it removed. The headstone is actually not meant to be a memorial for a person. Instead, it's for animals -- all part of an effort by PETA, or People for...

PETA Requests Vegetarian Diet in Jail for Cannibalism SuspectBy KENNETH DEAN Staff Writer Sheriff's officials were astounded Thursday by a letter requesting the man accused of murdering his girlfriend and possibly participating in cannibalism be placed on a vegetarian diet to keep him from being "involved in any senseless killing" while incarcerated. The letter was faxed to the Smith County Sheriff's Jail from the national headquarters of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Thursday morning. The Tyler Morning Telegraph received a copy of the letter before officials and notified Sheriff J.B. Smith. "You have to be kidding me,...

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has ordered the Navy to adopt stringent new safeguards intended to improve protection of whales and dolphins during its sonar training exercises off Southern California. The ruling, issued Thursday by Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, orders the Navy to limit its use of medium-range sonar to an area beyond 12 nautical miles from shore. Closer to the shore, marine mammals have exhibited frenzied and disoriented behavior during the emissions of sonar blasts as part of the Navy’s practice missions. Judge Cooper’s order also outlined...

Animal-rights advocates have escalated protests against UC Berkeley researchers in recent months, visiting their homes at midnight and even leafleting their children's soccer games. And today could be the most confrontational day yet. Protesters have been saying it will be "a day of action" against UC Berkeley faculty members who use animals for research. Advertisements found on Web sites such as Craigslist and MySpace, do not include details about the protest, and messages sent to an e-mail address in the ads were not returned. The protests, according to the listings, are being held because "40,000 nonhuman animals are currently held...

The monks at Mepkin Abbey have supported their contemplative lives for 40 years largely by supplying eggs to local grocery stores. No more. The abbey has succumbed to a campaign undertaken last year by the animal-rights activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Too bad. In announcing its decision to phase out its operation over the next year and a half, a Mepkin spokesman said PETA's campaign had become a distraction to the Trappist community: "While the monks are sad to give up work that has sustained them for many years, a hard and honorable work of which...

NEW YORK (AP) - The horse-drawn carriages that clip clop around Central Park could be banned under City Council legislation to be introduced at the urging of animal advocates who say the horses are treated inhumanely. Councilman Tony Avella, who plans to introduce the bill next Wednesday, said the horses that have entertained tourists and New Yorkers for decades are exposed to cruel conditions and are at risk of injury or death as they weave through city traffic. In September, a horse died after it was spooked by street musicians with drums and bolted down Central Park South. It was...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is calling for a boycott of M&Ms, Twix candy bars and other snack foods made by Mars Inc, claiming the company funds experiments that kill mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits. "In violation of its own written policy, the candy company is currently funding a study at the University of California, San Francisco, that uses rats. The rats are force fed by having plastic tubes shoved down their throats, and they are then cut open and killed," PETA said in a statement. "In response to this new information, PETA...

Animal-rights saboteurs have claimed responsibility for vandalizing the Portland home of a research scientist who uses monkeys to study the causes of premature birth in humans. In a communique obtained by The Oregonian today, the Animal Liberation Front acknowledged striking two autos owned by Dr. Miles Novy with spray-paint graffiti and paint stripper. "Novy's reproductive research on primates has resulted in this senseless torture of one of natures most magnificant creatures," ALF saboteurs wrote in a message sent to the Animal Liberation Press Office. "This blatant disregard for the earth, animals and it's resources shall not go unseen by the...