Posted on 02/24/2006 9:53:04 PM PST by Coleus
| Friday, February 24, 2006 |
TRENTON -- A former child star who was the voice of Lucy in the "Peanuts" movies testified that federal prosecutors are targeting her animal rights group as part of a crackdown on freedom of speech. Pamelyn Ferdin, who also starred as Felix Unger's daughter Edna on "The Odd Couple" TV show, said her group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, is guilty of nothing more than publishing information on the Web. Prosecutors have charged the Philadelphia-based group and six of its members with animal enterprise terrorism, stalking and other offenses as part of its five-year campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences. The company, which has laboratories in Franklin Township, Somerset County, as well as in England, uses animals to test drugs and consumer products.
The government claims the group, which goes by the acronym SHAC, uses its Web site to incite violence against people and institutions it identifies as targets because of their affiliation with the animal testing lab. The defense rested Thursday after only one day of testimony. The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday. "For the government to say you can't say this and you can't say that is going down a very scary path of going toward fascism," testified Ferdin, who took over leadership of the group in 2004 after its former president, Kevin Kjonaas, and others were indicted. Ferdin is not charged in the case. "I believe that's what the government here is trying to do with this Web site and other Web sites," Ferdin said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna repeatedly interrupted Ferdin as she tried to talk about the suffering of animals in testing labs. She said she could not answer with a "yes" or "no" when asked if it is OK to throw rocks through someone's window in furtherance of the group's aims. "If my mother was being tortured and strapped down and electrodes put in her anus?" she asked, drawing a parallel with what animal activists maintain is done to animals at testing labs or fur farms. Earlier in the day, one of the six defendants, Joshua Harper, testified that he opposes injuring any life form, including human beings. But he also said it is all right to throw rocks through someone's window as long as the person isn't home.
A cornerstone of the group's campaign against Huntingdon is posting intensely personal information about its employees and those of firms that do business with Huntingdon on the Web. Many of those targeted have had their homes vandalized, and received threats against them or their families. But Harper testified he uses an encryption program on his own computer. "I wanted to keep my own personal information private," said the 31-year-old Seattle resident. "I wanted to make sure I'm the only one that has access to it."
Harper testified that despite giving speeches at college campuses calling for "direct action" against targets, he does not support everything that has happened to them. He said he became upset during one demonstration outside the home of an employee of Chiron, a California pharmaceutical company that contracted with Huntingdon, when the target's husband and children drove up to the house, and protesters started screaming at the children. Harper also said he was distressed by the bombing of Chiron's Emeryville, Calif., plant on Aug. 28, 2003. The group is not accused of participating in the bombing.
These people are sick. Really, really sick.
Ask Muhammad.
Whip out RICO. They wouldn't hesitate on anti-abortion folks, what's the hold up here?
here is a link about these creeps http://www.animalscam.com/peta_7things.cfm
I say give these animal "rights" activists a taste of their own medicine. But keep it legal. Eventually they will provide us with legal clearance to mow them down (which is what they all deserve for terrorism).
All terrorists have a tendency to claim the right of free speech while intimidating others who use that right. Visit CAIR's website and read their news archives and action alerts. Intimidation takes many forms. For instance, if someone called you "Islamophobic," how would you respond? Leftists, whether they be PETA members, followers of Jesse Jackson, liberals in general, Muslims, global socialists, fans of Kofi or Solana, etc. use the politics of intimidation, which range from "simple" exclusion to actual violence. Free speech for them, but no free speech for anyone who denounces them.
Ok, thanks ...
RICO is **so** badly written that it wouldn't be much, if any, of a stretch for some ambitious prosecutor to attempt to bust a VFW lodge whose members were out on a rented bus on some excursion, doubtless having a beer or two, offering a beer or two (naughty, naughty, of course) to the driver.
Twice.
Y'see, that's the only condition for triggering the ''pattern of behavior'' clause in RICO: once, who cares, twice, it's a ''pattern''.
The real problem is that many US Attorneys have attempted, and continue to attempt, to place RICO above the First Amendment right to ''petition for the redress of grievances''.
RICO is a problem, no matter WHO is wielding it in the name of ''justice''.
FReegards to you!
While I'm not exactly proud of it now, we had a very staunch PETA woman living a few doors down from us where I grew up. She'd lecture us on this or that if she got the chance and made a habit of yelling at local farmers.
So, of course, being teenagers, we snuck out at night and would hang pieces of meat from her clothesline. (I can't believe I'm writing this...) At the time, it was hilarious.
From Pamelyn Ferdin's website:
No, she doesn't have any children. On this issue, Pamelyn once said, "We have no children as I feel that until every child has a home (just like every companion animal), people should not breed!"
I have nothing to add (except it's good she's stopping her nutty gene right here).
I remember Pamala Ferdin. A shame she's grown up into a nut. I hope she ends up with a nice jail stint.
I wish we would start going after these people like the terrorists they are.
These terrorists should be treated as such. They should be questioned about links to foreign terrorists, in foreign nations.
Granted, their most vocal opponents are rationally inconsistent. (A group that was staunchly pro-life and opposed to the brutal treatment of animals would defy all praise.) But being "kooky" or "flakey" doesn't mean they're wrong.
There are respectable scientists who maintain that these experiments are needless. God made us stewards of our animal companions. That does not mean we can torture them to death.
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