I speak as someone who has been the victim of animal rights terrorist, I have had death threats made to myself and my family. I have had my house vandalized. I had to get an unlisted phone number because of threatening calls in the night. I was told by police to vary my schedule so not to start a pattern, and what was my crime? I am a State Wildlife Biologist.

I don’t represent any corporations, I work for the environment and yes I support regulated hunting, fishing and trapping. Myself and my co-workers do more for the environment and the animals that live there in a month than all animal rights groups have ever done!

The AETA does not take away a person right to protest or freedom of speech. Here is what the AETA says on LAWFUL boycotts and freedom of speech.

“`(3) the term `economic damage’–

`(A) means the replacement costs of lost or damaged property or records, the costs of repeating an interrupted or invalidated experiment, the loss of profits, or increased costs, including losses and increased costs resulting from threats, acts or vandalism, property damage, trespass, harassment, or intimidation taken against a person or entity on account of that person’s or entity’s connection to, relationship with, or transactions with the animal enterprise; but

`(B) does not include any lawful economic disruption (including a lawful boycott) that results from lawful public, governmental, or business reaction to the disclosure of information about an animal enterprise;”

“`(e) Rules of Construction- Nothing in this section shall be construed–

`(1) to prohibit any expressive conduct (including peaceful picketing or other peaceful demonstration) protected from legal prohibition by the First Amendment to the Constitution;

`(2) to create new remedies for interference with activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution, regardless of the point of view expressed, or to limit any existing legal remedies for such interference; or

`(3) to provide exclusive criminal penalties or civil remedies with respect to the conduct prohibited by this action, or to preempt State or local laws that may provide such penalties or remedies.’.”

Martin Luther King was fighting for HUMAN rights and he did so in a peaceful manner, I have never read anywhere that he threatened a person’s child just because of the job the parent has.

Why don’t people get it?

I am not a lawyer, but I sent out an email when AETA passed commenting that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been arrested for injuring the business owners who were boycotted. There is no question that this is potentially the most sinister bit of legislation to come out of BushCo, and that’s saying a lot. Please spread the word! (Why does it go through my mind, “First they came for the animal activists, but I wasn’t an animal activist, so I remained silent….”

(For anyone’s information, here is the original:
“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist - so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat - so I did nothing. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew - so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left who could stand up for me.”
MARTIN NIEMOELLER, CHURCH DISSIDENT LEADER, arrested 1937, who spent seven years in concentration camps