Animal rights activists shot at Pet Shop protest.

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Four animal rights activists are facing charges under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act for chanting, demonstrating with masks covering their faces, and chalking defamatory slogans on the sidewalk. If convicted, the “AETA 4,”—Joseph Buddenburg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope, and Adriana Stumpo—could be sentenced to 5-10 years in prison.
The AETA 4 case is a startling example [...]

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Two federal Green Scare prisoners, Jonathan Paul and Daniel McGowan.I have sat through so many sentencing hearings for environmentalists and animal rights activists when the judges and prosecutors have noted, and even applauded, how activists are not like “typical” defendants. By this, they mean that the defendants have solid education backgrounds (some even pursuing law [...]

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A mink escaping in an Animal Liberation Front style raid in Sweden. Photo from DirectAction.info.
Two animal rights activists have been arrested under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act in connection to the release of mink from Utah fur farms. The crimes are attributed to the Animal Liberation Front, which the FBI labels the “number one domestic [...]

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The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act has a chilling effect on First Amendment activity.
March 4, 2009
Dear Member of Congress:
When I testified before the House Judiciary Committee about the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act in 2006, I argued that such sweeping legislation risks criminalizing First Amendment activity as “terrorism” and chilling free speech. Members of the committee, including [...]

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The recent FBI arrests of animal rights activists as “terrorists” for chalking sidewalks, protesting and making fliers marks a drastic turning point in the Green Scare, and in the history of this country. The government and corporations are clearly hoping to set a legal precedent for the sweeping power of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. [...]

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The weapons of terrorists?It was only a matter of time. Since the passage of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a sweeping new law labeling animal rights activists as “terrorists,” corporations and industry groups have been pushing the federal government to use their new powers. For more than two years, the law has sat on the [...]

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Tim DeChristopher. Photo by Washington Post Newsweek Interactive.Yesterday’s article on the sentencing of Marie Mason to prison, as a terrorist, for 22 years has made quite a buzz. Nearly everywhere the piece has been posted (news sites, environmental sites, Digg, punk forums) there has been a slew of angry comments (by “green” folks, no less) [...]

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Good news from South Dakota: a state House committee shot down an “animal rights terrorism” bill proposed by the university.
The bill was nearly identical to new, sweeping “animal enterprise terrorism” legislation in California. Similar laws have been pushed around the country by right-wing groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (you might remember the [...]

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Seven animal rights activists in the U.K. were sentenced to up to 11 years in prison Wednesday for “conspiracy to blackmail” in their campaign to shut down the notorious animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences.

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