FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists

by Will Potter on December 20, 2011

in Terrorism Legislation

This recent investigation of a McDonald's egg supplier is an example of the type of activism the FBI calls terrorism.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists, according to a new document uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act.

This new information comes as the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a lawsuit challenging the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as unconstitutional because its vague wording has had a chilling effect on political activism. This document adds to the evidence demonstrating that the AETA goes far beyond property destruction, as its supporters claim.

The 2003 FBI file details the work of several animal rights activists who used undercover investigation to document repeated animal welfare violations. The FBI special agent who authored the report said they “illegally entered buildings owned by [redacted] Farm… and videotaped conditions of animals.”

The animal activists caused “economic loss” to businesses, the FBI says. And they also openly rescued several animals from the abusive conditions. This was not done covertly in the style of underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front — it was an act of non-violent civil disobedience and, as the FBI agent notes, the activists distributed press releases and conducted media interviews taking responsibility for their actions.

Based on these acts — trespassing in order to photograph and videotape abuses on factory farms — the agent concludes there “is a reasonable indication” that the activists “have violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 USC Section 43 (a).”

Click here to view the FBI document.

The file was uncovered through a FOIA request by Ryan Shapiro, who is one of the activists mentioned. The file is available for download here. [Please note that this document has additional redactions in order to protect the identities of the other activists, at their request.] Shapiro is now a doctoral candidate at MIT.

“It is deeply sobering to see one’s name in an FBI file proposing terrorism charges,” he said in an email. “It is even more sobering to realize the supposedly terroristic activities in question are merely exposing the horrific cruelty of factory farms, educating the public about what goes on behind those closed doors, and openly rescuing a few animals from one of those farms as an act of civil disobedience.”

When I testified before Congress against the AETA in 2006, one of the primary concerns I raised is that the law could be used to wrap up a wide range of activity that threatens corporate profits. Supporters of the AETA have repeatedly denied this, and said the law will only be used against people who do things like burn buildings.

So how do we explain that such a sweeping prosecution was being considered in 2003, under the law’s somewhat-narrower precursor?

One possibility is that FBI agents lack training, education, and oversight. They are spying on political activists without understanding or respecting the law.

Another explanation is that this document is no mistake, nor is it an isolated case. It is a reflection of a coordinated campaign to target animal rights activists who, as the FBI agent notes, cause “economic loss” to corporations.

green is the new red book cover

Learn the full story of how corporations are targeting activists as "terrorists."

At the state, federal, and international levels, corporations have orchestrated an attempt to silence political activists, and a key target has been undercover investigators. For example:

The FBI makes clear that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is not about protecting public safety; it is about protecting corporate profits. Corporations and the politicians who represent them have repeatedly lied to the American public about the scope of this legislation, and claimed that the law only targets underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front. The truth is that this terrorism law has been slowly, methodically expanded to include the tactics of national organizations like the Humane Society of the United States.

This document illustrates how the backlash against effective activism has progressed within the animal rights movement. However, if this type of legislation is not overturned, it will set a precedent for corporations to use this model against Occupy Wall Street and anyone else who threaten business as usual.

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  • Chajamjen

    “In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no
    place.” ~ Gandhi

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  • http://twitter.com/Dangermouse1973 Rene

    Where is the ACLU?  They appear to be absent or do they only protect prisoners rights to view porn?
    Corporate lobbyists and their clients are in bed with each and every politician.  They will take away our first amendment rights if we as citizens do not stand up to them.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/chelsea.mikala.aikens Chelsea Mikala Aikens

    this is absolutely ridiculous!!! the people RUNNING the factory farms should be prosecuted as terrorists! they are terrorizing and torturing helpless animals every single second of the day! these investigations are the only thing helping spread the truth and inform the public about these horrible ”farms”!!!!!!

  • Ecollins

    When will they use it against OWS? Animals SHOULD be protected! Lazy, dirty bums SHOULD NOT!

  • Lauren Carlisle

    I have a Criminal “Justice” degree and am currently a private investigator. Once I saw how the criminal “justice” system actually worked and realized how corrupt it was, I decided to go back to school to become a Veterinary Technician with the intent to work for animal rescue groups. I’ve ALWAYS been passionate about animals. Does this mean that if I conduct an undercover investigation I’ll be considered a TERRORIST?? Seriously???

    Guess I’ll see you in Guantanamo!!

  • Gdinardo48

    We should ALL be saying , “sure, I’m a terrorist. I’ve broken into hundreds of laboratories and circuses and I’ve stolen dozens of elephants. I even crossed state lines to do so. Hey, FBI; I’ve stolen , like, a million chimpanzees and now they’re safe in the wild. Come and get me, G-men!”

  • ivory

    e collins… with all due respect sir, u have no idea what you are takling about with the protesters. your comment proves that. peace and love.

  • Abrahamsfaithworks

    These people that caused these animals and other animals great harm in the name of MONEY ! Should be put in a cage and given there own treatment like they did these animals ? These animal ABUSERS are the 
    TERRORIST !!!!!!! Not the Angels sent to rescue them !

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Corcoran/1591985520 Jim Corcoran

    There are many reasons to choose a vegan/AR lifestyle. Here are two uplifting videos to help everyone understand why so many people are making this life-altering choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKr4HZ7ukSE and http://www.veganvideo.org

  • http://twitter.com/Cheyla Cheyla

    If you eat meat, then you are supporting this extreme animal torture and murder – If everybody stopped eating birds and eggs, then this abuse could be stopped.

  • Mmueller

    Hardly a surprise that the abusers want to keep their activity secret while they run commercials of happy cows and pigs playing in fields some of them will never see. This is outrageous and should not be allowed for either animal activists or others who seek to expose the corruption of this country in the hands of big corporations.

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  • Me

    @ Cheyla – Do your research, expand your horizons a bit. I eat meat and I make damn sure I know where it comes from. I buy from local, humane farms that treat the animals well, don’t feed them hormones, and slaughter them in the most humane way possible (well, I’m not gonna eat ‘em alive). So I DO NOT “support this extreme animal torture and murder” !!!

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GDILSA3KHSTTVHPDMTUAF6JGIY Bedlum

    Land of the
    Free?

    Prisoners
    per capita world list (top ten)

    # 1
       United
    States:  715 per
    100,000 people 

    # 2
       Russia:   584 per 100,000 people 

    # 3
       Belarus:   554 per 100,000 people

    # 4    Palau:   523 per 100,000 people 

    # 5
       Belize:   459 per 100,000 people 

    # 6
       Suriname:
    437 per 100,000 people 

    # 7
       Dominica:   420 per 100,000 people 

    # 8
       Ukraine:   416 per 100,000 people 

    # 9
       Bahamas,
    The:   410 per
    100,000 people 

    # 10   South
    Africa:  402 per
    100,000 people 

  • Anaglenny

    Unbelievable!

  • Trin

    Me – It’s not Cheyla that needs to do research on this topic. Just because the animals are said to be treated “humanely” (with no industry standard on the term, or enforceable conditions as to the label) by those that profit from their exploitation and death does not mean what is done to them is acceptable. They are still born and raised in an industry of exploitation and suffering, used against their will, force-bred, and killed. Eating animals means you support that industry and pay someone to exploit and kill others for you.

  • Kamnet

    Why would the ACLU take up this case? Animal activism is not a civil liberty, you do not have a God-granted and government protected right to conduct a covert investigation and lie to corporations in order to uncover abuse. I agree that this law is very bad, but it has nothing to do with civil liberties.

  • eddie

    shut the fuck up. people supporting ows arent dirty bums. they are people who wanted to be treated fairly and do want the opprtunity to work, and to hold the parties responsible for the financial collapse responsible. if we did anything the banks did on a smaller scale we would be in prison for years. way to be a republican brainwashed asshole. 

  • Plant Lover

    Or Not.

  • Robert Grillo

    To your point, I quote Francione: “As long as we think the issue is the treatment of animals, we will seek to make that treatment more “humane.” But because animals are property, that goal is unreachable as a practical matter. The treatment of animals will always constitute torture under the most “humane” circumstances. And the “treatment” (or welfarist) approach ignores that it is morally wrong to kill animals even if we treat them “humanely,” which we cannot do anyway. Welfare “reforms” not only fail to provide any significant protection for animals; such reforms actually make matters worse because they encourage the public to feel more comfortable about animal exploitation and to continue to consume animals and animal products. The problem is use, not treatment. The goal is to abolish animal use, not to regulate treatment. The means to the goal? Go vegan and educate others about veganism.” — Gary Francione.

  • Jonathan

    Eddie: Consider that the people you support are the ones shutting down ports and harming thousands of jobs held by the so-called 99%. Also consider that the 1% that has all the money is using it to fund businesses that supply those jobs. While I would not support the use of this law against the protestors, I also would never support their cause, least of all their methods.

  • Jonathan

    Just because the USA has the highest number of prisoners in it’s population doesn’t mean we have less freedoms than usual. It could mean that we have superior law enforcement. You can see whatever you want to see in these statistics.

  • http://www.facebook.com/lik.roper Lik Roper

    you’ve got to remember the bush/cheney administration was one of hunters who did not care about the welfare of animals [cheney even shot his own friend in the face!?] animals were there for dick and george to shoot if they want; so that’s where those polices came from — texas is FULL of factory farms who need that kind of FBI protection…all is can say is this; dick cheney certainly out did his old right-hand man dick nixon…

  • ceasar-augustus

    Eddie: You are 100% dead on.  Don’t let anyone sell you the propaganda about “the 1% are the ones who are providing jobs with their money”.  Not ONE bit true, but an increasingly common lie told by their sympathizers.  It has been show over and over again that the 1% piggers serve ONLY themselves with their money .. the rest of the world be damned.  The OWS is doing NO harm, and simply asking for the natural right to live decent middle class lives of honest work gaining basic dollars.  The one percent want it ALL to themselves.  IN the end, the 99 will walk right over the bodies of the 1. That’s something you we can all count on. Just wait till this Spring and Summer. 

  • Guest

    FBI: Your actions are hurting animals (most of them still just BABIES), every which way – physically, emotionally, psychologically. How much more sick and callous can you possibly get? 

    Stop hurting animals.  Expose the abusers.

  • FU

    Yeah keep telling yourself that…the US has a ridiculous amount of rules for a “free” country and uses the prisoners as slave labor.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KHGKOMIJLZIYGQGA3K6ORLSZMQ George

    So is blogging now terrorism too? Is competition leading to loss of money terrorism? It seems to me then that Murdoch hacking phones is terrorism and FBI investigations are terrorism. Our government are terrorists by their own definition. What a bunch of worthless chumps and losers who get paid to not do the job they are supposed to. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KHGKOMIJLZIYGQGA3K6ORLSZMQ George

    You are stupid. And it’s the 99.99% vs the .01% fool. And they are taking way jobs and shipping them overseas. What planet have you been living on for the last 20 years?

  • http://www.facebook.com/redjeffery Jeffery McClain

    It’s a goddamned police state!

  • Jack

    America: Land of the best cops in the world. I still see less freedom when you look at it like that.

  • Homelessville

    You’re seriously pointing the blame of hunting at the Bush administration? Hunting didn’t exist before Bush? The Obamas are now vegans? Come on. It’s this kind of misinformation that makes people laugh at what are otherwise virtuous causes.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001729715468 Chris Severance

    Free speech acts used as evidence of conspiracy? That has something to do with civil liberties.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000525697522 MrMagoo Foltz

    The word ‘free’ in todays climate holds as little meaning as ‘unlimited’ means to the big corps and our government!

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  • cw

    Jonathan, corporate profits do NOT necessarily go to job creation, the money simply goes to inflated salaries for the top earners (i.e. CEOs).  Acts of civil disobedience that the public knows about ahead of time, like shutting down a port, is not as damaging as say, taking trillions of dollars from the American people for a financial crisis you helped cause.

  • Richard

    As long as idiots like Cheyla are around then this move by the FBI seems win-win to me.  I don’t appreciate being told what I can and can’t do by people who are so dumb that they confuse animals with humans.

    Yes, animals suffer so we can eat them.  They taste good and they are nutritious (even the craziest vegetarians out there have to admit that humans can’t survive on vegetables alone without having health issues – if they think otherwise then they are just fooling themselves). 

    Do you know what, most people don’t care that they suffer!  Ask someone on the street in Africa or Asia whether they care about animals suffering and you will be laughed at.

    If we didn’t need to eat them and they didn’t supply us with anything we needed (leather, milk, etc.) then we would kill 99.9% of them and only keep the cute looking ones, the ones too small to bother us and a few samples for zoos.

    Mentally weak people who are shackled by anthropomorphism like to say things like, “everyone should stop eating birds and eggs”. Why?  Because the birds are cute and have feelings and might one day create a work of art, come up with amazing scientific advances and then have an adventure where they meet some cute cats and mice and other cute animals and nobody eats each other and la la la la la…. I like it here in happy land where everyone loves each other and nobody eats meat and we all wear pink and ribbons and sparkly, shiny nice stuff in our hair…

    So, congratulations, you have more money and food than you personally require, you aren’t very intelligent and tend to see things in black and white, you have the luxury of having more time available than you require to feed, wash and work and you put that spare time to good use telling the rest of the world how they should live their lives, “because animals are all cute and sparkly”… :P

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=16118912 David Oehl

    “Also consider that the 1% that has all the money is using it to fund businesses that supply those jobs.”
    Ahoy!  I call bullshit on thee!  The one percent does nothing of a kind.  What supplies jobs is market demand from the middle classes, whose wages have stagnated over the last 30 years. 
    Try again bozo.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=16118912 David Oehl

    Welcome to the New Jim Crow, Jonathan! 

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  • Videogameboy76

    To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, within an unjust regime, the duty of every righteous person is to be a criminal.

    These brave people are in fact terrorists, and it is the government they are terrorizing.

  • Guest

    The ACLU are all currently interred in Gitmo.

  • Mike

    The USA has a high incarceration rate and 20% of the worlds prison population as a direct result of the war on drugs.  If you look at statistics ranging from its inception you’ll see a steady increase in the number of arrests in this country.  

    From those high number of arrests sprung the prison industrial complex (PIC) -  which is the rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. Our prison system does nothing to rehabilitate it’s inmates and usually makes people harder criminals.  The acceptance of rape culture, the cruelty of of the penal system and the fact that more people start using harder drugs while in prison clearly demonstrates that Superior Law Enforcement doesn’t necessarily equate Superior Civil Rights or Superior Rehabilitation.  

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  • http://YouTube.com/pushkacom Pushka Ben

    .. what?

    that’s like saying:

    “if you make an independent indie film, and post it on YouTube, it will be taken down and you will go to jail”

  • concerned citizen

    Activism is a civil liberty, whatever the target. If it is acceptable to silence someone because they are uncovering uncomfortable truths it is a small step to arresting journalists or even members of the political opposition for criticizing the government. 

    Also aligning corporate profits with state well being causes a whole other set of ethical problems. 

    Am I an economic terrorist when I pay of my credit card instead of spending more?

    Am I a political terrorist when I vote out the party in power? 

    This seems like hyperbole but we are talking about a case where people are considered terrorists for telling the public about animal abuse.   

  • http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ ClintJCL

    Hunters actually care more about the welfare of animals than non-hunters, in general. There’s nothing to hunt if you let the environment go to shit. The hunters realize this, you’ll find a lot of pro-environmental conservation stuff in hunting magazines. I know this turns your stereotype on its head. Try to deal with the cognitive dissonance in a logical manner, please.

  • http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ ClintJCL

    Less people free is less freedom. Most people in jail is least freedom. Yes, it does mean exactly that. If you are in jail, you are not free. More people are not free here than any other country in the world. You do realize that 25% of all prisoners on planet earth are American prisoners, right? 

  • http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ ClintJCL
  • http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ ClintJCL

    While you’re at it, you better go back and time and tell the Boston Tea Party how sick and evil they were, and that you’d never support their methods. Oh wait, the only reason you’re on the internet slamming those trying to get more rights is due to other people who did the exact same thing and granted you your rights.

  • http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ ClintJCL

    Yea you do. It’s called the first amendment, and freedom of press means we can all covertly investigate whatever we want. The constitution and 5th amendment only limit the GOVERNMENT’S actions, not the actions of people. Lying to a corporation is not illegal, either. You can lie all you want as long as you don’t commit fraud or run afoul of another crime. You are wrong.

  • Monomorphic

    Freedom of the press applies to all citizens. Citizen journalists have the right to investigate. And the first amendment right to free speech gives us the right to lie. So stfu. 

  • BrandyWine25

    I am so SICK of vegans and vegetarians blaming the meat-eaters for abuse of animals in these dumps!

    First of all, whether you want to admit it or not, humans are at the top of the food chain. There is good reason to eat certain meats and poultry…plus they taste damn good. Secondly, there are plenty of organic and free range approaches to raising animals intended as food so that they never meet this sort of abusive fate. I think your narrow-minded comment has no place in this discussion. If people would support local farmers, and companies who have a history of humane practices, rather than supporting companies like Tyson, then we’ll be onto something.

  • Justin

    Sorry Jonathan, but now you are the one making rash generalizations.  Shutting down a port for a few days is in no way comparable to the portion of the 1% in charge of the banks that royally fucked over this country’s economy with ZERO personal liability.  Tell me in what universe you think that is justice.

  • http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaP.Bussell Cyndi Bussell

    If everyone stoped eating meat, the powers that e would legislate that every school child must eat meat.Don’t you get it?
    We are property.

  • http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaP.Bussell Cyndi Bussell

    keep telling yourself that….

  • Petebale

    nice , drop the f-bomb to prove your point. Don’t worry it won’t make you sound stupid. In Boston the occupiers did not have a single goal.It seemed every group that had some type of gripe was there, tell me how leagalizeing pot has anything to do with the financial collapse, because that was a group “occuping” Boston. The occupiers made a mess of traffic and harrased people going to work. So if you have a low level data entry job but work in the finacial district you should have to put up with there bullshit on the way to work? As far as I am concerned as a group they are low life scum bags. Making things difficult for people who have jobs because they do not. Kill yourself Eddie.

  • Gaiserr1

    Why is everything these days terrorism this and terrorist that? The activists are trying to make sure that the meat we put on our tables to feed our families is is not substandard! That is NOT a terrorist activity! The idea of them begin treated as terrorists is appalling! And our government needs to wake up and put a stop to this nonsense!

  • http://www.facebook.com/stanton.mccandlish Stanton McCandlish

    Rene: It’s hypocritical to complain about the ACLU taking a stand on something and then complain about them not taking a stand on something. (NB: The ACLU takes a position on on prisioner censorship for the same reason it takes a stand on any form of government censorship: The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press”, without allowing for “except these people we don’t care about: prisoners, [insert whoever else you don't like here]” loopholes.

    Kamnet: Actually, this does raise civil liberties issues (which have nothing to do with any notions of “God-granted” or “government protected”.  Civil liberteries are protections FROM not BY government.  While some (not all) animal rights activists and animal abuse investigator do break laws in order to do what they do, many do not, and have rights, and even those that do still have rights, including freedom from “unreasonable search and seizure” and from “cruel and unusual punishment”.  Being sentenced to prison for decades as a terrorist simply because you let some chickens loose and blogged photos of poultry processing machines after you broke-and-entered to take pictures of them would obviously be “cruel and unusual punishment”, so it would be clearly unconstitutional, and thus might well be something the ACLU would get involved with. 

    None of this has anything to do, really, with animal rights activism (or porn or any other particular bugaboo someone has about this topic or that issue; those circumstantial particulars are the trees for which you can miss the forest). It all comes down to whether the government is going to have totalitarian control or not.  That control happens one bit at a time, because it is asserted against whoever isn’t popular right now, be that communists or pornographers or Muslims or whatever.  Cf. Niemoller’s “First they came…” if you somehow do not clearly understand this yet.

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  • Seriously Now

    I understand the point Francione is making, but I guess in a “me or them” situation, I’m going to choose me.  

    In this case, humans have evolved to be meat eaters.  We do not have multiple stomachs and long digestive tracts like purely “vegan” animals.  My health suffers greatly if I try to eat a vegan diet.

    On a bigger scale, there’s no way to grow enough food in an environmentally sound, sustainable way for everybody to be vegan.

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  • Anonymous

    Is this only the GOP, the GOP and tea party, or all political parties nowadays? Since child welfare and abuse investigations first started through anti-cruelty to animal groups, will this make anyone who works in child welfare a terrorist as well?

  • Lady_texas555

    When you use Phrases like “openly rescued several animals from abusive conditions,” one can hardly consider the rescuers a terrorist. I don’t see it any different than police officers or .bi agents doin undercover detective work. Am i right or what?

  • http://www.facebook.com/lordbeaker Eric Lilly

    I wonder if “liking” your comment is also considered “terrorism”?

  • Tankjohnson

    Many of you were warned, but wait! To mention this stuff in the past, you would have been labeled a conspiracy theorist. Now the chickens have come home to roost and we’re all the prey.

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  • Trin
  • Trin

    Cheyla’s comment has every right to be here, this discussion is about the practices of exploitation and abuses of animals being brought to light and the government trying to stop that from happening. If you think so-called humane farming exists, or that the animals in your so-called humane farms are from a completely different industry where they’re all given hugs and cuddles and kisses before being shot in the head and their throats slit, you are living in a different world.

    You need to get informed. There is no humane animal agriculture, and there definitely is no environmentally safe, sustainable animal agriculture.

  • Trin

    Not all herbivorous animals have multiple stomachs. Also, our digestive tracts are longer than a carnivores. Furthermore, evolution is not an end game situation, it’s on going, and our bodies can thrive and survive on a vegan diet. How did your health suffer from a vegan diet?

    On a realistic scale, we would use less food on a vegan diet than one that includes meat. Look up how much food we feed to the animals that are slaughtered. There is no environmentally sound or sustainable way for animal agriculture.

  • http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ ClintJCL

    Bad link: “The page you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page”

    FAcebook privacy settings, maybe?

    If you are trying to inform me, you need to try again, cause links that go nowhere are failing to inform me.

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  • Techperson

    Killed by drones, under the new law permitting Obama to kill citizens that he considers terrorists.

  • Tadpolepidgen

    We need to PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to how we “support” this type of “protection” of CORPORATIONS over PEOPLE!

  • Trin

    It’s just as easy to look up how many vegan alternatives exist for the products stripped from a cow’s carcass.

    But if you really do need a picture to help you, I guess we can try again.

    http://oi42.tinypic.com/2mdmjow.jpg

  • http://www.dreamr.xxx Dreamr OKelly

    Are you fing serious???? In America we have prosecutors and police that are charging innocent people all the time. We don’t have police, we have an anti-population, para-military force. They prey on the general population and it is disgusting.

    Look at the plea bargain rates……. Prosecutors trump up a dozen different charges for 1 incident, so they can force people to plea to shit they DIDNT do, to avoid being stuck in jail for 4 months waiting to be found not guilty or worse, being thrown in prison for something silly or something they didn’t even do.
    Take the flag from over your eyes and stop marching to the drum, zombie boy.

  • Anonymous

    The mere act of choosing one brand over another could be construed as causing economic harm. God forbid I ask a neighbor to choose my brand over theirs because this then would be a conspiracy.

  • Dan

    Ron Paul Must win! This insanity needs to end!

  • Sarahjonesxxx69

    Amazing the protection you get when you have money and power isn’t it.  But when it F#$K.  Our determination will not be killed of by threats.  But the higher powers that be wouldn’t understand this as they don’t know what it is like to stand so stongly for something that nothing will stop you. 

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  • Anonymous

    Investigate a factory farm and have the FBI call you a terrorist. Investigat the FBI and be treated like a hero.

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  • jaycee

    Do not political figures close down roads and parts of cities for political gain? Obama had a large portion of Los Angeles closed down earlier this year that pissed off a large amount of people.

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  • http://www.remembering4you.com Ethelle G. Lord, DM

    Leave it to government to come out with the ridiculous, but only as long as people tolerate this, right? Revolutions have historically turned things around on a dime.

  • Anonymous

    One of the main characteristic features of fascism is the merging of state and
    corporations. In Italy and Germany(with it’s own version of fascism called
    NationalSocialism) in the 30′s annd 40′s of the 20th century the state exercised
    control over the corporations.
    In the USA there developed a kind of fascism where the corporations control the
    state.
    What the FBI is doing here is very logical for a fascist state the US has become.

  • Petebale

    you are wrong, undercover detectives are elected or hired police officers. The “rescuers” are criminals stealing someones property.

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  • theveganguy

     thanks for calling that out eddie. Why would someone be on greenisthenewred and be against OWS. I thought all struggles were one…

  • http://www.weddingofficiantofsouthflorida.com/ Chaplainbob

    They are protesting the ports due to all the jobs lost to chinese imports. I have a USA factory – I must pay high taxes I import from China – I pay NO TAX – FREE TRADE. Why hire US workers? Gee why is unemployment so high?

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  • Alina

    True but “going vegan” is only the first step. Believing that being vegan is activism is to be apathetic to
    reality–especially when meat production and consumption is skyrocketing
    worldwide. Becoming a super vegan shopaholic is to fail to oppose the capitalist paradigm at the heart of America’s problems. Francione is dead wrong about vegan education being the only way to bring about change. He lives an extremely privileged, sheltered lifestyle and criticizes activists who risk their lives for earth and animals. His stance against direct action is an atrocity.

  • Padre of Lakeland

    No. Its just a conspiracy when you demand that GMO’s are labeled, or bgh listed on milk cartons, or say these things are dangerous…..

  • Padre of Lakeland

    Sorry, but OKelly is right. About three years back my parents were victims of a home invasion. When the investigation stalled they hauled my son and roommates in to sweat them into admitting they had done the invasion. (Not involved.) 5 days after that they pulled me in for questioning. The Polk County Detectives even falsified the results of a lie-detector test to “encourage” me to confess.

    The two black guys who invaded are now in jail as well as the white guy who sent them there (I believe to cover a drug debt).

    You can bet that, if my son, friends or I had been weak enough to confess to something we didn’t do, the investigation would have ended then with us in jail.

    But hey, the police are your friends, just keep telling yourself that……

  • http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ ClintJCL

    Yes, the burden of proof is on the one who asserts something. Thank you for coming through.

    Sounds costly. Wouldn’t you save more animals by taking that cash and giving it directly to a shelter, rather than spending it on items that are more expensive to manufacture? seems per dollar you’d do far more saving that way.

  • Anonymous

    The FBI already has a file on me so this is a good place to make a comment about the FBI’s politicization of law enforcement procedures.  No wonder so many Occupiers have been injured for simply exercising freedom of speech.  The Tea Party had gun-toting terrorists lurking around presidential rallies, but none were arrested.  Apparently if you’re a conservabot, you’re “more trustworthy” than if you’re a Progressive. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/spinjsteele Jen Steele

    You are the one who needs to do some research. You obviously don’t understand the word sustainable.

    That different world you mention is the real world, not the fantasy in your head where all the cows would live in pretty green pastures with somebody hugging and kissing them everyday until they die of old age.

    Most livestock breeds of animals would die out completely and be lost to the gene pool if everyone turned vegan. Can you say extinction? Isn’t that one of those words we are supposed to be fighting against? Do we value white tigers and whales over cows now?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y4PU67Y26YEB4FFPWFU53IPN4E McNut

    “Medicine is almost always unnecessary.”

    Yeah, how’s that working out for you?

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  • Dan_epo7055

    if you buy goods made in china you are supporting communism, if you buy oil, you are supporting iranians who hate us, if you buy a toyota or a bmw you are the cause of less jobs in america.  get real

  • Fasdfd

    F*&K the feds.  Babylon will fall

  • Anonymous

    No, no, no.  You’re mixing up your right-wing lies.  It’s supposed to be “there’s no way to grow enough food organically.”  Which itself is a dishonest smear.  But becoming vegan does the exact opposite of what you’re claiming:  it means we can feed the same number of people with less food, with fewer acres under cultivation, etc.

    Think of it this way:  which sounds more efficient?  Taking ten pounds of grain and turning it into ten loaves of bread to feed people, or feeding it to a cow and making 1-2 lbs. of beef?

    Eggs and milk are somewhat more efficient, but you still lose 50-75% of the calories in the process.

    My health hasn’t suffered at all from being a vegetarian (I’m not hardcore enough to go vegan) and simply reducing your meat intake has many of the touted benefits of vegetarian/vegan diets.

  • Anonymous

    That’s an interesting theory.  It kinda sounds sensible, and you can make a theoretical argument for it.  After all, as one of the richest countries on the planet, wouldn’t we be able to afford more security than other countries, in the form of better law enforcement and lower crime rates?

    Let’s test it, insofar as we can, by comparing it with other countries.  If our superior incarceration rate is a sign of excellent law enforcement, then we should also see America as having a surprisingly low rate of violent crime.

    Let’s pick  Japan.*  According to Wikipedia, the US has 743 prisoners per 100,000 of population.  Japan holds only 58 per 100,000.

    If you think about it, the theory is already starting to come apart.  US law enforcement might be better at catching criminals than Japanese law enforcement.  But nearly thirteen times better?  Sounds fishy.  Law enforcement’s ability to find people to incarcerate can’t be the sole difference.

    Now let’s turn to crime statistics.  The United States has a homicide rate of 4.8/100,000 (2010, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate ).  That’s really safe compared to some third world and developing countries (Honduras is #1 with 78/100,000), but you don’t see any European Union countries beating us (Sweden 3.5, Ireland 1.25, Germany 0.84).

    So we’re middle of the pack worldwide, and practically the bottom of the pack of relatively well-off nations.

    Where is Japan?  0.83/100,000.  And they are unique in that their statistics count murder attempts and “planned murders” along with actual murders.  Their real homicide rate is significantly lower.

    The US has an only slightly larger police force**, not nearly enough to explain anything.
    So it’s not that our law enforcement is better, and it’s not that we chose to buy more safety.  Japan seems to simply have way fewer murderers, whether inside or outside the prison system.

    So here are the possibilities I can think of:  

    * Japanese people are just better, more moral people.
    * The Japanese invoke the death penalty far more often than we do.  (Okay, I checked, and they don’t.  Since 1993, they’ve only been executing 1-7 people per year)
    * Something about American society breeds violence.

    I vote for option 3.  For more details, here’s a blog post I wrote about a book called “The Spirit Level”: http://neonderbycars.blogspot.com/2010/05/spirit-level-why-greater-equality-makes.html

    * not at random, mind you… I’m making a point here, though other countries like Finland and Iceland could be used to make the same point.

    **  233 officers/100,000 vs. 197 officers/100,000 in Japan. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_size_of_police_forces  It’s not really significant when trying to explain the US’s 13 times higher incarceration rate and nearly six times higher homicide rate.

    *** Seems to be the case.  Japan 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vince-Rossi/100000057877264 Vince Rossi

    Actually, jail is a punishment. Now we can debate all day the relevance, effectiveness, and justice of the penal system but; it is PUNISHMENT. Those being punished due lose their liberty. Personally, I would prefer a penal system were they were forced to work to pay back those that they hurt as a form of restitution. I would also suggest corporal punishment in public as a deterrent. Our current system punishes non-violent criminals in the same fashion as violent criminals and punishes perpetrators of “moral crimes” along the same line as those that commit crimes against others personal property.

  • Anonymous

     The first amendment protects the right to protest. Investigating and whistleblowing on farms is a form of protest against what people consider wrong and unjustifiable.

  • Deecorilla

    The sooner you learn there is virtually no difference between ‘Reps’ and ‘Dems’ because The Council on Foreign Relations rules this world and all politicians, parties, movements, including OWS, you’ll be on your way to gaining a clarity of insight into how the world really works. See G. Edward Griffin vids, and research more, you’ll discover that all the back and forth and squabbling between the libs and cons is all a freaking stage show! It is a hoax. This is just what the Illuminati WANT. Don’t fall into their traos, games, and hoaxes. We need to unite as AMERICANS VS. A CRYPTOCRACY.

  • Angelo S

    Then riddle me this…
    Do you have personal privacy?
    Are your finances, bank accounts, credit rating, health records private?
    Do government agencies and select corporations have a right to privacy that citzens do not have?
    Government (and in our case the select corporations that own and controls it) should be transparent while protecting the privacy of individuals.

  • http://www.greenisthenewred.com Will Potter

    Approvei

  • Anonymous

    The “gun-toting terrorists lurking around presidential rallies” were peaceful people who were exercising their unalienable rights to openly carry firearms.  They did a great service to the country.  You could learn a few things from these people.  If you peacefully carry a semi-automatic AR-15 over your shoulder during political events then you might get a little more respect. 

  • Alex

    Those brave people who trespass, walk or break into buildings to disrupt or at least uncover animal abuse are actually doing the job police is supposed to do: That is stopping crimes and helping to bring the perpetrators to justice.

  • Anonymous

    Wow. That was entirely bullshit. Bigoted bullshit, no less!
    It seems to me that those who are not willing to stand up, Ecollings, ought to STFU. 
    So you are down with the rape of America by corporate interests? I bet you also believe the Fox news bullshit that if you eat fruit with food, it will rot in your stomach. Yup, Fox Health news. They are apparently unaware that fruit is a food and you are apparently unaware that protest is an American right. I bet you’re one of  those dirty, nasty, lazy GOP corporate shill voters, aren’t you?

    The ones that refuse to work and pay taxes, they just live like the parasites they are off of the American people. Using our money to bail them out and then they turn on the very people who bailed them out. I bet there are lots of wannabe boot lickers out there…

    I would also bet you have no idea that the original Tea Party was about pretty much the same issues, but uneducated and willfully ignorant people don’t like history, hence the GOP move to eliminate Thomas Jefferson from history. 

    The difference between sociopaths and psychopaths is that psychopaths go to prison, while sociopaths go into politics and into business. 
    Lots of them in the GOP. 

  • Anonymous

    Sigh
    The problem is that there are a lot of stage 2 and 3 thinkers amongst the GOP voting base and they like it that way. They are not able to see beyond their own interests and how they appear to the community. 
    Look it up, Kohlburg’s stages of moral development. Also, most GOP voters are concrete thinkers, not able to deal with abstract concepts. 
    To be able to look at this in a realistic sense, one HAS to be able to deal with abstract concepts. Also, it has escaped the average American that when one buys cheap Chinese crap, one costs jobs in America. 
    When one gives tax breaks to corporations to go over and oppress workers in other countries in order to profit more, then one ought to expect that the now unemployed workers are NOT spending. Let me tell you, Jonathan, that the 1% are parasites who hoard and do not create anything. 
    The REAL job creators are the American people, who buy goods and services with monies earned from employment. Sadly there are those who believe the nonsense served with a side of Ayn Rand, a very nasty piece of work. Those people don’t care AT ALL for anyone but themselves. They are part of a community and yet are unwilling to pay for it. 
    No, the 1% are parasites. 

  • GlueBall

    …actually, BMWs and Toyotas delivered in USA are built by Americans in factories at Spartanburg, SC; Tupelo, MS; Georgetown, KY; San Antonio, TX; Huntsville, AL; Buffalo, WV; Princeton, IN.

  • Aprilreeves

    Fine. We’ll all just stop buying from all factory farms then. We’ll start right now with every person who commented here. They can push back all they want, but there is always a peaceful solution to animal abuse and human rights. What you resist, persists…

  • http://www.greenisthenewred.com Will Potter

    jobs

  • LITTLEBUZZARD1

    Activism is NOT terrorism . Questionning the authorities is NOT a declaration of war,. Occupying Wall Street is NOT regime change . Demanding that all animals – human ones too – be free from pain and chains is NOT revolution . It is EVOLUTION toward a better world . Let’s be heard !

  • Anonymous

    Which just goes to show you how much the police like toting guns and people with holsters.  If you don’t have those at protests (against banks, not the government…), you will be spat on, pepper-sprayed, kicked down, hit in the head with tear gas cannisters, and even worse, the cops’ll destroy your tent.  You ever bought a tent?  Those are expensive, even at WalMart–a company that buys tents from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army but is trusted completely by the NYPD and all the other law enforcement agencies in America because…THEY TOTE GUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1135614055 Judith Jaehn

    God damn bastards!!  We have NO rights left!!!!!

  • Pink0111

    BRAVO, Robert!

  • https://me.yahoo.com/a/p73w3O1hxJYAHWcMLyEOGdtLxepGURPnIQ--#267de Minnie

    so , why can’t I take the farm to court for terrorism .

  • Westwend1

    that’s all right — you probably will never need your rights protected will you?  — you probably will not do anything much outside of a bland life that does almost nothing — and keepon eating  food where you don’t know the conditions it is  raised uner or  killed or packed and processed — you are absolutely certain that it will not harm you — I think people have the right to expose these things — if you want to remain in blissful ignorance — that is your choice isn’t it?

  • Trin

    Just fine, actually. By eating healthier, our bodies actually stay healthier. Imagine that.

  • Trin

    I spend less as a vegan now than I spent as an omnivore, buying over produced, commercialized junk filled with animal products. Have a look around, living vegan is cheaper than not.

  • Trin

    Are you seriously trying to use the “domesticated farmed animals would go extinct” excuse against veganism? That’s not even a logical or relevant point. Domesticated farm animals are not filling some dire ecological niche that wildlife would not be filling if the farmed animals were not eating up land, water, and other resources.

    RE: sustainability, yeah, I know the meaning. Do you?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet

  • http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/ ClintJCL

    I’d like to believe you, but unfortunately I don’t. 

    What you are saying is that the corporations who thrive on profit are using more expensive animal products. If vegan products are cheaper, why are this profit-hungry corporations not making everything vegan? They’d get more profit!

    Unfortunately, you have made a claim that seems to defy basic economic assumptions.

    You need to provide some evidence to back up this extraordinary claim, for you are basically saying every company that manufactures typical products are being stupid and wasting money. 

    Hate to break the news to you, but people more qualified than us run the numbers, and things are generally done in the cheapest way possible. So your claim is indeed quite extraordinary.

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  • Anonymous

    How long before any kind of dissent leads to charges of terrorism?

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  • Dustbunnystalker

    Ask Coleen Rowley if FBI agents are under-trained or if FBI policies have changed.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/rrgarcia1971 Rudy R Garcia

    A great book that reveals how we have stooped to such a horrible place where we are merely living the illusion of freedom (freedom of speech) is Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges.  What can we do to reverse the direction we are headed?

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  • Giulia D. Stewart

    Ha, “there bullshit”! That’s intelligence, right?
     
    The correct is “their”. Why don’t you learn basic literacy before criticizing others?

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  • Thebretttrip

    I am a turkey farmer and I think that secretly filming a farm is different than actually burning down or sabotaging one. Both by the way are deligitimiers and insincere in actually relaying ny information at which the common person can make an educated decision. But the possibilty of another illegitimate means to label a section of the citizenry as a terrorist, is worse.

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  • Yeah right

    Hunters care about the environment? Bull. Is that why they spend so much money (fee for this, fee for that) to be able to legally kill animals? Is that why I see hunters posting with the biggest smile on their faces as their victims are bleeding to death? (no, I am not talking about “trophy” hunters). The reality is hunters are psychopaths. Hunting is a business that brings in BILLIONS for the politicians and for the government. Stop repeating the lies you heard here and there.

    http://animalrights.about.com/od/wildlife/a/DeerManagement.htm

  • http://twitter.com/ClintJCL ClintJCL

    Make random claims however you want; but you’re the one who comes out as a psychopath. Hunting is not big business. A license is under $100 and everything else is free. Nothing goes to the govenment’s hand. You sound like paranoid. Hunters are naturists who accept the cycle of life and the fact that killing and death is a part of nature. Open any hunting magazine and you will find environmental articles; you can’t hunt a species if it goes into extinction or it’s environment is gone. You can’t have homemade venison chili if we leave no environment left for deer to exist in. (And deer in specific need to be taken out on a regular basis due to the 10s of 1000s of car accidents they cause every year.)

    Hunting is no morally different than buying a burger at McDonald’s. In fact, I’d say it’s a higher moral place because you’re taking responsibility for acquiring your meat yourself, and are eating free-range meat with no corporate growth hormones or overcrowded farming.

  • Chajamjen

    “Hunting is no morally different than buying a burger at McDonald’s.”-very true but the point is that both of these practices are cruel, cause tremendous amounts of unnecessary suffering and are morally and ethically opposed to the fundamental principal of the Golden Rule which most humans only apply to their own species.  it is always very easy to use the cycle of life as justification when you are not the one who is being shot and killed, just as is it always easy to justify consuming animal products when it is not your body that is abused, tortured and slaughtered for another beings personal gratification.   

    “As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.” –Isaac Bashevis Singer 

  • http://twitter.com/ClintJCL ClintJCL

    See, I actually think that any animal that is capable of digesting me would happily eat me; and also that any sentient alien species that finds us tasty would likely eat us too. The Golden Rule simply is an ideal that will not ever exist, and many see no point in disadvantaging ourselves just to take a perceived moral high ground. 

    What can I say? Just had what were some of the best eggs of my life. Wife accidentally used too much turkey grease before making them. It is a level of appreciation of life that I am quite unwilling to give up. It’s human nature, and in a broader sense, the nature of all living things.

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