Some animal activists in California sent me this photo from a legal demonstration outside what they say is the “ten-million-dollar-plus, palatial mansion owned by Phenomenex President and CEO Farajollah Mahjoor.” They say Phenomenex is tied to the notorious animal testing lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences, which is the target of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.
The government and corporations have been on a mission to label anyone trying to shut down the animal testing lab a “terrorist.” The SHAC 7 were convicted on conspiracy, harassment and stalking charges for running a website about the campaign, and publicizing protests like the photo depicted here. And the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act was passed to criminalize controversial–yet legal–tactics like this.
So the big question is: has it worked? Have the protesters been scared into submission? Based on interviews with organizers, it looks like the “terrorism” rhetoric has definitely had some impact. But plenty of folks are still in the streets.
California activists said in an email about this protest:
This ability of Mahjoor and his relatives to look the other way and simply ignore the tremendous agony, misery, and death which occurs inside HLS – and then try and stop legal pickets to educate and move him to do what’s right for the animals – is one of the reasons that some individuals elect to stay in the shawdows and away from pickets and police cameras in order to carry out underground actions against companies like Phenomenex. When the obsession with accumulation of wealth trumps the enormous suffering of sentient beings, some are compelled by their consciences to engage in more direct and illegal forms of protest. But the activists there that evening were present because the Constitution and Bill of Rights give Americans the ability to seek redress of grievances through legal protest activity – and what better way to do so than to take those grievances directly to the doorsteps of those who have the ability, power, and influence to do what is right by the innocent animals who cannot speak on their own behalf or protect themselves from the evildoers?