News
President Signs AETA Into Law
Today, President Bush signed into law the Animal Enterprise
Terrorism Act (AETA). This milestone legislation expands criminal
prohibitions against the use of force, violence and threats
involving animal enterprises, and increases penalties for
violations of these prohibitions.
The legislation, which received broad bi-partisan support
in both the House and Senate, amends the Animal Enterprise
Protection Act (Title 18, Sec. 43 of the US Criminal Code).
The new law was sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA),
James Inhofe (R-OK), and Representative Thomas Petri (R-WI).
The AETA will provide greater protections against intimidation
and harassment of researchers and their families and will
for the first time address campaigns of secondary and tertiary
targeting that cause economic damage to research enterprises.
FBR encourages you to write to your Senators and Representatives
to thank them for passing S. 3880. Thank you!
AETA: Protecting researchers
or chilling free speech?
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), November 27 -
From his office at the Wisconsin National Primate Research
Center, Dr. Joseph Kemnitz has watched people dig through
the center's trash cans, apparently searching for documents
they think could be incriminating. He has consoled fellow
researchers whose mail contained razor blades, and he has
shielded his wife and children from the animal rights activists
who have protested at his home five times. Read
more.
Anti-terror law hits animal
activists
New Scientist, November 22 - The U.S. arm of SHAC
suffered a serious blow in March when six members were convicted
in a New Jersey court for inciting threats and harassment
against HLS staff and shareholders. However, obtaining these
convictions required an extraordinary effort by the New Jersey
authorities to demonstrate breaches of existing laws. "Many
U.S. attorneys would choose not to go to that trouble,"
claims Frankie Trull of the Foundation for Biomedical Research
in Washington, D.C., who hopes the new law will make prosecutors'
jobs easier. "Now it needs to be implemented," she
says. Read
more.
Appeals court reinstates lawsuit
on primate treatment guidelines
Associated Press, November 22 - A federal appeals
court on Wednesday reinstated a lawsuit seeking to compel
the government to adopt guidelines on how primates should
be treated in zoos and research labs. The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals sided with animal activists who sued the
U.S. Department of Agriculture for not finalizing a draft
policy that promotes the "psychological well-being"
of non-human primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas. Read
more.
Click
here for a copy of the ruling.
|
