Busted: Pro-Animal Research Group Using Fake Twitter Account to Follow Activists

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Notorious pro-vivisection group Americans for Medical Progress is exposed using “@Vegwashington”.

The famed animal research lobbying and public relations group American’s for Medical Progress may be following you on Twitter: they are currently using the Twitter name “Vegwashington” to follow over two-dozen activists.

View the Twitter profile here.

And if they take it down after this goes public, view a screenshot here.

Animal Liberation Frontline has received information AMP has been using this account for nearly two years to track the online activity of animal rights activists. Are they following you? I’ve posted the full list of who they are following below.

Who is Americans for Medical Progress?

If you’ve given any amount of attention to opponents of the animal liberation movement, you are aware American’s for Medical Progress. They work to promote animal research, or more accurately, combat the animal rights movement. They have an emphasis on speaking out against the work of the Animal Liberation Front, through their campaigns such as “Pro-Test”.

Who they follow

The list reads like a fairly typical who’s-who of people you might want to track if you are a pro-vivisection group (I’m flattered to have made the list). There is one suspicious exception: the Twitter feed for “@baconpatriot”, apparently having a pro-meat focus. This raises the question: Is this another secret disinformation / public relations-aimed Twitter account?

It should be no surprise that anti-animal rights groups are monitoring activists on the internet. It’s not just easy, it’s (mostly) anonymous. However, rarely do they get caught and exposed.

The few in recent memory who have been caught (primarily on Facebook), have all made a feeble attempt to cultivate an image of authenticity in their online activist persona. And in every attempt, including this one, it comes off as cartoonish caricature. Like a two-dimensional version of a real “activist”.

In this instance, there’s not much to go off of (they only posted two tweets), but look at the photo, tagline, and tweet content. The only word that comes to mind again is: cartoonish. (Oddly, their second tweet would seem to give them away, calling someone hypocritical for being anti-animal research but pro-chemotherapy.)

Here is the list of those they are currently tracking:

Myself
@peterdyoung

Bruce Friedrich ‏
(Farm Sanctuary)
@BruceGFriedrich

A. ‏(pro-meat emphasis)
@baconpatriot

Jordan Cade Halliday
(grand jury resister / prisoner)
@xacrox

animal liberation ‏
@ALF_Fighter

ForTheAnimals7
Shannon Morgan
@ForTheAnimals7

Jordan Cade Halliday ‏
(another account for Jordan Halliday)
@SupportJH

Priscilla Feral
(Friends of Animals)
@pferal

Mumia Abu-Jamal
(death row prisoner)
@MumiaAbuJamal

NAALPO ‏
(North American Animal Liberation Press Office)
@NAALPO

Yale Kills Animals
(Anti-vivisection group)
@YaleKills

CLOSE DOWN HLS
‏(SHAC campaign)
@SHAC_GLOBAL

Chimp Sanctuary NW ‏
@ChimpSanctuary

portlandimc ‏
@portlandimc

Davenport Grand Jury
(Two activists jailed as part of Iowa lab raid investigation)
@davenportgj

Animal Aid
@AnimalAid

FARM Animal Rights ‏
(Farm Animal Reform Movement, organizers of the national Animal Rights Conference)
@FARMUSA

Cease Animal Torture ‏
@CeaseAnimalTrtr

carmen vasile ‏
@carmen4thepets

Jason Miller Vegan ‏
@JasonMillerAR

LoVegan Ⓥ ‏
@LoVegan

A for Anarchist ‏
@AforAnarchist

Animal Alerts ‏
@AnimalAlerts

Jerry Vlasak MD ‏
(Found of North American Animal Liberation Press Office)
@vlasakmd

NAVS ‏
(National Anti-Vivisection Society)
@NAVS_US

What Tha Fluff
@whathafluff

PETA ‏
@peta

Animal Liberation
@alinac_de

Animal Liberation ‏
@alforganization

The ALF
@untilallarefree

ALFⓋAnimalLib
@ALFAnimalLib

Camille Marino
(Negotiation is Over)
@CamilleMarino :

Photo: Fur Farmers Pack Courtroom for Victor VanOrden’s Sentencing

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This is a photo fur farmers took of themselves filling half the courtoom at the sentencing for Victor VanOrden, jailed (and since released) for an attempted raid at the Circle K Fur Farm in Sioux City, Iowa.

(click to enlarge)

Report of Smoke at University Prompts FBI Visit

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Another embarrassing blunder in the “war on terrorism”.

Shortly after I finished giving a talk last month at Utah Valley University, a student called to report the smell of smoke in the Humanities Building. The source of the smell was quickly determined to be a cup of water that had spilled on some wires.

Campus police, aware of the presence of an “eco-terrorist” on campus, quickly made the keystone cop calculation that the smoke must be the work of militant animal rights activists. At some point, the FBI was contacted.

The FBI – the agency on the forefront of “the war on terrorism” – was hot on the case. Soon, an agent was driving “a good distance” to the home of the student who reported the smoke, to question her about the possibility the smoke was the work of an eco-terrorist.

(Some disclosure in the interest of fairness: The person interviewed did not see a badge, and the person only identified themselves as “an agent”. It was her assumption this person was with the FBI.)

When the woman told the agent the smoke was merely a cup of water that had spilled on wires and not “eco-terrorists”, she described the agent’s response as “let down”.

Wearing their true agenda on their sleeve

A couple things to highlight here:

One, a person in law enforcement with a genuine interest in the preservation of law and order and protecting people should have been thrilled the smoke was not the work of an “eco-terrorist” – not disappointed they weren’t getting a gold star for their naive Barney Fife theory failing to pan out.

Keystone cop logic

Second, try to follow the logic at work:

1) Animal rights activists are terrorists.

2) Terrorists set fires.

3) Smoke comes from fire.

Therefore, animal rights activists set a fire.

(…in the Humanities building).

Is this really the chain of logic? Do they really believe their own narrative? Or is there something else going on?

Dean Kuipers in his book Operation Bite Back talks about how completely out of touch most law enforcement is in their understanding of the Animal Liberation Front. When a police officer was interviewed years after an ALF raid of an experimental fur farm at Washington State University, he told Kuipers he had been told – and believed – the ALF carried guns. This belief doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny, and would be funny if it didn’t mean that someone who hops a fence to open cages may actually be shot by a police officer one day.

This kind of unquestioning, robotic behavior among police should not be a surprise. In this instance, their bizarre investigative anti-logic was of no consequence, and only resulted in a fruitless and embarrassing questioning of a college student.

However the framing of activists as free-for-all criminals, committing crimes that are totally disconnected from any purpose (such as setting a fire in a Humanities building, at a school that appears to do little if any animal research), has and will continue to have many consequences in the form of falsely jailed activists and the harassment of everyone around them.

– Peter Young

Animal Lab Breeder Responds to Article, Takes Down Map of Farm

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A bird breeder posts a response to this week’s article on Animal Liberation Frontline.

“Agri-Terrorism” Seminar to be Held in California

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Farm Bureau responds to ALF arson with seminar on “animal rights threats”.

After the Animal Liberation Front set fire to 14 trucks at Harris Ranch, the massive California stockyard, the Kings County Farm Bureau announced the will be holding a seminar on “agri-terrorism”. The seminar will discuss “international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction threats, as well as domestic terrorism and animal rights threats.”

This is another example of an entire fraudulent industry that has emerged, in which fake “experts” pretend to have specialized knowledge on “eco-terrorism”, and sell their completely laughable “analysis” to ignorant companies and farmers who fall for it.

For proof of the farce that the “eco-terrrorism threat assessment and analysis” industry is, you need look no further than one of the warning signs that farmers are the “victims’ of the Animal Liberation Front or other “eco-terrorist” groups: “a rise in the number of sick or dead livestock”. Yes, with a straight face the “experts” claim activists may kill farmers’ animals.

A Kings County Farm Bureau Executive said:

“This seminar is an opportunity to learn from the experts what the most current activism movements entail, what to watch out for and how to protect your operation.”

Blast From the Past: “Mink Bill Passes House”

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In 1990, a little-known bill passed in Utah making it a Class A misdemeanor to release mink from fur farms. I’m posting an article about the law that ran in the Salt Lake Tribune.

The bill is interesting in that it predated the first recorded mink liberation in the US, making it puzzling what could have inspired the law. The only theory that makes sense is that Utah fur farmers were concerned about mink releases they had read about in Europe, and wished to head off the trend crossing the ocean – by making mink liberations a misdemeanor.

Most interesting, a Utah Senator voiced opposition, stating she “didn’t believe others should be punished for acting according to the dictates of their conscience”.

Punctuating the futility of such laws, shortly after this passed, the most intense ALF offensive ever carried out against the fur industry began. Dubbed “Operation Bite Back”, the multi-state ALF arson campaign would see two actions in Utah: The attempted arson of the Utah Fur Breeder’s Co-op in Sandy, and an arson and coyote liberation at the Utah State University / Animal Damage Control labs.

The full article reads:

Anti-ALF Spokesperson Teresa Platt Leaves Fur Commission USA

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Platt’s career as fur industry’s primary anti-Animal Liberation Front PR person ends.

Since 1998, Teresa Platt has been the fur industry’s main mouthpiece and media spokesperson on all things related to the Animal Liberation Front. During her tenure as public relations person for the Fur Commission USA, the ALF raided over 50 fur farms. Platt’s spoke frequently to the media about these actions. Her stock responses, quoted widely in the wake of ALF actions, included that released mink die from exposure, die from starvation, or that most get hit by cars.

Platt’s other work to fight the ALF included organizing the FCUSA’s “Neighborhood Watch” program to protect fur farms from the ALF, compiling dossiers on hundreds of activists for access by law enforcement, and organizing rewards for those who give information leading to the conviction of anyone for a fur-related ALF action.

Another notorious anti-animal rights figure (and the man credited for coining the term “eco-terrorism”) Ron Arnold credited Platt with-

“…assisting law enforcement officials to understand the complex network of criminal activists that attack various industries to forward ideological agendas, work that more than once put her life in danger.”

Reportedly Platt left the Fur Commission USA after the board elected to shift its budget away from public relations, and towards “farmer programs”.

Platt’s predecessor, Marsha Kelly, left the organization after her home address was published in The Final Nail #2.

Lawsuit Filed to Strike Down the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act

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Constitutionality of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act challenged in federal court

Fantastic work from the Center For Constitutional Freedom: last week, they filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The lawsuit, filed by four animal rights activists, asserts that the activist’s fourth amendment rights were violated by allowing the government to prosecute peaceful protesters as “terrorists”.

Plaintiff Sarahjane Blum said,

“I spent years uncovering conditions on foie gras farms and educating the public about the way ducks and geese are abused,” said Blum. “I no longer feel free to speak my mind on these issues out of fear that my advocacy could actually convince people to stop eating foie gras – affecting those businesses’ bottom line and turning me into an animal enterprise terrorist.”

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act has only been applied a handful of times, most notably against four California activists dubbed “The AETA 4”. In that case, activists were prosecuted on federal terrorism charges for holding demonstrations at animal researcher’s homes. The case was dismissed over a year ago.

This is great news in the fight against one of the biggest threats against both activists and the US constitution.

Video of “Vegetarian Myth” Author, Pied at Anarchist Bookfair

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Video of “Vegetarian Myth” author Lierre Keith being pied at the Anarchist Bookfair, meeting a much tamer fate than the animals whose killing she promotes:

Speciesism is totally analagous to sexism and racism. The message of this action is: there will be resistance to all promoters of speciesism masquerading as “radicals” and attempting to embed themselves in our movement. Lierre Keith: You have been shown the door.

Animal-Holocaust Denier Pied at Anarchist Book Fair

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Speech of anti-vegan antagonist shut down by masked pie throwers in San Francisco

While Animal Liberation Front-line focuses on exclusive content (vs. reposts), I am republishing the below article on yesterday’s pieing of non-human animal holocaust denier Lierre Keith, author of “The Vegetarian Myth”.

Predictably, the choir of opposition to this action so far is a collection of vegan regressors, “rewild” fetishists / weekend-warrior primitivists, and those who hide behind an “anything goes” neuvo-anarchist critique – all of which breed the culture of degeneracy and hedonistic caveman role-playing that give Lierre Keith her only audience.

A disrupted speech is trivial in comparison to the billions of deaths this woman promotes, but yesterday’s resistance to this death-merchant will undoubtedly give Keith some (vegan) “food for thought” while she travels the country, promoting the consumption of animals.

– Peter Young

Read the anonymous statement below:

***

“Bound Together Books and PM Press continue to try to prop up and foist veg*n antagonist Lierre Keith onto the radical community in the Bay Area. Today, at the 15th Annual San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair, where she was scheduled to be a featured speaker, Keith was served her just deserts for her obnoxious attacks on veg*ns in The Vegetarian Myth. She was pied in the middle of her speech in the main auditorium at the SF County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park.

The myriad logical fallacies and other personal, logical, and factual problems with Lierre Keith’s misanthropic book need not be reiterated here. A thorough debunking of her attack on veg*ns was posted on Indybay last June when Bound Together Books first invited her to speak about her book.

Lierre Keith’s Elaborate, Self-Congratulatory Excuse for Abandoning Veganism
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/12/18601536.php

If her book had been written as a good faith effort to start a discussion about the topics of vegetarianism and industrial agriculture, it certainly would not have evoked such a visceral reaction from veg*ns. But that’s not how Keith addressed the subject. She instead chose to rebuke her own former vegan self by verbally assaulting all veg*ns, calling them ignorant and child-like, sometimes based on nothing more than dishonest accounts of anonymous online comment threads or her own self-loathing.

Phony environmentalist omnivores like her buddy Derrick Jensen — who farcically claimed the “book saved my life” — might find the gratuitous attacks on veg*ns self-satisfying or validating, but the insults and invective directed against veg*ns have been taken, not surprisingly, quite personally by veg*ns everywhere who are aware of the book, sometimes by having had it thrown in their faces by those who mistakenly believe the book to be the last word on vegetarianism. And surely it was a reaction to these attacks that led the culprits of the pieing to feel compelled to take symbolic action against Lierre Keith at the very moment she was being held up as a paragon of radical thought by Bound Together Books at this year’s Anarchist Bookfair, normally a vegetarian-friendly venue.

Some will condemn the pieing as a useless symbolic action. Others will object to the breaking of decorum at the bookfair. Many of those who might condemn the action would not think twice about praising other symbolic direct actions, pieing or otherwise. It is doubtful if her book were “the anarchist myth” or “prison activist myth” that anyone present would do anything but cheer the action.

Some will undoubtedly argue that the pieing was an attack on free speech, but Keith has been afforded more speech than most people on the planet will ever be, courtesy of PM Press. In fact, she is profiting from the soap box she has been given to pretend she is a radical environmentalist who just happens to jet around the country to and from her home in rural Massachusetts. In a world where vegans and vegetarians are a definite minority, face constant bombardment with pro-meat messages our American cattle culture, and frequently have to deal with direct attacks from government, law enforcement, and multinational corporations that profit from the sale of factory-farmed meat and dairy, Ramsey Kanaan of PM Press, himself a long-time vegan, strangely chose to pile on with yet another attack on veg*ns, this time being especially traumatic in that it comes from the inside of the supposed radical environmental movement. (Was the book printed in part to curry favor with Derrick Jensen who now publishes through PM Press?) Through the Bound Together collective, of which Ramsey Kanaan is a member, Lierre Keith has been asked to speak in the Bay Area repeatedly. The mean-spirited book and these speaking engagements are largely one-way conversations with Keith dominating the dialogue.

But today, anonymous masked peoples stood up and refused to allow PM Press and Bound Together to yet again try to cram Lierre Keith down our throats. They stood up for many who have suffered silently, without a voice, since the publication of her book. We don’t want what you are serving.”