A Perfectly Cromulent Blog

"I'm a level 5 vegan -- I won't eat anything that casts a shadow."

Wonder if there's any way to revoke their polio vaccines:

A Staffordshire farm is to stop breeding guinea pigs for medical research after years of intimidation by animal rights activists.

The family-run Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch has been at the centre of a campaign of abuse.

Owners and staff have received death threats during the six-year onslaught.

The family said they hoped the decision would prompt the return of the body of their relative Gladys Hammond, whose remains were stolen from a churchyard.

You know, I'm not unsympathetic to the animal rights crowd, but there's a difference between spraying Chanel No. 5 in a rabbit's eyes and using guinea pigs and mice to test medicines and cures for disease. And what bold activists we be, targeting a relatively undefended farm and robbing a freaking grave to get their point across, which is just the cherry on top of years of harassment:

It all started back in 1999, when John Hall and his brother Christopher's farm was raided by the Animal Liberation Front. They claimed that the guinea pigs bred there were kept in appalling conditions - a claim denied by the Halls.

Protestors also objected to the animals' use in laboratory experiments. A campaign was set up, called Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs, to force the Halls to close down their business.
[...]
What ensued was a violent campaign of intimidation that has seen people besieged at night inside their own homes.

They have had bricks thrown through their windows, their cars paint-stripped and buildings have been arson attacked. Smear campaigns alleging paedophilia, death threats, even threats against young children have left people traumatised and living in fear.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought one of the useful components of activism was winning others over to your cause. I'm still unclear on how screaming at little kids about murder outside a KFC or terrorizing an elderly woman accomplishes that.

Mrs Hudson is no vivisector, animal farmer or laboratory technician. She is simply the Hall family's cleaning lady. But in the highly charged atmosphere that has pervaded the campaign to shut Darley Oaks Farm since the Animal Liberation Front filmed guinea pigs in overcrowded conditions there six years ago, she is seen by some as a collaborator.

Bricks have been thrown through her windows, incendiary devices left outside her house, and a lifesize rag doll, with a noose round its neck, a knife in its chest and a note on its body saying: "This is me next," has been deposited at her front door.

Of course, to hear those suspected of involvement in this case, campaigning for the rights of "overcrowded" guinea pigs is only the latest effort in a grand tradition of civil disobedience:

Janet Tomlinson, 62, is accused of "stalking" the Halls with the frequency of her protests. Born and bred in Burton, Ms Tomlinson has much in common with Mrs Hudson. In her 60s, she also lives alone and has been touched by cancer, having been diagnosed with a malignant breast tumour last year.

But Ms Tomlinson said she had no sympathy for the cleaning lady. Although she denied any involvement in direct action, she blamed the police and Tony Blair for forcing legitimate protesters to adopt more extreme tactics. "The police have prevented lawful protest and forced people to take other actions. It's like the suffragettes when they used to lobby MPs at the Commons and then follow them home and smash their windows. It's like any pressure group - first you are ignored, then you are ridiculed, then you are bullied and then you win."

I wonder if the ALF people were in the same "Introduction to Bogus Analogy and Idiotic Hyperbole" classes as the members of Operation Rescue.