for a brief few weeks, we all need to celebrate the defiance and strength with which she faced the enemy and won.

Marino’s Charges Dropped

?Criminal Contempt – Camille was charged with 5 criminal contempt charges (both adjudicated and pending), for violating the injunction granted to a vivisector in an attempt to silence her – CHARGES DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE
?Trespassing – Marino staged a civil disobedience to get a campaign in Detroit off the ground and protest their efforts to silence her — 30 DAYS/TIME SERVED
?Aggravated Stalking – Because of the injunction that remained in effect, Marino was charged with Aggravated Stalking for her act of civil disobedience and political dissent – CHARGES DROPPED.

This is a victory for freedom to protest cruelty and injustice, for Camille and most of all for the animals, who suffer so much at the hands of merciless vivisectors in the name of man’s dominion over the animals.

While St Francis, used eloquent words, his language did not coincide with his lifestyle. Instead he called for compassion within the constraints of dominion, He was not a vegetarian. nor did he call for a vegetarian diet. His words are vague enougn, so as to not dissuade followers of the faith.

In some ways he is like Marie Antoinette, when confronted with the suffering of her people who did not have bread – arrogantly stated

“Let them eat cake”

So as St Francis calls on inclusion of animals for compassion… in reality his actions say:

“Let them eat meat”

Surely there is no compassion and pity for animals when we murder them for their flesh.

“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”

~St. Francis of Assisi

What right do humans have to save them selves from disease while torturing other beings to have that benefit. Humans are selfish and cruel.

Humans have to learn to share the earth rather than taking over everything. Which humans are not doing a very good job at.

on May 3rd, 2012 at 3:04 pm

“Thank you for continuing to publish incidents of animal rights extremists. Those of us who have been watching these groups know how dangerous they are. They are described with soft, safe language (bunny huggers, animal lovers) but they are terrorists.”

Donna,
I am concerned with how easily you dimiss compassion and empathy for the terrible suffering of animals trapped in scientific houses of horror.

To date, no animal activist, no matter how extreme has ever harmed or taken a human life. It is not possible to say the same for irrepsonsible vivisectors who torture and kill defenseless animals, as they put more and more dangerous drugs on the market, which have taken human lives. All in the name of profit, glory and the bibilcal god given right to kill and violate animals, as if they were innanimate objects incapable of experiencing pain and terror.

Your lack of concern for the true victims of Camille Marino’s campaign indicates a profound lack of compassion for innocent creatures who have harmed no one.

If you fear animal activists driven to save as many precious animal lives as possible, you would do well to look into your own justication for violence to animals. Perhaps the fear is a result of your aggressive view.

If a Nazi organisation opened up nest door to you and refused to leave after being asked politely and with full force of reason behind you, and the authorities more or less sanctioned their behaviour by doing nothing, would you feel entitled to take the law into your own hands to physically remove them/make them scared to continue?

If you knew that innocent humans were being tortured in meaningless experiments, and you asked the person behind it to stop only to be ignored, would you take matters into your own hands?

If you knew that innocent animals were being tortured next door to you, and were ignored when you politely asked the ownerto stop, would you take matters into your own hands?

We have tried to politely ask the vivisectors NOT to abuse animals (this is the 21st Century – we have the technology available to us to ensure that other models can give us the same results, not the 19th when unfortunately vivisection was the only way to learn), but we have been constantly ignored, which leads us to wonder if the only thing that they will open their eyes to is violence against them.

I believe in non-violent direct action against property (walls can be scrubbed, computers replaced, etc – that’s what insurance is for!!) but if the only option open to us is harrassment, then so be it…..

THE QUESTION IS NOT CAN THEY REASON,NOR CAN THEY QUESTION, BUT CAN THEY SUFFER…?

YES – THEY DO!!

on May 4th, 2012 at 5:23 pm

Annie,

Animals and humans do not contract the same diseases? How about HIV/AIDS, H1N1, H5N1?

Nice try, though.

Aron, I have no idea where you get your information. Chimpanzees deliberately infected with the HIV virus do not ever develope a full blown HIV infection and are therefore not a reliable model for human treatments.

A double-blinded clinical trial involving humans is the most reliable means of determining whether a treatment for HIV or a full blown HIV infection will be effective.

“Good people need to start strongly reconsidering their cultural conditioning which has brought us a society that largely still sees the unnecessary, violent exploitation of animals as normal….akin to the conditioning that allowed our society, in the recent past…”

I appreciate your good heart and compassion for animals, but question whether only unnecessary violent exploitation is responsible for this conditioning…. Use of ‘unnecessary’ as a qualifier, implies the existence of necessary violent exploitation.

Whether exploitation can be justified as necessary is not based on morality, but on expediency. Expediency for the victimizer, not concern for the harm done to the victim.

“If you ask anyone, what is morality based on? These are the two factors that always come out:
One is reciprocity … and a sense of fairness, and the other one is empathy and compassion. — Frans de Waal

The morality of vivisection cannot be challenged on the grounds of expediencey. It may or may not be necessary, though evidence indicates there are often unwanted harmful side effects.

There is no compassion in maiming, confining, inflicting wounds, poisoning and killing a living being capabal of experiencing pain and fear. There is no justice in harming a defenseless creature to meet human needs.
Such actions cannot be justified as moral.

The problem inherent in the biblical view of animals is that it is based on human expediency, not compassion or justice.

The distinction between expediency and morality was understood by Isaac Bashevis Singer. When asked if he was vegetarian for health reasons, he replied “yes… for the health of the chickens.”

He also understood the ramifications of a breakdown of morality, where violence to the weakest and most defenseless among us is justified as necessary:

“How can we speak of right and justice if we take an innocent creature and shed its blood?” Isaac Bashevis Singer,

On the first count he would be charged with taking a homeless animal from a shelter to use as an experiment subject:
“(Indian) Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act:
“Stray animals may not be used for research. The Rules for Experimental Animals, as formulated by the Committee for the Control and Supervision of Experimental Animals, state that only animals bred for the purpose of research by institutes registered by the Committee may be used for experimentation (although, of course, such animals suffer and feel pain just as much as strays or any other animal). It is illegal for any medical, educational or commercial research institute to pick up stray animals from the street or from the municipal pound for this purpose.”

Recently India also banned ALL vivisection on the college and university level:

“Rights group lauds India’s ban on animal testing
Delhi,Environment/Wildlife, Fri, 20 Apr 2012 IANS
New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) The Indian government’s decision to stop experimentation on animals for training college and university students was Friday hailed by animal rights group Humane Society International.”

With such compassionate laws in place, it would not have been necessary for Camille Marino to organize a peaceful protest or to use violent rhetoric. In India, the law is not on the side of the criminals who torture defenseless animals for glory and profit. It is on the side of the victims and those who would protect them. Instead of dominion over animals, the indian concept of ahimsa calls for mutual cooperation with them:

“Souls render service to one another” Tattvartha Sutra

The result is laws which respect animal lives and do not try to justify their abuse as humane.

Alice,
There is nothing humane about a fully sentient animal such as monkey, a dog or a cat languishing in a cage for years with brain implants, so that their reaction to stimuli can be monitored during neuro-science experiments.

Furthermore if the conditions are so humane, why not use humans in these highly regulated and controlled experiments.

Many years ago I worked in a scientific institute that won grants using animals as subjects. It is there where I saw first hand the evil of vivisection and vowed to speak out against whenever possible. While at the institute, I was able to report two protocol violations – a cat with brain implants was denied water for 4 days prior to testing as encouragement to respond when rewarded with water.. In another instance, the brain implants from a cat were removed and the skull was left open to see how long it would take for infection to set in and for the cat to die.

The myth that animal testing is regulated and humane is not consistent with the evidence.

Because I spoke out, peacefully, every day I worked there, I was able to negotiate the release of six cats. The grant of their vivisector was not refunded and he intended to kill them as they were no longer useful to him. I found homes for 5 of the liberated cats and kept the sixth – Moxie, who was two when I took him home. He lived 21 more years of a very good cat life.

Every life is important. Every life has value. Every life is worthy of preservation.

The failure to understand this is a reflection of religious teachings that sanctify animal abuse as righteous, when neccessary.

“I have little regard for a man’s religion, whose dog and cat are not the better for it” Abraham Lincoln

on May 4th, 2012 at 8:08 am
I can’t wait for everyone to start chiming in about how we lack empathy for disapproving of Camille Marino. And that cockroaches are sentient beings

Aron,
The question is not whether cockroaches are sentient, but whether you are.

Many of the animals tortured, maimed and SACRIFICED in laboratories are capable of experiencing both emotional and physical pain, Many of these higher level animals are also capable of compassion.

Dr Christian Barnard, one of the pioneers of heart transplant vowed never to use fully sentient animals as experiment subjects ever again after he understood the emotional pain suffered by these animals:

“I had bought two male chimps from a primate colony in Holland. They lived next to each other in separate cages for several months before I used one as a [heart] donor. When we put him to sleep in his cage in preparation for the operation, he chattered and cried incessantly. We attached no significance to this, but it must have made a great impression on his companion, for when we removed the body to the operating room, the other chimp wept bitterly and was inconsolable for days. The incident made a deep impression on me. I vowed never again to experiment with such sensitive creatures.” Dr Christian Barnard

I wonder why you are incapapable of the empathy expressed by Dr Christian Barnard.

The type of sadistic experiments conducted on fully sentient animals, if not done in a laboartory, would result in charges of extreme cruelty to animals. Similar activities in children or young adults are considered a precursor to violent criminal activity later in life. Serial killers often begin their careers, maiming, tormenting, violating animals in ways that are similar to those used by vivisectors.

The impact of such cruelty, rationalized and dismissed as necessary by the judeo.christian doctrine of dominion, is far worse on the human psyche, than any imagined benefits accrued from these sadistic experiements.

Scientific fraud pervades the field of animal experimentation…here’s some background…. http://www.afma-curedisease.org/.

Good people need to start strongly reconsidering their cultural conditioning which has brought us a society that largely still sees the unnecessary, violent exploitation of animals as normal….akin to the conditioning that allowed our society, in the recent past, to see the violent exploitation of blacks as normal. It’s the same monster, just a different victimized and exploited group which makes this variation of supremacist, the speciesist…believing that because non-human animals are different that it’s morally responsible to torture, abuse, exploit, and kill them needlessly.

It is possible that her presence and protest threatened the influx of grant money for those who benefit from animal abuse.

Animal abuse, even when it is labeled necessary for the advancement of medicine is still animal abuse…

While the benefits of vivisection are questionable, the harm it does to the human spirit are not. Mahatma Gandhi understood the true impact of vivisection on society:

“I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence.” Gandhiji

Such a breach of protection is not possible in India, where it is against the law for shelter or stray animals to be used by vivisectors:

“(Indian) Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act:

• Stray animals may not be used for research. The Rules for Experimental Animals, as formulated by the Committee for the Control and Supervision of Experimental Animals, state that only animals bred for the purpose of research by institutes registered by the Committee may be used for experimentation (although, of course, such animals suffer and feel pain just as much as strays or any other animal). It is illegal for any medical, educational or commercial research institute to pick up stray animals from the street or from the municipal pound for this purpose.”

Such legislation is only possible in India, where compassionate religious values influence animal protective legislation.

In the USA, a judeo.christian nation, dominion allows for the killing and exploitation of animals for human benefit.

In such an environment, camille had no other choice that to peacefully protest the cruelty which resulted in a horrific death for Queenie.