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Oral Arguments Presented on Motion to Overturn the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA)

aeta4 On July 13th, defense attorneys for Joseph Buddenberg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope and Adriana Stumpo (the AETA 4) presented oral arguments on their motion to strike down the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The AETA 4 are being represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC), and other well-respected civil rights attorneys, including Tony Serra. The defense demanded that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) be struck down as unconstitutional before Judge Ronald Whyte of the United States District Court, Northern District of California in San Jose.

The AETA is being used for the first time since its passage by Congress in 2006 to do exactly what civil rights advocates feared it would do – criminalize activities protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The oral arguments presented on July 13th were not about the allegations as directly applied to the AETA 4, but rather that the whole case should be dismissed now because AETA itself is unconstitutional.

Photo of the AETA 4 courtesy of the AETA 4 Support Committee. From left to right: Nathan Pope, Adriana Stumpo, Maryam Khajavi and Joseph Buddenberg.

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Police Raid House on Riverside Avenue in Santa Cruz, Again

Details are quite sketchy, but on August 7th, police raided a home on the 700 block of Riverside Avenue in Santa Cruz. It is the same home that was raided on February 24, 2008. In the February raid, police assert that the home, or the people who were inside of it, were somehow connected to what they proclaim are animal rights activists that held a protest that allegedly ended with a scuffle at a UC Santa Cruz researcher’s house. The raid on August 7th was apparently carried out by at least the Department of Justice, FBI, and UCSC police.

While police removed belongings from the front house on the property, other people were loading their items into trucks parked in front of the house. The people in the back house happened to be moving out at the same time that the police decided to raid the house in the front. Apparently nobody was home at the front house during the raid. The following photos were taken at about 7pm. Read More and View Photos

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Faculty Rally at UC Santa Cruz in Support of Firebombed Colleagues

On August 4th, at the main entrance to UC Santa Cruz, faculty members held a demonstration in support of their colleagues who were targeted with firebombs on August 2nd in what authorities are calling attacks by animal liberationists. Corporate news reporters, and their flock of more than ten white vans, were all over the scene to quickly sensationalize the story.

I spoke with numerous people to listen to their feelings, document why they chose to attend the demonstration, and in some cases to inquire about potential consequences to student privacy when organizing future events. The people I spoke with included researchers, a lecturer, professors, UCSC students, a Santa Cruz High School student that lives in faculty housing, UCSC’s Executive Communications Coordinator, Guy Lasnier, and finally with UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal. Read More and View Photos

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Police Raid Activist House in Santa Cruz

On February 24th, police broke through the front door of a home on the 700 block of Riverside Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz. For the duration of the police presence they declined to comment on their reason for being there, other than to say it was an “ongoing investigation.” Comments on the newswire state that the police actions were in response to a demonstration that took place that morning at the home of a UCSC vivisectionist (animal testing by inflicting distress unto an animal to research the effects of a variable). Read More | Photos | More Photos

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Peter Young Speaks at SHAC 7 Benefit in Santa Cruz

On February 23rd, noted animal rights activist Peter Young spoke at the Louden Nelson Center in Santa Cruz about his experiences with the animal liberation movement. His talk was followed by a screening of the film “Behind the Mask“, a thought provoking film that gives an in-depth look at the lives and motivations of animal liberationists. The event was a benefit for the SHAC 7; six individuals whose 1st Amendment rights were violated when they were sent to prison for defending animals by merely drawing attention to the horrors that go on at an animal testing facility called Huntingdon Life Sciences.

In 1997, Peter and a friend liberated over 8,000 mink and foxes from various fur farms in a two-week road trip across three midwestern states. Read More and Listen to Audio

Delivering Food to Tree-sitters at UCSC on Christmas

In 2003, the Princeton Review ranked UC Santa Cruz as having the ‘most beautiful campus’ in the nation. This year’s rankings are in and UCSC placed 8th in the ‘most beautiful campus’ category for “The Best 366 Colleges: 2008 Edition.”

Since November 7th, 2007, Coast Redwood trees on UCSC’s Science Hill have been bases of resistance to campus expansion with students sitting on platforms situated in the crowns of numerous trees. Many students, staff and faculty at UCSC, as well as residents of Santa Cruz County, feel that UCSC’s campus expansion plans are anything but beautiful. UCSC’s 2005 Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) includes an additional 4,500 students by 2020, the destruction of 120 acres of forest, and a Biomedical Sciences Facility engaging in controversial, corporate-driven practices such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and invasive experimentation upon living animals (vivisection).

On December 25th, I explored a little bit of the UCSC campus and stopped by the parking lot on Science Hill to see if anything was going on at the tree-sit. This contentious parking lot is located where UCSC plans to build their Biomedical Sciences Facility. The facility would be the first project under UCSC’s 2005 LRDP. During my brief time on Science Hill, numerous people brought food to the tree-sitters, including Michael Urban, a professor of politics at UCSC. Read More and View Photos

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