Law

kunsjoi sent in a legal riddle for the courts in Ohio – a cattle farmer is facing animal cruelty charges which arose after photos were taken on his farm. However, since the photos were taken without the farmer’s consent and required the photographers to trespass on his property, he’s asking for the evidence to be suppressed, which may or may not result in the charges being dismissed (the prosecution claims they have other evidence that will keep this from happening). This isn’t a case of some “radical” AR group breaking into the farm – the pics were turned in by the local Humane Society. As efforts continue to treat any animal rights action on a farm as a terrorist act, this case could provide a dangerous precedent for animal welfare in the future – if farmers are allowed to do whatever they want because nobody’s allowed to document their crimes, we’re in for even more trouble down the road. Link.

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A UK woman is being fined by the local council over the use of yoghurt to paint a portion of her house. Or possibly over her refusal to cover her house in manure. It’s very, very confusing, and if I was on the UK tourism council, I’d be worried about perceptions right about now. As near as I can tell, there’s some kind of bylaw requiring all houses in the are to look the same, so she’s been ordered to apply some kind of weathering agent to the brickwork to make her place match. The recommendations have included manure and yoghurt, and yes, after the day I’ve had, I’m tempted to move there just to start a fight. Link.

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Well, we hope you all enjoyed Dagda Samildanc weekend. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel incredibly hung over. We close out the weekend with our 15th (!) post from DS, involving a giant banana who was arrested at gunpoint. Yes, really. Goodnight everyone! Link.

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queervegan sent in what’s hopefully the final chapter in the horse-sex saga that we’ve linked to a few times in the past (you’ll forgive me if I don’t link back to it, but trust me, it pops up every few weeks with a “where can I get the video” comment) – a man has been found guilty. The penalty for breaking into a farm and taping your friend having (fatal) sex with a horse? A suspended sentence and a $778 fine. There weren’t any animal cruelty charges because the horse wasn’t injured (the man died from a perforated colon. Do the math.) Link.

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From Dagda Samildanc: “Two workers at a Wendy’s in Manchester have been charged with taking money from the safe. One of the suspects is Ronald MacDonald.” I think the picture was taken before he was arrested, because hey, if my parents named me that, I’d be pretty messed up too. Link.

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Rawk! Apologies if this has already been discussed: thestagedapex reports that an Ohio woman found guilty of dumping 33 kittens in the woods has been ordered to spend the night outside so she can get some idea of what the animals went through. The temperature is expected to drop to 20 degrees or so. Incidentally, 9 of the 33 kittens died. Michelle Murray will have water and a way to call for help in case of an emergency, so she’ll probably come out of this more or less unchanged, but kudos to the judge for thinking up something special in addition to the 15 day jail sentence.

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Everybody but my Dad sent in a story that had me smiling all day, even though it was the kind of day where I couldn’t find a moment to post the tale before 9 at night: Rome has banned goldfish bowls on the grounds that they’re cruel to fish. What’s more, regular dog walks are now mandatory. This is part of a wave of fun new laws in Italy that followed a national law setting big fines for people who abandon their pets (we talked about Turin’s new laws a while ago.) Again, thanks to everyone who sent this in, but particularly Kirk for pointing out that it made CNN’s “Offbeat News” category (people who love animals are wacky), and to Michael for pointing out that we’ve got a new use for that “when in Rome” expression that you just knew would come up before the end of this post.

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Wanna know what Homeland Security fears? Vegans, apparently. According to a story about an ACLU lawsuit that was forwarded to me, appropriately enough, by an anonymous submitter, vegans Caitlin Childs and Christopher Freeman were arrested by Homeland Security, not so much for their peaceful protest outside a Honey Baked Ham store as much as for their writing down the vehicle information of the car that contained the two guys photographing them. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed Freedom of Information Act requests on behalf of more than 100 groups and individuals in an effort to expose the US government’s spying operations on its citizens in the guise of fighting terrorism. For more information, check out the ACLU’s FBI Spy Files. For the record, I’ve been videotaped by police at protests here in Canada, but they at least had the decency to do it from a big video truck. Still sucked, though.

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Mike from Treehugger sent word that the US Senate has effectively banned the export of horse meat for human consumption by stopping USDA funding to the three remaining US slaughterhouses that kill horses. Without inspectors, the slaughterhouses won’t be able to operate anymore. While this won’t really stop anything (the live horses can be shipped to Mexico or Canada), it’s the kind of law that makes a lot of people feel better. After all, as Senator John Ensign (R-Nev) says, “horses [are] an American icon fit for saving from foreign menus.” Now if they could just look at other “iconic” animals, like, say, the bull…

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