Convicted A.L.F. Activist Arrives in Prison

[Omaha Steve]

From Voice of the Voiceless
InfoShop News
April 1, 2010

One year after the government indicted two activists for an Animal Liberation Front release of 650 mink in Utah, the first to be sentenced - William "BJ" Viehl - has arrived at prison.

In February, Viehl was sentenced to two years in prison - quadruple the sentence recommended by the prosecutor. After two months awaiting transfer, Viehl has been designated to a low security prison in Los Angeles county, the same prison where SHAC 7 prisoner Jacob Conroy completed his sentence. With ""good time", he expects to be released in the fall of this year.

Below is Viehl's new address. Please distribute widely, and write him a letter of support today:

William Viehl
#15909-081
FCI Terminal Island
Po Box 3007
San Pedro, CA 90731
Animal Liberation Press Office
6320 Canoga Avenue #1500
Woodland Hills, CA 91367

www.animalliberationpressoffice.org
[e-mail]

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I have this poem on my refrigerator...

VOICE OF THE VOICELESS
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox


So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.

I am the voice of the voiceless:
Through me, the dumb shall speak;
Till the deaf world’s ear be made to hear
The cry of the wordless weak.

From street, from cage and from kennel,
From jungle, and stall, the wail
Of my tortured kin proclaims the sin
Of the mighty against the frail

For love is the true religion,
And love is the law sublime;
And all is wrought, where love is not
Will die at the touch of time.

Oh shame on the mothers of mortals
Who have not stopped to teach
Of the sorrow that lies in dear, dumb eyes,
The sorrow that has no speech.

The same Power formed the sparrow
That fashioned man-the King;
The God of the whole gave a living soul
To furred and to feathered thing.

And I am my brother’s keeper,
And I will fight his fight;
And speak the word for beast and bird
Till the world shall set things right.

[Karmadillo]

12. Thank you for posting this.

nt

[mike_c]

2. don't tell me-- terrorism enhancement of his sentence...?

I'm not even a particular fan of ALF, but the government abuse of power that seeks prosecution of eco-activists as "terrorists" is ridiculously transparent. It tells us who really governs in America-- corporations, who fear the destruction of assets the way real people fear bodily injury.

[flvegan]

3. He was indeed charged under the AETA.

Charged as a terrorist. What a shame, America.

[TheMadMonk]

4. Good. These people ARE ecoterrorists.

Mink might well be native to North America, but a good many of the animals these people "free" are not not native to the regions where they are released, and have the potential to cause enormous environmental harm.

And a quick google lets me see that the habitat of mink is forested regions with a reliable suply of water, things that are most definitely in short supply in Utah. These animals in all probability suffered slow painful deaths by dehydration and starvation.

It is only a matter of time, before dickheads like this catch up with TV and successfully "liberate" diseased animals.

[flvegan]

5. So freeing animals is an act of terrorism?

That's what you're saying?

[LeftyMom]

8. Oh, you missed the part where it's more humane to subject 100% of the animals to death,

usually by means of an electrified probe applied to the anus, rather than risk some of the little future fur coats not surviving in the wild.

It's amazing how many people on DU fall for industry propaganda.

[flvegan]

10. I remember when right wing talking points got deleted around here.

I'd hate to see some of these people around here advocating rounding up feral cat T/N/R individuals to send to Gitmo because they're terrorists.

[TheMadMonk]

16. Feral animals SHOULD be caught and if necessary killed.

I'm an Aussie, so I have a bloody good idea of what happens when non-native species are introduced into habitats where there is no natural predator.

Not going to bother with separate replies.

LeftyMom: A) see above. B) Some (in their natural habitat) I have no problem with, but when it's all (or most) I most certainly do.

flvegan: Again, see above.


Personally, I think wearing fur for the sake of wearing fur is the height of pretentiousness. But better to let such twats wear their farmed mink in public, than their wild snow leopard in private.

[LeftyMom]

17. The western US isn't Australia, and mink aren't rabbits.

Mink are a naturally occurring animal in the region who have been extirpated in most parts of North America by the fur trade. Releasing these animals back into the wild restores a native predator, and balances a damaged ecology.

The situation is not analogous at all.

[TheMadMonk]

19. Endangered species status: Least concern.

Habitat: Wooded areas with reliable water. Exactly how much of Utah fits this description? They are native to the cooler northern parts of the continent, not the desert Soutwest.

American mink have been deliberately released in Europe by "activists" contributing to the reduction in numbers of the European Mink.

No harm done in this specific case does not let them off the hook.

[LeftyMom]

22. Eastern and Southern Utah is riddled with creeks and rivers

Those areas would be where most of the non-desert animals are. The ermine has similar requirements, this is a Utah state government-issued map of it's range, which should give you an idea of how much of Utah is suitable.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

28. While Utah has some arid regions

Huge swaths of it are wooded and have plentiful water supplies. The only real "desert" area of Utah is in the southern part of the state. Much of the rest is perfect habitat for mink. I was born and raised in Utah, and I've traveled through much of it.

[flvegan]

18. So again, just to be sure

people that free animals, and now people that care for feral cat colonies are terrorists? Do I have that right?

[TheMadMonk]

20. People that release animals for the sake of releasing animals,...

...without concern for the environment are indeed terrorists, because they are so focused on their cause, that they rarely if ever think about actual outcomes.

Those that maintain feral cat colonies are just bloody idiots wasting their money. The only sane way to deal with domestic animals gone feral is euthenasia. Feral animals are dangerous on so many levels that anything else is asking for trouble.

[flvegan]

21. And yet

here you are, non-native species...yammering on and on about what's right, wrong and who might be a terrorist.

And you don't know SHIT about people that liberate animals, short of pathetic right wing talking points.

Thanks for staying an Aussie. G'day.

[TheMadMonk]

23. I doubt that you are any more native where you are than I am.

Actually what I don't know shit about is RW talking points. I have no interest whatsoever in the fur trade, except insofar, that if there is to be one, farmed animals are much to be prefered over animals trapped in the wild.

The uncontrolled release of captive bred animals is never a good idea. too many things can go wrong.

I've met and talked to a fair number of animal rights activists (and other green types) and for the majority of them their most outstanding feature is their abject ignorance on the subject. They will tell you something is wrong, but rarely why it is wrong except possibly in the most simplistic of terms. Very few can offer viable solutions, just make demands that an immediate stop be put to whatever it is that they're against. They have their cause, and the cause is it.

Animal liberationist, anti-abortionist, Taliban, Talibornagain, teabagger, vegan, freedom fighter, etc. No I am not equating them except in one crucial way: They all have absolute conviction in the "rightness" of their cause. Somtimes history comes down on their side, sometimes not. Either way, the law of the time must apply to them just as much as it does to everyone else, anything else puts us on the road to anarchy.

These people, acting outside the law, caused others acting entirely inside the law to lose hundreds of thousands (if not millions of dollars). People (little people) quite possibly lost their jobs, because there was no work for them to do. Those people could well have lost their homes, because they had no income to pay their mortages.

Stacked up against that kind of harm to others, two years is a bloody joke.

[SPedigrees]

29. One thing I have noticed about these "animal activists" is

that they are all angry people looking for a cause to rail against. Most have had very limited contact with animals and have a profound ignorance of our ecological system. They simply want a cause and a reason to fight.

They are not interested in improving the lot of animals in domestic situations or in the wild.

[LeftyMom]

31. That's really funny,

considering that the two animal activists on this thread both do rescue at their own (considerable) expense.

[MajorChode]

25. Oh bullshit, that's NOT all these fucksticks did

Great job of using hyperbole in a failed attempt to minimize this fuckstick's deeds, but here's the rest of the story that you conveniently left out...

Not only did they release over 600 animals, but they broke into a family farm's business and destroyed records. Most significantly they spray painted threatening messages. When someone uses violence or the threat of violence in an attempt to achieve what they can't win at the ballot box, they are a terrorist. People have burned buildings on mink farms in the name of ALF. People have burned down houses with people in them who barely escaped with their lives in the name of ALF. The McMullins would have damn sure felt terrorized which was exactly the fucksticks' intent.

These fucksticks knew setting those minks free would have little to no impact. Their objective was to terrorize and yes it was an act of terrorism whether you choose to ignore it or not, and the fuckstick, William Viehl, got exactly what he deserved.

[SPedigrees]

7. +10000 nt

[LeftyMom]

11. Checked out your website.

It's very hard to read, looks like a geocities site circa 1998. What is it about animal breeders that leads to their fondness for such terrible web design?

Anyhow, I'm delighted that the animal rights movement worries you enough that you have a whole (incoherent, unreadable, but none the less there) page of cherry picked quotes and industry copypasta on what evil, naughty people we are. It means we're doing our jobs. :evilgrin:

[flvegan]

14. If it's true, the link to furcommission.com is quite telling.

:rofl:

[LeftyMom]

15. Did you get to the part about Ringling Bros. being a "haven for exotic animals (in contrast to the

to the poor quality of life offered by what is left of their natural environment where they are threatened with extinction
by poachers and loss of habitat.)"

I lol'd.

[Omaha Steve]

24. Agreed

Ringling Bros. has had a couple animal lovers video recording some of the very bad treatment of their animals. The elephant clip was a big eye opener for me.

[SPedigrees]

27. What makes you think I'm an animal breeder? You are woefully ignorant.

I don't know what website you went to but it was not mine. I have no "link to furcommission.com" on any of my sites, and any geocities sites I may have built long ago disappeared when geocities closed all their free sites.

My site has links to animal rescue groups and to my former pedigree business, as well as pages of photos of my horses and pets over the past half century.

PETA and other animal rights have no concern whatever for the welfare of animals, which is why they do not describe their mission as animal welfare. Most of their members do not know one end of an animal from the other, as evidenced by their "releasing" domestic animals at shows and other events. They've caused numerous painful death and injury to "released" dogs and horses being hit by cars, and injuries to drivers as well.

ALF in particular firebombed a laboratory back in the 1980s, and PETA paid the defense attorney bills for the ALF member responsible. Nice group of people. And nice use of funds clearly not destined to improve the lot of animals, domestic, wild, or feral.

Notable too how these groups love to target old ladies in fur coats. You won't see them taking on leather-clad bikers.

[LeftyMom]

30. This is not your website?

http://homepages.sover.net/~lsudlow/ARvsAW.htm

It has your name on it, it's linked from your "spedigrees" flikr account, the web host matches the one from your email on your facebook account, and it's based out of the same location as you have listed on your DU profile and your facebook page. All it took to find all of that was to google your DU name.

The very first link at the top of the page is to furcommision.com You also have quotes from Rick Berman's (remember him, the "rottenacorn.com" guy? Of Rachel Maddow expose fame?) various anti-animal rights websites. Which means you fail sourcing forever.

The internet has a long memory.

[arcadian]

9. That's funny because ermine(mink) is indeed native to Utah

[backscatter712]

6. Gotta love the double-standard.

Animal-rights activists commit a glorified act of vandalism, and they get labeled as terrorists and get two years in the federal pen.

Right-wing assholes spit on Democratic members of Congress, make death threats, brandish weapons, throw bricks through windows, cut propane lines, and 90% of the time, they get to skate with little more than a $50 fine for disorderly conduct, if they're prosecuted at all.

IOKIYAR...

[MajorChode]

26. Gotta love the hyperbole

Spitting on a member of congress, may be a very crass act, but it's not terrorism. As far as the violent acts go, the FBI is investigating and I don't believe they have even identified a suspect, much less charged anyone. William Viehl committed his terrorist act 20 months ago, and he is just now going to prison. The events you described are barely a month old.

[Karmadillo]

13. Too bad he didn't kill a million innocent Iraqis, instead. He'd get to skate for that one.

nt