Japanese
whalers ram
Sea Shepherd ship Ady Gil
In an unprovoked attack captured on film, the
Japanese security ship Shonan Maru #2 deliberately rammed and caused
catastrophic damage to the Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil. 6 crew
crewmembers, 4 from New Zealand, 1 from Australia and 1 from the
Netherlands were immediately rescued by the crew of the Sea Shepherd
ship Bob Barker. None of the Ady Gil crew were injured. According to
eyewitness Captain Chuck Swift on the Bob Barker, the attack happened
while the vessels were dead in the water. The Shonan Maru #2 suddenly
started up and deliberately rammed the Ady Gil ripping 8ft of the bow
of the vessel completely off. According to Captain Swift, the vessel
does not look like it will be saved. “The Japanese whalers have now
escalated this conflict very violently.” Said Cpt Paul Watson. “If
they think that our remaining 2 ships will retreat from the Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the face of their extremism, they will be
mistaken. We now have a real whale war on our hands and we have
no intention of retreating.” Cpt Paul Watson onboard the Steve Irwin
is racing towards the area at 16 knots but still remains some 500
miles to the north. The Bob Barker has temporarily stopped the
pursuit of the Nisshin Maru to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil. The
Japanese ships refused to acknowledge the May Day distress of the Ady
Gil and used the incident to break away from the scene of the ramming.
Until this morning the Japanese were completely unaware of the
existence of the Bob Barker. This newest addition to the Sea Shepherd
fleet left Mauritius off the coast of Africa on Dec 18th
and was able to advance along the ice edge from the West as the
Japanese were busy worrying about the advance of the Steve Irwin from
the North. “This is a substantial loss for our organisation,” said
Captain Watson. “The Ady Gil, the former Earthrace vessel,
represents a loss of almost $2m. However the loss of a single whale is
of more importance to us and we will not lose the Ady Gil in vain.
This blow simply strengthens our resolve, it does not weaken our
spirit.” Update:
the Ady Gil sank on 8th Jan as it was being towed.
The
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
is requesting that the Australian government send a naval vessel to
restore the peace in the waters of the Australian Antarctic Territory.
We have 77 crew from 16 nations on 3 vessels, 6 of them were on the
Ady Gil. Of these 21 are Australian citizens. 16 Australians on the
Steve Irwin and 5 on the Bob Barker. Sea Shepherd believes that the
Australian government has a responsibility to protect the lives of
Australian citizens working to defend whales from illegal Japanese
whaling activities. “Australia needs to send a naval vessel down
here as soon as possible to protect both the whales and the Australian
citizens working to defend these whales,” said Steve Irwin Chief
Cook Laura Dakin of Canberra. “This is Australian Antarctic
Territorial waters and I see the Japanese whalers doing whatever they
want with impunity down here without a single Australian government
vessel anywhere to be found. Peter Garrett, I have one question for
you. Where the bloody hell are you?”
Huntingdon
Life Sciences exposed AGAIN
Despite
a press release only a Cambridge paper has seen fit to publish this
story. Animal Defenders International has just published a report
and film exposing every aspect of the vivisection primate trade across
3 continents including sending a worker undercover inside Huntingdon
Life Sciences. They have revealed primates being torn from the wild
and placed into tiny prisons in Vietnam, then a 30 hour journey in a
restrictive cage arriving at Huntingdon Life Sciences in the dead of
night to undergo horrific experiments. The undercover worker filmed
monkeys strapped in chairs and forced to inhale products. Many were
left in 1 cubic metre cages and then taken out to be held down by
workers as tubes were forced down their throats. The psychological
damage inflicted on these innocent beings lead them to chew their own
fingers and toes off to the bone; and one primate's face became so
injured she had to be force fed. During the year long ADI
investigation 217 primates were killed in just 5 studies for customers
including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca and the MoD. To view the
ADI report and view the video footage shot inside HLS, visit: www.savetheprimates.com/primateban/news
After the 1997 expose when HLS workers were filmed abusing
animals GSK and AstraZeneca both dropped HLS. They soon went back to
them when Brian Cass promised to turn the company around, but said if
it ever happened again they would not use HLS to contract experiments.
Please contact GSK & AstraZeneca and ask them to stop contracting
experiments at HLS and ask them to look at the undercover footage and
report written by the Animal Defenders International. Do not let these
animals die in vain. AstraZeneca
david.brennan@astrazeneca.com
- Chief Exec Officer simon.lowth@astrazeneca.com
- Chief Financial Officer tony.zook@AstraZeneca.com
- Executive Vice President North America bruno.angelici@AstraZeneca.com
- Executive Vice President, Europe and ROW david.smith@AstraZeneca.com
- Exec Vice-President, Operations jan.lundberg@AstraZeneca.com
- Exec Vice-President Discovery Research lynn.tetrault@AstraZeneca.com
- Exec Vice-President Human Resources peter.bonfield@AstraZeneca.com
- Senior Non-Exec Director. GlaxoSmithKline
Andrew.Witty@gsk.com - Andrew Witty -
New CEO & on Board of Directors Julian.Heslop@gsk.com
- Chief Financial Officer & on Board of Directors Moncef.Slaoui@gsk.com - Chairman of
Research & development & on Board of Directors David.Pulman@gsk.com - President of
Global Manufacturing and Supply Marc.Dunoyer@gsk.com
- President of Asia Pacific/Japan Chris.Viehbacher@gsk.com
- President of North American Pharmaceuticals & on Board of
Directors John.Clarke@gsk.com - President of
Consumer Healthcare Simon.M.Bicknell@gsk.com
- SVP, Company Secretary & Compliance Officer Daniel.Phelan@gsk.com-
Chief of Staff Claire.x.Thomas@gsk.com - SVP, Human
Resources.
CONSPIRACY
CHARGES
THE CATCH ALL
We have recently seen SHAC
campaigners and Mel Broughton from the SPEAK campaign given
inordinately long prison sentences despite their not being charged
with taking part in any of the illegal actions cited. The founders of
the SHAC campaign were singled out for hefty sentences - Heather got
11 years and Greg & Natasha 9 years each. Lacking any evidence of
participation in graffiti, paint stripper attacks on cars or visits to
HLS linked homes the police chose conspiracy charges, using as
evidence the action alerts sent out by the campaign, speeches etc. In
effect, anyone now running a campaign can be pulled in for the actions
of others, even though they have stressed that all communications to
selected targets should be polite and informative. Clearly HLS
is so important to this government that they've given it banking
facilities with the Bank of England, written off debts and used every
trick in the book to keep the company afloat. They have also
perpetuated the myth that HLS tests life saving drugs - conveniently
forgetting to mention all the petro/agri/household chemicals it tests
and the drug disasters too. We now have yet another exposé
inside HLS - something the media has chosen to ignore.
Mel Broughton of the SPEAK campaign has been given 10 years after
being found guilty of Conspiracy to commit Arson at a 2nd trial - the
first trial jury failed to reach a verdict. He has been immediately
granted leave to appeal and this should be heard in July. Tapes
inadvertently recorded by police officers in Oxford revealed them
saying they 'would wage a dirty war on Mel', 'would prosecute the shit
out of him' and other tasty titbits. One wonders how any jury
could have ignored this evidence and believed the disputed DNA offered
by the police. Seems like some people still have faith in the police
and their pursuit of justice when the reality is that they are agents
of the powerful.
We now have a law that
stops people taking photos of the police, leaving them free to abuse
people and the laws of the land without anyone recording it;
protesters are regularly filmed and stopped and searched by officers
despite not breaking any laws - 4 officers stood opposite the Cowley
Club in Brighton and filmed everyone entering and leaving the club
during an environmental campaigns weekend. The local MP has made
a complaint. Unless everyone wakes up, including the media, we
won't have any more freedom of speech or right to protest. All that
will be left will be the right to go shopping!
For brilliant write-ups
and further info on our encroaching police state, see the NetcuWatch
website.
