Activism
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1997:
Jailed for alleged contempt of court by McHenry
County judge James Franz on November 6, but ordered released
on appeal bond by the State of Illinois Appellate Court Second
District on November 21, Chicago Animal Rights Coalition
founder Steve Hindi finally got out late the evening of November
25, after Franz had delayed holding a bail hearing through the
weekend of November 23-24. On a hunger strike for the preceding
16 days, Hindi celebrated his release with a spaghetti dinner.
Hindi was hit with the contempt charge for participating in
protests outside the Woodstock Hunt Club on October 12 and
again on November 4, after receiving a temporary restraining
order which Hindi said to his understanding only prevented him
from flying ultralight aircraft over the hunt club to direct geese
away from the hunters. Hindi and fellow protesters Steve and
Carol Gross, who also received temporary restraining orders,
were at the same time sued for $410,000 by Woodstock Hunt Club
proprietor Earl Johnson––but while Hindi was in jail, Johnson
died, leaving uncertain whether the case would be pursued.
More activists were arrested at Fur Free Friday
demonstrations on November 29 than in connection with any single
animal rights event since the 1991 and 1992 mass protests at
the Fred Coleman Labor Day Pigeon Shoot in Hegins,
Pennsyvlania––and possibly more than at any previous multi-site
protest. The tally included 34 arrests in New York City, 32 of
them in front of fur stores on Fifth Avenue; 14 arrests in
Indianapolis at a Lazarus department store; 11 arrests at Macy’s
in San Francisco; and at least 40 more arrests in 11 other cities,
primarily for obstructing traffic and resisting arrest. Tony Wong,
16, of Indianapolis, went into jail as a little-known local activist
and reported high school honors student, with two priors for previous
acts of anti-fur civil disobedience, but emerged from 12
days in jail on a hunger strike as a possible rising star of the animal
rights movement, sympathizers having extensively told and
retold his story on the Internet. Wong was released into the custody
of his parents, under house arrest, and was to complete a
100-hour community service sentence in service of Food Not
Bombs.
After a record 313 days of testimony, including submission
of 40,000 documents as court exhibits, producing 20,000
pages of transcripts, the libel case of McDonald’s vs. London
Greenpeace activists David Morris, 42, and Helen Steele, 32, on
December 14 finally rested and was taken under consideration by
High Court Justice Rodger Bell, who hoped to deliver a verdict
early in 1997. McDonald’s contends that Morris and Steele
libeled the firm with an Earth Day 1990 handout that accused the
company of involvement in the destruction of rainforests, selling
food of low nutritional value, and exploiting workers. Several
other defendants settled out of court, but Morris and Steele, both
unemployed, chose to fight McDonald’s, serving as their own
legal counsel.
Durand Evan, 49, of Fort Bragg, California, on
November 21 won $5,758 in damages and a ruling from Judge
Constance O’Bryant that his 11-year-old cat, Banmers, serves a
legitimate “thereapeutic function,” in helping Evan cope with a
chronic musculoskeletal condition causing disability, and is therefore
protected by federal housing law that supersedes the
Mendicino Coast apartment complex’s own “no pets” rule. Hank
Fischer Properties, manager of the apartment complex, was fined
$5,000 for violating the Fair Housing Act, and was issied a permanent
injunction against ever violating it again.
A telephoned bomb threat broke up an organizational
meeting of Cape Codders for Wildlife on November 22, just as
Humane Society of the U.S. vice president for wildlife and habitat
protection began to speak to about 50 prospective members at the
Chatham Elementary School in Chatham, Massachusetts. The
group formed to protest mass poisonings of seagulls.
An estimated 35-40 demonstrators led by United
Poultry Concerns president Karen Davis on November 29
protested the 18th annual Turkey Olympics at the Inn on Lake
Waramaug near New Milford, Connecticut, which drew about
500 participants. Two demonstrators, Jerry Vlasak, M.D., 38,
and Shawn Kolpak, 22, chained themselves to a graffiti-covered
car positioned to block the access, and were arrested, along with
picketers Vermon Flynn, 17, and Christopher Rogowski, 17.
