Animal advocacy court calendar

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2006:

A Utah law requiring a two-thirds majority to pass a
wildlife-related ballot initiative is constitutional, the U.S. 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on May 17, 2006, upholding a 2001
verdict by Utah U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell . The law
was itself passed by ballot initiative, gaining 56% of the vote.

U.S. District Judge William Shubb ruled in late May 2006 that
Alfredo Kuba of In Defense of Animals and up to 10 other activists
could protest in front of Six Flags Marine World over the Memorial
Day weekend despite a Six Flags policy against permitting protests on
high-traffic days.

Compassionate Consumers founder Adam Durand, 26, on May 16
drew six months in jail, a fine of $1,500, 100 hours of community
service, and a year on probation for making three night visits to
the Wegmans egg farm in Wolcott, New York, to document the
conditions. Durand aired his findings in a video entitled Wegmans
Cruelty. Durand and two women who accompanied him removed 11 hens
during their visits, he testified, “”because in every case they
were sick or dying and there was just this feeling that they needed
veterinary care.” Durand was acquitted of felony burglary, for
which he could have received seven years in prison.

Pamela Ferdin, 48, and Jerry Vlasek, 49, were convicted
on May 25, 2006 of misdemeanor trespassing and “targeted
demonstration” for leafleting outside the home of Los Angeles
Department of Animal Services director of field operations David
Diliberto in June 2004. Sentencing was set for June 22. Ferdin,
the voice of “Lucy” in several “Peanuts” television specials, in
2004 became head of the U.S. branch of Stop Huntingdon Animal
Cruelty, after founder Kevin Kjonaas was indicted for conspiracy to
commit animal enterprise terrorism and interstate stalking. Kjonaas
was convicted in March 2006. Vlasek was barred in 2004 from visiting
England to address an animal rights conference, because of remarks he
made in 2003 that seemed to endorse killing vivisectors. In April
2005, while a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society board
of directors, Vlasak allegedly said similar things about sealers in
a radio interview, and was removed from the Sea Shepherd board after
allegedly posting personal details about a sealer on the Sea Shepherd
web site.