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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 05:20 pm
The ABC’s Melanie Christiansen presents an interview with Patty Mark, one of the protesters at yesterday’s meat battle:
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: The World Meat Congress has drawn the industry’s leaders to Brisbane this week, closely followed by animal liberation activists, who’ve staged a series of protests.
[Friday] morning they invaded an abattoir at Ipswich just south of Brisbane, where they chained themselves in.
Protester Patty Mark says what followed was frightening.
PATTY MARK: The abattoir workers were very violent to us. We were chained right over the killing room floor. The owner came in with an angle grinder and started to … We begged for the police.
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: But before police arrived, she said, things got even worse.
PATTY MARK: He then came back with the whole lot of … how many were there? About 40 abattoir workers.
They were yelling and screaming, and he got the angle grinder himself and started to cut right within … near where we were chained.
It was terrifying. We didn’t have protection on our eyes. The sparks were flying.
MELANIE CHRISTIANSEN: Fellow protester Noah Hannibal says he couldn’t believe what was happening.
NOAH HANNIBAL: Like, this guy was basically coming at us with an angle grinder, so there were people shaking, there were people in tears and he was just saying, you know, “I’m enjoying this.”
He isn‘t alone. Nice to see workers and management joining forces during what became a tremendous bonding exercise.
- Have the protestors been charged with trespass, mischief etc?
Is there any possibility they could be cited for workplace health and safety violations? Contaminating a slaughter floor, failing to wear hair nets, safety equipment, making unauthorised adjustments to dangerous equipment?
Posted by Steve at the pub on 2006 04 29 at 03:37 AM • permalink
- Steve at the pub
Not a bad line of thinking, in theory a worksafe inspector could lob some hefty fines at individuals on a “worksite”. No steel cap boots, no hardhats, ect.
I know of one sub contractor who was fined about $3,000 for not tying a ladder onto his vehicle but leaving it in the tray.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 04 29 at 03:49 AM • permalink
- Heh. I love the wet smack of delusional leftard tosser meeting the real world.
Oh, the terror of it, the oppressed working class, so downtrodden by evil-capitalist-swine-imperialist-running-dog-lickspittle-aggressors did not appreciate the efforts of a pack of smelly dole bludging hippies in their effort to put them out of a job.
tst tsk. WHO would have thunk it?
MarkL
Canberra
- What does the ABC have against words beginning with T?
First it was ‘Terrorism’. Now its ‘Trespassers’.
Someone from Sesame Street needs to investigate.
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 2006 04 29 at 04:16 AM • permalink
- Soooooo,their personal space was invaded a tad, and it was a terrifying experience?
Who would have thought that chaining themselves to a fence on private property would have been anything less than fun and perky, and an opportunity to make some new blue-collar worker friends?
Jeeze, you learn something everyday.
- And along with Mr Hannibal, was there perhaps a Mr Skinner? A Miss Legge? Maybe a Horne or two?Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 04 29 at 04:56 AM • permalink
- #15 B—aaanaby of the Antarctic,no less.
O/T The ABC with its usual exquisite timing is commencing a “gentle on my mind-if only all soldiers were David Wenham”..drama series on Austrayan “soldiers” in East Timor.Promos -“if we were just nice to everyone everyone in the world would love each other” have been aired and it comes from a moonbattery factory.
So at a time when East Timorese are fighting each other,600 army personnel have been sacked and police are “torturing” suspects according to the media -Aunty screens this love fest. David Wenham will be pleased.
- The interview on TV with Angie Stephenson (did I detect a slight N American accent there?) was a classic. She was in, or bordering on tears and the gist of her anguish seemed to be – It’s disgusting that they slaughter these animals here but even more so how could they do this to ..to .. to .. US!
Occasionally something happens that can keep you in high spirits for weeks to come.
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 04 29 at 09:31 AM • permalink
…and he was just saying, you know, “I’m enjoying this.”
Sounds like some good, healthy emotional release to me. But the activists seem to view it as something like this.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 04 29 at 10:00 AM • permalink
- Is anyone else thinking these self-indulgent spoiled babies were never denied anything in their entire lives?Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 04 29 at 12:21 PM • permalink
- Oh, the horror!!! So now what? Should there be a government regulation that any private property owner who is invaded by protestors must offer said protestors eye protection before wielding an angle saw? Probably already is an OSHA regulation on this in the U.S.
I think it would be fun to organize a protest at, say, an orchard or a fruit and veggie trade association to demand more humane harvesting techniques.
Off to cook some bacon…
Posted by Polish Frizzle on 2006 04 29 at 12:36 PM • permalink
- Gosh, wish I’d been there to see it. (Ya know, for two days now I’ve been reading “angle grinder” as “ankle grinder”—makes a lot more sense now.)Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 04 29 at 12:46 PM • permalink
- Texas Bob – for what it’s worth, my personal definition of a vegetarian: Someone who thanks God that carrots aren’t cuddly.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 04 29 at 05:58 PM • permalink
- Just had to put this in from a Chomsky site.
Speciesism
Speciesism is a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species. Speciesism is wrong for the same reason racism and sexism are wrong—because all beings interests should count equally. Peter Singer refers to this as “the principle of equality”. “All the arguments to prove human superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals”. For any individual who can suffer, the degree of suffering, not the species of the sufferer is what should count.
Hahahahaha no protozoa for oil! Free ritalin for 3 toed sloths! Charge whales with genocide!
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 04 29 at 07:35 PM • permalink
- #42—The government of Spain is already fighting speciesism.
The Spanish Socialist Party will introduce a bill in the Congress of Deputies calling for “the immediate inclusion of (simians) in the category of persons, and that they be given the moral and legal protection that currently are only enjoyed by human beings.” The PSOE’s justification is that humans share 98.4% of our genes with chimpanzees, 97.7% with gorillas, and 96.4% with orangutans.
The party will announce its Great Ape Project at a press conference tomorrow. An organization with the same name is seeking a UN declaration on simian rights which would defend ape interests “the same as those of minors and the mentally handicapped of our species.”
According to the Project, “Today only members of the species Homo sapiens are considered part of the community of equals. The chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orangutan are our species’s closest relatives. They possess sufficient mental faculties and emotional life to justify their inclusion in the community of equals.”
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2006 04 29 at 08:16 PM • permalink
- Evil Pundit
Well they have to find someone stupid enough to vote for them…Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 04 29 at 08:43 PM • permalink
- 45.Frollickingmole: you’re talking about Spain. They voted in the socialists after the Madrid bombing. It won’t take long to find someone to vote for a chimpanzee.
Unless you are talking about a McChimpyFlightsuitRipsnorter or course.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 04 29 at 10:25 PM • permalink
- I didn’t think it could get any worse than Noam Chomsky. Then tfm gave us Noam Chomsky quoting Peter Singer and I thought well, this is absolute bottom. And then I read Evil Pundit’s post. Is the world going stark raving mad? What if simians turn out to be speciesists themselves? What if they don’t want us in theircommunity of equals? What then?
The Great Ape Project seeks to end the unconscionable treatment of our nearest living relatives by obtaining for non-human great apes the fundamental moral and legal protections of the right to life, the freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and protection from torture.
I’m speechless, well obviously not, but you know what I mean.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 04 29 at 10:46 PM • permalink
- Of course now the Spanish have to worry about a flood of illegal immigration by Gibraltar Rock Apes…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 04 29 at 10:49 PM • permalink
- “Chomskies” works for me, paco. Remember that European poll that named him the smartest person on the planet? And, as I recall, his was one of the top names mentioned when asked “who would you choose to head a one-world government” or some such (I think Bill Clinton beat him on that one). Good night nurse. So, are we going to have to let apes marry our daughters now?Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 04 30 at 01:04 AM • permalink
- I say good on the Spanish! Now perhaps they’ll have members in their society who actually have the fortitude to stand up for their country. The Spanish have become so…. well,… French. Start up a draft. The 1st Gorilla Fusiliers, the 82nd Airborne Macaca Division, 5-2 Air Defense Chimpanzee Regiment. Its bound to be better than what they have now.
- paco, I think the word you are looking for is ‘progressyves’. At least it appears to be in the US.Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2006 04 30 at 01:48 AM • permalink
- Paco, I’m not sure I can land on one of many synomyns that come to mind, but the first thing that needs to happen is for the term “intellectual” stop being used anywhere near these people. It is an epistemological crime against reality to use “intellect” in any definition of the concept which designates Chomski and his kin.
- For some reason my edit didn’t go through. I added:
I think the word “murderer” fits the bill. They kill more people with their ideas than any one individual could possibly kill with a weapon. Notice that even dictators work very hard at propaganda directed at their own people. Chomski and his kind can be heard in every word spoken by bin Laden and his cohorts, along with every editorial in the media of the Middle East.
How many of the terrorists leaders were educated in the West? We seem bound to arm our enemies, with technology and ideas. It’s the ideas that are the most vicious and destructive, however.
- I used to pick lettuce (briefly).
I thought: “My God, I might be destroying a living soul.”
So I started picking tomatoes.
Then I thought: “My God, this plant won’t be able to reproduce and have little kiddy tomatoes.”
So I went fishing.
Then I thought: “My God, this poor little fishy. How could I eat him. He was staring at me with those big fishy eyes.”
Then I had a drink of water.
“Then I thought: “My God I am disturbing Nature’s delicate eco-balance and depriving the yuppie suburbs of their vital water for their Spring Water bottles.”
Then I breathed a breath of fresh air.
Then I thought: “My God, what with planet warming and CO2 pollution I am breathing what might be left of the planet’s vital oxygen supplies.”So I lay down to die, safe in the knowledge that I was the complete eco conservationist.
And my thoughts went out to those poor souls starting out on the same journey as myself decrying the slaughter of innocent animals to provide red meat to a starving (or is it obese these days) population.Then I knew that the journey they were embarking on was only beginning.
They too would be joining me later as the Complete Ex-Meat Eater, the Complete Ex-Vegetarian, the complete Ex-Riparian deflowerer of Virgin Piscean Resources, the Complete Ex-Depleter of the Earth’s Vital Ozone Layer.So I welcome my new Colleagues into this Ethereal World of those that were but are no longer.
- Texas Bob — Not to mention the close-order drill during the parades will be a hootenahalf…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 04 30 at 12:19 PM • permalink
- Kyda — just remember, ‘chomski’ has to be lower-case cuz it’s a generic term. You know, “box of rocks,” “bag of hammers,” “faculty of chomskis…”Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 04 30 at 12:22 PM • permalink
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Sorry, too cheap, but some-one had to say it.