pElAgUS' 

Sometimes lab rats die rightly. See this Seattle P-I story of today, on UW research to fight new flu strains sharing similarities with that "Spanish" variety of 1918-19 which took 1,600 lives in Seattle, half a million in the U.S., and 50 million worldwide. Yet animal wrongs activists stress "speciesism" and other idiocies. A poster boy is Seattle activist and new prisoner Josh Harper of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) , a former UW Frat Row non-student resident when last arrested, whom I've previously SPblogged about here.

Harper is the quintessential Seattle radical - intimidation, bluster and temper trump dialog. More here.

Joshua Harper, a West Coast coordinator for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, was sentenced to three years in prison and was ordered to help pay a total of $1 million in restitution to the company and people he helped terrorize. Yesterday, three other members of the group were sentenced to prison for terms ranging from four to six years...

...the...activists were convicted in March of using a Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a Britain-based company that tests drugs and household products on
animals.....The government charged that the group waged a five-year campaign against the company, posting the names, addresses and phone numbers of Huntingdon employees and those who do business with the company, and personal information such as where they go to church and where their children attend school. Many of those people saw their homes vandalized and received threatening e-mails, faxes and phone calls. The group, based in Philadelphia, maintained its actions were protected under the First Amendment.

There may be some legitimate issues around animal testing for household products, and cosmetics; even if far less so in relation to life and death medical research. But inciting threats to researchers and pinpointing their homes and families is beyond the pale. There is no better way to harm one's cause than with such tactics. Feel free to message the animal wrongs convict Josh Harper here. But as he's been banned from the Internet for a while - quite understandably, as it turns out - they'll have to forward your bon mots to him. Advice: surprise Josh by being radically.......civil.