opinion

A press release from the Oregon U.S. Attorney's office proudly announced that four of their employees were among the 160 honored for their "excellence in law enforcement" at the recent 25th annual Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) Director’s Awards Ceremony.

The Oregonian, which ran a story on the award notes that the award went to "Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen Peifer, Kirk A. Engdall and John C. Ray; Special Agent John Comery of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Detective Greg Harvey of the Eugene Police Department; and a legal assistant whose name was not released."

I, in turn, am delighted to note that The Oregonian's reporter ignored the repeated use of the word "terrorist" and "eco-terrorist" in the press release and referred to the arsonists as "eco-saboteurs." Many people just aren't so sure that "terrorist" should be used for people who didn't physically hurt, or intend to hurt, any people.

I would also like to note that the U.S. Attorney's office needs to work on their spelling. They may be able to conduct the "Nation’s Largest Eco-Terrorism Investigation" (hyperbole in original) but they seem to need some help noting the difference between a "mantel" — the shelf that projects over your fireplace — and a mantle — a cloak that conceals — in their (also somewhat hyperbolic) statement: "The damage was inflicted by a group of environmental extremists who called themselves “The Family” and operated under the mantels of the “Earth Liberation Front” (“ELF”) and the “Animal Liberation Front” (“ALF”)."

I suspect the goal was to indicate they were hiding under a cloak of darkness, not crouching under a chimney a la Santa Claus.

The press release continues: "Although the investigative trail had basically run cold almost nine years into the investigation, one of the co-conspirators finally broke his vow of loyalty and silence to his co-conspirators and began cooperating with investigators."

It all sounds very cloak and dagger, like Oregon should be the site of the next James Bond flick.

Now if only the folks at the U.S. Attorney's office would brag about catch some environmental polluters, instead of behaving as if every activist in town might be the next Bin Laden, then I'd be impressed. A quick search of their website yields only two references to polluters, one from 2005, in which U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut says, "We take environmental crimes seriously and polluters need to know that we will do everything we can to hold them responsible for their actions."

Well, that was three years ago. We're waiting…

As you may have read in this week's Activist Alert Ingrid Newkirk, founder of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is coming to Eugene to speak at 7 pm Monday, Nov. 17, at Borders in the Oakway Center.

I'm wondering if there will be a protest.

PETA is perhaps one of the most well-known animal rights organizations around, and I have to say it very often does good work exposing animal abuses. And Newkirk should find a good audience given all the animal lovers and activists we have in Eugene. But a lot of those animal lovers are pro no-kill and anti doggie-prejudice.

I was surprised to learn that PETA supports breed specific legislation (aka bans by cities and countries on owning specific types of dogs), a practice some animal advocates have linked to racism. Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer himself, told the EW that doggie prejudice and human racism aren't that far apart.

PETA president Ingrid Newkirk has written that she supports not only pit bull bans but killing pit bulls.

PETA is also anti no-kill and in fact euthanizes a large number of animals at their shelter in Norfolk, Va. In according to Newsweek, PETA has killed 85 percent of the animals it has taken in since 1998.

As Nathan Winograd, one of the founders of the no-kill movement points out in the Newsweek story, with a budget of over $30 million a year, PETA "could become no-kill in no time." He says PETA and the Humane Society of the United States "have become leading killers of cats and dogs, and the animal-loving public unwittingly foots the bill through taxes and donations."