Vista Detention Facility
325 South Melrose Drive
Vista, CA 92081-6627
Information (760) 940-4473

the new design is drawn up and it looks awesome. its going to be a fucking cool shirt. we are also going to repress the ‘there is a war, this is the weapon’ shirts. keep an eye out

they are in there for us…so we are out there for them!
a mini-guide in writing to animal and earth liberation prisoners

take a minute to think about what you did today. and yesterday, and this week. chances are, a prisoner couldn’t have done any of it. prisoners don’t get to go to shows, walk around the city, call anyone and talk as long as they want, or eat at vegan bbq’s. they’re taken away from their friends and family and locked up in an unfamiliar, hostile environment often for years at a time.

all this because they care about the same issues you do. they just got caught doing something they knew was right. whether its liberating animals from a testing laboratory, destroying logging equipment, or simply attending a demonstration, all incarcerated activists deserve our support.

taking just a minute out of your day to send a letter, a book, or a magazine to a prisoner shows that you care, and makes her or his time there a little easier. a letter costs you a stamp and five minutes, there’s no excuse for not writing to prisoners. contact josh demmitt’s support group at supportjosh@riseup.net with any questions, or to ask for suggestions on how and what to write. prisoner support is the duty of every single person who cares about the same issues others have given up their freedom for.

writing to prisoners 101

you’ll need
1) a stamp
2)a standard size, blank paper envelope
3) a piece of white notebook paper
4) a pencil, or a blue or black non-gel pen
5) this writing

look at the end of the writing for a few prisoners in the united states who need your support. for a more complete list, and for updates check out their individual websites, and www. spiritoffreedom. org. uk/addresses. html

1) just pick one
the prisoners listed on this writing are there because they’re newer prisoners and are still adjusting to prison life. they need a lot of support, but so do all prisoners. read up on an activist’s situation and interests, and see if it’s something you can relate to. non-english speaking prisoners get less letters- consider them if you can write in another language

2) keep it simple
check support websites to see if a prisoner can receive cards and other things in the mail, or ask the prisoner or a support contact person on the outside. until you know the exact regulations of the prison you’re mailing your letter to, its best to keep it simple. write on a blank notebook or copy paper no bigger then 8.5 x 11 and don’t use any special colored or gel pens or pencils, stamps, or stickers. don’t write anything on the outside or inside of the envelope except the prisoners address and your full name and return address in the upper left hand corner of the addressed side of the envelope. use plain white envelopes without a clear plastic address window, or any special decorations. most prisons require a return address, so if you don’t have one, ask around for a friend or group’s address you can use.

if you’re mailing anything more than a letter, clearly write the contents of the package near the prisoner’s address. for example, write ‘contents: 1 greeting car, 3 magazines.” or “1 piece of paper, 2 books.” many prisoners have restrictions on the number and type of books and magazines they can get- ask first before you waste your time and money.

3) be smart
if a prisoner hasn’t been sentenced yet, and is still awaiting trial, don’t comment on their case. especially don’t imply that they’re guilty of their charges, or congratulate them. don’t give legal advice, and don’t even joke about illegal activity. overall, just think before you write. remember that prison officials read all mail sent to inmates.

4) write a letter

one of the main problems people often come across in supporting prisoners is a feeling of intimidation about writing to a prisoner for the first time. it can be a very hard to write a letter to someone you don’t know. people find that they either don’t know what to say, feel there are things they can’t talk about, or think that prisoners wont be interested in what they have to say. the fact is, prison is a really lonely place, and any letter received means a lot to a prisoner.

say who you are, a group affiliation, and maybe where you’re from. say where you heard about them and their cause. the first letter can be reasonably short, maybe only a postcard. obviously when you get to know people better you’ll have more to talk about.

5) mail it
one stamp can mail an envelope and 5 pieces of notebook paper. correction officers and other prison officials often harass prisoners by denying them their mail. if you think this might be happening to your letters, try sending them “certified mail” or with “delivery confirmation.” don’t ever write “legal mail” or anything implying that you are an attorney unless you are.

some prisoners cant receive letters, but not the envelopes they’re mailed in, so write your return address and full name in the letter as well. its a good idea to write it on each page too. if you can, as well as the prisoners address since sometimes a page or two will go missing. also, number the pages like ” 1/5, 2/5, 3/5…” so that a prisoner can tell if some pages are missing

start with writing to these activists!

Kevin Olliff 706097
CID 287574
Santa Barbara County Jail
4436 Calle Real
Santa Barbara, CA 93110

ANDREW LLOYD STEPANIAN
26399-050
USP Marion
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Marion, IL 62959

KEVIN KJONAAS #93502-011
UNIT I
FCI SANDSTONE
P.O. BOX 1000
SANDSTONE, MN 55072

JOSHUA HARPER
#29429-086
FCI SHERIDAN
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
P.O. BOX 5000
SHERIDAN, OR 97378

LAUREN GAZZOLA
#93497-011
FCI DANBURY
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
ROUTE #37
DANBURY, CT 06811

JACOB CONROY
#93501-011
FCI VICTORVILLE MEDIUM I
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
P.O. Box 5300
ADELANTO, CA 92301

we have 2 new posters in our materials section for you. these are wheat paste flyers, so feel free to print them out and put them up everywhere! click the vT icon for a wheat paste recipe. 

veganTHIS is now a listen non profit on GoodSearch.com

you can select veganTHIS as the charity of your choice. it is a normal search browswer, but everytime you search for something, it donates a very small amount of money to vT. but every little bit counts!

make GoodSeach your homepage and use this instead of google? it also makes vT a part of Goodshop.com
where you can do your online shopping. most of the stores are corporate bullshit type deals but who knows, some cook companies may be in there, but each time you purchase something, it gives money to veganTHIS as well.

let the searching begin.

thank you for the support!

Rescate abierto de Igualdad Animal de cuatro visones from Igualdad Animal on Vimeo.

Here is the link

SANTA CRUZ – Firebombs were intentionally set on a porch and in a car belonging to two UC Santa Cruz researchers in separate incidents early Saturday in what police have classified as acts of domestic terrorism.

Police are calling one of the bombings an attempted homicide.

In one incident, a faculty member’s home on Village Circle off High Street was intentionally firebombed at about 5:40 a.m., according to police. The residence belongs to a well-known UCSC molecular biologist who works with mice. He was one of 13 researchers listed in threatening animal rights pamphlets found Tuesday in a downtown coffee shop.

In the second incident at about the same time, a Volvo station wagon parked in a faculty member’s driveway on Dickens Way on campus also was firebombed, police said.

The family was home at the time of the firebombing and the victims, including two young children, escaped on a fire ladder from a second-story window, according to police. One family member sustained injuries during the escape and had to be hospitalized briefly, police said. That bombing is being considered an attempted homicide because the family was home, police said.

The Volvo that burned also belonged to a UCSC researcher, but not a researcher listed in the pamphlet who also lives on Dickens Way, according to Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark.

Clark declined to say if the researcher who owns the burned car works with animals or if the wrong car was bombed.

UCSC spokesman Jim Burns also declined to comment. That person’s name has not been released by either police or UCSC.

Santa Cruz Police investigators, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and UCSC police are conducting a joint investigation, collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses. The case has been turned over to the FBI.

Saturday afternoon, police officers and firefighters were helping restore electricity and inspect the Village Circle home.

“The firemen are here. We’re trying to get the electricity restored. This is really horrible,” said Sofie Salama on Saturday, who answered the phone at researcher David Feldheim’s home and said she lived there. She refused to describe what police said was a harrowing pre-sunrise scramble down a fire escape ladder with two young children.

Feldheim researches the genetic and molecular processes involved in development of eye sight and part of his research, according to his Web site, involves the “viral introduction of genes into living mouse brains.” His work has been published in national journals.

City leaders were quick to condemn the bombings.

“It’s unconscionable that any reasonable person would consider this an acceptable tactic to get their point across,” said Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry in a statement. “We are working hard with the other agencies and committing all available resources to follow all possible leads. We urge anyone with information to come forward.”

Paula Goldman, who lives next door to the house on Village Circle, said she woke up when she heard a fire alarm going off, looked out the window and saw the front door of the townhouse on fire. Goldman ran outside, grabbed a hose and doused the flames, she said.

“We know it was premeditated. It was pretty obvious,” said her husband, Joel Goldman.

Joel Goldman said he walked out of his home a few months ago to find the townhouse next door vandalized with trash and graffiti, and heard someone yelling that the vandals would be back.

“With what happened previously and what happened last week with the pamphlets, we just assumed” that Saturday’s firebombing was related to animal research, Joel Goldman said.

Neighbor Andrea Legg, 24, works as an advisor in UCSC’s Jack Baskin School of Engineering and said the bombing didn’t scare her personally, but she feared for other UC researchers.

Both she and her roommate, Marcail MacEwan, 22, said they were “disgusted” with the day’s events.

“It’s terrorism. As far as I’m concerned, they’re being terrorized,” MacEwan said.

This appears to be the latest in a string of incidents targeting UCSC researchers and others in Santa Cruz.

Fliers identifying 13 UCSC scientists, some of whom use mice, fruit flies and other nonprimate creatures in their research, were discovered at a downtown coffee shop Tuesday. The fliers say, “Animal abusers everywhere beware; we know where you live; we know where you work; we will never back down until you end your abuse.” The names, home addresses, home phone numbers and photos of researchers were published on the fliers.

In February, masked demonstrators rattled the front door of another UCSC researcher, whose husband chased the intruders away while the researcher protected her children in the back of the Westside home.

Hours after that attempted home invasion, authorities raided a Riverside Avenue house where several students live. No arrests have been made, and police say the hard drive of a laptop confiscated at the house had been cleaned several times, increasing suspicion among investigators.

Those students are still considered “people of interest,” Clark said. He also said Saturday’s bombings are likely related to an attempted firebombing of a police car in March 2007, and the firebombing of an electrical closet six years ago on Delaware Avenue near Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc.

Clark would not say what kind of bombs were used on Saturday, but said this isn’t the first time Santa Cruz police have seen them.

“It’s consistent with what animal rights people use,” Clark said. Police officers described the firebombs as “significantly larger than a Molotov cocktail.”

Last year, arsonists filled a milk jug with flammable liquid, inserted a wick on the top and placed it under a police car. In that case, the wick was lit but went out before the bomb blew up.

Clark said no suspects have been identified but officers are working on a number of leads. They also are interviewing those who saw the firebombings happen, and investigating the fliers as criminal activity.

“These unconscionable acts put the researchers, their families – including their children – and their neighbors in grave danger,” UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal said in the statement Saturday. “These are odious assaults on individuals and on the principles of free inquiry by which we live.”

The campus is taking the incident “extremely seriously” and is working with law enforcement agencies to identify perpetrators and taking steps to support researchers, Blumenthal said in the statement.

“The personal safety and security of all our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority,” Blumenthal said in the statement.

All the involved agencies are taking additional steps to protect the safety of the other people listed in the animal rights pamphlets, according to police.

The Santa Cruz incidents occurred one day after a mass e-mailing by Stop Animal Exploitation Now! (SAEN) highlighting what the group called “mounting violations of the animal welfare act” at private labs in Santa Cruz and Berkeley. Police would not say whether there is a connection between the group and Saturday’s violence. Clark would only say they are looking at several animal liberation groups, including SAEN.

The group’s president, Michael Budkie, said he was in Ohio and that group researches and highlights public records regarding use of animals in research labs. But he said the group does not use violent tactics and was not involved in the Santa Cruz attacks.

Professors and researchers at the University of California campuses at Berkeley and UCLA have also been targeted recently, including firebombs in Los Angeles. More recently in Berkeley, nine hooded protesters showed up in front of a toxicology professor’s off-campus home, scrawling “killer” in chalk on the doorstep and shattering the window of the home, and a window in a neighbor’s home who scattered the protesters with a garden hose.

Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco, who has been championing legislation to increase civil and criminal penalties in cases where academic researchers are attacked because of their work, said Saturday that he was saddened and surprised by dual firebombings.

But, he added, violence against researchers has been on the rise and while condemning the acts, predicted Saturday’s firebombings likely would prompt legislators to move on the bill.

Santa Cruz Police investigators ask anyone with information about the incident to call 420-5820. To leave anonymous information regarding the incidents call the tip line at 420-5995.

Sentinel Correspondent Corrine Speckert contributed to this report.

Contact G. Bookwalter at gbookwalter@santacruzsentinel.com.

this has been written because i have seen far too many people in the punk rock community either too drunk to care, or simply not taking the time to educate or think about what punk rock is really about .  punk rock isn’t about leather jackets, punk rock isn’t about getting drunk and being an asshole. to me, punk rock was built brick by brick by pissed off kids in order to show the world that we were going to stand against what our civilization was quickly conforming to. 

We were ( and still are ) anti fascism, anti racism, anti homophobia, anti sexism, anti speciesm, anti capitalism, anti nationalism, anti imperialism, and anti religious fundamentalism. the world has turned into a very fucked up place to live in and we are pissed off and are going to do something about it. 

how does veganism tie into being a punk? 

veganism was created to end the exploitation of all animals. weather it be for food, clothing, entertainment, or science, it’s cruel and pointless and it needs to end. Believing in anti speciesm means that you dont put any species in the animal kingdom above or below any other animal, humyn or non humym. Being a punk should also mean that you stand for animal rights and the fight for animal liberation and stand in solidarity for the voiceless. Animal liberation is the act of freeing animals from any animal based industry where the animal’s sole purpose is cruel exploitation of any kind. punk is about compassion for all innocent and oppressed beings

the first step  is to become vegetarian or vegan. if you still consume animal products, its time for you to stop. i hope we all know that innocent animals with their own life and feelings had to die for you to eat their dead flesh. with all of the horrible health reasons for not eating meat aside, stop and think about it. why are you eating meat? because you were raised on it? because you like the taste? if you answered yes to the previous questions, take a step back and think about the situation. why would you support the death of another being if you didn’t need to? their are vegan alternatives to everything non vegan and you can get vegan food everywhere! please think about the animals, stop eating meat. but it doesn’t stop at cutting meat out of your diet.  a lot of cruel suffering and death hides in the shadows of a vegetarian,  please know that the dairy industry is directly linked to the meat industry. you can learn more about it on the dairy section of veganthis.org. we would love to help you out with any questions or support in becoming vegan. 

stop wearing leather jackets, belts, and boots. in no way, shape, or form is leather punk. a leather jacket and other leather products are the product of an animal that was raised and killed for its skin. the cow did not die of natural  causes, the cow was murdered. like the meat and dairy industries, the leather industry is a big business that was built on the exploitation of intelligent and gentle animals. please stop wearing leather. it doesn’t matter if you stole it or bought it at a thrift store, leather is leather, and wearing leather is really shitty. you are wearing another animals skin to look like you fit into a certain group of people, you’re conforming and its ridiculous. you don’t need leather to look punk.

these industries profit off the cruel torture and death of an animal that once had a life of its own. these are the corporations that punk rock was created to stand against. animals are being killed and the earth is dying, what are you doing to help? please look into factory farming and the damage that it is doing on our earth. rain-forests are being cleared every single day in order to clear room for the cattle for big corporations like mcdonalds and burger king. standing up for animals and the earth is the right thing to do. please educate yourself and research. look into veganism, there is no other way. 

capitalism: organized crime.

it’s heartbreaking to see individuals who call themselves punks or anarchist buying into big business. there is nothing punk or revolutionary about supporting big corporations. sure it may be convenient, but punk rock isn’t about convenience. like the meat and dairy industries, these companies are also responsible for destroying the earth. Please look into; what fast food chains are doing to the little rain forest that we have left, what big tobacco is doing when they force beagle dogs and chimps to smoke pack after pack of cigarettes to see how affected teenagers will be to the addiction, why big chain stores like wal mart employee children and poor families across the world in exchange for a small handful of change a day after 14 to 20 hour work days. these dehumynizing  and destructive effects of capitalism should be reason enough for anyone to wake up and start questioning the process of what your goods went through to get into your hands.

 big corporations are not the only choice you have as a consumer. small local independent shops and stores are all over the place, take the time to find good ethical places to shop. the corporations wont stop popping up until we stop supporting them. at this rate mom and pop shops are going to be non existent in a few years. please dont let this happen. you can help by buying or stealing ( from major corporations…the best things in life are free ) local. stand up for humyn rights, buy fair labor products.  supporting big business companies, or companies of the like is supporting capitalism.  ‘capitalism is indeed organized crime and we are all the victims’-refused. 

Resist, until you’ve lost all you can lose

i hope you all understand what you have just read. standing up for the voiceless animals and standing against corporations that profit off of killing animals and the world we live in is one of the boldest and most important things you can do. do you get it? veganism IS punk, progressive and revolutionary. there simply is no other way. vegetarians, dont get me wrong, vegetarianism is an awesome first step, its just not the final solution. you cant argue around this. this isnt an argument that you can win or talk around. their is no sound argument against veganism. leave the animal products off your plate, and the leather off your back. please consider veganism. we want to help!

supporting multi billion dollar corporations is very much an everyday activity of mainstream culture. this kind of activity is conforming to the not ok living standards of todays society. this isn’t acceptable. stop giving money to evil corporations. support small independent shops. if you want new things, trade with friends or learn how to make the things that you were looking to buy. get creative, why not? the animals deserve better. the sweatshop workers deserve better. we deserve better. there is noting punk about capitalism. nothing at all. we are here to answer any questions you have on anything we have discussed in this writing, or any other questions of the like you needed answers to. thank you for reading this.

up the cruelty free politically conscious punx

-veganTHIS.org