A sign in the window of Schumacher Furs during a lawful protest against the cruelty of the fur industry
Greenisthenewred/Creative Commons

You may remember that the good people over at Schumacher Furs saw fit to sue PETA when their store in downtown Portland was closed following regular protests by local activists and concerned citizens. There were a number of good reasons why the Schumachers didn’t have a leg to stand on with their lawsuit, such as the fact that the protests against the furriers weren’t even PETA demonstrations (not to mention that whole first amendment thing).

Well, last week, the judge in the case ordered Schumacher Furs to pay PETA more than $40,000 as reimbursement for legal fees incurred fighting the lawsuit (which he called "an extraordinary abuse of the litigation process"), and his statement in the ruling just about says it all:

"I find that awarding fees in this case will properly serve to deter putative plaintiffs from filing multimillion-dollar suits against nonprofit groups and private citizens engaged in First Amendment activities ...."

So there you have it—a victory for animals and for free speech all in one go. The cash is a nice bonus, too.

I posted yesterday about two “scientists” at the Oregon National Primate Research Center who have squandered tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on hideously cruel experiments that achieve nothing more than reaffirming painfully obvious truths such as that children suffer when they are deprived of maternal affection.

What I didn’t mention is that PETA has had an investigator inside these notorious labs this year, who spent four months documenting egregious abuses of the animals who are used for ONPRC’s experiments. Among other standard abuses, the animals at ONPRC were forced to eat food from their waste trays; they were terrorized when they were chased and caught in group cages; and they suffered such severe psychological trauma that at least one monkey, Megatron, resorted to self-mutilation. As PETA President Ingrid Newkirk puts it:

"PETA's investigator documented ONPRC's complete disregard for animals and for the laws that should protect them. These animals live in terror every second of every day—they are shut in metal boxes and killed for nicotine and alcohol experiments as well as other wasteful and repetitive studies."

As I said yesterday, we’re working on getting these people shut down. You can watch our investigator’s video below, and then please click here to ask the USDA to launch a full investigation into this hellhole.

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