Guest guest Posted November 22, 2003 Report Share Posted November 22, 2003 Riding on the sheep's back > > By Richard Yallop > > November 21, 2003 > > When passionate animal rights campaigner Ralph Hahnheuser left Adelaide for Portland before lunch on Tuesday, not even his fellow management committee members from Animal Liberation South Australia knew he planned to contaminate the feed of 70,000 sheep bound for the Middle East. > > > > All that fellow activist Geoff Russell, jailed with Hahnheuser for two days in 1998 over a duck shooting protest, knew was that Hahnheuser was off to Victoria to organise some form of protest against the live sheep trade. > > > > He had no idea that his fellow campaigner was about to undertake the most controversial animal-rights protest since Australian ethicist Peter Singer raised animal liberation as an issue with his book in 1975. A year later, the first Animal Liberation group was established in NSW, and Victoria followed in 1978. > > > > Hahnheuser has attracted the wrath of the federal Government, the rural industry and the RSPCA and, perhaps most important in the ongoing propaganda war over the live sheep trade, risked alienating moderate public opinion. > > > > Russell, a computer programmer and volunteer with the RSPCA, says there are two possible conclusions to be drawn from Hahnheuser's secrecy when he left Adelaide. Either he was concealing his intentions to protect Animal Liberation from any legal fallout from his actions or he feared some of the organisation's more conservative members, such as Russell, might feel that this time he was taking things too far. > > > > " The adulterating of the food was quite a surprise to me, but that's not to say he wouldn't have thought about the consequences very, very carefully, " Russell says. It was a message repeated by other South Australian animal activists; that through successive campaigns during the past seven years, Hahnheuser - a Flinders University-trained physicist who previously worked for a commercial laser company - had developed a keen understanding of the law and how far you can stretch it. > > > > Another activist says: " He's sometimes a bit of a maverick in his tactics, but he's a very smart campaigner and very clued-up on the law. " > > > > He is also fearless, according to a fellow campaigner. " He's totally passionate about the cause and he's not afraid of the law. He's spent the (past) four years fighting for animals in the courts. He lives and breathes it 24 hours a day. " > > > > While other animal liberation groups in Australia are reluctant to condemn Hahnheuser's actions, none openly support it. Patty Mark, president of Animal Liberation Victoria, says: " We wouldn't do it ourselves but, given that he's done it and stopped 70,000 sheep from going overseas, it's good. If he's charged, it will open up the whole issue of animal rights in Australia in a way that is long overdue. " > > > > Hahnheuser's action only serves to widen the breach between the RSPCA, which is perceived as taking a conservative, pragmatic approach on animal welfare, and radical animal rights groups. Hahnheuser had previously attacked the South Australian RSPCA for being slow in pursuing breaches in battery hen farming. > > > > RSPCA president Hugh Wirth condemned Hahnheuser's Portland tactics as " morally and ethically bankrupt " . > > > > " These political campaign groups have a role to play in raising awareness of specific issues. But in this instance they overstepped the mark morally and ethically because they endangered the sheep to make a political point, " Wirth says. > > > > " The animals were put at risk. They probably will not eat the ham but they will drink the contaminated water. A group calling themselves an animal welfare organisation has no excuse whatsoever. " > > > > Animal liberationists contest whether the sheep's health was put at risk by the contaminated feed and water. But all those who know Hahnheuser, 40, describe him as a peaceful, analytical man who would have given careful thought to the consequences of his actions. > > > > But if he felt the cause demanded it, that would not stop him taking protest action without consulting fellow members of Animal Liberation. This is not the first time fellow activists in SA have opened the newspaper to find that Hahnheuser, who dedicated himself to animal welfare full time in the mid-'90s, had suddenly upped the ante in the debate over animal rights. The sector learned long ago that the best way to raise public awareness of industry practices was to stage publicity stunts. > > > > In August 2000, Hahnheuser raided the Farm Gate battery chicken operation in Gawler, north of Adelaide, removing sick birds and turning the media spotlight - the animal liberationist's principal weapon - on to battery hen farming. He had two targets - the farm's owner, who had packaged some battery eggs as free range, and the authorities overseeing Australia's animal welfare laws, particularly the RSPCA. > > > > In common with other radical animal liberationists, Hahnheuser believed the RSPCA was excessively conservative and inactive in pursuing its obligation to protect animal welfare, and he hoped that the raid would shame it into action. The organisation did bring charges against the farm but dropped them when Hahnheuser refused to testify, a move he took to protect those involved in the raid, according to animal rights sources. > > > > The farm's owner, Jaswindar Singh Takhar, brought trespass charges against Hahnheuser, but the activist managed to turn these to propaganda advantage. > > > > When Takhar's legal counsel accused Hahnheuser of " unconscionable conduct " , the animal liberationist produced T-shirts imprinted with the words. The SA court also rejected an application by Takhar to stop animal rights activists wearing the T-shirts. > > > > Earlier this year Hahnheuser struck on another of his committed, all-or-nothing raids. His target was a South Australian piggery that used sow stalls smaller than the permitted regulations, confining the sows for up to 14 weeks in a position where they could stand up or lie down but not move back or forth. While one of the stalls was empty, Hahnheuser welded the gate shut, causing an estimated $30 worth of damage. > > > > Russell says: " The problem is we have a lot of animal protection laws in Australia which are not enforced. The RSPCA will not prosecute companies over sow stalls (that) are smaller than the legal limits. They do valuable work for companion animals but they don't do the hard work for farm animals. " > > > > According to Russell, protests are the only strategy that have proved effective in drawing attention to these issues. But yesterday, as Hahnheuser, a keen mathematician, sat in the Portland lock-up pending charges that may be brought against him, he had ample time to calculate whether the end of attracting public attention to the live sheep trade justified the means of contaminating the sheep's feed and water. ___________ Animail.com - " Saving Animals & the Environment One E-Mail At A Time. 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