I am appalled and disgusted at the letter sent to you by those nasty lawyers condemning your rabbit website. Ignore them! There are thousands of us behind you. And if you want to, please inform those folks that the world is watching them protecting the interests of their sick and sordid clients as they go about the perverted business of inflicting unspeakable agonies on harmless creatures. It doesn't do their image any good at all.... and despite the fact that their "client will be monitoring your website very carefully," we in turn will be monitoring THEM. The adverse publicity this is causing their firm not only here in the United States but throughout the world will eventually impact on their business and hopefully shut them down. If that's what they want, tell them to continue with their arrogance and their cruelty.

Good luck and best wishes

L.F., TV Journalist, USA

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Dear Mrs Wegner:

Are these guys for real or is it just the usual business of blowing smoke trying to win the day with intimidation when there is no substance? Do they have the equivalent of the Freedom of Speech which was the very first amendment to our constitution?

I will be thinking about this some more.
Regards A.S

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Hi Marguerite,

If it's ok with you, I will add this news article to my site under the story and links to your site. I think it might get more people involved enough to visit your site. Thanks. Ttyl.

Regards,

M

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So what are you going to do, Marguerite? Tell them to stick it in their ear? It sounds suspiciously like threats made to people under the veggie libel laws that some states have enacted and which Oprah had to fight in court. It's also called a "slap suit" here in the states when the big greedy corporations try to intimidate people and stifle free speech by suing someone. It costs money to defend ones self by hiring a lawyer and they hope to threaten and intimidate people thru these ways. Do you have free speech rights there as we do here?

C

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Subject: Rabbits
Keep up the wonderful work. I am formerly with the House Rabbit Society (HRS) ... On 10-2-98 I rescued another albino I found on the street while I was on my morning run. He was near death. He's now fat and sassy and due for neutering Tuesday. My heart has always gone out to rabbits. They are something special. You are doing a great job!

JL

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That is awful.... You must have hit a nerve!!!!! Dont they believe in free speech???? Looks as though they want to muzzle you! I wonder why???

Lyn

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Hi Marguerite,

I'm sorry to hear that these people are threatening legal action. I have no idea what kinds of freedom of speech rights exist in Australia, and if they are as liberal as here in the states. The one organization that is most likely to be able to help is PETA, as they are extrememly outspoken on cruelty issues and have been sued many, many times. I've always gotten a response when I've emailed them or phoned them in the past. Try visiting their websire to look for contact info.

BTW, I find it interesting that the primary complaint is about "extravagant language". One easy way to remidy the situation may be to be to tweak a few of the words so that the message is the same, but the language is more toned down. For example:

"will involve the deliberate and painful cruel murder"
"often involves the deliberate and inhumane death"

Just a thought...

Good luck!

P

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PLEASE USE THE NAME AMERICAN VEGETARIANS AS SUPPORTING YOUR WORK

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Hi, Bunny. Please feel free to post our modest gesture of support on your website.

We haven't personally had the opportunity to be following this before, but looking at the letter to you that is posted on the site, we are amazed and disappointed.

The sad fact is, the portrait we see of these people merely on the basis of the letter from their representative, is less kind than that painted by your own assessment of them. Their own name is unfavorable enough. "Anti-Rabbit", like "Anti-Semitism", conjures at once horrible images if such sentiments were taken to an extreme, and it is also their own representative's statements rather than your own, that assure us that this exactly what has happened. Even the "sanitized" expression, "Rabbit Free", immediately calls to mind the sort of extreme and inhumane acts may be inherently and inevitably involved in achieving such an expressed goal.

There seems to us no unkinder representation than that which is created by the agency, it's own name, and it's statements of purpose.

The arbitrary and frightening rhetoric about "The initial spread of a biological control agent provides a unique opportunity to gather information essential to understanding how the agent works", especially within the narrow but correct context of the goal of eradication, immediately strikes us as no different than the rhetoric of the Third Reich at their worst. In no way does this have anything to do with you or any "extravagant language"; we make this inference purely on the statement from their representative speaking in their own "defense".

In any other context, such rhetoric would be horrendous in principle alone, and this obviously should be no exception.

We also feel the charge of "extravagant language" to be a mere contrivance, considering that what you have had to say is in perfect accord, if more restrained, than what your target audience can reasonably be expected to perceive of the situation, even without the use of such language.

For us, this speaks even more clearly about the nature of the agency and its actions, that they simply cannot be defended. It therefore does not surprise us to see the sort of desperate tactics they are using, since for the agency representing them, the line between a challenge and an impossibility seems to be infinitely thin.