More on Animal Rights Activists as Terrorists

While agree with the previous post that it is a bit extreem to label animals rights activists such as PETA as terrorists, what they do is clearly disruptive to the animal processing industry. I have absolutely no problem with the legislation passed that makes illegal "any actions that physically interfere with the operation of any animal enterprise, or that cause physical or economic damage to the said enterprise, regardless of motive or reason". While some may claim that this should not be labeled as terrorism (and I agree that in this day and age this word should be reserved for true acts of terror, and not used as a scare tactic for the American public) it does come close to meeting the definition of it. Terrorism is defined as "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes". I am failry certain that no one not belonging to PETA would argue that what they do does not often have the purpose of intimidation. Additionally, the main goal of this organization is to serve a political purpose, theirs being to protect animal rights to an extreme measure. With the extreme nature of this activist group and the measures that they have shown they are willing to take for the good of their cause, I have no problem with the strict nature of legislature passed to keep them out of the animal processing industries in our country. The reporting that they would do if allowed in these plants would certainly NOT be unbiased and would tarnish the reputations of succesful animal processing plants that provide food for the millions of people living in this nation. There are already enough people going hungry in the world, lets not continue to make it harder on food processors to efficiently get their product out. I agree with this legislation and its strict policies, however the title of terrorism may be taking it just a step too far.