The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a very radical environmentalist organization that is infamous for its (human) life-endangering vigilante tactics to save seal pups and whales. Paul Watson, the Shepherd’s fanatical anti-human leader, has called human beings a “virus” that “will also require a radical and invasive approach” to cure.
The Shepherds harass legal Japanese whalers researchers, to the point of trespassing on the ships and endangering crews by ramming ships in mid ocean! (I am against whaling based on animal-welfare standards, but also against vigilantism.) And now, a court has ruled that the groups are “pirates.” From the Guardian story:
A US court has declared the conservation group Sea Shepherd to be “pirates” and ordered it to stop its aggressive actions against Japanese whalers. The ruling was issued on Wednesday by chief judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th US circuit court of appeals. In his 18-page opinion, he wrote: “You don’t need a peg leg or an eye patch. When you ram ships; hurl containers of acid; drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders; launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks; and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate, no matter how high-minded you believe your purpose to be.”
This is long overdue. The time has come to insist that radical environmentalists obey the law in their protests. And if Shepherd members don’t obey the injunction, stiff penalties should be paid — and I mean prison, This is violent behavior that cannot be tolerated.