We told you so: Pet store manager charged with willful burning of shop

[LeftyMom]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/10/07/pe... /

Pet store manager charged with willful burning of shop

By Brian R. Ballou and Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | October 7, 2006

CAMBRIDGE -- The manager of a pet store destroyed in a blaze last month was charged yesterday with setting fire to the shop and killing more than two-dozen exotic pets in an arson in which he sought to frame animal rights activists.

The fire on the second floor of the Boston Tropical Fish and Reptiles shop on Sept. 27 killed a collection of snakes, frogs, and fish, with the apparent arsonist spray painting ``No more exploitation of animals" on the storefront. Detectives at the scene said the graffito might lead them to the culprit.

...

Trinh was at the fire scene on Wednesday night and expressed grief as he pointed to the charred store he managed. But when a reporter sought to interview him, he quickly left. Prosecutors said Trinh was in the process of buying the store, which had not been doing well recently. They would not elaborate on his alleged motive.

The store's owner -- Dianne San Filippo , who was also at the scene -- wondered why animal rights activists would burn pets to death. ``Is that kind of death better than exploitation?" she asked.

-----------------------

I hate to say I told you so, so I'll say this. I told you so, flvegan told you so, haruka told you so, and we were right. AR people simply would not have done this.

[Darth_Kitten]

1. Of course not, just pet shop owners.........

who we all know just hate animals usually.

[johnnie]

2. Hell, I told you so...

..And I didn't even hear about it until now.

[jmowreader]

3. "Alleged motive"? Insurance fraud

I am going to go out on a limb here: this shop, as with most old-timey pet shops that aren't doing well, had two problems: condition of the facility, and product mix. We have a pet store in Fayetteville that's like this. It's full of the kind of animals that do not sell well--snakes so large you must feed them rabbits, $500 lizards, and Eastern North Carolina's largest line of fish that only eat live fish such as chaca catfish, belonesox and lionfish. They stay in business for a few reasons: the building's paid for, it's in a part of Bragg Boulevard no one wants to build a new business in, their main business is selling maintenance supplies for reptiles and fishes, and the guy who owns the building has three business tenants--a bar, a very good German restaurant and a tattoo studio. Basically, he can run a public aquarium and survive under these circumstances.

It's not the kind of a business you'd want to buy, though. If the store's run-down, that's an even bigger problem, so Mr. Trinh probably figured he'd set the place on fire, blame it on animal rights activists, then use the insurance payout to renovate and stock with animals that sell well.

And then he got caught. Oops.

[flvegan]

4. GD almost needs it's own thread on this.

20-to-1 someone still uses the words "PETA" and "terrorist" in a response, though.

[LeftyMom]

5. Who wants to start one

Do we flip a coin?

[flvegan]

7. I, of course, choose head

s.

[LeftyMom]

8. The big guy calls heads.

Coin is in the air.
Tails! The skinny chick in her pajamas posts the thread.

BRB.

[LeftyMom]

10. It's in GD.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[flvegan]

11. And on the Greatest...

[LeftyMom]

13. Wow, I don't think I've ever had a nipple-free post make Greatest

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

17. Well, there's a first time for everything.

Oddly enough, I've never had a nipple post make Greatest.

[flvegan]

18. And again...there's a first time for everything.

Nudge, nudge...

[LeftyMom]

20. Lay off sinner, it's the Lord's Day

Jesus, what's the matter with you people? Horndog.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

21. The Lord gave us nipples though.

[LeftyMom]

23. And that Sunday, at 11:58 in the morning, flvegan got religion.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. None of the photos...

containing my nipples are inappropriate for DU, even though they would be deserving of the Greatest Page.

[flvegan]

29. If none are inappropriate...

then they should be posted...over and over.

Or at least pm'd to yours truly.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

36. My answers to both suggestions...

1. No. I prefer not to be tombstoned.

2. No, you MAN!

[flvegan]

38. What if I promise that only

my feminine side will look at them?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

39. No.

[flvegan]

40. I also wanted to add that this is straight up

discrimination based on my gender. I'm so...hurt.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

41. Life isn't fair.

[flvegan]

42. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

[LeftyMom]

43. Hey wait a minute

This is the vegetarian crow substitute distribution thread, not the tilting at windmills thread, young man.*

*Can I still call you young man? Do I have to stop when you birthday rolls around? I'm confused.

[flvegan]

45. I show

my youth in my maturity, so you be the judge.

[LeftyMom]

46. Wow, now I'm even more confused

Sometimes you're very mature, sometimes you're very erm... less than mature. I'll just call you whatever the hell I want, since you knew that was what I'd decide on anyhow.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

44. I am.

That's why I'm kicking some ass in GD right now.

[Sugar Smack]

6. That's HORRIBLE!!!

The Sea Shepherd Society would be fucking outraged.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[flvegan]

12. No. The AR folks killed all the crickets, remember?

They were trying to set them free.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

15. Oh yeah.

[jobycom]

14. Hey, me, too!

Feeling alone and left out this days... (Well, not really, just bumping the thread)

[LeftyMom]

16. oops, sorry

jobycom did too. And a quite a few more people on both the lounge and GD threads.

[jobycom]

19. S'okay. My response in that thread

was an agreement with another poster, more than a theory ventured on my own. As I said, just bumping this thread, because the other angered me more than I let on.

[Bunny]

24. Well, aside from the OP, I saw exactly three people in the

original thread who were willing to think it was an AR person responsible. By far, the majority of posters dfended AR people.

[LeftyMom]

26. The GD thread was a lot worse. nt

[Bunny]

27. That's the thread I was referencing.

[LeftyMom]

28. It's kinda hard to be dismissive when it's your friends and ideological

brethren being accused of killing animals, when you know that they love them and never would.

I'd be outraged if even one person said it, because it's so insulting and so obviously false.

[idgiehkt]

25. Don't forget me, I told 'em so to, lol.

I was impressed that they spelled 'exploitation' right, though.

[LeftyMom]

30. Yep, you get credit too

Good point. The message seemed odd to me though, since it's so wordy. You don't write an essay on a wall with a can of Krylon if you want to get out of there before the cops show.

[idgiehkt]

32. the reporters really pissed me off

I went to the article and watched the video coverage. There used to be a time when there were things called 'investigative journalists" where they actually believed in things like deception and malfeasance and tried to get to the bottom of things. Those reporters went 'look someone painted something on a wall, therefore, they must have done this, because there is no such thing as trickery and deception'. It was staggeringly ignorant reporting...I really couldn't believe what I was watching. Of course we have those multi-million dollar lobbying firms to thank for that, the ones whose propaganda b.s. DUers spout on a regular basis despite the fact that the animal exploiting industries are the Republican devil incarnate, a fact that so many DUers can't allow themselves to accept because they are so pathetically blinded by their own guilt.

//end of rant

[LeftyMom]

35. I wish I could nominate a single post.

That was a fine rant indeed.

[Ptah]

31. Here's a real animal rights story, sorta.

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2006/10/08/news/...

By LYNNETTE HINTZE
The Daily Inter Lake

Puppy love

Mother hound leads rescuers to abandoned pups

*
It was a “total shot in the dark” when Humane Society workers
Marje Guest and Melanie Soderfelt followed an abandoned hound
through the thick woods near Swan Lake to search for a litter of puppies.

But mama hound, true to her breed, knew right where she’d left her newborns.

The rescue of the emaciated mother hound — and the discovery a day later of
her four puppies that had survived freezing overnight temperatures — is miraculous,
shelter officials said. And in a business that deals with abandoned pets day in and day out,
it’s a story with a happy ending.

“It was so thrilling,” said Guest, manager of the Humane Society’s
Charlotte Edkins Animal Adoption Center north of Kalispell, where the
rescued dogs are staying. “We do good every day, but this was really good.”

[LeftyMom]

33. That's good, that those pups had a happy ending.

Since they were in the paper they should have no shortage of families willing to adopt them.

I hope they find whoever dumped them and prosecute.

[flvegan]

34. Thats a great story.

I love that kind of news.

[BrotherBuzz]

37. In my perfect world Pee Wee Herman would have been the hero of the day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDbazxboLEE&mode=user&se...

Would have, could have, should have been