Hi Brett,
Yes, I'm a little surprised that Safari does not have a "stop animations" option. If you want to disable Flash, you could go to Mac HD > Library > Internet Plug-ins and trash "Flash Player.plugin" and "flashplayer.xpt", then do the same in Home > Library > Internet Plug-ins (if present). You will probably (hopefully) have to enter your password to authorise the removal of those items. However, it's likely that the next OS Update will re-install these items. Therefore, the best option might be to find a "dummy" Internet Plug-in that can be assigned the job Flash files. This will intercept Flash files instead of the Flash player. However, I do not know if anyone makes such a bundle.
