Crime in the Name of Animal Rights—Archive: 2001A
By: Administrator Date: 10/4/2008 Category: |
November 11, 2001 San Diego, CA: ALF broke into the contract animal research lab of Sierra Biomedical, smashing equipment and destroying research files as well as the company's transport van. The damage was estimated at $50,000. An ALF communique stated "No high-price contract is worth murder nor is it worth what the ALF will do to stop these murders. We were thorough and determined, they will not soon recover from our visit."
October 19, 2001 Portland, Oregon: Two anti-logging activists were indicted in the first federal prosecution in Oregon of alleged eco-terrorism by ELF. Jacob Sherman and Michael Scarpetti, aka "Tre Arrow," were charged with four felonies in connection with a fire that destroyed cement trucks in April, 2001, causing damage estimated at $210,000. They also face another federal indictment for fire-bombing three logging trucks in June, 2001, during the protest of the Eagle Creek Lumber Sale. Investigators found similarities in the two arson attacks.
October 18, 2001 Glenwood, Iowa: ALF cut wire mesh pen fencing and released approximately 162 pigeons, ducks, and geese. They emptied nesting boxes, removed breeder tags, and damaged or destroyed sheds on the property. This was their second action against this farm.
October 17 and 24, 2001 In Ellsworth, Iowa: Animal Rights terrorists attacked a small fur farm twice in six days, releasing 1700 mink to be hit by cars or fall victim to dogs, starvation, stress and cold. ALF claimed credit for the raids.
October 16, 2001 Jewell, Iowa: ALF released an estimated 200 mink from Isebrand Fur Farm, which had been previously targeted by ALF in 1999 when 3000 mink were released. This is the 70 time animals have been released from fur farms in North America.
October 12, 2001, East Lansing, MI: A letter containing an unknown white powder caused the evacuation of a mailroom, and the subsequent decontamination of 17 people, at Michigan State University. The substance was later found to be harmless. Evidence in the letter indicated it came from an animal rights group. The school had previously been targeted by activists in December, 1999 when arson, claimed by ELF, caused $900,000 worth of damage at a Michigan State animal research facility.
September 26, 2001 OR: In testimony before Portland City Council members considering the continuation of a joint terrorism task force, the associate director of the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center recounted his trip from Oregon Health Sciences University to a Florida university for a job interview. Animal rights activists posted the details of his trip on the Internet before his departure. Animal rights activists greeted him at the airport, accompanied him to most of his meetings (open to the public under Florida's "open meeting" laws), knocked on his hotel door at night and made threatening phone calls to him at his hotel. The university assigned a state police escort for him; he was surrounded by extremists at the airport upon his departure, and did not get the job, as he was considered a political liability.
September 24, 2001 UT: A card left at a gas and oil exploration site near Moab claimed ELF credit for vandalizing seismic equipment used in the operation.
September 21, 2001 UK: Ashley Broadley Glynn Harding, the mail bomber who sent 15 letter bombs to animal-related businesses and individuals over a three-month period last winter, was sentenced to indefinite detention in mental hospital. Additional court ordered restrictions mean that Harding will not be released until the Home Secretary is satisfied that he poses no risk to the public. The bomber's mail terror campaign injured two adults and one child, one woman lost her left eye, the child scarred for life. At trial, evidence indicated that he had intended to mail as many as 100 letter bombs.
September 20, 2001 Washington, DC: The Fund for Animals and Animal Legal Defense Fund filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management to block the removal of 21,000 wild horses from federal lands across the west. The suit argues that BLM never fully studied the potential impact of culling the wild herds.
September 20, 2001 NM: ALF claimed responsibility for the 4:15 a.m. arson at the White Sands Research Center, Coulston Foundation Labs in Alamogordo. The facility, holding the world's largest collection of domesticated chimpanzees, sustained estimated losses of $1 million in tools, equipment and records. Researchers at the lab study cures for aids, hepatitis and other illnesses. In the attack, bombs were placed at two locations, one went off and one failed to ignite.
September 20, 2001 UT: Activists targeted Tucson's Ronald McDonald statue in front of the Ronald McDonald House, a home for families of seriously ill children. The "ALF", "ELF", swastikas and vulgarities left on statue were the same as those found on the walls of a McDonald's restaurant destroyed in Tucson on September 8, 2001.
September 19, 2001 UK: Scotland's parliament passed a bill outlawing hunting with dogs, which would also end foxhunting by the end of next year.
September 19, 2001 NY: ELF activist Connor Cash, previously charged with arson and arson conspiracy for torching five Long Island homes under construction last winter, was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of providing material support to terrorists. Cash's transportation and procurement of materials used in ELF arson and vandalism raids were the basis for the added charge.
September 18, 2001 UK: Eleven people suspected of being key players in animal rights extremism are arrested on fraud charges, stemming from misusing tens of thousands of pounds obtained from the government's Department for Education and Skills. Detectives believe the five men and six women arrested at eight different locations diverted the money to fund animal rights activities.
September 16, 2001 UK: Investors doing business with Huntingdon Life Sciences won tentative approval from the Financial Services Authority to conduct business anonymously. A draft agreement is now before the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stock-Brokers to complete the procedures necessary to shield participants from animal rights activist protests and assaults.
September 14, 2001 IN: Charges against Frank Ambrose for tree spiking were dropped in Bloomington by the prosecution today, with reservation for pursuing the same or other charges in the future. Citing their conclusion after investigation that a larger conspiracy was involved in the tree spiking, authorities dismissed the case. Ambrose had been charged in January with spiking trees in June, 2000, at a logging site in the Monroe State forest, after being connected with visits to the timber sale and hardware used in tree spiking.
September 11, 2001 CA: Lindsay Parme, Geoff Dervishian and Lisa Lakeman, arrested at a July 21, 2001 fur protest against Nieman Marcus in San Francisco are convicted on five charges, including conspiracy, obstruction of business and passively resisting arrest; sentencing to follow.
September 10, 2001 Germany: Animal rights slogans were left at a site where approximately 10,000 mink were released from a farm in Neuenkirchen, Osnabruk.
September 9, 2001 IA:Double T farms in Glenwood lost all of its 215 Carneaux pigeons, bred for research, in a night time break-in. ALF claims credit for the release. Damages estimated by Double T are $10,000. Farm offials reported that 24 birds were recovered.
September 8, 2001 AZ: ALF claimed an estimated half million in damage at a McDonald's arson in Tucson. "ALF," "ELF," obscenities and swastikas were spray-painted on the buildings in the attack.
September 7, 2001 IA: 14,000 Mink were released and abandoned in a night time raid on Earl Drewelow & Sons Mink Farm at Boyd. Fences were knocked down and much of the operation's facilities were destroyed. ALF claimed credit for the action, which caused estimated losses of over $100,000. About one-third of the mink found their way back, but most did not survive, hundreds were killed by passing cars after swarming on the nearby highway and others have been subsequently spotted at half-size, starving and hostile in the surrounding area.
September 7, 2001 SD: Vandals bypassed an electric fence during daylight hours and released 100 to 200 mink from a farm in Arlington. The owner was feeding mink in nearby sheds when the release occurred, all mink were recovered.
September 6, 2001 UK: Protesters chained themselves to drums at a Shell oil refinery near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire in a demonstration against Shell product testing connections with Huntingdon Life Sciences. Police arrested 27 protesters after the road to the plant had to be closed, disrupting rush hour traffic.
September 5, 2001 IA: 200 head of cattle were released from a sale barn at Decorah, and were later recovered.
September 3, 2001 IL: ALF claimed responsibility for breaking, entering and releasing more than 750 ducks and ducklings from the Whistling Wings duck breeding facility in Hanover.
August 29, 2001 New Zealand: The 34th International Congress of Physiological Sciences in Christchurch, attended by over 3,000 scientists, received a death threat aimed at California Michael Stryker, a sleep deprivation research scientist. Animal rights protesters amassed to protest the conference and police responded with sufficient force to keep a lid on violence throughout the conference. An anonymous letter received by government officials and the press stated that a "good California doctor" was targeted and that before leaving New Zealand, ".he may be dead."
August 28, 2001 WI: In the continuation of a battle which included overwhelming support and approval last April for the first mourning dove hunt in Wisconsin, animal rights forces obtained an eleventh hour injunction against the hunt, scheduled for Saturday, September 1, 2001. Relying on ambiguity in regulation and contesting the authority of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to allow the hunt, animal rights attorneys succeeded in putting enough evidence before Dane County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Moeser to put a hold on the hunt. Hunt officials are trying to notify the expected 30,000 hunters that the hunt is called off.
August 27, 2001 Canada: Hunt of a Lifetime announced plans to provide a deer hunting trip for a child with a life-threatening illness. The trip fills in the gap left when the Make a Wish Foundation two years ago succumbed to animal rights pressure to deny hunting trips for children similarly afflicted. The parents of the child asked the media to not reveal their location as they've been receiving disturbing calls from animal rights activists.
August 26, 2001 India: Eddie Bauer, L.L. Bean, Timberland and Casual Corner announced that leather from India will not be purchased. Travel 2000, German-based Bader, Gap, Inc., Liz Claiborne, J. Crew, Marks & Spencer and others have declared similar policies. The announcements follow animal rights publicity surrounding slaughter and leather processing practices in India.
August 23, 2001 Netherlands: In the second major mink farm attack in Europe this summer, hundreds of mink were destroyed on roads and in the surrounding area of a mink farm in Valkensward, near Eindhoven, when approximately 17,000 mink were released.
August 21, 2001 Norway: An ALF press release claimed credit for releasing about 1,200 mink from a farm in Telemarken, Norway, southeast of Oslo. Almost all of the animals were recovered.
August 21, 2001 NY: ELF claimed credit for damage in a misguided attempt to vandalize a site they believed to be carrying on genetic research. The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, involved in cancer research, sustained an estimated $15,000 in destruction.
August 20, 2001 Scotland: A box and note claiming the contents to be anthrax arrived at St. Andrews University, where William of Wales, future King of England, is enrolled. Analysis proved the substance to be curry powder, police suspected the anti-royalist Scottish National Liberation Army and also the animal rights' movement, which condemns William's love of fox hunting.
August 16, 2001 UK: One of the three men who assaulted Brian Cass, managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences, at his home, received a sentence of three years in jail for his part in the attack. David Blenkinsop and two others donned ski masks and ambushed Cass as he arrived home, bludgeoning him with wooden staves and pickaxe handles. DNA on the handles and Blenkinsop's clothing helped convict him of the offense. Police are still searching for the other two attackers.
August 14, 2001 UK: A Brighton retail shop suffered 4 smashed windows after animal rights protesters complained about sales of products made from rabbit fur. Damages to the Southern Handicrafts shop were estimated at "hundreds" of pounds.
August 11, 2001 UK: An animal rights march in Oxford resulted in injury to two police officers involved in a scuffle with some of the 500 protesters. The marchers protested research at Huntingdon Life Sciences.
August 5, 2001 OR: PETA targeted Oregon for protests against the March of Dimes because of its support of research performed at the Oregon Primate Research Center. Billboards were scheduled for Salem and Portland, and protests planned at March of Dimes offices in Portland and Eugene. March of Dimes officials noted that OPRC research benefits drug addicted babies and the blind.
August 3, 2001 MD: Montgomery County authorities attribute dognappings by animal rights activists who appear to be dissatisfied with police response to dog abuse calls. Police are looking for Patricia L. Tereskiewicz, on information that she had taken two dogs from the back yard of an owner who had been the subject of animal abuse complaints.
August 2, 2001 UK: The Bank of New York found the names of account holders posted on the Internet by animal rights protesters. The bank, which does business with Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratories, had to change hundreds of internal passwords and seek the source of internal leaks. A protest group stormed the 49th floor bank offices at Canary Wharf in London a day earlier, but guards prevented them from getting past the reception area.
July 31, 2001 Spain: 13,000 mink were released from a farm in la Puebla de Valverde, near Madrid. 270 feet of fences were torn down and 1,150 cages were opened. The local citizenry recovered about 6,000 mink.
July 28, 2001 UK: Glynn Harding, a 26-year-old schizophrenic, admitted three charges of causing bodily injury by explosives and 12 counts of sending an explosive with intent. He also admitted to possessing bomb making materials. His participation in a highly publicized letter bomb campaign last winter and this spring blinded one woman in one eye and left a six-year-old girl scarred.
July 27, 2001 WA: A anonymous group using ELF communiqué-releasing services announced the spiking of "hundreds" of trees in units 5,6 and 7 of the Upper Greenhorn timber sale in the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. They claimed that 60-penny nails were inserted high and low in the 99-acre timber sale area.
July 25, 2001 NY: Via communiqué, a group calling itself Pirates for Animal Rights claimed credit for sinking a yacht owned by a Bank of New York executive. The scuttling and moorage damage were claimed to be in reaction to BNY financial services that could be interpreted as benefiting Huntingdon Life Sciences. Subsequent inspection by authorities revealed that the vandals had drilled several holes above the water line and cut a fuel hose on a 21' boat and had not sunk it.
July 23, 2001 St. Lucia: The coast guard escorted the Sea Shepherd out of St. Lucia's waters in the Caribbean after complaints of harassment against fishermen.
July 21, 2001 KY: ELF vandals slashed tires on 15 vehicles, spray-painted slogans and broke windows at the Dynergy power plant. An ELF communiqué claimed credit for the action.
July 19, 2001 UK: A nude Bruce Friedrich, campaign manager for PETA, charged President George W. Bush as he arrived at Buckingham Palace. Friedrich had a web address painted on his back, was clad in only shoes and eyeglasses. Police hauled him away, he was not charged, and later claimed that PETA had sent out 40,000 start-up packs from internet requests resulting from the publicity
July 17, 2001 CA: Authorities were called to investigate Heavenly Valley Ski Resort's new gondola in South Lake Tahoe after a 2x16-inch stick was found wired to a steel cable, safety sensors had been wired to the gondola cable and broken, and the letters ELF had been formed with wire at the base of one of the support towers.
July 17, 2001 NE: In the fourth golf course vandalism incident in the Omaha area since late June, greens and fairways were dug up and buildings were spray painted. ELF was spray painted in one sand trap, damages were estimated at $5-7,000 at the most recent golf course vandalism. Three teens were arrested on July 19th and indicated association with the ELF.
July 13, 2001 NJ: Eight protesters were arrested in Brunswick at the Bank of New York following a demonstration against Huntingdon Life Sciences. Two juveniles were released, but the remaining 6 adults were held in lieu of $25,000 bail on charges ranging from trespass to criminal mischief to endangerment of persons.
July 5, 2001 OR: Federal law enforcement officials met with US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) to discuss threats posed by domestic terrorist organizations such as ALF and ELF and laws that require law enforcement to follow ethical standards in seeking warrants for wiretaps and other investigative work. The laws have been interpreted by the Oregon Supreme Court as applying to covert police actions, and thus prohibiting the use of deception in such efforts. Law enforcement officials note that this ruling seriously hampers their efforts to gather information and admissible evidence in the course of their work.
July 4, 2001 MI: An ELF act of arson gutted a Weyerhaeuser office in protest over support for the genetic engineering work on poplar and cottonwood trees conducted by Oregon State University and the University of Washington. An communiqué claimed credit for the attack, along with responsibility for the destruction of eight Ford Expeditions by arson at Roy O'Brien Ford in June, and the destruction of two plate glass windows and a drive-through at a newly-built McDonald's, also in June.
June 22, 2001 UK: Marks & Spencer stopped selling Indian leather products in response to PETA's two-year campaign against leather imports from India.
June 17, 2001 WI: An early morning fire substantially damaged the Redgranite feed facility, formerly known as a Mink Farm. Two firefighters were hurt in fighting the blaze, one was treated and released, one held in intensive care for smoke inhalation.
June 15, 2001 NY: Twelve activists were arrested while demonstrating against Huntingdon Life Sciences at the Greenlawn Branch of the Bank of New York. Police reported that the demonstrators stormed the bank building and disrupted business. They were arrested, charged with riot in the second degree, and held in lieu of $500 bail.
June 14, 2001 AZ: Mark Warren Sands was arrested and indicted on 22 counts for setting fires to eight homes in Phoenix and Scottsdale between April 9, 2000 and January 18, 2001. Some of the luxury homes, under construction when torched, were valued at over a $million each. Sands claimed at his initial hearing that "God's work has to be done."
June 14, 2001 AZ: Mark Warren Sands was arrested and charged with arson and extortion in the fires of recently built and under construction luxury homes in Phoenix and suburban Scottsdale. A 22-count federal indictment charges Warren with setting 8 fires. He was arrested earlier this year after being caught tagging a home under construction with the acronym "CSP," said to stand for Coalition to Save the Preserves.
June 13, 2001 NJ: At least fifteen demonstrators were taken into custody after violating a restraining order requiring them to stay away from the home of an executive of Huntingdon Life Sciences. The protesters gathered at the home in the evening after a day of protests at a Bank of New York in Brunswick and also at the HLS laboratory in East Brunswick.
June 13, 2001 NY: Five Long Island branches of the Bank of New York were attacked by ALF and ELF protesters claiming that BNY was doing business with Huntingdon Life Sciences. Protesters painted ALF, ELF and graffiti and smashed at least 13 windows, glued ATM keypads and jammed card slots with plastic. A joint press release by ALF and ELF, issued from British Columbia, claimed responsibility for the effort (and also claimed 25 windows smashed). The protest was aimed at breaking ties with US businesses that provide a means for investment in Huntingdon Life Sciences. The communiqué also announced a schedule for harassment and protests aimed at the bank and included names, phone numbers and addresses of targets, using both business locations and personal residence locations.
June 12, 2001 AZ: Four luxury homes burned overnight in a construction project inside an upscale gated community. Authorities are looking for ties to previous arson fires of luxury homes by eco-terrorists. The initials CSP, standing for "Coalition to Save the Preserves," were sprayed on at least one home. Two of the homes had been sold and two were still on the market. None were occupied yet, and damage was estimated at $2 million. The four homes in total were valued at $5 million.
June 12, 2001 OR: Jeffrey Michael Luers, age 22, was sentenced to 22 years, 8 months in prison for his part in arson attacks in Eugene last year. Another activist apprehended in the same arson, Craig Marshall, entered into a plea bargain agreement last November and is now serving a 5-year sentence. Luers's defense that he took pains not to injure people and was frustrated about the growing ecological destruction of the planet did not mitigate the measure 11 mandatory sentencing guidelines or otherwise soften his sentencing. The same auto dealership that Luers was convicted of torching went up in flames again on March 30, 2001, damaging 35 SUV's and producing over a $1 million in damage.
June 12, 2001 MO: A 30-year-old animal rights activist attacked a "Survivor" series cast member at a workplace safety promotion, pepper spraying him in the face and hitting several onlookers, including children, as well. Police arrested the attacker. Michael Skupin, who lasted six weeks on "Survivor," attributed the attack to his killing of a pig for food on the series.
June 11, 2001 UT: A Bed, Bath & Beyond store became the latest target for animal rights protesters attacking supporters of Huntingdon Life Sciences. The ALF claimed that the smashing of 45 windows and spray painting of slogans was in retaliation for Bed, Bath & Beyond financial dealings with Stephens, Inc., a New Jersey investment company connected with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a British drug testing laboratory.
June 10, 2001 ID: In a second attack on the biotechnology building at the University of Idaho, ELF members removed survey stakes and painted anti-bioengineering slogans on the outside of the building. An ELF communique published on June 18, 2001 claimed credit for the activity.
June 10, 2001 ID: Anti-bioengineering activists destroyed pea patches at the Siminis research center in Filer. A communique release claimed credit for removing pea plants from about 20 patches, suspected of being genetically altered, and detailed information on how the facility had been identified through use of the internet and USDA public information on research projects.
June 6, 2001 OR: Jeffrey Luers, charged and convicted of 5 counts of arson for attacks on the Joe Romania truck lot and the Tyee Oil Company last year, faces a possible sentence of 7 ½ years in prison. The Romania lot was the target of a second arson by others still at large this past March, with damages estimated at $1 million.
June 6, 2001 UK: About a dozen animal rights activists chained themselves by their throats to the doors of Morgan Stanley's offices in east London. The demonstration attempted to block entry to the building and was conducted because of Morgan Stanley's association with Huntingdon Life Sciences.
June 5, Washington, DC: At a joint-university news conference MSU's director of the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project estimated that the university would spend more than $1 million in security improvement and repairs as a result of the arson that destroyed her office in January, 2000.
June 5, 2001 MI: The director of Agricultural Biotechnology at Michigan State University estimated that nearly $1 million had been spent to improve security and rebuild the fourth floor of the agriculture hall after arson destroyed her office in January, 2000.
June 5, 2001 OH: PETA launched its campaign against Burger King by passing out leaflets to school children in Dayton, Ohio. Students leaving Wilbur Wright Middle School were met by Mercy for Animals members handing out paper crowns with golden points impaling pigs and cows and details of how animals are treated in factory farms.
June 4, 2001 WI: Lawmakers are drafting legislation to make intentionally infecting animals with diseases illegal in an effort to head off agri-terrorism.
June 2, 2001 WA: After assessing the extent of wreckage from an ELF arson attack at the Center for Urban Horticulture on May 21, 2001, University of Washington requests $5.4 million from the state legislature for program and building repairs.
June 2, 2001 UK: About a dozen protesters demonstrated for approximately an hour in front of Iams offices in Leicestershire. Asking passing motorists to stop supporting the pet food company, protesters objected to animal experimentation in the manufacturing of pet food.
June 1, 2001 OR: The Oregon legislature unanimously approved the third and final part of a package intended to combat eco-terrorism. Last month, HB2344 and HB2385 were signed into law, expanding Oregon's racketeering statutes to include crimes against research, livestock and agricultural facilities and make "interference with agricultural research" a new crime. HB2947 includes technical clarifications of the crimes of research and animal interference and interference with livestock production.
June 1, 2001 OR: Incendiary devices were placed under 6 log trucks in Estacada. One went off, three trucks were burned, one destroyed. The trucks were to be used in Eagle Creek watershed logging operations, which have been protested for about two years to date. Damage was estimated at $50,000 for the destroyed truck.
June 2001, Detroit, MI: ELF vandalized a McDonalds.
May 31, 2001 Canada: In a raid late this month, Toronto police arrested two men and put out an appeal for apprehension of a third in connection with animal cruelty charges stemming from the videotaped skinning of live animals. The video showed a cat being tortured and killed allegedly by a self-styled artist and vegan protesting animal cruelty. Anthony Ryan Wenneker, 24, and Jessie Champlain Powers, 21 were arrested. The raid turned up a headless, skinned cat in the refrigerator, along with other animal skeletons, including a dog, some mice and rats, and the videos. Police are searching for the third person seen in the videos.
May 23, 2001 UK: Three men, ages 34, 31 and 34, were arrested for the attack on Brian Cass, Director of Huntingdon Life Sciences. The baseball bat brandishing attackers split Cass' scalp and bruised him and sprayed a would-be rescuer with CS gas on February 22, 2001. One of the men was arrested at an animal sanctuary run by TV script writer Carla Lane.
May 23, 2001 UK: Three activists climbed atop the roof of Japanese pharmaceutical company Yamanouchi in West Byfleet, Surrey. Yamanouchi has ties to Huntingdon Life Sciences.
May 23, 2001 UT: Animal rights activist Eric Ward was sentenced to two days in jail and ordered to pay a $1,850 fine, $375 restitution for damage to property and $715 to the fire department. The sentencing stemmed from a protest at the L'Ours Blanc fur store in Salt Lake City.
May 22, 2001 CA: The combination of the 1998 ban on certain kinds of traps and the ban on cougar hunting in California has been accompanied by a rise in alarming statistics. USDA recently released figures showing that the 5,600 animal kills by predators in 1995 had jumped to 14,900 last year. The loss to ranchers was estimated at $5 million in the year 2000. Mountain lions killed 3,300 cattle and calves last year, compared to 1,500 animal kills five years ago.
May 21, 2001 OR/WA: Two sites in Oregon and Washington were the subjects of ELF arson attacks. The Oregon attack at Clatskanie destroyed an equipment building and a maintenance building; about a half dozen pickups, all-terrain vehicles and a semi-trailer at Jefferson Poplar Farms tree nursery. The Washington blaze gutted laboratories and offices at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle. ELF anti-genetic engineering graffiti was left in Oregon, no clues in Washington, however ELF claimed credit for both arsons in subsequent communications later in the month. The Oregon damage was estimated at $500,000. No genetically engineered trees were grown on the 7,300 acre facility. Washington's toll came to the loss of 20+ years of research, destroyed irreplaceable books, data, research specimens and laboratory samples, displacement of 28 staff members and students from Merrill Hall and $5.4 million in damage.
May 16, 2001 CA: Anti-biotech activists destroyed an undetermined amount of strawberry, tomato and onion plants at an ELM-owned research facility in Brentwood.
May 14, 2001 PA: ALF claims responsibility for hacking into Primate Products, a company that supplies primates for Huntingdon Life Sciences animal testing work. The web site was changed in content and graphics.
May 14, 2001 CA: Seven more activists were arrested for blocking a Pacific Lumber Co. logging crew's access to the Mattole River watershed in Humboldt County near Scotia.
May 13, 2001 MS: Since the beaver trapping ban of 1996, the Massachusetts beaver population, which has no natural predator to control its expansion, has tripled. The population is conservatively estimated at 61,000 today, and without controls, it's possible to grow to 100,000. Tree damage and waterway interference are causing significant property owner problems. The state enacted legislation last summer that gave local health departments the authority to trap and kill beavers when public health and safety is threatened, but did not fund the measure, leaving the cost for containment and correction up to the towns or private citizens.
May 11, 2001 CA: In connection with protests over Pacific Lumber Co. logging of 3,000 acres of old growth timber at the Mattole River watershed near Scotia, a 19-year-old AmeriCorps volunteer took a group of high school students to the protest site under the auspices of the Urban Pioneer Program offered by McAteer High School. The Program allows students to explore everything from rock climbing to auto mechanics, so when permission slips were requested for a trip to Humboldt County, parents apparently provided them. The students were supposed to be studying organic farming and efforts to revive salmon, however, the volunteer leader, a member of the Earth First! Environmental protest group took the group to the protest site where the students, aged 15 to 17, were arrested by police and taken to the Eureka juvenile hall (more than 20 protesters have been arrested at the site in the past few weeks). The volunteer leader, David Wehrer of San Francisco, was in trouble with school authorities and was also charged by the Humboldt County District Attorney with 16 criminal charges: 8 counts of felony child endangerment and 8 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor. The charges of trespass were dropped against the high school students.
May 10, 2001 UK: Thirteen Huntingdon Life Sciences protesters entered the Bank of New York's first floor reception area dressed as office workers, and eight of them chained themselves together. One month ago, SHAC protesters occupied the bank's offices on the 49th floor for 11 hours. Security personnel hauled the thirteen involved in this incident out to the street, none were arrested.
May 10, 2000 Canada: Loggers in the forests of the West Kootenays found trees spiked with concrete plugs. The concrete spikes, set in plastic piping and slipped into holes bored into the trees, had bark glued to the exposed ends, making visual detection nearly impossible and rendering magnetic detection useless. No one has claimed credit for the potentially lethal act.
May 10, 2001 CO: In a bizarre scenario, a nonprofit horse rescue group, setting up shop on their 50-acre farm was ordered by land use authorities to "move" a colony of prairie dogs and to revegetate the property while it attempted to rescue horses. Because zoning regulations don't distinguish between moving and extermination, and because it's legal to kill prairie dogs on private property, and because revegetation is difficult to impossible over a colony of prairie dogs, the rescue group hired workers to stuff the prairie dog holes with newspapers soaked with poison. A zoning official stopped the rescue group from the activity, claiming that the poison would make the prairie dogs bleed internally and burst open, and members of the animal rights group Rocky Mountain Animal Defense came out and spent 4 hours removing the newspapers before being stopped and ordered to leave by the sheriff's department. In addition, the horse rescue group had asked the state Division of Wildlife for help in moving the prairie dogs, and the Division had spent $2,385 plus labor and equipment to create a new habitat on 35 acres of the rescue group's land and the Division is now contemplating charging the group for the work, if the extermination is completed and there are no prairie dogs to relocate.
May 9, 2001 Israel: Shraga Segal, an immunologist and former dean of the Ben-Gurion University medical school, resigned his post as chairman of the government body that supervises research involving animals. Segal received a faxed death threat and threats of violence against his family.
May 5, 2001 TX: Protesters acting against housing development in 37 acres of thick cedar woods in West Lake Hills, torched a backhoe and left graffiti on a portable toilet, causing $82,000 in damage.
May 4, 2001 UT: US District Court Judge Bruce Jenkins ruled that language in Utah's new commercial terrorism law may be unconstitutional. The statute prohibits light or sound waves from disrupting a business. That, for the judge, was too vague for enforcement without violating first amendment protections.
May 3, 2001 WA: Washington's voter-approved anti-trapping measure appears to prohibit the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife from trapping river otters, one of the major predators of salmon and trout in state fish hatcheries. The Department is wrestling with ways to interpret the language or methods to gain an exemption that would permit trapping to protect the fish.
May 2, 2001 UK: 92 people were arrested in London during May Day violence. Protesters included environmentalists, animal rights groups and campaigners against arms trade. Police were organized and prevented the massive disruptions that occurred last year, and characterized this year's crowd as "largely peaceful." However, Westminster City Council estimated the damage in the violence-hit areas to stores, shops and other businesses to be $29 million and lost business. The cost for police protection was not included in the tally.
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