Crime in the Name of Animal Rights—Archive: 2002
By: Kenneth Strand Date: 10/4/2009 Category: |
December 29, 2002 Milford, Utah: Activists from the United Animal Rights Coalition (UARC) broke into a hog farm and stole two pigs. Such break-ins are a matter of concern since activists don't follow biosecurity protocols designed to protect the animals from disease.
December 28, 2002 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: ELF activists attacked a housing development, severely damaging construction vehicles and the model home on the property.
December 28, 2002 Doebein, Germany: ALF activists smashed windows of several vehicles belonging to a meat packing company, and painted slogans on the walls of the plant building.
December 19, 2002 Emst, Netherlands: A member of the Dutch ALF stole 33 chickens from an egg farm. This is the second time the farm was broken into and birds were stolen.
December 18, 2002 London, England: The UK government has agreed to provide insurance services to Huntington Life Sciences, following an intimidation campaign by SHAC against Marsh, Inc, its former insurers. The Royal Bank of Scotland, Citibank, CSFB, HSBC, and Barclays all withdrew support from HLS after staff and shareholders were subject to harassment and intimidation by SHAC, and the UK government was forced last year to provide banking services to the company.
December 1, 2002 The Hague, Netherlands: Activists attacked the building housing Marsh, Inc. with paint, glue and acid, and vowed to return until Marsh broke its connection with HLS.
November 23, 2002 San Polo D'Enza, Italy: Animal rights activists broke into a dog breeding farm and stole 128 beagles being raised for research. The activists spray-painted "murderers" and "ALF will free all" on the buildings and walls. November 11, 2002 Thionville, France Animal rights activists broke into a mink farm in eastern France and released 1000 animals from their cages. Firefighters and volunteers searched for the animals with little success. The farm owner estimates his loss at $30,000.
November 11, 2002 Shreveport, LA & Vancouver, Canada: PETA unveiled two new advertising ventures. A PETA ad, which the Vancouver Province refused to run, compares the murder of women on a British Columbia pig farm to the treatment of animals slaughtered for food. The ad features headlines describing the mutilated bodies of the women, and ends by saying "If this leaves a bad taste in your mouth, become a vegetarian." A billboard, which was rejected by all four New Orleans outdoor advertising firms, depicts former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke with a milk mustache. The ad says "Got (lactose) Intolerance? The White Stuff Ain't the Right Stuff. MilkSucks.com."
November 1, 2002 Richmond, Virginia: Vandals who left messages crediting ELF damaged SUVs in several incidents recently. Twenty-five SUVs on the lot of a Ford dealer were permanently defaced with a glass-etching cream. The cream was also used to write ELF on the windows of a Burger King and two MacDonalds. A week later, SUVs parked near homes were severely damaged with an ax or hatchet. Vandalism and attempted arson have also been reported recently at highway and home construction sites in the area. The FBI is investigating.
November 1, 2002 Washington, DC: PETA has issued an alert against contributing to the American Lung Association as well as a call for a boycott of the Bank of America because it sends corporate contributions to the March of Dimes - both organizations which fund animal-based biomedical research. The anti-charity campaign by PETA and PCRM, through PRCM's new "Council of Humane Giving" uses misinformation on the use of animals in research.
October 31, 2002 California: SHAC activists went "trick or treating" to the homes of three people who work for businesses connected Kirby Cramer, an investor in HLS. If the door was opened, the activists responded by throwing leaflets and blood-covered stuffed animals, while screaming their message through megaphones. One couple was told their home address and personal details were on the Internet. At one home, where the door wasn't opened, the activists left photos and stink bombs, along with their leaflets and bloodied stuff animals.
October 25, 2002 Boston, MA: Twelve animal rights activists linked to SHAC were indicted for stalking an employee of Marsh Inc., which SHAC accuses of doing business with Huntington Life Sciences. The dozen activists allegedly harassed the Marsh executive for five months, calling him "puppy killer" and standing outside his home at all hours with a megaphone screaming threats, including threatening to burn down his house. Prosecutors said SHAC's goal is to intimidate Marsh into refusing insurance brokerage business with HLS.
October 25, 2002 Beijing, China: Two PETA activists, Yvonne Taylor and Kayla Worden, stripped naked and displayed a banner protesting a Beijing fur fashion show in a busy Beijing shopping district. Police confiscated their passports, and Chinese officials subsequently deported the women.
October 25, 2002 Boston, MA: Twelve animal rights activists linked to SHAC were indicted for stalking an employee of Marsh Inc., which SHAC accuses of doing business with Huntington Life Sciences. The dozen activists allegedly harassed the Marsh executive for five months, calling him "puppy killer" and standing outside his home at all hours with a megaphone screaming threats, including threatening to burn down his house. Prosecutors said SHAC's goal is to intimidate Marsh into refusing insurance brokerage business with HLS. 43 indictments were handed down, including among other charges criminal harassment, attempted extortion, and conspiracy.
October 24, 2002 Washington, DC: The Florida Election Commission has charged Farm Sanctuary with 210 counts of breaking campaign finance laws in their campaign to get Amendment 10, dealing with the use of gestation crates at hog farms, on the Florida ballot. Farm Sanctuary co-founder Gene Bauston was personally named. The Commission charged that Farm Sanctuary illegally and willfully acted as the ballot committee's cashier and unlawfully promised donors a federal tax deduction.
October 18, 2002 Winter Park, Colorado: The town's water supply has been threatened in a letter by a group claiming to be ELF. The Denver Water Board also received a letter from ELF on October 2. ELF's press office said, in an e-mail to the Associated Press, that while they don't say the threat isn't real, they usually get notice after an action has been taken. Security in the area has been stepped up since 9/11.
September, 22, 2002: Animal activists are urging action against Shell, BP, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and 59 other companies which have links with the Huntington Life Sciences. SHAC (Stop Huntington Life Cruelty) has posted contact information for the companies on their website, urging activists to lobby the companies and organize demonstrations against them to force them to drop dealings with HLS. "The only way we are going to stop HLS is if every single one of us opposed to what they are doing stands up and takes action against them with determination and force" reads the SHAC website.
September 2, 2002, Edmund, OK: The FBI is "actively investigating" SHAC to see if any federal laws have been broken. SHAC had posted on its website personal information (names, addresses, and social security numbers) of nineteen neighbors of Skip Boruchin, a market maker for stock of Huntington Life Sciences. SHAC has been harassing Boruchin with pickets and hundreds of phone calls daily to force him to stop marketing HLS. Boruchin has stood firm, so SHAC has focused on his neighbors. An except from the website stated "Skip Boruchin is a man who can not be moved by reason or sympathy ... So we regretfully announce that since Skip can not be figuratively moved, he must be literally moved. Below is a small sample of information currently available on his neighbors. We have other information for some of them - e-mail accounts ... credit card information, birthdates, etc. This information will be periodically leaked to the public and to animal liberation groups to do with as they will."
August 22, 2002, Lohja, Finland: Animals rights activists representing Justice for Animals targeted a fur store owner. During their protest at the owner's home, they told her children that their mother was "a murderer," that they should be ashamed of her, and that "your mother will kill that {family} dog." The store owner said her children had become fearful, having nightmares, and being afraid the protesters would return.
August 20, 2002 London, England: Robert Moaby, linked to SHAC, was jailed for four and half years for sending e-mail death threats to senior corporate figures and financial backers of HLS living in New York and Toronto. In sentencing him, the judge said "These were not idle threats. They must be seen in the context of a violent campaign against HLS and its associated companies."
August 18, 2002 Eugene, Oregon: FBI and the Oregon State Police are investigating instances of sabotage to Bonneville Power Administration transmission lines. Environmental activists have been shooting at and damaging the insulators of the power lines in several different areas. The sabotage has caused brush fires, and repairs and power outages have cost BPA and other suppliers $40,000.
August 11, 2002: Arson by the ELF caused $700,000 worth of damage at a Forest Service lab in Irvine, PA, and destroyed 70 years of research focused on maintaining a healthy forest ecosystem. An e-mail from Elf's office said "While innocent life will never be harmed in any action we undertake, where it is necessary, we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice, and provide the needed protection for our planet that decades of legal battles, pleading protest, and economic sabotage have failed so drastically to achieve." It further stated that all Forest Service stations were targeted, and, if rebuilt, the Pennsylvania station would be targeted for complete destruction.
July 10, 2002 Seattle, WA: The FBI is searching for the activists who set off smoke bombs in two downtown buildings where Marsh, Inc., which insures HLS, has offices. The buildings were completely evacuated with no injuries. The Fire Department reports that the bombs are an incendiary type that, if they had come in contact with combustible materials, would have caused high-rise fires. SHAC did not take credit, but "applauded" the animal rights activists who set the bombs and left notes.
July 9, 2002 San Francisco, CA: A SHAC activist deliberately vomited over the HLS display at the World Congress of Pharmacology Conference. The next day more activists overturned the company's literature table, yelling and calling the HLS personnel "puppy killers."
June 22, 2002 Seattle, WA: An activist protesting the round-up and culling of geese tried to interfere with wildlife officials by repeatedly driving his car in front of their trucks and slamming on the brakes. He hit a truck driven by a federal wildlife official, sending the man to the hospital where he was treated with back and neck injuries.
May 3, 2002 Blomington, IN: A series of explosions was planned at the Sims Poultry Company. Company trucks were connected by gasoline trails to a refrigerator truck that was rigged to explode. The refrigerator truck burned, but the others failed to catch fire. Sims Poultry had been targeted in the past. ALF took credit for the arson in a press release May 15.
March 15, 2002 Traveler's Rest, Ontario, CA: A group calling itself Activists Working for Animal Rights broke into a fox farm and released 40 foxes. The activists cut through a chain link fence and carved a note on a door threatening to "burn" next time. Most of the foxes were recaptured, but three died after being struck by vehicles on a nearby highway.
February 14, 2002 Trenton, NJ: Two PETA activists filed a lawsuit against the state of New Jersey following a collision of their car with a deer. PETA charged that New Jersey's wildlife management programs were planned to increase the deer population "despite the known dangers an increased deer population poses to motorists," and thus the state violated the obligations of the government to provide for public safety.
Feb 12, 2002, Washington DC: FBI testimony before the House Ecoterror Hearing. "Domestic terrorism is the unlawful use, or threatened use, of violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States (or its territories) without foreign direction, committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives...During the past several years, special interest extremism, as characterized by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), has emerged as a serious terrorist threat. The FBI estimates that the ALF/ELF have committed more than 600 criminal acts in the United States since 1996, resulting in damages in excess of 43 million dollars."
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