Crime in the Name of Animal Rights—Archive: 2003
By: Kenneth Strand Date: 10/4/2010 Category: |
December, 2003 California: During the holiday season, some Chiron employees and their families received at their homes, through the mail, a box with coal, dog feces and a card that read "May your violence against the animals come back to haunt you in the new year! If you think that gift is bad just wait to see what Elves all across the USA have in store for you in the days to come!"
December 24, 2003 Stockholm, Sweden: A package of lamb and a letter from "Animals Liberation Front" (sic) claiming that meat had been poisoned in nine Stockholm supermarkets was left at the TT news agency. The agency also received a phone call taking credit for the action and stating, " We will not undertake any action that could physically injure people, but economically we will injure them greatly." A similar threat was made against a supermarket in Upsala in November. No poisoned meat was found there.
December 23, 2003, Vancouver, Canada: Safeway is warming shopper to check their turkeys after receiving three threatening letters from an animal rights group. Activists claim to have thawed several frozen turkeys and injected them with arsenic. This is the fourth time in ten years that animal rights activists claim to have tampered with holiday turkeys in British Columbia.
December 19, 2003 Norfolk, UK: Activists from VIVA broke into sheds at several turkey farms owned by Bernard Matthews. They claimed their videos showed dead and injured bird, however, the owner of the farms blamed the activists for causing the birds to panic.
December 12, 2003 Castel di Sangro, Italy: ALF criminals raided a mink farm and opened cages. ALF's e-mail states, "This is the fourth successful mink liberation in 2003."
November 18, 2003 Portland, Australia: Animal rights activists contaminated sheep feed with a "shredded, ham-type material" to make 50,000 sheep unsuitable for shipment to Muslin countries. The activists are protesting Australia's live export trade. The sheep may have to be euthanized, because under Australian law, sheep fed animal products are unfit for human consumption. It's unclear how many of the 50,000 animals were exposed to the tainted feed. Police said they had arrested a 40-year-old man in connection with the incident.
November 14, 2003 Burton-on Trent, England: Army bomb disposal experts were called out after dozens of fireworks were thrown at a house linked to a guinea pig breeding farm. Police believe the attack, which left unexploded fireworks under cars, is linked to recent animal rights harassment focused on the farm. Last month leaflets were passed out, wrongly accusing a client of the farm of being a convicted pedophile.
November 6, 2003 Asheville, NC: Vandals struck the Little Pigs Bar-B-Que restaurant, spray-painting ALF, "murderer," and other graffiti on two catering vans. Windows were broken in a van and in the main building.
November 1, 2003 New Hyde Park, NY: Sometime over Halloween weekend a resident's home and cars were spray-painted with the slogan ALF and "Stop HLS." The homeowner has no connection with Huntington Life Science (HLS), the long time target of animal rights extremists.
October 27, 2003 Newchurch, England: An arson attack by animal rights terrorists destroyed an unused house at Darley Oaks Farm, where guinea pigs are bred for research. Activists calling themselves "Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs" have been protesting outside the farm for four years. The protests have escalated into violence and intimidation against the owners of the farm and anyone doing business with them. On its website, the group has published contact information for the farm owner and associates. Dairy businesses buying milk from the farm as well as the firm's solicitors, have withdrawn their services due to the protests. Explosive devices have been found near the homes of employees on four occasions. Electricity to an entire village was cut off and an intensive campaign of hate mail and threatening letters was conducted against the family. The arson attack, along with the partial destruction of a golf course used by family members is believed to be ALF's work. Criminal attacks on the farm have increased to such a degree that the local police had to apply to the Home Office for an extra £250,000 to deal with it.
October 26, 2003 Forest Lake, MN: Authorities in Minnesota are investigating a fire that destroyed a nearly completed $5-6 million lakeside mansion. Following a front page newspaper article describing the home, the owner began receiving harassing phone calls. In addition to the article, the owner, who is an avid hunter, had recently hung hunting trophies in the house. Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the state fire marshal are considering the possibility that the fire was set by someone from an environmental group.
October 24, 2003 Sevenoaks, England: Bomb disposal experts were called to detonate a suspect package, a transparent lunchbox in which bubble wrap and wiring were visible. The package had been left near a road where children walked to school, outside the home of a director of Daiichi Pharmaceuticals, which does business with HLS. The executive had been the target of a previous bomb scare, and the windows of his house had been smashed. A controlled explosion was carried out by the bomb squad.
October 24, 2003 Martinsville, IN: ELF activists sabotaged a Wal-Mart construction site. Survey stakes were removed, and walls and machinery spray-painted. Over a dozen pieces of heavy machinery and vehicles were vandalized, with slashed tires, cut fuel hoses, and sand poured in fuel tanks.
October 6, 2003, Los Alamos, NM: US Forest Service officials discovered today that constuction equipment used to improve fish habitat on the Rio Cebolla river had been vandalized. Someone cut electrical wires and broke a window on a backhoe and slashed tires on a water trailer. ELF, the acronym for Earth Liberation Front was scratched onto both vehicles.
October 3, 2003 California: Using the Internet, animal extremists claimed credit for stealing credit card numbers and charging $25,000 to the accounts of two Chiron executives. They claimed possession of credit cards belonging to other Chiron employees and threated to use them too, unless Chiron severs its ties to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
October 3, 2003 Santa Monica, CA: In the early morning hours, ALF activists vandalized the home of Jerry Greenwalt, the head of Animal Services for Los Angeles. His home and car were splattered with red paint, and the initials "ALF" were scrawled on the property. ALF had recently distributed flyers denouncing Greenwalt and his department throughout his neighborhood. Animal rights activists targeted Greenwalt and his department for its policy of euthanizing animals, even though under his leadership the number of animals euthanized has decreased more than 25 per cent.
September 26, 2003 Pleasanton, CA: FBI and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating an early morning explosion at Shaklee Corporation that caused minor glass damage. The action closely resembled an incident last month in which bombs were detonated at Chiron Corporation, which a group calling itself "Revolutionary Cells of the Animal Liberation Brigade" claimed were in protest of Chiron's relationship with Huntingdon Life Sciences. Shaklee is a subsidiary of Yamanouchi Pharmaceuticals, which is also a customer of HLS. Yamanouchi has been the target of vandalism and protests by SHAC activists in the past.
September 24, 2003 Pullman, WA: Early in the morning, two small incendiary devices were ignited on a concrete driveway leading to Wegner Hall at Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. The devices, which were made from plastic and glass containers and an accelerant, resembled Molotov cocktails. The arson caused no injury or damage due to their location and the time of day. The devices had extinguished themselves by the time WSU police arrived. No one has yet taken credit for the arson, but it's interesting to note that only two weeks before, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) issued a press release alleging that animal researchers at WSU vet school were bashing goats with sledgehammers. PeTA based its charge on information from a whistleblower at the vet school. WSU officials flatly denied the charge.
September 24, 2003, Baton Rouge, LA: The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) a terrorist group that targets people and industries that work with animals has taken credit for vandalism at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine. Damages are estimated to reach several hundred thousand dollars according to the LSU Police Captain, Ricky Adams. ALF claimed that it destroyed computers and splashed red paint inside the lab to stop the suffering of research animals. No note was left at the site, but late Wednesday, The Reveille, LSU's student newspaper, received an e-mail signed by the Animal Liberation Front taking credit for the destruction. The FBI is investigating the break-in and the validity of the note.
September 24, 2003 Martiny Township, Michigan: The Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for four incendiary devices that were found inside the Ice Mountain Spring Water Company's pumping station today. The Company workers who discovered the devices, plastic bottles filled with flammable liquid, were not hurt. The anarchist group, ELF justified its attempted arson at Ice Mountain Spring Water Company, formerly Perrier Group of America, of stealing well water for profit.
September 19, 2003 Farmington, CA: Animal activists broke into a duck barn at Sonoma Foie Gras and stole four ducks. Last month the restaurant and homes of partners in the foie gras business were vandalized.
September 19, 2003: San Diego, CA: ELF arsonists destroyed four houses under construction, three in one development and the fourth at a site located about three miles away. According to local TV news, a banner at the site of the first fires read, "Development is destruction. Stop raping nature. The ELFs are mad." Damage from the fires is estimated at one million dollars. The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the local Metro Arson Strike Team are investigating.
September 5, 2003 Putten, Netherlands: Approximately 120 animal activists, arriving in two buses and other vehicles, broke into a fur farm, damaged farm vehicles and the security system, and released 6000 mink. Most mink were recaptured. Forty-nine of the activists were arrested after a neighbor blocked one of the buses with his tractor. Before the raid, the activists had held an international camp near the German border. The same weekend, 15 activists were arrested in an action against two Japanese companies, and about 7000 mink were released from a farm in Denmark.
September 4, 2003 Santa Fe, NM: A dozen SUVs were vandalized at a Santa Fe car dealership, painted with words such as "sloth" and "greed" and signed off by the Earth Liberation Front's initials, "ELF." Approximately one third of the dealer's inventory was damaged by the yellow paint. The FBI is conducting an investigation.
August 28, 2003 Emeryville, CA: In the pre-dawn hours, 2 explosions rocked Chiron corporation, Emeryville's largest employer. Chiron is a pharmaceutical firm that contracts with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the international animal testing firm under attack by animal rights terrorists for several years. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, the radical New Jersey animal rights cell, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, has a long history of inciting hatred against all who do business with HLS. Operating like anti-abortion terrorists, they maintain a website that demonizes Chiron employees and lists their home addresses along with actions taken against them. These include late night visits to the homes of Chiron executives, awakening family members and planting fake tombstones in their yards. Website messages warn Chiron to stop doing business with HLS and call employees "sick animal-killing scum." The FBI labels such attacks as terrorism because of their intimidating effect. Although no injuries or major property damage were reported, Chiron's 2000 employees were told to stay home Thursday and two of the town's major streets remained closed for several hours.
August 25, 2003 Sultan, WA: ALF activists cut fences at a small mink farm and released 10,000 mink, causing $500,000 in damages and incalculable losses in genetic history. Fifty volunteers worked to round up the mink, capturing about two-thirds of the traumatized animals. Scores died of dehydration or were killed on a nearby highway. Pen-raised mink are not equipped for life in the wild and some of the recaptured ones may die as well. The case is similar to two earlier break-ins at other fur farms in the county. An ALF e-mail said that the group plans to continue such actions.
August 22, 2003 West Covina, CA: ELF took responsibility for firebombing a Chevrolet dealership that destroyed 20 SUV Hummers and damaged 20 more, and, in a separate blaze, collapsed a warehouse roof. People near the dealership were evacuated. SUVs in three nearby cities were also vandalized with similar slogans. "ELF." "Fat, Lazy Americans" and "I (heart) Pollution" were among the graffiti, some profane, spray-painted on the cars. ELF issued an e-mail calling the incidents "ELF actions." The Fire Chief said the noxious smoke produced by the blaze created more pollution than the destroyed SUVs would have generated over their lifetime on the road. Damages exceed one million dollars and the FBI is investigating the vandalism as domestic terrorism.
August 15, 2003 Sonoma, CA: Animal activists broke into a new restaurant, after vandalizing the homes of two of the owners last month and publishing their names, addresses and phone numbers on the Internet. Objecting to the owners' ties to the production of foie gras, the activists broke through a wall of the restaurant, and painted slogans on the walls, electric outlets, and fixtures. They poured dry concrete down the drains, and turned on the water, flooding two adjacent buildings as well as the restaurant. Water seeped into the adobe walls of the historic building, and damage is estimated at $50,000. PETA has a national campaign against the nation's three foie gras producers.
August 6, 2003 Occold, England: According to the Business Review (UK), in mid July the Occold branch of the animal research firm, Huntingdon Life Science (HLS) received a telephone threat warning that the manager's wife and children could be kidnapped. Threats are nothing new to HLS, whose employees have been constant targets of animal rights terror for several years: They've been beaten, had their cars firebombed, tires slashed, had vehicles painted red and received ongoing threats. Their suppliers, investors and shareholders have also been targeted. Because of the escalating harassment, vandalism and violence, a High Court ruled in June that activists can not come within 50 yards of the homes of HLS employees or the two main HLS centers.
August, 4, 2003 Los Angeles, CA: Sherman Austin, a 20 year old anarchist was sentenced Monday to a year in jail. He was arrested for disorderly conduct in February at the World Economic Forum in New York. While there federal charges were being laid in California for distributing information related to explosives on his website. The sentence was more than recommended, but Austin took a plea bargain because he feared that he could be charged with terrorism, adding a possible 20 years to his sentence. Austin, who admitted posting links to bomb sites so that people could build and use them during demonstrations, must also pay a $2,000 fine and refrain from unapproved computer use and from associating with others who advocate physical force as a means of social change for 3 years. Throughout the animal rights and eco-terrorist movements, radical websites have been used to vilify targets and instructed readers on how to build bombs.
August 3, 2003 USA and UK: Websites belonging to Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) in the UK and USA are bragging that they firebombed a warehouse in Sussex, England belonging to their target, Huntingdon Life Sciences. Several vehicles stored there were destroyed.
August 3, 2003 Fresno, CA: Kelly Higginbotham, a self-described member of the Animal Liberation Front was arrested on August 3, 2003 on suspicion of making terrorist threats. According to the Fresno County Sheriff's Department, she is accused of calling in bomb threats to the Harris Ranch and beef processing plant saying there were bombs planted at both facilities and warning that "everyone would die." In February, California State University at Fresno hosted a conference on Revolutionary Environmentalism. The speakers panel was a who's who of animal rights terrorists, including convicted felons who publicly advocate arson and other acts of violence as acceptable methods of achieving change.
August 1, 2003 San Diego, CA: A $20-50 million blaze swept through a 5-story apartment complex under construction in the University Town Centre neighborhood of San Diego. No injuries were reported. Although the terrorist group ELF did not immediately take responsibility for the arson, a banner warning, "If you build it, we will burn it - ELF" was left at the apartment site. Rodney Coronado, the ELF backer who did prison time for the Michigan State University fire bombing in 1992 and has received financial support from tax-exempt PeTA, was scheduled to speak at Summer Revolution, "Animal Liberation Weekend August 1st - 3rd", which happened to be in town at the same time. Coronado promotes arson as his preferred method of terrorism to his radical following.
July 2003 Mill Valley and Santa Rosa, CA: For several weeks vandals have been attacking the home of two restauranteurs involved in the production and sale of foie gras. Slogans saying "Murderers" and "Foie gras is animal torture" have been sprayed on their homes and etched onto cars and windows. One of the men, a prominent chef, was mailed a videotape that was shot from his garden showing his family relaxing inside their home, and sent threatening letters saying "Stop or be stopped." PeTA has a campaign against US producers of foie gras.
July 28, 2003 Maalahti, Finland: Five suspected animal activists were arrested after allegedly trying to raid a fur farm. Their vehicle had objects used in similar raids. A year earlier the farm had been broken into, and 1000 mink released. Following this, an alarm system was installed, and the raiders only had time to break two locks before the owner and security guards were alerted.
July 25, 2003 Bjornhult, Sweden: Swedish ALF activists placed incendiary devices at an empty fox farm, protesting the owner's plans to change his operation to mink farming.
July 22, 2003 Amsterdam: Animal rights activists damaged the Arnhem branch of AMN Amro bank. Activists have been painting slogans and damaging the bank's ATM machine around the country for months. They are trying to force the bank to drop the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk as its customer.
July 17, 2003 Southwest France: Activists ransacked a field of GM maize of French biotech firm Biogemma. Attackers also damaged one of Monsanto's CM maize fields in Montech, France.
July 2, 2003 South Windsor, CT: Signs of the Earth Liberation Front, "ELF" and "no sprawl," were spray-painted on a newly completed house in South Windsor, Connecticut. An unidentified man called police and said the graffiti was done by an ELF activist.
June 29, 2003 Bracknell, England: Sixty protesters cut through two wire fences at Jealott's Hill Research Center, intending to destroy a crop of GM wheat. Instead, they destroyed a crop of ordinary wheat that was part of an important project investigating a fungal disease. This was a project that researchers had been working on for years.
June 24, 2003 Los Angles, CA: The Los Angeles chapter of the Animal Defense League placed home addresses, phone numbers and home photos of the Mayor James Hahn and Chief of Animal Services, Jerry Greenwalt, on their website and on flyers placed around the city. The website gives directions to Greenwalt's home and urges activists to "stop by." The activists want the Mayor to fire Greenwalt, and hire someone to run a "no kill" shelter.
June 24, 2003 Frankfurt, Germany: German PETA activists sprayed fake blood and threw chicken feathers on the chief of YUM! Brands as he opened a KFC restaurant. PETA is offering photos of the incident to the media. PETA Director of Vegan Outreach director Bruce Friedrich is quoted in the PETA news release assaying, "There is so much blood on this chicken-killer's hands, a little more on his business suit won't hurt."
June 23, 2003 Edmund, OK: The home of a stock trader working for a company trading HLS stock was vandalized by ALF activists. They covered the house with red and black paint, cut the phone, DSL, and cable lines to the house, and published his home and business addresses and phone numbers on their website. The DirectAction website stated, "Skip, this is just the beginning of our focus on you and it will continue until you join the laundry list of market makers who caved into the demands of the compassionate public. Charles Schwab, Paragon, Brokerage America, Merrill Lynch, have all fled from doing business with HLS and soon you will too." His business, Legacy Trading, had been vandalized by SHAC on May 18.
June 22, 2003 Austin, TX: ALF activists vandalized the home of an employee of Abbott Labs, a client of HLS. His house was covered with red paint and the slogans "Abbott Kills" and "ALF." Activists published his home and business addresses, phone numbers, and names of his wife and daughter on ALF's website.
June 22, 2003 Missoula, MT: Forty veteran activists, including the founders of Earth First!, the Ruckus Society, Rainforest Action Network, and the National Forest Protection Alliance are staging a week long "boot camp" the in Bitterroot National Forest to train eighty "novices" in civil disobedience and other tactics of forest protest. The encampment is planned to follow the Western Governors' Association forest summit meeting in Missoula on June 17-19.
June 19, 2003 Lowell, OR: Arson at the Middle Fork Ranger Station of the US Forest Service is being investigate by Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents. AFT is usually called in when eco-terrorism is suspected. Twenty firefighters responding were able to save to adjacent buildings.
June 14, 2003 Santa Cruz, CA: Environmental activists scratched the slogan ELF into ten new SUVs, causing $15,000 worth of damage.
June 5, 2003 Chico, CA: Another arson attempt was made at a shopping center under construction. Workers found remnants of several small fires, and ELF spray-painted on the door of a work truck at the site. The FBI is exploring connections with arson attempts at two McDonalds in March, and SUVs in May, in Chico.
June 4, 2003 Washington Township, MI: Two nearly completed homes were destroyed in early morning fires. "ELF" and "Stop sprawl" were spray painted on nearby construction equipment. The houses had a combined value of $700,000. The same message was found when arson destroyed two unfinished houses in Superior Township on March 21.
June 3, 2003 Chico, CA: ELF claimed the attempted arson of a new home. The fire burned through a PVC pipe holding water, dousing the flames so the damage was minimal, about $100. "Save our bio-region ELF" was painted on the sidewalk.
June 2, 2003 New York City: Five PETA anti-fur protesters were arrested and changed with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief. Wearing bloody fur coats, with their legs "caught" in traps, they blocked the entrance of the Conde Nast building and dumped red paint on the building entrance. Vogue magazine is published in the building.
May 23, 2003 San Diego: Twenty activists dressed in black, wearing balaclavas, and carrying red candles protested outside the home of an HLS employee. A message to her, posted on the SHAC website read "tonight 250 flyers were distributed in your neighborhood alerting your neighbors that you're a vicious animal abuser. You've already been hit by the ALF, you've already gotten early morning wake-up calls, you have masked activists protesting in front of your home, your censor lights are a joke, the cops are too slow to get there within a reasonable time, and thousands of activists know where you live. What's it going to take for you to quit HLS?"
May 21, 2003 Inverurie, Scotland: Three PETA activists, one dressed in a cow suit, were arrested for breach of the peace for trying to dump two tons of cow manure at the entrance to a Scottish beef event. They were were arrested before dumping the load.
May 20, 2003 Anchorage AK: Five Iditarod sled dogs were released into downtown traffic from their boxes on dog trucks. Four were quickly recovered but a new lead dog was missing all night and found by Animal Control. One dog had injured his pads running on pavement.
May 18, 2003 Edmund, OK: The FBI is investigating a case of "domestic terrorism" at Legacy Trading, which trades HLS stock. Window and door glass was broken, and red paint poured on the walk and in the office, with damages estimated at $4000. This is the third incidence of vandalism at the company. SHAC members have called the business hundreds of times a day, typing up phone lines, and have published personal information - names, phone numbers, addresses and social security numbers, of the owner and his neighbors on the SHAC website. The owner, Skip Boruchin said he would continue to trade the stock. "No person or organization or individual has the right to dictate to me that I cannot do a legal business in this country," he said. "They have no business trying to force me out of my house ... out of my neighborhood because I run a legal business in Edmond."
May 5, Sacramento, CA: At 3:00 am, SHAC activists with blaring sirens and bullhorns showed up at the home of an executive of a company that supplies software to HLS. SHAC plastered his neighborhood with photos of a mutilated dog, and posted his home and work phone numbers on the Internet, inviting activists to make hundreds of calls. "We'll be back, scumbag" and ".we know where you live, we know where you work, and we'll make your life hell until you pull out of HLS" was posted to SHAC's website. SHAC's website also has a state-by-state point-and-click map listing Huntington Life Science affiliates. SHAC says its home visits to people with tenuous ties to animal research have "broken new ground." Other extremist groups are adopting the same tactics.
May 4, 2003 Chico, CA: The FBI is investigating an attempted firebombing at Wittmeier Auto Center. Plastic milk containers filled with flammable liquid and rigged to ignite were left under two SUVs. While no group claimed responsibility, the method was similar to arson attempts by ALF activists at two Chico McDonalds in March.
April 27, 2003, Hudene and Faglavik, Sweden: Three activists calling themselves "Bye Bye Egg Industry" broke into two hatcheries belonging to Grimarnas, Inc., Sweden's largest producer of laying chickens. Brooding machines and other equipment was destroyed, and 42,000 eggs were cooled, killing the embryos. The loss of machinery and eggs is estimated at $240,000. Two activists were arrested at one factory, and the other the next morning as he was passing out leaflets about the destruction. All three were released pending trial. They left behind a letter and a vegan cake at both factories.
April 22, 2003 London, England: SHAC is targeting thirteen Japanese firms with ties to HLS. A page on the SHAC website says "Japanese companies kill animals at HLS," and urges activists to " really put the pressure on" the firms, saying they are SHAC's main focus. A Daiichi Pharmaceuticals director had his windows smashed and car damaged at his home in Kent. Another director was targeted at his London home by protesters with klaxon horns and megaphones. Protesters told his neighbors, who were awakened by the noise, to expect more late-night disturbances. Sumitomo Corporation, a trading house, was visited by a noisy protest at its city offices. Tony Blair ordered a security review, and concern was expressed by diplomats at the Japanese embassy.
April 22,2003 Suffolk, England: Homes of HLS employees were targeted by SHAC extremists. Car tires were slashed, paint and paint-stripper poured over cars, and letters and phone calls threatening violence were made.
April 22, 2003 England: "Violent scum" and ALF were spray-painted on a car belonging to the master of the Woodland Pytchley Hunt, and the cars tires punctured. The hunt master said that hunt saboteurs have tried to knock him off his horse and sprayed acid at the hunt during the season.
April 20, 2003 Droxford, England: ALF activists broke into a chicken farm and stole 1023 hens, taking them away in horse trailers. Caging systems, conveyor belts, and feeding apparatus were damaged and the building spray-painted with slogans. Robin Webb an ALF spokesman, said the chickens would be given homes as "companion animals."
April 15, 2003 Santa Cruz, CA: ELF activists attacked 15 SUVs with bright orange paint, and in an ELF press release, complained that the local paper did not cover the story.
April 11, 2003 Santa Cruz, CA: Vandals spray-painted an estimated 65 SUVs and trucks with references to ELF and anti-war slogans. Forty-five new vehicles were marked at a Ford dealership, and 18 to 20 vehicles parked at local residents' homes.
April 5, 2003 Lockport IL: ALF activists claimed responsibility for setting fire to a store belonging to a man convicted of slaughtering and selling endangered tigers and leopards for rugs, trophies, and meat. The e-mail from ALF also contained treats against all convicted in operating the exotic animal ring. Accelerant chemicals were collected at the arson scene, which was confined to a back meat-cutting room. The e-mail was similar to the one sent following vandalism and the cutting of truck brake lines at the Supreme Lobster and Seafood Company in February.
April 4, 2003 East Tennessee State University TN: PETA's national lecturer, Gary Yourofsky in an emotional display of anger, forced the cancellation of a lecture he was to give, opposing the use of animals in scientific and medical research. The director of the University's Division of Laboratory Animal Resources, placed pamphlets in support of animal research, and a placard stating "Opposing Views" on a cart outside the lecture room. Yourofsky became angry when he saw the cart, and was abusive to the organizer of the lecture, even using an analogy comparing her to the KKK. He slung the cart across the hall, scattering pamphlets on the floor. Public safety officers were called, the lecture canceled, and Yourofsky left the building.
April 2, 2003 St. Polten, Austria: ALF claimed responsibility for an arson, which completely destroyed three hunting cabins.
March 30, 2003 Los Angeles, CA: CBC's California branch office, which works with HLS in the Asian market, was vandalized. The front glass window and door were smashed, and messages demanding CBC sever all ties to HLS were spray-painted on the building and parking lot.
March 28, 2003 Montgomery, AL: A federal cargo truck was set on fire and five other vehicles were spray-painted with anti-war slogans and "ELF" at a Navy Recruiting Station.
March 27, 2003 San Diego, California: The Animal Liberation Front posted the following message to an employee of Huntington Life Sciences, an animal testing laboratory, after dumping red paint on her car, puncturing three tires, and scrawling "HLS SCUM" across her garage door: A message to Claire: 'You can install all of the motion sensor lights in the world and it won't make a difference. You've been marked. We've been watching you and Kevin following your trip overseas last April 19th. We've been in your house while (you were) in San Francisco. We've "bumped" into you at Costco. You've given us the time while in line at Bank of America. We've been watching your house. We've been watching you and your family. You've provided us with a wealth of information and amusement. But the fun can only last for so long. In consideration of Kevin being out of town so often, think of your family's security as your windows could be put through tomorrow night. We won't forget the animals you've helped murder at Huntingdon. Until you quit or until HLS closes, we're bringing your work home for you." A.L.F.
March 25, 2003 Petaluma, CA: Animal activists struck the Rancho Veal plant, one of the few surviving slaughterhouses in the state, setting a fire that caused about $10,000 damage to the roof. Skylights were smashed, a back door broken, and "Stop the Killing" spray-painted on the back of the building. In January 2000, arsonists set off incendiary devices in three buildings at the plant, causing $250,000 in damage. Other protests in the past saw activists chaining themselves to the gate or to concrete barrels, and obstructing the driveway for eight hours.
March 23, 2003 Yarra Glen, Victoria, Australia: ALF torched a hurdle on a racetrack, and painted a slogan on the track, in retaliation for the death of one horse and injury to another at the Classic Steeple steeplechase race.
March 23, 2003 Los Angeles, CA: ALF activists smashed windows at the home of a businessman who works in a corporation connected to the CEO of HLS.
March 23, 2003 Beverley Hills, CA: ALF shot out the glass front door of the offices of E-Trade, which trades HLS shares.
March 23, 2003 West Hollywood, CA: ALF activists cracked the front display window of a store selling furs.
March 21, 2003 Superior Township, MI: Two homes under construction were burned to the ground in a new subdivision. Damages were estimated at $400,000. "ELF" and "no sprawl" were spray-painted on the garage of a nearby house. These were the third and fourth fires set in the subdivision in the last seven months.
March 21, 2003 London, England: Animal rights activist Sonia Hayword was jailed for 15 months, for causing rocks to be thrown through the windows of a person she mistakenly believed to be connected with HLS.
March 18, 2003 Tyrone, NY: Susan E. Coston, shelter manager for Farm Sanctuary, pled guilty to criminal trespass for taking a lamb from a Tyrone farm in November. She was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay $200 in restitution to the farm owner.
March 17, 2003 Chicago, IL: Kayla Werdon, A PETA activist, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, after disrupting traffic by being "improperly clothed." She was wearing shoes, shorts, a St. Patrick's Day hat, and stickers covering her nipples, and refused to cover up and stop handling out leaflets on veganism.
March 10, 2003 Vichte, Belgium: ALF militants targeted a fur farm, opening all the cages and releasing 1500 mink. Most were recaptured.
March 10, 2003 Dublin, Ireland: The Citywest Hotel in Dublin canceled an annual conference organized by the Institute of Animal Technicians, a professional organization whose members are in charge of animals used in research laboratories. Most members are from academia, and a few are HLS employees. SHAC activists invaded the hotel, let off stink bombs and jammed the hotel switchboard with protest calls. SHAC spokesperson Natasha Avery said the hotel had been put under "relentless" pressure and the cancellation of the conference that SHAC forced was a "real slap in the face for the industry."
March 9, 2003 Nissedal and Hamar, Norway: ALF claimed responsibility for arsons at two fur farm feed suppliers, which caused damages of millions of kroner. The fires were ignited by incendiary devices put under trucks and in buildings. ALF said the arsons were because "these factories play a big part in the Norwegian fur trade assault on animals.and are a strategic goal in the struggle against the Norwegian fur trade."
March 7, 2003 Galicia, Spain: ALF terrorists attacked a fur farm, releasing over 300 mink.
March 4 & 11, 2003 Chico, CA: An ALF activist attempted to torch a McDonalds early March 4th. A restaurant worker found two one-gallon containers filled with a flammable liquid near doors behind the restaurant. "Meat is Murder," "Species Equality," and "ALF" were spray-painted on the building. Notes claiming ALF responsibility were found in a phone booth and at the office of the local weekly newspaper. Instructions for similar incendiary devices are available on the ALF website. A week later a small fire was set by vandals at a second McDonalds. "Liberation" and "ALF" were spray-painted on the walls.
March 3, 2003 Berlin, Maryland: ALF activists cut through windows at the Merial Select Laboratory and stole 115 baby chickens. ALF stated in an Internet release that Merial was targeted because they are a client of HLS. The release stated "Any friend of HLS is an enemy of the ALF. We know who their clients are. We are out there and you are next."
March 2003, Melbourne, Australia: ALF activists vandalized three Ford dealerships, spraying cars with corrosive fluids. Notes were left saying the vandalism was because Ford sponsored rodeo events.
March 2003 Melbourne, Australia: ALF targeted the Jenny Hoo boutique shop twice in one month. Locks were superglued, "Fur is murder" painted on the walls, and red paint splattered on the shop.
February 27, 2003 Berlin, MD: ALF activists stole 115 baby chicks from Merial Select Laboratory, cutting through windows and wire mesh to avoid alarmed doors. Merial, which makes multiple animal vaccines and wormers, was targeted because they are a client of HLS. Activists said, "Any friend of HLS is an enemy of the ALF. We know who their clients are. We are out there and you're next."
February 27, 2003 Scotland: TV cook Clarissa Dickson Wright revealed that she gets up to 12 death threats a week from animal rights activists. She is targeted because of her pro-hunt views. Wright has been accosted at book signing, and her bookshop has been attacked. A detective is assigned to her, who she can call for advice about threats or for security if she is going to make a public appearance.
February 25, 2003 Temple Hill, England: After Peter Day shot a fox that had bitten his baby, he received threats of window smashing and car firebombing in a letter signed "Peter Hunt Saboteur." The local police warned Day and his neighbors to be vigilant.
February 23, Gothenburg, Sweden: ALF activists super-glued several gas pumps and credit card machines at a Shell gas station. Anti-HLS slogans were spray-painted on the building, stating the action would continue until Shell stopped using HLS.
February 23, 2003 Lidkoping, Sweden: Wolds fur shop was attacked and had its windows smashed six times by ALF activists.
February 21, 2003 USA: PETA launched "Holocaust on your Plate" - a campaign using a display of eight panels showing photos of farms and slaughterhouses side by side with photos of emaciated adults and children looking out through bars at Nazi death camps, comparing the slaughter of chickens to the murder of six million Jews.
February 19, 2003 Ballymanus, Ireland: ALF activists claimed to have removed sections of fence at a mink farm and released 1000 mink. However, the farm owner stated that though they did open cages containing 1000 animals, most were rounded up, and only 50 were missing.
February 18, 2003 - March 3, 2003 Cambridge, England: A mole at the Deloitte and Touche accounting firm, auditor to Huntington Life Sciences, stole landline and mobile phone numbers, and e-mail and home addresses of senior managers and their secretaries for SHAC (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty). SHAC then announced plans to use the information to block phones with jamming software, occupy offices, and stage protest demonstrations at private homes against the firm. Natasha Avery, Co-leader with Gregory Avery, of SHAC, said "The company will be a global target. We will be hitting them all over the world." With SHAC activists using the information, D&T managers and their employees were the victims of criminal damage - acid and spray-painting attacks on cars and homes - and noisy protests outside homes late at night, intimidating spouses and children. Offensive slogans were painted on homes, and neighbors were leafleted with material stating they were living next to "murderers." After two weeks of continual harassment, D&T severed its relationship with HLS, following Marsh, Inc. which had insured the company and left after spending millions for round-the-clock protective measures for its employees. As a result of SHAC's intimidation campaigns, the British government is now supplying banking and insurance to HLS, and it has moved its headquarters to the US. Following the announcement of D&T's withdrawal of services to HLS, SHAC said it would cease its campaign and begin targeting HLS customers. Natasha Avery stated, "We'll see who has taken on the audit when the first quarter figures come out and that firm will have to deal with us..Our message to any company has always been very simple. If you deal with Huntington you deal with SHAC, and we will target whoever we want to achieve our aim of closing the place down. No company will stand in our way, be it insurer, bank, accountant or whatever. And passing laws against us is laughable because we will always find a way around them. In any case, going to prison is a small price to pay if it means closing HLS down."
February 1, 2003 Pyramid Hill, Victoria, Australia: ALF activists broke into a pig farm and removed 70 sow stall gates and gate pins, causing about $4000 in damages.
February, 2003, Virginia: PETA President Ingrid Newkirk sent a letter to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, after a donkey laden with explosives was used in a bomb attack on the West Bank. Newkirk asked Arafat to "appeal to all who listen to you to leave animals out of this conflict." Newkirk showed no corresponding concern over suicide bombings that kill people. "It's not my business to inject myself in human wars," she told the Washington Post.
January 26, 2003 Washington, DC: At a conference at American University called the National conference on Organized Resistance, Rodney Coronado showed the audience how to build a cheap incendiary device. "Here's a little model I'm going to show you here. I didn't have any incense, but -- this is a crude incendiary device. It is a simple plastic jug, which you fill with gasoline and oil. You put in a sponge, which is soaked also in flammable liquid -- I couldn't find an incense stick, but this represents that. You put the incense stick in here, light it, place it -- underneath the 'weapon of mass destruction,' light the incense stick - sandalwood works nice -- and you destroy the profits that are brought about through animal and earth abuse. That's about -- two dollars. " Coronado further stated, "You know, those people - I think they should appreciate that we're only targeting their property. Because frankly I think it's time to start targeting them."
January 23, 2003 Klamath Falls, Oregon: An employee of a Japanese company planning to build a hog farm received written death threats, and had car tires slashed.
January 21, 2003 South Australia: Animal activists broke into a pig farm, and welded together a number of sow stalls.
January 20, 2003 Seattle, WA: Arson at a MacDonalds caused $5000 worth of damage. In September, 2005, Christopher W. McIntosh of Maple Shade, NJ, admitted he set the fire by pouring several gallons of gasoline on the roof on behalf of ALF-ELF. In an anonymous phone call he said "[t]here was an E-L-F-A-L-F hit at McDonald's across from the Space Needle. There will be more. ... As long as Mother Earth is pillaged, raped, destroyed. As long as McDonald's keeps hurting our furry brothers, there will be more." He will be sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.
Jan 16, 2003 New York: State Susan Coston, a Farm Sanctuary employee, illegally entered a sheep producer's barn and stole a lamb, which she took to FS property. The crippled lamb was then taken to the Cornell veterinary school, with FS listed as the owner. Charges were filed against Coston, and FS now claims she acted on her own and not on their behalf.
January 4, 2003 - Poole, England: ALF activists broken into an egg farm barn, expecting to find hens in cages. Instead, they caused a stampede of over 7000 free-range hens, and about 150 were crushed or suffocated. The farm had been targeted 15 years ago, when scores of hens were turned loose, only to be killed by foxes.
January 1, 2003 Newton, MA: Working over several nights an activist spray-painted environmentalist and peacnik slogans on 16 SUVs.
January 1, 2003 Erie County, Pennsylvania: ELF activists ignited jugs full of gasoline under vehicles in a Ford dealer's lot. The fires damaged or destroyed two Ford trucks and two SUVs.
Crime in the Name of Animal Rights Archives:
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