Crime in the Name of Animal Rights—Archive: 2004
By: Kenneth Strand Date: 10/4/2011 Category: |
December 30, 2004 Seaquest, FL: SHAC activists claim on the Animal Liberation Press Office website that they broke into the offices of Seaboard Securities and emptied a file cabinet and smashed computer monitors and a TV. On the website they stated “Here's a message to Kevin , Dennis, Cristian, Adam, Guy and the rest of the Seaboard Securities staff: we now know where you live; we will not hesitate to take this fight to your doorstep if you continue to do business with Huntingdon Life Sciences.” The activists further claim that the break-in has caused Seaboard to stop marketing HLS stock.
December 26, 2004 Sylmar, CA: The home of the public information officer of the Los Angeles city Animal Services Department was spray-painted with slogans, including “ALF has eyes on you” and “Resign (expletive).” Her photo and office location and phone number were posted on a website affiliated with ALF, along with those of other Animal Services employees. They are listed under the heading “Players/Targets” which includes images of a target, bullet holes, and ammunition for rifles. The apartment of another Animal Services employee was also vandalized recently.
December 25, 2004 Los Gatos, CA: Eco-terror is suspected in an arson attack which destroyed eight large vehicles – five trucks, two SUVs, and a van at a Chevrolet dealer. The vehicles were singled out though there were smaller cars which were more accessible. A similar case at a nearby Hummer dealer last year remains unsolved.
December 13, 2004 Iowa City, IA: Seashore Hall was again vandalized, with bulletin boards ripped from walls, papers scattered, and food ground into carpets. Police are withholding more information, but at this time don’t know if the vandalism is linked to the earlier attack or is a “copy cat” crime.
November 29, 2004 New Orleans, LA: Animal rights activists attacked a magazine store, etching the windows with acid and causing $6000 worth of damage. That same morning a store selling fur was vandalized, with “fur is ugly” etched on their windows, which will cost $20,000 to replace.
November 28, 2004 Sandal, Wakefield, England: Activists painted the letters “ALF” on the front of a home formerly owned by a man whose company dealt with waste from research labs. The address was posted on an activist list, and the current owners, one newly diagnosed with cancer and who have no links to animal research, have been hounded by protestors since they moved in. They are pleading with animal rights activists to leave them alone.
November 24, 2004 Los Angeles, CA: ALF activists caused three incidents of vandalism in the LA area recently. Two McDonalds were targeted, with windows shattered and ALF slogans "Don't feed your kids McKillers," "Stop McKiller" and "We won't sleep until the slaughter ends" spray-painted on walls. Police believe the same group vandalized the home of an executive linked to animal research. They broke windows, threw a smoke bomb into the garage, and spray-painted ALF on the house.
November 13, 2004 Iowa City, IA: The FBI is investigating extensive damage from vandalism at Spense Laboratories and Seashore Hall at the University of Iowa. The vandalism took place in laboratories on locked floors used by the psychology department for animal research. An unknown number of research rats, mice and pigeons were taken or released, over 30 computers and offices were damaged, and hazardous chemicals were dumped. HAZMAT teams from the National Guard were deployed to determine what chemicals were spilled. Until their work was completed and the buildings rendered safe, investigators couldn’t enter. Damage is in the tens of thousands of dollars, and many research projects conducted over months and years have been ruined. In a long e-mail to the media and the Animal Defense League, ALF claimed responsibility for the vandalism and described what they had done to the labs. Seven researchers were listed as targets, and the e-mail concluded with their contact information, including the names of their spouses, home addresses, home and cell phone numbers and personal e-mail accounts. The activists made a video-tape of themselves as they vandalized, and sent the tape to media outlets. Parts of it have aired on national TV.
October 30, 2004 Ontario, CA: A suspicious device resembling a bomb, placed at the home of an Los Angeles County veterinarian, forced evacuation of twenty-four homes. An anonymous caller claimed the bomb was planted by the ALF. The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of animal-rights terrorism.
October 17, 2004 Burton, Staffordshire, England: Animal rights fanatics have threatened to dig up the remains of a second person connected to Darley Oaks guinea pig farm. A letter to an elderly cleaner, who has worked at the farm, contained threats to desecrate the grave of her husband. The letter was intercepted by the police who routinely open the mail to the Hall family and people connected with them. Animal rights extremists have also sent hate mail claiming they are in possession of the remains, stolen earlier this month, of the mother of one of the owners of the farm. They further stated that they will not return the remains of Gladys Hammond until the Hall family stop breeding guinea pigs for medical research.
October 12, 2004 Long Island, NY – Letter of Intimidation.
October 10, 2004 Garrett County, Maryland: A group called “The Institute for Public Safety” sent a mass mailing of postcards to landowners in the county, suggesting that 40 percent of bear hunters are alcoholics, drug addicts or mentally unstable. The chairman of the group admitted they made up the statistic, and that they planned to mail more cards to landowners of the other county in the hunt area. Several animal rights groups have sued to stop Maryland’s bear hunt.
October 10, 2004 Philadelphia, PA: A major highway connecting the city to its western suburbs was shut down for several hours during rush hour as police and FBI bomb squads dealt with a metal box, with the letters ELF painted on the front, that was attached to an electricity transmission tower.
October 8, 2004 Yoxall, Staffordshire, England: Police suspect animal rights activists for desecrating and removing most of the remains from the grave of an 82 year old woman, whose family breeds guinea pigs for medical research. The Hall family, who run the breeding farm, local villagers, and others with connections to them have been under attack by animal rights activists for five years. They have been suffered hate mail, malicious phone calls, hoax bombs, a pedophile smear campaign and arson attacks. Local businesses have been forced to stop dealing with the family, cars and homes have been vandalized, and villagers terrorized by night visits from activists. Police are investigating, and state that at least two people were involved in the desecration. The Animal Liberation Front praised it. While denying responsibility, a spokesman said: "This is direct action on an inanimate being. Nobody has been harmed. If this stunt does not get that farm closed, maybe the next one will."
October 3, 2004 Grand Rapids, MI: The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus train was vandalized by animal rights activists. Parking booths and a glass door were damaged, and graffiti painted on the train. Police, working with the FBI, are withholding the name of the animal rights group which is taking credit for the vandalism.
October 3, 2004 Melbourne, Australia: Activists from Animal Liberation Victoria crashed the RSPCA’s formal ball, and threw red paint over RSPCA’s national president, Hugh Wirth while shouting “The RSPCA has blood on its hands.”. One protestor got up on stage and spoke against the RSPCA’s business with Pace Farms, Australia’s largest egg producer. He was removed by security guards, and the other protestors were escorted out. Dr. Wirth will be pressing assault charges.
September 20, 2004 Penrith, Hale, Altrincham, UK: Residents in these areas have received bogus letters, some purporting to come from “a concerned mother” stating that a named individual was a pedophile, and “assaulted her daughter.” In Hale and Altrincham about 180 letters have been mailed over three weeks. In Penrith, the person named has also had extensive damage to his car. The letters are part of a campaign by animal rights activists targeting employees of companies linked to biomedical research.
September 12, 2004 London, England: The (London) Times obtained a five page “hit list”, dated July 2004, that was circulated among animal rights extremists against the use of animals in biomedical research. More than 150 named individuals, including 21 children, are targeted for violent attacks, harassment, and intimidation. The list includes home addresses and phone numbers of 87 employees of Huntington Life Sciences and companies connected to it, 47 employees’ wives, and 21 children. The document gives concrete suggestions for many kinds of attacks, and further gives advice on avoiding detection for extremists seeking more violent forms of protest.against the people listed. The document states “Whatever you do, just do it and show them no mercy…make these perverts suffer…You can be as extreme as you like…the possibilities are endless…”
September 9, 2004 Runcorn, England: Poison-pen letters pushed through doors and posted in public, naming neighbors as pedophiles and giving graphic details of a fictional sex act, have been found in the district. The false claims urge the recipient to confront the individual named and “let him know you know,” and are being made against individuals known to be targeted by SHAC.
September 8, 2004 Prestbury, Macclesfield, Alderley Edge, England: Nineteen company directors of Emerson Developments Holdings Ltd. have been victims of poison pen letters and attacks of criminal vandalism to their homes and cars. Last week letters were sent to neighbors of one director, calling him a pedophile. The directors have received threatening letters. An Internet posting, purportedly from ALF, said, "We want Emerson to kick out Yamanouchi. We will not let up until our aim is achieved…We know where you are but you won't know when we are coming back; we do not let go ever.” Emerson has been targeted because it leases property to Yamanouchi Pharmaceuticals, a customer of Huntington Life Sciences.
September 5, 2004: East Peckham, England: Animal Rights activists vowed to launch ten “terror attacks” a night across Britain. An ALF spokesman at a “training camp” for AR activists to learn “direct action” said “Ten attacks a night would be an absolute minimum… Think of the number of butcher shops: at least a couple of windows are already being broken every night and then you have people spraying graffiti on cars to those targeting employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences.” There have been reports of at least six serious incidents in the last ten days, including attacks on cars and other property of people connection with GlaxoSmithKline, HLS, and a farm raising guinea pigs for research.
July 30, 2004 Austin, TX: Tejas Securities, a US marker maker, has stopped trading shares in Life Science Research, the company that owns Huntington Life Sciences after directors, executives, analysts, and traders were bombarded with abusive e-mails.
July 30, 2004 Charlotte, NC: Activists vandalized a fleet of utility trucks owned by Utiliquest. All the trucks were marked with “ELF” and all had their tires slit.
July 30, 2004 Dorset, England: The “Lobster Liberation Front’ claims responsibility for two attacks on a Dorset lobsterman. Activists seriously damaged his boat, set his catch loose, and splashed red paint over his house. Weeks earlier the same boat, boathouse, and lobster pots were vandalized. An anonymous e-mail on an Animal Rights website threatened “war against the industry” and “real damage must begin” if lobster fishing continues. Welsh police are investigating similar attacks in Wales.
July 21, 2004 Chetsey, Surrey, England: Following a firebomb attack by ALF activists, RMC group, the world’s biggest concrete company, pulled out of building a biomedical research laboratory at Oxford University. The arson caused ₤150,000 worth of damage as incendiary bombs destroyed the control center, three trucks, and a crane. It took firefighters three hours to control the blaze. A message on the ALF website said: "This attack is a warning to RMC that collaboration in animal torture at Oxford or anywhere else will not be tolerated, and a further warning to all involved in building the Oxford laboratory to expect similar ruthless treatment." RMC group said the violence was “putting lives at risk.” RMC was sub-contracted to Montpellier, the lead construction contractor that pulled out of the project on July 19, following animal rights actions against its directors and shareholders.
July 19, 2004 Gloucestershire, England: Montpellier construction group has pulled out of a contract to build a biomedical research laboratory at Oxford University. Walter Lily, its subsidiary, is abandoning the project due to a campaign by animal rights activists, which included hoax letters to shareholders urging them to sell their shares or face actions from animal rights activists. Directors have had paint poured on their cars, threatening late-night phone calls, and graffiti painted on their houses. A local businessman, working for another firm in the same group as Walter Lily, received an anonymous, threatening letter, in which activists promised to forge criminal records and post them to hundreds of his neighbours. It said the records would allege "a string of sexual offences committed by yourself throughout your adult life".
July 7, 2004 Provo, UT: The letters “ALF” were found in seven locations at Brigham Young University’s agriculture center, near a recycling building where firefighters put out a suspicious fire. Fire damaged a corner of the building, and two small tractors, and is estimated to be at least $30,000. No animals were in the building. This was the third incident at BYU attributed to ALF in the last six weeks. Someone broke into a barn and released animals, and later equipment researchers were using to test the breeding habits of fish was removed from an aquarium.
July 3, 2004 Bournemouth, England: ALF activists vandalized equipment of construction company RMC - targeted because the company supplied concrete for a new research lab being built at Oxford University. Tractors, bulldozers, and a crane were severely damaged in the raid.
June 22, 2004 London, England: Investors in the construction group Montpellier are being attacked because it is the main contractor for a primate research center at Oxford University. Montpillier directors’ vehicles have been vandalized, and the staff at a company supplying a small amount of concrete have been targeted with letter bomb hoaxes and late-night phone calls. Investors in Montpellier received letters representing “Stop the Oxford Torture Lab” asking them to sell their holdings, saying that if they didn't sell within a month their details will be published on the Internet. The letter said “This will prompt activity by the animal rights movement to persuade these shareholders to sell.” Montpellier share value has fallen by one-fifth.
June 14, 2004 West Jordan, UT: ELF claimed responsibility for an arson fire that consumed the Stock Building Supply lumberyard, with damages estimated at 1.5 million dollars. The three-alarm fire was one of the biggest they ever fought, said the town’s firefighters, and it burned dangerously close to businesses in a nearby strip mall. The letters ELF were spray-pained on the main building and a truck at the scene. An ELF-signed fax sent to a local radio station mentioned four future targets, including an SUV dealership and another lumber company. Two years ago the ELF calling-card was found at an vandalized construction site in the town.
June 13, 2004 Rockville, MD: Police believe three arson fires, involving a pick-up truck, SUV, and a Mexican restaurant are connected. The area around the restaurant was also vandalized. Damage is estimated at $48,000.
May 28, 2004 Prairie City, OR: Activists damaged five pieces of logging equipment use in a timber salvage operation. Metal shavings were poured into the engines, fuel and hydraulic systems. Repairs will take weeks, cost $100,000 and cause expensive production delays at lumber mills. FBI has joined the investigation, which bears the hallmarks of eco-terrorism.
May 8, 2004 Oakland PA: Animal activists protesting the use of foie gras toppled an obelisk and smashed a statue of the Venus de Milo that were in front of an Oakland restaurant after the owners refused to take foie gras off the menu.
April 21, 2004, Long Island, NY: The ALF claims to have broken into Forest Laboratories to steal data, documents and blueprints relating to a new facility, as part of their actions for World Week for Animals in Laboratories. Photos said to be samples from the theft were posted online at BiteBack magazine. There has been no confirmation of the break-in and theft in the news media.
April 21, 2004 USA: SHAC America, as part of their involvement in World Week for Animals in Laboratories, has posted reports from "anonymous activists" on their website describing harassing visits to various targeted company offices and at employees' homes. Descriptions of the visits and taunting messages were posted online , but have not been reported in the news media.
April 21, 2004 Snohomish, WA: Two new homes were destroyed and another heavily damaged in an arson attack. At second construction site workers found plastic bottles filled with flammable liquid and a threatening note. An attempted arson was found at a third site, where a fire had started and apparently gone out. Officials said the note, which mentioned ELF, apparently came from an eco-terrorist group and the incendiary devices were similar to ones used by the ELF. Total damage was over a million dollars.
April 21, 2004 Monrovia, CA: Animal rights activists spray-painted the historic Upton Sinclair house with slogans of "Puppy killers," "Murderers," " ALF," and "you can't hide." Protesters dressed in black, some with skull masks, chanted animal rights slogans over a bullhorn, targeting the homeowner, an executive with Sumitomo Corporation which has ties to HLS. The chants were personal - "(You) are a sick pervert that enjoys animal abuse" and ".we know where you sleep at night." Earlier they had protested at a local Petco, and at another Sumitomo employee's home. A recording at the Animal Defense League office announces many protests this week, which animal rights activists call the "World Week for Animals in Laboratories." Some protests are scheduled at homes of various executives - one called "UCLA monkey killer,"- and at Sumitomo's offices.
April 20, 2004 Elk Creek, Vancouver, CA: Eco-terrorists threatened the lives of loggers by spiking hundreds of trees. Workers found more than 100 spikes in logs going through saw mills there. Demonstrators had stage a major effort in October to try to stop logging in the area.
April 11, 2004 Carral, Spain: Animal extremists bored holes in the wall of a mink farm barn allowing 6,500 mink to escape. Eight hundred are still loose, and five hundred were found dead. Graffiti saying "For a life at liberty" signed ALF, was scrawled on a barn wall.
April 10, 2004 Roxborough, PA: Four beagle puppies and numerous rodents were stolen from the Walter Biddle High School of Agriculture Sciences. The thieves, suspected to be animal rights activists, left a message spray painted on the walls of the new kennel reading "Go experiment on yourselves. We're free - The Animals." The school doesn't conduct animal experiments, and the animals were used to teach animal care and husbandry. Addendum: Animal rights activists have have claimed responsibility for the theft. The claim was made, in a long note posted on an anarchist/activist website, as part of the animal rights "World Week for Animals in Laboratories," and accused the school of many abuses. Activists state all the animals will be placed in "loving homes."
March 29, 2004 Lake Oswego, OR: Animal activists vandalized the office building of Sumitomo Corporation, which is affiliated with Huntingdon Life Science (HLS. Red paint was splashed around the building, and graffiti stated " SUMITOMO DUMP HLS." In an anonymous online claim activists warned, "Paint today. Tomorrow- who knows? Hells coming to rip off the doors of your privileged heaven." Sumitomo has been the target of numerous attacks by SHAC.
March 24, 2004 Charlotte, NC: Eco-terrorists are suspected in more than a dozen arsons that have destroyed or heavily damaged expensive homes under construction in suburban neighborhoods. Authorities are asking the public for help in tracking down the arsonists and builders are being encouraged to hire security firms to protect homes under construction.
March 9, 2004 Kitzbuhel, Austria: A protester set fire to a woman's mink coat while she was wearing it. Police suspect lighter fluid was used to ignite the fur. Patrons in a bar realized the back of the coat was burning, and extinguished the fire before the woman was injured. The coat was destroyed in the attack, and the culprit has not been caught.
March 5, 2004 Bloomington, IN: Nine SUVs were vandalized in one twenty-four hour period. Their windshields were ruined by acid that permanently etched the glass causing thousands of dollars worth of damages.. The police suspect ELF activists.
March 5, 2004 York, England: Paul LeBoutillier was sentenced to five years for making harassing phone calls to Huntingdon Life Sciences shareholders and to HLS affiliate Covance Company employees.
March 3, 2004 Staffordshire, England: Staff and managers of Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries and Green King, two pub companies, have been threatened and harassed by animal rights activists, because the Hall family, owners of Darley Oaks Farm, which breeds guinea pigs for research, frequents these pubs. In response to the threats, as well as thousands of e-mails, and 1300 phone calls, the managers have asked the Hall family to stop using their pubs, to protect both their own safety and that of the pubs' staff and other customers. Steven Oliver, managing director of W $ BD's Union Pub Company said "The threat was of such a serious nature that we felt we had to act." Copies of the letters to the Halls were sent to the activist group, Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs, whose website targets companies supplying or used by the Hall family. Other pubs in England have been targeted by animal rights activists because the pubs were believed to support hunting.
March 2, 2004 Scotland: A group calling itself "Badgers Unknown" posted the names, homes addresses, and phone numbers of over one hundred UK celebrities on a website under the heading "Celebrity Bloodsports Scum", urging activists to carry out firebomb attacks. The Countryside Alliance, a group supporting hunting and fishing, whose officers were included in the list, was able to get the website removed from one Internet service provider, only to have it reappear elsewhere.
February 17, 2004 North Lima, OH: Vandals broke windows in a construction trailer, sprayed a fire extinguisher and scratched the initials "ELF" on the side of a piece of construction equipment at the construction site of a new showroom for a fireworks company.
February 13, 2004 - United Kingdom: Animal rights activists are targeting mothers and mothers-in-law of judges who have banned the activists from harassing companies linked to biomedical research. Home addresses and phone numbers have been posted on a website, as well as home details of the directors of a company linked to HLS. The website states "They are not immortal. They don't live in fireproof homes."
February 8, 2004 Milford Sound Fjord, New Zealand: An unknown saboteur connected a hose to a boat's diesel tank, pouring fuel into the water at a World Heritage fjord site. The site is home to a rare species of penguin and a major tourist attraction. Officials said that the 3,400 gallon fuel spill was intentional and "eco-terrorism and economic sabotage."
February 7, 2004 Charlottesville, VA: ELF claimed responsibility of an attack on the construction site of a new shopping center. Two trucks and a piece of heavy machinery were torched, and glass and gauges were broken in all the trucks and bulldozers on the site. The owner says it will cost $220,000 to replace the ruined track hoe and doesn't know if the burned trucks can be repaired. A banner left on the site read "Your construction = long term destruction - ELF"
January 22, 2004 Fayettville, AR: Five Hummers were vandalized. The letters ELF were spray-painted on the vehicles, tires were slashed and windows broken.
January 13, 2004 Richmond, VA: Three men claiming to belong to ELF pled guilty to federal charges of "conspiracy to destroy by fire." Adam Blackwell, John Wade, and Aaron Linas vandalized construction equipment, MacDonalds and Burger King restaurants, and tried to destroy a crane. They etched anti-SUV slogans on 25 vehicles at a Ford dealership. They face sentences of up to five years, and must pay restitution of over $200,000.
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