Portland, Oregon, April 4, 2006: Since our founding in 1991, NAIA has worked non-stop to expose the ties between the shadowy criminals that attack in the name of animal rights and the above-ground animal charities that promote their cause. We lobbied for passage of the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA) in 1992 and in the interim have endorsed several efforts to strengthen this law. [1]
In the mid-1990s, the FBI named militant animal and environmental groups as domestic terrorists. In 2002 Congress stiffened penalties in the AEPA. [2] Last year the FBI listed animal rights and eco-terrorists as the country’s leading domestic terrorism threat. [3] Law enforcement agencies have launched far-ranging investigations into the activities of the Animal Liberation Front, the Earth Liberation Front, and other aggressive groups. [4] The results have been superb: In the past few months, grand juries have approved numerous indictments and courts have rendered several guilty verdicts.
In January, the FBI announced 65 indictments of 11 suspected eco-terrorists for arsons and other crimes against legitimate businesses, including the destruction of a ski resort in Vail, Colorado. [5]
In February, convicted arsonist Rodney Coronado [6] was indicted for teaching radicals how to make and use incendiary devices. Coronado has presented his tutorial to several fanatic audiences; arsons and other raids often directly precede or follow his appearances. [7]
In March, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty and six of its members were convicted of terrorism against Huntingdon Life Sciences. [8]
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie hailed the verdict as one of national significance. "There is no place in a democratic, law-abiding society for extremists who incite or use violence and intimidation as a means to an end," he said.
SHAC and its members were found guilty of direct action against HLS, but they and other militant groups and individuals were also implicated in crimes against employees of securities companies, the New York Stock Exchange, pharmaceutical firms, and other businesses that do work with or for Huntingdon. The use of these third-party attacks makes it clear that extremists will exploit any loopholes in the law to continue their assaults on companies and individuals who use animals. These reprehensible attacks have resulted in personal traumas, financial loss, and property damage against innocent people who are pursuing lawful careers and lifestyles. [9]
Skip Boruchin, a market maker for Legacy Trading Company, told a Senate hearing committee last October that his family, his neighbors, and his company had been the targets of constant harassment because he traded in HLS stock: [10]
“Daily thousands of obscene and threatening phone calls, to home and office at all hours, day or night; outright slander calling me a ‘child pornographer’ in the media and all over the internet,” he told the senators. “When these threats and actions did not work, SHAC moved to far more dangerous and insidious tactics. Describing me as the ‘dreaded Legacy,’ SHAC brought their crimes of terror to my home, office and family. One day I awoke to find that SHAC had been in my yard. They spray-painted large messages like ‘Puppy Killer’ ‘Drop HLS’ all over the entire house. They wrote ‘Skip is a murderer.’ ‘Nine Million Dead’ on my garage door.”
Skip Boruchin’s story is not unique. Others folded when victimized by SHAC, but Borochin chose instead to tell a Senate committee of his experience as a target. The result was introduction of S 1926 and HR 4239 to address these heinous offenses. Among other goals, these bills
- Prohibit the intentional damaging of property of a person or entity having a connection to, relationship with, or transactions with an animal enterprise;
- Prohibit veiled threats to individuals and their families because of their relationship with an animal enterprise; and
- Prohibit conspiracies or attempts to commit such damage or threats.
NAIA and NAIA Trust respect lawful protest and individual expression, but when a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front brazenly states that murder is acceptable in the pursuit of the animal rights agenda, and a Texas philosophy professor publicly declares that property destruction is acceptable as a method of stopping animal use, it is time to increase federal restrictions of behavior that the FBI has labeled “one of our highest domestic terrorism priorities.”
What you can do:
- Go to http://capwiz.com/naiatrust/home/ to write your representative and senators and urge them to sign on as cosponsors of S 1926 and HR 4239 if they have not yet done so.
- While you are there, contact Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) in support of S 1926 and Representative Thomas Petri (R-WI) in support of HR 4239, the House of Representatives companion bill.
- See NAIA letters to Senator James Inhofe and Represenetative Thomas Petri
Notes
1. "NAIA calls on President Bush to act against animal rights' extremists," and "Action Alert: Anti terrorism bill,"
2. “Terrorism law strengthened but for radicals, it’s business as usual “ and “Animal rights and environmental extremists use intimidation and violence to achieve their ends,"
3. "USA Patriot Act also covers terrorist acts of radical animal rights, environmental, and anti-capitalist groups",
4. ACLU FOIA requests/releases by theme, then scroll down to links for FBI/PeTA investigation,
5. When greenies go nuts: tales of the eco-11 terrorists by James Vesley, the Seattle Time, January 22, 2006,
6. Coronado sentencing memorandum,
7. "California arson fits domestic terrorist pattern!"
8. "SHAC attack: Feds indict animal rights group, seven radicals as domestic terrorists for attacks on researchers," and http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2983.
9. U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works Terrorism Hearing Statements, October 26, 2005,
10. Statement of Skip Borochin before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works Terrorism Hearing, October 26, 2005.
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