Posted on 06/09/2005 7:04:24 PM PDT by wagglebee
TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) - Six animal rights activists being tried under a law that equates their activities with terrorism turned the lives of employees of a British drug-testing company into a living nightmare, prosecutors said on Thursday.
It is the first New Jersey trial in which federal prosecutors are using a law that says aggressive activists who disrupt a company can be charged as terrorists.
The defendants are accused of disrupting the business of Huntingdon Life Sciences, or HLS, a UK-based firm with operations in New Jersey that uses animals to test drugs, with the aim of driving it out of business.
U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna told the court the defendants crossed the line on freedom of speech rights and were not content to get their message across by peaceful and legal means.
"They wanted results immediately and at whatever costs," McKenna told the court.
The activists harassed employees of HLS and other companies that did business with it, published their names and addresses on its Web site, threatened their families, and in some cases overturned their cars, according to the indictment.
They are also accused of using mass e-mail to shut down the computer systems of some companies.
Prosecutors charged the six and their organization called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, with violating the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, which was amended in 2002 to include the crime of "animal enterprise terrorism."
Animal enterprise terrorism carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The activists also face charges of conspiracy and interstate stalking, which carry $250,000 fines each.
Andrew Erba, an attorney for the group, told the court that the defendants were entitled to express their views however unpopular they might be.
"In America, dissenting views can be heard," he said. "This is a referendum on the rights of a political movement to talk about these things in the open."
Huntingdon says on its Web site that it tests products such as drugs, food additives, adhesives and clothing dyes on animals but that the company is, "committed to providing the highest levels of animal husbandry and welfare."
The defendants are Kevif Kjonaas, 27, president of the group; Lauren Gazzola, 26, the group's campaign coordinator; Jacob Conroy, 29; Joshua Harper, 30; Darius Fullmer, 28, and Andrew Stepanian, 26.
The trial, overseen by U.S. District Judge Mary Cooper, resumes on Monday.
I hope they get the maximum.
I hate to tell you all this but i hope this company goes under! The reality is that Huntingdon is a money making machine that has a real history of very questionable 'testing"..unreliable, unnecessary and abusive to animals. Many other groups, including research scientists, have spoken out against this enterprise.
Moreover, while I do not advocate violent protests against animal research there are some good reasons to question MOST of it. Much of the research is not translatable to humans and the real tragedy is that we humans do not get accurate, effective testing results. Most scientists will now say that the newer type of non-animal testing is much more productive.
Me too and they need to go after these ELF terrorists also.
I don't believe for a minute that animals should be subjected to cruel testing for no good reason, and I have no doubt that what you say about this company is correct. However, there are proper methods of protesting this and terrorism isn't one of them.
I'd like for then to be sentenced to be Huntington Test DUmmies.
I agree with you. I wish we could educate people more about animal testing, when it is appropriate, and when it is just plain not good science anymore.
For those interested in learning about animal testing, from a scientist based group dedicated to education, that is not a lunatic group...just Google in "NAVS". They were the first scientific group to explain to me why much animal testing is not in our human interests ...which, while I am an animal lover....gave me another perspective also.
There are a lot of other statutes they could hang these people on. To use a "terrorism" law is not needed, and lends credibility to the ACLU when they fight the laws meant for terrorism.
I worry that over the years we water down the really important laws and use these generic laws to take people out. This is the same kind of thinking that lead to "hate crimes" which is an insult to the judicial system.
I don't believe for a minute that animals should be subjected to cruel testing
Tell that to the cows that got hit and killed when turned loose by the Earth First group- forerunner of this group- in 1990 near Davenport, Calif when the fences on the Grey Goose and Wilder ranches were cut on a foggy night.
Make sure you tell me in small words- I've no patience with these terrorists.
You statements are contrary to what other people on a different thread have stated. According to them this company treats the animals as well as can be expected. You sound like you just might be a peta member or some other animal activists organization. Without animal testing we would be back in the dark ages when it comes to medicine. As a recipient of a heart valve repair, which was made possible because of surgeons practicing on animals before using it on humans, I am happy to support animal testing.
Humans come before animals in my book. As far as these terrorists are concerned I hope they get the maximum, there is no excuse for their actions.
Thanks to the Patriot Act soon striking unions will be considered terrorist organizations. No longer is an act such as vandalism, trespassing or harassment to be considered misdemeanors, now they are acts of terrorism. Not that I feel sorry for these people, but I'm beginning to see the writing on the wall about how easy it is to become an enemy of the state.
While you may be correct, and I have ZERO info on the company, these idiots need to have the book thrown at them.
I have no idea by what you mean by "What other people on a different thread have said."
How about you just chilling out before making these ridicuous comments ..."you must be a Peta member.."
I know full well the science benefits of past animal testing. And I am not an animal actvist..yeesh..that really was an absurd conclusion.
Why don't you CAREFULLY read my comments first.
Pssst guys...try looking in the mosques....
Sorry, but I have to agree with some previous posters. The ALF and their fellow travelers are most certainly guilty of trespass, theft, malicious destruction, and endangerment, and they should be prosecuted for those specific crimes, but they are not terrorists.
People who steal and release other people's cows are simply not equatable with people who fly other people's airliners into skyscrapers.
To equate them marginalizes the actions of mass murderering hijackers and does a huge disservice to the Patriot Act and the War on Terror.
Another article reported that these wackos have the charming habit of spraying cleaning fluids in the faces of HLS employees' children. Prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law for these acts and the animal enterprise terrorism charges will look like traffic tickets.
BTW, when I was a student at Johns Hopkins University, some animal rights nuts broke into a building on campus and "liberated" all the laboratory rats and mice from their cages. This ruined millions of dollars worth of research and set back efforts to find cures for cancer and other diseases by several years. One of my professors was literally in tears because of the damage done to his life's work - helping people.
Yup, these folks cross the line with their actions and should be held accountable.
To eat steak {which I did tonight} cattle must die. To save human lives, rats, monkeys and other critters are used for testing. Lions eat zebras. Snakes eat birds, rats and anything else they can swallow. It is called nature. Screw the wackos from peta, go order a filet migon {rare} with a crabmeat cocktail as a first course. Let them eat tofu and apples.
They fit the classic definiton of terrorist.
The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
They were defined as terrorists before 9/11.
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