Animal activist faces prison term

MADISON, Wis. - An animal rights activist who faces a potential two-year prison term for freeing thousands of mink from Midwest fur farms says he has no regrets.

Peter Daniel Young, 28, told The Associated Press during a jailhouse interview that serving time will be nothing compared to what caged animals suffer.

"As bad as it could get, it will never be as bad as it was for those mink," Young said. "I would do it all over again."

Prosecutors believe Young and an accomplice were acting on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front when they broke onto mink farms in Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin in 1997 and freed about 7,000 mink. The FBI considers groups like ALF among the nation's top domestic terrorist threats.

"If saving thousands of lives makes a terrorist, then I certainly embrace the label," Young said. "I would have been just as fast to act if those cages had been filled with human beings."

But Teresa Platt, executive director of Fur Commission USA, a national association of fur farmers, called Young's philosophy nonsense, saying he has "been fed a steady string of propaganda for 10 years."

Alex Ott, owner of a fur farm Young raided in Tomahawk, said he treats his mink well and has every right to make a living. He said such activists "attack and they terrorize."

Young and accomplice Justin Samuel were indicted in 1998 but disappeared soon after. Samuel was captured in Belgium in 1999, while Young eluded authorities until his arrest in March for shoplifting CDs from a Starbucks in San Jose, Calif.

Young pleaded guilty to animal enterprise terrorism and faces up to two years in prison. Sentencing was set for Nov. 8.

Young said he and Samuel targeted Midwest fur farms because authorities in the Northwest were putting too much heat on them. Wisconsin also had the largest concentration of mink farms in the nation, he said.

He gets 10 letters a day, he said, and activists from around the country show up for his court appearances. Someone is selling T-shirts emblazoned with Young's face online.

"Most people are just appalled I'd be put in prison for freeing the animals," he said. "I wish nothing short of the end of the entire (fur) industry ... they kill for what they do."

Platt said Young represents a disconnect between urban and rural America. City dwellers don't realize how much people depend on animals, she said.

"One hundred years ago when we all lived on the farm, we would have laughed Peter Young out of the room," she said.

>definition: Terrorism: political violence; violence or the threat of violence, especially bombing, kidnapping, and assassination, carried out for political purposes.<

With all due respect:

FBI director tags ALF arson as terrorism

Americans for Medical Progress reports in its latest newsletter that FBI director Louis Freeh used arson by animal rights as an example of “special interest terrorism” in his remarks to a Congressional committee on March 12.

“Special interest terrorist groups engage in criminal activity to bring about specific, narrow-focused social or political changes,” Freeh told members of a House of Representatives appropriations committee. “They differ from more traditional domestic terrorist groups which seek more wide-ranging political changes. It is the willingness to commit criminal acts that separates special interest terrorist groups from other law-abiding groups that often support the same popular issues. By committing criminal acts, these terrorists believe that they can force various segments of society to change attitudes about issues considered important to them.

“The existence of these types of groups often does not come to law enforcement attention until after an act is committed and the individual or group leaves a claim of responsibility. Membership in a group may be limited to a very smeall number of co-conspirators or associates. Consequently, acts committed by special interest terrorists present unique challenges to the FBI and other law enforcement. Unfortunately these types of terrorist acts are growing more prevalent.

“An example of special interest terrorist activity is the February 2, 1992, arson of the mink research facility at Michigan State University. Rodney Coronado, a member of the Animal Liberation front, pled guilty to arson charges on July 3, 1995. The Animal Liberation Front is a militant animal rights group founded in England in 1976.”

Coronado was sentenced to 57 months in prison; People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals donated more than $45,000 to his defense.

Hundreds of other cases of vandalism and arson claimed by ALF and other militant animal rights groups have gone unsolved.

Mink released from fur farms

Activists have also stepped up their protests against the fur industry by releasing mink from farms, raiding food co-ops, vandalizing fur stores, and splashing paint on fur wearers.

“In the months since the last issue of No Compromise, the ALF has smashed up more fur shops and sprayed countless fur wearers with red fabric paint,” according to the “no compromise” animal rights website, “In a dramatic attack, the ALF set incendiary devices in a truck belonging to the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Haertel Company. Haertel makes a cleaning solution for fur farmers to use on pelts. The entire truck was destroyed, costing Haertel $18,000. The message was clear; even the smallest involvement with the fur trade would mean repercussions.”

The Animal Liberation Frontline Information diary for the first four months of 1997 records dozens of attacks against fur retailers, including

* locks glued and acid poured through mail slot at Bifano Furs North Dallas location in Texas (January, ALF);
* more than 100 fur coats sliced with razor blades at a fur sale in Dallas (January, ALF)
* the backs of more than 75 fur wearers covered with red paint in New York City during a weekend (January, Paint Panthers);
* windows smashed and locks glued in two fur stores in Des Moines, Iowa (January, Paint Panthers);
* butyric acid poured in the pockets of fur coats at a sale in Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan, and in stores in Dearborn, Michigan (February, ALF);
* firebombs set in four trucks and the main offices of the Agricultural Fur Breeders' Co-op in Sandy, Utah; damages exceeded $1 million (March, ALF);
* locks glued at two fur stores and a leather store in Huntington, New York (March, ALF);
* minks released at a fur farm in Ontario, Canada, twice in a single month (March, ALF);
* rock and incendiary device thrown through the window of Flemington Fur Company in Flemington, New Jersey, causing a fire and sprinkler damage (March);
* chinchillas stolen from a fur farm in Texas (April, ALF); and
* two cars belonging to a fur business owner in Indianapolis, Indiana, were covered with paint stripper and his house splashed with red paint (April, ALF).

In June, about 9000 mink were released from cages at a fur farm in Mount Angel, Oregon. Many of the mink were babies that were unlikely to survive in the wild. Vandals also destroyed records at the farm. Eye witnesses said that many of the mink were dead of exposure or from fighting with each other, but a spokesman for the Coalition Against the Fur Trade said that few animals died.

Also in June, the animal rights conference that spawned an attack on the McDonald's in Crystal City, Virginia, also generated an assault on a fur retailer in Washington DC. Demonstrators smashed windows and blocked the doorway so that customers could not enter or leave.

the ALF set incendiary devices in a truck belonging to the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Haertel Company

firebombs set in four trucks and the main offices of the Agricultural Fur Breeders' Co-op in Sandy, Utah

rock and incendiary device thrown through the window of Flemington Fur Company in Flemington, New Jersey

Hundreds of other cases of vandalism and arson claimed by ALF and other militant animal rights groups have gone unsolved.

These are already considered criminal actions, vandalism and arson.

FBI director Louis Freeh

Isn't Louis Freeh the same joker who wrote and approved the Rules of Engagement for the operation conducted against Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, unleashing the FBI and sniper Lon Horiuchi to kill Weavers' son and wife?

My inquiry stands: Why does everything need to be considered terrorism these days? ALF IS a criminal organisation and they deserve what they get. But, IMO, to label every crime or group as terrorist will only incite undue fear.

Let's look at the definition used in the post to which I replied: "definition: Terrorism: political violence; violence or the threat of violence, especially bombing, kidnapping, and assassination, carried out for political purposes."

In the examples cited above, and in others, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), is known to promulgate violent acts against not only fur ranchers, but on animal research facilities, and on others who make their living by working with or by using animals. They do this to promote a different political philosophy, ie, that animals have the same intrinsic value as do human beings, and that animals should be given equal status to people.

Look at the following quotes from a number of animal rights activists:

"If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then, of course we're going to be, as a movement, blowing things up and smashing windows ... I think it's a great way to bring about animal liberation ... I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it's perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through the windows. ... Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it." Bruce Friedrich, PeTA's director of Vegan Outreach, Animal Rights Conference, 2001

"It won't ruin our movement if someone gets killed in an animal rights action. It's going to happen sooner or later. The Animal Liberation Front, the Earth Liberation Front -- sooner or later there's going to be someone getting hurt. And we have to accept that fact. It's going to happen. It's not going to hurt our movement. Our movement will go on. And it's important that we not let the bully pulpit of the FBI and the other oppression agencies stop us from what we're doing. They are the violent ones. They are the terrorists ... we have to keep doing what we're doing." Jerry Vlasak, PCRM spokesman and Director of ADL, speaking at the Animal Rights 2004 convention (July 8-11).

"Hit them in their personal lives, visit their homes . Actively target U.S. military establishments within the United States... strike hard and fast and retreat in anonymity. Select another location, strike again hard and fast and quickly retreat in anonymity ... Do not get caught. DO NOT GET CAUGHT. Do not get sent to jail. Stay alert, keep active, and keep fighting." Craig Rosenbraugh, radical animal rights spokesperson for terrorism and a recipient of PeTA funds, in Open letter to activists, published on the Independent Media Center website, March 17, 2003

"Today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter." Kevin Kjonaas, National Director and spokesperson, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA (SHAC USA) Animal Rights 2002 Convention, June 30, 2002

"I am convinced that we can shut down a lot of these animal abuse industries whether the public agrees with it or not. And whether these industries are shut down by violent or non-violent acts in the end, to me, doesn't really matter. David Barbarash, Spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) No Compromise, BBC Documentary, "Beastly Business" (October 1, 2000)

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