Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Federal prosecutors have dropped four extortion charges against an animal rights activist who was accused of freeing thousands of mink from farms around the Midwest. Prosecutors said they were forced to act because a Supreme Court decision changed the legal definition of extortion while Peter Daniel Young was on the run. The ruling found someone must actually take something from another person, authorities said. The surprise move shocked the owner of a farm where authorities said Young helped free 300 mink in 1997. "You've got to be kidding. Unbelievable. Unbelievable," said Alex Ott, owner of Ott's...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - An animal rights activist who dodged federal authorities for years was moved to a more secure cell after he was sent what might be an escape plan in the mail, authorities said Tuesday. Sheriff's deputies said they intercepted a drawing of a courtroom marked "escape route" in Peter Daniel Young's mail July 6. They moved him from a medium security dormitory to the Dane County Jail the same day, sheriff's spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said. The drawing was vague and didn't seem to represent any specific courtroom, Schaffer said, but "it was seen as a possible security...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - An animal rights activist has been arrested here on a federal domestic terrorism warrant after spending seven years on the run, authorities said Tuesday. Peter Daniel Young, 27, was indicted along with two others by a federal grand jury in 1998 in connection with trespassing on mink farms in Wisconsin, South Dakota and Iowa, and allegedly freeing thousands of the animals, Supervisory Special Agent Mike Johnson in the FBI's Milwaukee bureau said. Young fled soon after the indictment, Johnson said. He was arrested March 21 at a Starbucks Coffee shop in San Jose. According to...