Posted on 01/22/2005 2:00:46 AM PST by flitton
ANIMAL rights activists face trial on terrorism charges in America next month for their campaign against a British research centre. The seven members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) are all from America, but at least one trained as an activist in Britain.
They were arrested in FBI raids across four states over their alleged activities against Huntingdon Life Sciences. The company’s headquarters are in Cambridgeshire, but it has a laboratory in New Jersey.
The seven, who face trial in New Jersey, are charged with conspiring to commit animal enterprise terrorism. If convicted they face heavy fines and up to three years each in jail.
Their alleged activities are little different from those undertaken by some British extremists. They are accused of posting terror tactics on the internet, inciting others to commit vandalism and physical assaults, to send threatening letters, make abusive phone calls, e-mail “bombs” to crash computers and invade homes.
They allegedly organised regular protests outside the HLS laboratory, one of which led to violent clashes with police. The indictment lists recent action taken against Huntingdon’s American staff, clients and associated companies. This included smoke-bomb attacks, the overturning of an employee’s car, the carving of the words “puppy killer” into a golf course where an executive played, and publishing on the internet the personal contact details of staff.
The defendants are not accused of committing the crimes but of using the internet to incite others.
Federal prosecutors described their activities as “thuggery and intimidation” and said that they “crossed the line from civil demonstration to domestic terrorism”. American police say that there has been “a surge in crimes by militant activists fighting to stop product testing on animals”.
The seven have been named as Darius Fullmer, 27, a paramedic, and John McGee, 25, both from New Jersey; Kevin Kjonaas, 26, Lauren Gazzola, 25, and Jacob Conroy, 28, all from Pinole, California; Joshua Harper, 29, from Seattle; and Andrew Stepanian, 25, from New York.
Mr Kjonaas, the president of ShacUSA, lived in Britain for two years, taking command of the British arm of Shac while its founders served jail sentences in 2002. In an interview with an internet magazine, “Kevin Jonas” said: “I spent a year in England working full-time on animal rights campaigns and there really cut my teeth on some ‘true grit’ activism. I helped to shut down two of London’s last few fur stores (including the furrier to the Queen), plus saw the closure of Shamrock Monkey Farm and Regal Rabbits. It was a ‘smashing’ time to be there.” Shac, which formed in 1999 with the aim of closing down Britain’s biggest animal-testing laboratory, has branches in the United States, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland.
Animal activists who target supply firms for pharmaceutical companies and research laboratories are to face a new criminal offence of economic sabotage. The measure will be announced by Patricia Hewitt, Trade and Industry Secretary, within two weeks and is expected to be law before the general election. The law is to be introduced as an amendment to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill.
Mary Hudson, a 67-year-old widow, has left her job as a cleaner at the Darley Oaks guinea pig farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, after her children and grandchildren were threatened by animal rights activists campaigning for its closure.
Then we're on to PETA, greenfece, send them to iran so they can protest there.
American terrorists operating in the UK.
Bloody hell!
Send em all to Guantanamo and put a pair of panties on their heads.
Bar stewards.
LOL Maybe it would be more effective to dress them in a leather jacket with a sheepskin lining.
www.hofstra.edu/debate/debate_publicarea.html
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“Convicted terrorist scheduled to speak Tuesday night before presidential debate”
2:29 PM 10/15/2012
SNIPPET: “Andrew Stepanian, a felon who went to prison for animal enterprise terrorism, appears on Hofstra University’s published schedule at 8:00 p.m., during the hour before the debate begins. Stepanian runs The Sparrow Project, a left-wing PR project whose website indicates connections with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Stepanian, an ardent animal rights activist, was convicted in 2006 of terrorism stemming from a criminal conspiracy to target a company that tested medications on laboratory animals. He received a three-year sentence for his activities on behalf of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).”
ON THE INTERNET:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shac/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shacusa/index
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