Feds indict animal rights group, seven radicals
as domestic terrorists for attacks on researchers
SHAC attack
On May 27, 2004, following two years of intensive investigation, a New Jersey
Grand Jury handed down indictments of a militant animal rights group and seven
individuals for crimes against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a biological research
company with offices in New Jersey and Great Britain.
The indictment(1) charged that Stop Huntingdon Animal
Cruelty conducted a systematic campaign that involved stalking, destruction
of property, harassment, intimidation, threats, incitement, and other actions
aimed at destroying the company, its clients and its business partners in violation
of a federal law that protects animal enterprises. According to the indictment,
this conspiracy was furthered on the SHAC website where a list of Top 20 Terror
Tactics was used to provoke direct action against the company; the names and
contact information of company and client employees were presented as targets
of the campaign; and reports of such actions were announced before and after
the fact.
The tactics included loud demonstrations at individuals' homes; abusive graffiti
on cars and homes; property damage and theft of documents; physical assault
such as spraying cleaning fluid into a victim's eyes; vandalism and firebombing
of cars; threatening communications; bomb hoaxes; and smashing windows.
SHACground
SHAC was founded in England in 1999 to wreak havoc on Huntingdon; its violent
tactics reached their nadir in 2001 when thugs attacked Huntingdon director
Brian Cass and beat him with a baseball bat and sprayed cleaning fluid in the
eyes of another company executive.
By that time, the war against Huntingdon had been going on for several years.
In 1996, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals opened the US hostilities
against the company by implanting a spy among the animal caretakers in the laboratory.
For eight months, Michelle Rokke secretly videotaped scientists and technicians
and photographed and stole documents. She gave the tapes and papers to PeTA
to be distilled into short segments and sent to Huntingdon clients and the media
in a crusade clearly calculated to destroy the company.
Huntingdon sued PeTA and reached an out-of-court settlement that required the
animal rights group to return documents and to stay away from the company. In
2001, Rodney Coronado, a convicted arsonist with ties to PeTA, co-founded SHAC's
US branch.
No stranger to the war on scientific research, Coronado admitted guilt for
the 1992 firebombing and vandalism of a laboratory at Michigan State University
and served nearly five years in jail. The sentencing memorandum prepared by
the prosecution in that case included detailed evidence that PeTA knew of Coronado's
crime in advance, received documents stolen from the laboratory, and issued
the ALF press release claiming 'credit' for the attack. The memorandum further
revealed that Coronado and PeTA co-founder Alex Pacheco had planned a raid on
Tulane University to steal monkeys being housed there. Tax records show that
PeTA gave more than $45,000 to Coronado's support committee after his arrest.
Today Coronado demonstrates bomb-making skills at animal rights meetings, some
of them co-sponsored by SHAC. Even though appearances by Coronado are often
accompanied by an arson attack on a business that has earned the wrath of radicals
merely by existing, PeTA's Ingrid Newkirk, has called him "a nice young man."
SHAC's connections with PeTA are not limited to Ingrid's admiration for Coronado.
The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, a PeTA affiliate, partnered
with SHAC in a series of letters to Huntingdon clients in 2001(2),
and in 2002, Newkirk told the Boston Herald, "More power to SHAC if they
can get someone's attention."
The connection between SHAC and PCRM has been solidified. According to the
website www.insidehls.com, the SHAC site targeting Huntingdon, its clients,
and its service providers, "SHAC has teamed up with two doctor/researcher organizations
who oppose animal research based on the belief that it is harmful to humans.
These groups are Americans For Medical Advancement (AFMA) and the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)."(3)
The SHAC seven
The seven individuals charged in the five-count indictment are: Kevin Kjonaas,
26, identified as president of SHAC-USA; Lauren Gazzola, 25, campaign director
of SHAC-USA; Joshua Harper, 29; Jacob Conroy, 28; Andrew Stepanian, 24, Darius
Fullmer, 27; and John McGee, 25.
The case against SHAC and its seven apologists is part of a massive web of
entanglements featuring a host of nefarious characters. Not only are Kjonaas,
Harper, Stepanian, and Fullmer quite familiar with the legal system, they are
intricately connected with organizations that skirt or violate the law or support
those who do so.
Kevin Kjonaas uses several aliases, including Kevin Jonas, Steve Shore,
and Jim Fareer, according to the court papers. While Kjonaas claims to remain
on the right side of the law, he makes no apologies for his support of illegal
activities or his admiration for those who commit them. In an attempt to legitimize
the use of violence as a tactic to eliminate animal use, Kjonaas told participants
at the Animal Rights 2002 convention that "Today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom
fighter."
Later that year, he expounded on his politics at a SHAC rally in East Millstone,
New Jersey: "We're a new breed of activism. We're not your parents' Humane Society.
We're not Friends of Animals. We're not EarthSave. We're not Greenpeace. We
come with a new philosophy. We hold the radical line. We will not compromise!
We will not apologize, and we will not relent! ... Vivisection is not an abstract
concept. It's a deed, done by individuals, who have weaknesses, who have breaking
points, and who have home addresses!"
Those addresses and the addresses of their colleagues, clients, and families
are periodically posted on the SHAC website with the obvious implication that
these people are fair game until they quit doing business with Huntingdon.
Seattle resident Joshua Harper joined Coronado as a beneficiary of PeTA's
largesse. Harper followed in the footsteps of PeTA co-founder Alex Pacheco and
Coronado when he served on the crew of Paul Watson's Sea Shepherd. Financed
by the late Cleveland Amory, the ship was used to ram whaling ships and fishing
boats and to further Watson's reputation as an outlaw.
In July 2002, Watson told participants at the Animal Rights Convention: "If
you do not intend to kill anybody, if you make every effort to not kill and
injure anybody, that's all you really can do. You can't stop somebody from walking
into a situation, and we really can't be too overly preoccupied with this."
In 2000, Harper and fellow-indictee Jacob Conroy were arrested for attacks
on members of the Makah tribe as these Native Americans conducted a legal whale
hunt. The two men were accused of throwing smoke bombs, spraying chemical fire
extinguishers into the faces of the whalers, shooting flares over the bow of
the canoe, and threatening the lives of the whaling crew.
"We did it for the whales," Harper said when he was arrested.
Harper has been arrested several other times in connection with out-of-control
demonstrations and was called to testify before a federal grand jury for his
knowledge of the Animal Liberation Front in February 2001. That year, Harper
said that he sees "a spark of hope in every broken window, every torched police
car" and PeTA donated $5000 to the Josh Harper Support Fund.(4)
Darius Fullmer, co-founder of the radical Animal Defense League-New
Jersey, shares the ALF anarchist philosophy with Harper, Kjonaas, and others
who commit crimes against animal enterprises. In an interview on the ALF website,(5)
Fullmer explained his anarchist philosophy:
"I value life over property. If I can save a life by destroying physical property,
I will gladly do so. People do not have the right to torture, enslave, mutilate,
or murder living creatures. If they are doing so, I am going to use whatever
means I deem is necessary to put an end to it. If their property is a tool of
this oppression, they have no right to it.
"There are no better educational opportunities than ALF actions - they generate
more public interest and media than any protest or media event ever could,"
Fullmer told the interviewer. "The only failing point may be above ground groups'
inability to take advantage of the situation. I would also remind them that
you can protest, write letters, get petitions signed until you are blue in the
face, but if a fur store is nothing more than a pile of ashes, they are not
going to be selling any more fur, and that's the bottom line."
Andrew Stepanian has been arrested several times. He served three month's
jail time in 2001 for smashing the windows of a fur store, and six months the
following year for obstructing justice and resisting arrest. While sitting in
jail in March 2002, he reiterated his commitment to the use of direct action
against animal interests and encouraged others to disrupt and damage animal
interests.
"I would encourage everyone to step up their involvement two times. If you
only feel comfortable writing letters, then attend a protest or rally, if you
only feel comfortable attending demonstrations then take to the night and commit
an act of non-violent economic sabotage or liberate an animal from torture."(6)
In his earlier stint behind bars, Stepanian received support from his buddies
at ALF:
"In the early morning hours of March 2nd, we planted two incendiary devices
underneath two trucks belonging to The Schaller and Weber Meat Packing Plant
in Astoria, Queens. The incendiary devices did an unknown amount of damage to
the trucks, although it was evident that the trucks caught fire.
"Until the institutional abuse of animals is put to an end we will continue
to destroy the property used to exploit innocent life.
"This action was carried out in support of Andrew Stepanian, and Frank Ambrose,
both dedicated members of our strong above-ground support groups. The unjust
treatment of these activists will never intimidate us into stopping our activities."(7)
First Amendment rights?
Whenever they are prevented from demonstrating, arrested for offenses that
often follow their mass protests, or charged with theft, arson, stalking, harassment,
or other crimes, animal rights activists scream that they were merely exercising
their right to free speech. The SHAC crew is no different; a spokesman for the
organization told the San Francisco Chronicle(8) that
the indictments are "completely unfounded" and that the arrests are "a classic
First Amendment case."
According to New Jersey lawyer Andrew Erba, "This case is about First Amendment
practices in the 21st century, the use of modern technology, the freedom to
use Web sites to speak for any cause." Erba told the New Jersy Star-Ledger
that he expected to represent Kjonaas.(9)
Kjonaas, Conroy, and Gazzola were arrested in California and made their first
appearance in federal court in Oakland. After the court hearing, the three said
that they would defend their actions as free speech rights. The judge admonished
the three against committing violence or harassment such as placing the names
and identifying information about individuals on their website.(10)
Not content with the claim that the arrests for vandalism, harassment, stalking,
and other crimes are constitutional violations, the dissidents also allege that
the federal government is falsely using the Patriot Act to quell their campaign
against animal-based research.
"This case is going to the free speech trial of the century - and we are going
to do our best to use it slam HLS, vivisection, the constitutionality of the
AETA, and show the 'true grit' of grassroots activists," Kjonaas said in an
e-mail to supporters. (The AETA is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.)
Business as usual?
SHAC-USA spokesman Andrea Lindsay said that Kjonaas, Conroy, and Gazzola "definitely
find the indictment outrageous and they're ready to return to business as usual."11
"Activists will not stray from our course of shutting down Huntingdon Life
Science," Lindsay said. "Huntingdon Life Sciences has a false sense of security
if it thinks these indictments will end the unrelenting protest activity against
it."(12)
Harper, Stepanian, Kjonaas, and SHAC were all participants in the Total Liberation
Tour, an effort to bring their message of direct action to several US cities
in July.
The SHAC website listed more than 20 actions against HLS clients since the
indictment, including vandalism, threats that an executives vacation would be
ruined, and noise attacks by megaphones and alarms in employees' neighborhoods.
SHAC and Kjonaas planned to raise money to support their defense through the
Total Liberation Tour, a road show preaching revolution to the sound of music.
The tour included bands and speeches about overthrowing "Babylon."(13)
Organizers were disappointed in the July events; they drew the attention of
police and FBI but their crowds were sparse and they lost about $10,000 instead
of raising money for defense of the SHAC 7. However, in spite of this failure,
organizers plan to carry on. According to the Total Liberation website, "Clearly,
our potency and our threat as freedom fighters does not have it's roots in a
shared single-issue ideology or lifestyle. It has nothing at all to do with
what sub-culture we may be a part of. What SHOULD bind us to one another and
give us strength, is the only worthwhile culture alive in Europe or Amerikkka
today, the culture of REVOLUTION."
"REVOLUTION" is a link to a call to arms and information about fitness and
firearms training.
Notes
1. Find the indictment on the NAIA Trust website
2. Letter dated September 20, 2001 and signed by Neal Barnard
of PCRM and Kevin Kjonaas of SHAC. The letter was sent to dozens of companies
that contracted with Huntingdon Life Sciences and urged them to stop doing business
with HLS. The letter claimed that HLS abused animals and conducted "inappropriate
animal experimentation."
3. Noted on the website Inside HLS September 24, 2004.
4.
http://www.activistcash.com/organization_blackeye.cfm/oid/21 and other sources
5.
http://www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/alfinter.htm
6. March 21, 2002, http://www.infoshop.org/gulag/,
a website supporting animal rights prisoners. No longer appearing as of 11-28-04.
7. ALF Claim Fire Attack on Meat Trucks, a communique released
by the Frontline Information Service
March 5,2001.
8. "Target of the week" by Debra Saunders, San Francisco
Chronicle, May 30, 2004,
9. "Animal rights activists deny targeting lab" by John P.
Martin and Brian T. Murray, New Jersey Star Ledger, June 16, 2004, http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1087368646306840.xml
(This article is no longer available on the Star Ledger website.)
10." Judge warns defiant animal activists" by Paul Elias,
Associated Press, June 1, 2004.
11, 12. "Local animal rights activists indicted for alleged
terrorism" by Josh Richman, TriValley Herald, May 27, 2004, http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10671~2175241,00.html
(This article is no longer available on the TriValley Herald website.)
13. Total Liberation Tour website, http://www.total-liberation.com/ site not appearing 11-28-04.
|
