THE BALLOON MAN

 

OPINION: Enforce laws that target animal-rights terrorists

Kurt Miller/AP
Theresa Fitzgerald interacts with two of her remaining pheasants on Aug. 2, after activists broke into her Riverside aviary and released her birds, leading to some of the pheasants' deaths. The break-in is a reminder that animal-rights terrorism is still a menace.
From:  www.pe.com
BY WILL COGGIN
August 15, 2013
The burglary last week at a Riverside pheasant farm by the Animal Liberation Front is a reminder that animal-rights terrorism, described a decade ago by the FBI as a top domestic terror threat, is still in our midst. From burglaries to bombs, businesses, their employees, and even family members have been targets of animal-rights terror campaigns.

 

The crimes in Riverside follow an attempted firebombing of a police car in Vancouver, computer hacking of a New York business, a mink-farm burglary in Idaho, vandalism at a San Diego fur store and threats from a terror group to “destroy” farms across Utah, all in 2013 alone. And unfortunately, this coincides with a misguided movement under the mask of “free speech” to roll back anti-terrorism laws.

The New York City Bar Association is encouraging the American Bar Association to push for a repeal of recent terrorism laws that help fight self-anointed vigilantes. The NYC Bar is targeting the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, passed in 2006 to stiffen the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act, and wants the American Bar Association to pressure the Justice Department to cease enforcing the law.

Congress passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act following the arrests of animal activists with a New Jersey-based group called “Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty,” a group opposed to necessary research involving animals. The group used tactics ranging from death threats to computer attacks to intimidate not just its target company, Huntingdon Life Sciences, but affiliate companies, their employees, and family members. Ultimately, six of the group’s activists were convicted and sent to federal prison with sentences ranging from one to six years.
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