Ceilidh

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

"The FBI has made the prevention and investigation of animal rights extremists (and) eco-terrorism ... a domestic terrorism investigative priority," said John E. Lewis, a deputy assistant FBI director in counterterrorism.

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His remarks were made last week before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which was told that a special federal task force has delved into 190 investigations involving extremists in the animal rights and environmental movements.

"The extremists' efforts have broadened to include a multinational campaign of harassment, intimidation and coercion against animal testing companies and any companies or individuals doing business with those targeted companies," Lewis said.

"The harassment is designed to inflict increasing economic damage until the company is forced to cancel its contracts or business relationship with the original target," he added.

Lewis said the extremists have committed more than 1,100 criminal acts in the United States since 1976, resulting in damages conservatively estimated at $110 million. But he said it was just two years ago that some animal rights activists abandoned a pledge of nonviolence and began a series of arsons, bombings, assaults and harassment campaigns.

Lewis named SHAC along with the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front in describing the tactics.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, however, questioned yesterday whether legitimate activism was under attack.

"Some of the names being bandied about in this instance are longtime activists and well respected," said PETA spokeswoman Lisa Lange, referring to the SHAC indictment.

Scientific researchers and corporations affected by the alleged extremists also are going before the Senate committee, supporting FBI reports that animal rights extremists have turned to campaigns of violence.

"It has gone beyond mere activism and protests," said David Martosko, research director for the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit group supporting the food industry and animal researchers.

"It's about total animal liberation, and the view of many of these people that anything is justified, even violence, to stop the rest of us from eating meat or continuing to conduct research that cured polio and many other diseases," he added.

The center joined representatives from Kentucky Fried Chicken in asserting before the Senate committee that PETA supports violent tactics, a claim PETA denies.

PETA responded yesterday with its own statement to the Senate committee by quoting John F. Kennedy.

"Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable," said PETA.

The group added that, "KFC is attempting to create the very frustrations that would compel other factions of any movement to rise up against the impossibility of properly seeking change."