3 animal activists going to prison for inciting threats

[Animal 0]

Sep. 12, 2006

3 animal-welfare activists going to prison for inciting threats
BETH DeFALCO
Associated Press


TRENTON, N.J. - Three animal-rights activists convicted of using their Web site to incite threats and harassment against a company that tests products on animals received prison sentences ranging from four to six years Tuesday.

They were also ordered to pay a total of $1 million in restitution to the company and people they terrorized. All three said they planned to appeal their convictions and requested they receive vegan meals while in prison.

Three other members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are awaiting sentencing within the next two weeks.

Along with the organization itself, the six activists were convicted in March of using a Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that tests drugs and household products on animals.

Huntingdon Life Sciences general manger Mike Caulfield said the company "was grateful that justice was served." He said as a result of the threats and harassment, the company's health insurer and other firms severed ties with it.

"It generally made the cost of doing business with us more expensive than our competitors during that time," he said.

And that was the point, prosecutors said.

"This was a conspiracy to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences," said assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna.

The government charged that the group waged a five-year campaign against the company, posting on the Web site the names, addresses and phone numbers of Huntingdon employees and those who do business with the company, and personal information such as where they go to church and where their children attend school.

Many of those people saw their homes vandalized and received threatening e-mails, faxes and phone calls.

The group, based in Philadelphia, maintains its actions were protected under the First Amendment.

The defendants, all in their late 20s or early 30s, were not accused of directly making threats or carrying out vandalism but were convicted of animal-enterprise terrorism, conspiracy and interstate stalking.

The three sentenced were the president of SHAC, Kevin Kjonaas, 28, of Minneapolis, Minn.; campaign coordinator Lauren Gazzola, 25, of Connecticut; and Web site manager Jacob Conroy, 30, of San Francisco. Kjonaas was sentenced to six years in prison, Gazzola to four years and four months, and Conroy to four years.

"None of it's fair," Conroy said after the hearing.

Though defense attorneys tried to portray their clients as well-meaning animal-lovers who committed a "crime of compassion," prosecutors said the group, and especially its leader, allowed good intentions to become perverted.

"Mr. Kjonaas was drunk with the power that he could push around multinational companies with his Web site," McKenna said.

Gazzola wept as she addressed U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson, telling the court how she feared her dream of becoming an attorney vanished with her felony conviction.

But Gazzola, as well as the other two, never apologized for their actions and Thompson asked why.

"As an advocate for any cause," Gazzola responded, "you change your idea of the best way to use your talents."

Each activist asked to serve their sentence in a prison near their hometown and asked to receive vegan meals. All three said they planned to appeal the case.

"I'm pretty confident I won't be serving (that long) in prison," Kjonaas said after being sentenced. "There are a ton of appealable issues."

"I'll be OK," he said, "I'll be back."

ON THE NET

SHAC: http://www.shac.net

Huntingdon Life Sciences: http://www.huntingdon.com