Long time Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activists Joseph Buddenberg and Nicole Kissane were arrested last week and charged with a long term cross country crime spree in 2013 that saw them attacking numerous animal related businesses and causing the death of hundreds of animals. It’s funny how so many people believe that animal rights will provide better lives for animals. All you have to do is follow the trail of dead animals to realize that “animal rights” means nothing of the kind, it is a movement that simply provides a moral cover to criminals.
According to the federal indictment, the unemployed animal rights activists traveled more than 4,000 miles in the summer of 2013 alone to attack their victims, driving from Oregon to California to Montana, Iowa and beyond to commit their crimes. Proud of their actions and utterly unrepentant, they released “communiqués” to boast about what they had done. While on the run, using paint stripper, butyric and muriatic acid, bolt cutters, and lists of victims to attack and maps of the areas, they attacked stores in San Diego, Spring Valley, and La Mesa, and multiple locations in the San Francisco Bay area of California and later in Minnesota. In Montana, they attacked a farm , stole a bobcat and released it into the wild. The next day, they vandalized the Darby Chief of Police’s cars. They continued their spree by attacking farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. The farmers suffered damages estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Both activists are now facing a federal charge of violating the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), a law focused specifically on the animal rights terrorist front. This is the second time that Buddenberg has been charged with violating AETA. He and three fellow activists were able to beat charges in 2010 and continued their crime wave. They were defended by the left leaning social justice organization called the Center for Constitutional Rights who claimed that these violent thugs were simply exercising their free speech rights under the First Amendment. As if.
“Whatever your feelings about the fur industry, there are legal ways to make your opinions known,” U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement. “The conduct alleged here, sneaking around at night, stealing property and vandalizing homes and businesses with acid, glue and chemicals, is a form of domestic terrorism and can’t be permitted to continue.”
Besides attacking fur stores and farmers, both are accused of attacking meat businesses and medical researchers. This isn’t the first brush with the law for the two activists, Buddenberg was part of a circle who was arrested in 2009 for protesting in front of medical researcher’s private homes. Suspected but never charged, Buddenberg is believed to be partially responsible for several firebombings outside these homes. Researcher Doctor David Feldheim was terrorized when his home was bombed while car parked at a nearby home blew up minutes later. Feldheim focuses on medical research on eye diseases and uses mice in his research.
“The family was home at the time of the firebombing and the victims, including two young children, escaped on a fire ladder from a second-story window, according to police.”
In the week leading up to the bombings, the neighborhood had been covered in flyers passed around by the activists that said, “Animal abusers everywhere beware; we know where you live; we know where you work; we will never back down until you end your abuse.” Only in these demented criminal’s minds are fruit flies and mice more important than medical research into eye diseases. Every time a researcher quits or a medical research program is damaged, all of us suffer as a result. Dr. Feldheim and his colleagues also study Cancer, Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Over 200 of Dr. Feldheim’s colleagues and friends rallied to his cause after the attempted destruction of his home.
After Buddenberg and Kissane were arrested yet again this July and charged with their most recent crime spree, both were released on a unsecured bond, leaving them free to roam society and continue their violence. These acts of terrorism against innocent families will continue as long as courts continue to give them nothing more than a slap on the wrist. If you or I had been arrested and charged wtih a crime by the FBI, we would never see the light of day, yet the courts simply release these terrorists back into the community, time and time again while the media downplays their actions.
Katharine Dokken is a Public Affairs Specialist at The Cavalry Group and the author of a new book, The Art of Terror: Inside the Animal Rights Movement, available on Amazon.
Follow Katharine and The Cavalry Group on Twitter: @KatharineDokken @TheCavalryGroup
