PeTA Net

FUR COMMISSION USA PRESS RELEASE, MARCH 20, 2002

Click here to sign a petition by Putting an End to Absurd Activism (PeTAA) calling for the revocation of PeTA's tax-exempt status.

Closing the Net on PeTA
IRS Urged to Pull Tax-Exempt Status

Special to FCUSA by Simon Ward

(See also McInnis to Newkirk : Explain ELF Funding, full text of Mar. 4 letter from Rep. Scott McInnis, Chairman, House Resources Committee Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, to PeTA president Ingrid Newkirk; and "Conservatives test greens' tax status", Washington Times, Apr. 14, 2002 - outside link.)

SEPT. 11 FORCED the US government to make the tracking of terrorists and the people who fund them an absolute priority. Now the dragnet has swept up America's most controversial above-ground animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), following revelations about some unsavory characters it has supported.

The net began to close around PeTA at a Feb. 12 hearing on ecoterrorism by the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health.

At that hearing, the FBI's top domestic terrorism official, James Jarboe, identified the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the related Earth Liberation Front (ELF) as America's most active domestic terrorist organizations (see Jarboe's testimony). The FBI estimates that ALF and/or ELF have committed more than 600 criminal acts in the US since 1996, resulting in damages in excess of $43 million.

Richard Berman of the Washington, DC-based Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a trade group for restaurant operators, then testified on the links between these terror groups and mainstream animal rights groups, including PeTA (see Berman's testimony). Between 1994 and 1995, for instance, PeTA gave over $70,000 toward the failed legal defense of ALFer Rodney Coronado, who was sentenced to 57 months in prison for torching a Michigan State University research facility. Other beneficiaries of PeTA's largesse documented by the CCF include David Wilson, a former PeTA intern and ALF spokesman at the time of the 1997 bombing of the Fur Breeders Agricultural Co-op in Utah ($2,000), and the Josh Harper Support Committee ($5,000). Harper's career includes many spells in prison, plus a refusal to appear before an Oregon Grand Jury for questioning on ALF and ELF crimes.

Berman also testified that "both PeTA and its president, Ingrid Newkirk, are acknowledged financial supporters of an organization called No Compromise, which operates on behalf of, and for the 'underground' supporters of the Animal Liberation Front."

Following Up

Subcommittee chairman Scott McInnis (R-Colorado) saw an important lead and followed it. On Mar. 4, he wrote to Newkirk asking her to clarify her group's financial ties, if any, to ALF and ELF.

"As a non-profit organization with tax-exempt privileges and the incumbent public policy obligations that status entails, PeTA has a responsibility to explain the full extent of its involvement with and contributions to environmental terror groups like ELF and ALF," he wrote. He also called on PeTA to publicly condemn "these and other eco-terrorist groups."

Following the same lead is the Bellevue, Washington-based Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. On the day that McInnis wrote to Newkirk, the CDFE hand-delivered a 12-page complaint to IRS commissioner Charles Rossotti urging him to revoke PeTA's tax-exempt status for "violating tax laws and inducing or encouraging unlawful acts."

Presented to the tax chief was evidence of PeTA supporting ALF by acting as a media conduit and providing legal defense funds for ALF arsonist Coronado, stealing trade secrets, advocating arson, and assaulting business executives. Also highlighted was PeTA's donation of $1,500 to the North American ELF to "support their program activities," as revealed in its Form 990 for FY 2001.

"Why hasn't the IRS looked into this? Or Congress?" asked CDFE executive vice president Ron Arnold, author of Ecoterror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature. "PeTA continually encourages unlawful acts. PeTA people have numerous arrests. Tax exempt status is for charitable purposes. There's nothing charitable about encouraging arson. ... PeTA should be stripped of its tax exempt status."

Owning Up

PeTA has since acknowledged that it gave money to ELF, but has denied funding criminal acts.(1)

Explains spokeswoman Lisa Lange, one of PeTA's messages is that "you can't be an environmentalist and eat meat, and the ELF was going to be doing some publicity on that very thing. We saw it as an opportunity to get our message out."

"None of our money goes toward illegal activities," she insists. "This specific project we funded was a quality project."

As for legal aid given to ALFers, "In the case of Rod Coronado ... he needed defense and we helped him," says Lange. "Donations of support were given to those individuals [like David Wilson], because every person in America has a right to be considered innocent before proven guilty. They also have a right to a legal defense."

Such flimsy arguments cannot be allowed to carry weight with the IRS. If PeTA wishes to incite others to violence and spend donations on their legal defense, at the very least it should pay taxes for the privilege of doing so.

NOTES:

(1) "PeTA Under Attack for Funding Alleged Eco-Terrorists," CNSNews.com, Mar. 8, 2002.

McInnis to Newkirk: Explain Your ELF Funding

The following letter was sent Mar. 4 by Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colorado), Chairman, House Resources Committee Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, to Ingrid Newkirk, president of PeTA.

Dear Ms. Newkirk:

When the House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health held an oversight hearing probing the increasing threat of ecoterrorism on National Forest lands last month, evidence was submitted by one of the Subcommittee's witnesses showing that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) contributed to the Earth Liberation Front, the public face of an organization described by the FBI as America's single largest domestic terrorism threat. The purpose of the contribution to ELF is listed on PETA's Form 990 tax return as to "support their program activities." Subsequent reporting in the media appears to substantiate these allegations.

As a non-profit organization with tax-exempt privileges and the incumbent public policy obligations that status entails, PETA has a responsibility to explain the full extent of its involvement with and contributions to environmental terror groups like ELF and ALF. With that in mind, I respectfully request that you respond to the following questions, the answers to which will be made part of the hearing's public record.

Since 1993, how much and on how many occasions has PETA made financial contributions to either the Earth Liberation Front and/or its press office, the Animal Liberation Front and/or its press office, and suspected or convicted persons associated with ELF and ALF?
Does PETA have any internal policies or guidelines either encouraging or discouraging financial support of unlawful groups like ELF and ALF? If so, what are they?
Under what rational did PETA make a contribution(s) to ELF?
What steps did PETA take to ensure that these funds would not be used for unlawful purposes?
Whose signature appeared on the returned check that PETA gave ELF?
Does PETA condone the violent activities of organizations like ELF? Should PETA's contribution to ELF be seen as an endorsement?
Does PETA have any intention of contributing to ELF, ALF or other similarly motivated groups in the future?

As local, state and federal law enforcement officials grapple with this formidable threat, careful scrutiny must be applied to any and all persons or organizations that lend financial aid and comfort to this radical band of extremists. In the future, I hope that PETA will cut-off its financial ties with ELF and ALF, and join America's largest mainstream environmental groups in publicly condemning these and other eco-terrorist groups.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Scott McInnis

cc: Internal Revenue Service
Federal Bureau of Investigation

See also:

In Their Own Words Bizarre utterances from the mouths of PeTAphiles.

Press Kit Special Feature : Safe Farms Campaign

Press Kit Special Feature : Regulating the Conflict Industry

For a chronology of ecoterror crimes, visit www.furcommission.com/attack/index.html.

For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 575-5578/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com. See also Teresa's blog and Facebook.

To take a cyber-tour of a fur farm, visit FCUSA's Fur on Film.

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