Oregon Approves Ecoterror Bill

FUR COMMISSION USA PRESS RELEASE, JUNE 3, 2001
Oregon Approves Ecoterror Bill
Oregon lawmakers have approved the final part of a package of bills aimed at curbing acts of ecoterrorism, according to The Oregonian (June 2).
While the House was in session, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) press office issued a statement criticizing the legislation and claiming guilt for two arsons on May 21 which struck a tree research facility in Clatskanie, OR, and a University of Washington research center in Seattle. The combined damage at the two facilities, which collaborated in research on poplars, has been put at over $3 million.
“Pending legislation in Oregon and Washington further criminalizing direct action in defense of the wild will not stop us and only highlights the fragility of the ecocidal empire,” the ELF press office stated.
According to The Oregonian, in May Gov. John Kitzhaber signed into law the main parts of the legislative package, House Bills 2344 and 2385, expanding the state’s racketeering statutes to include crimes against research, livestock and agricultural facilities and making “interference with agricultural research” a new crime.
HB2947, passed June 1, helps define crimes of research and animal interference, and interference with livestock production. The bill also classifies such acts as Class C felonies if damage is $2,500 or more and as Class A misdemeanors if damage is under $2,500.
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