(See also "Sabotage Bill" Moves in Washington State, FCUSA press release, Mar. 14, 2001.)

Testimony of FCUSA Board Member Harvey Beck on H.B. 1938 to the Committee on Criminal Justice and Corrections, February 23, 2001

Co Chairs Ballasiotes and O'Brien, Committee Members and Concerned Citizens:

Thank you for allowing me to address you today on the serious subject of ecoterrorism. I am a working mink farmer. This is a livestock and recycling process whereby the mink, being carnivores, consume the "leftovers" from the dairy, beef, fish and poultry industries and transform this "waste" into the raw material for cold weather clothing, fine oils and other products. In addition to farming full time, I am a member of the Washington State Farm Bureau and serve on the Government Affairs Committee of Fur Commission USA, a non-profit association representing over 400 mink-farming families on over 400 farms in 31 states. To learn more about our industry, please visit www.furcommission.com.

Fur farmers, along with trappers, retailers, designers and our support industries, have been subjected to persistent, coordinated, multi-state terrorist attacks. As victims of terrorism, either in the name of animal rights or the environment, we join the ranks of the beef, poultry, dairy, timber, mining and recreation industries, wildlife managers, research scientists, zoos, aquariums, restaurants and all others who have been victimized.

ALF/ELF, "Justice Department" and Terrorist Cells

We have all read the press releases issued by the various groups such as the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), which embrace property damage and intimidation tactics. The ELF and ALF are almost interchangeable and make statements such as, quote, "As corporate destroyers burn in the west, wildlife nations will be liberated in the north", (end quote). They rant against the American system of free enterprise, calling it (quote) "the capitalist death machine," (end quote.)

Additionally, threats have been issued to U.S. farmers and researchers from the ultimate enforcement arm of ALF and ELF, the so-called "Justice Department." This group sent razor blade-rigged letters with drawings of letter bombs, warning the recipients to quit their industries or (quote),"be subjected to violence which is uncomparable to booby trapped letters." (End quote.) [SIC]

The Justice Department has claimed responsibility for hundreds of actions in the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and the United States, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The London Independent characterized the Justice Department's bombing campaign as (quote), "...the most sustained and sophisticated bombing campaign in mainland Britain since the IRA was at its height", (end quote).

Negative Impact on Free Speech and Civil Liberties

Free speech and civil liberties are the real victims of ecoterrorism as citizens are systematically threatened and attacked by these criminals.

ELF, ALF, the Justice Department, and other group names, are taglines for small cells of criminals embracing threatening and terrorist tactics to push their agenda forward. Their goal is to silence, terrify and eliminate those supporting sustainable use of the Earth and to force society to embrace their suicidal agenda to "liberate" the Earth and animals from any human interference. Since every living organism has an impact on the Earth, we are all potential targets of ecoterrorism. .

The original wave of ecoterrorism focused on the minorities in our modern, industrialized society, those who work directly with the Earth and animals to feed, clothe, shelter and cure us. It started with graffiti and window breaking, attacks on meat, fish, dairy, fur and leather shops and on research laboratories. Ecoterrorists expanded to destroying logging, mining, ranching and construction equipment; break ins at livestock facilities and labs; tree-spiking; fence-cutting and cattle shooting; website hacking; in-the-field vandalism of plant research; arson and letter bombs. Masked intimidation of people in their homes and on the job and anonymous threats sent via email are all common tactics.

The costs of ecoterrorism are rising, destruction of property is excessive, animals and people have been injured and killed.

• Here in Washington State, in just the fur farming industry, our farmers have experienced multiple breaks ins, vandalism, theft and abandonment of our animals, and even arson.
• The torching of a Vail, Colorado ski resort in the fall of 1998 shocked those who recreate in the great outdoors.
• Ted Kazinski, the "Unabomber" and convicted murderer, is now appearing on ecoterrorist "prisoners' lists".
• At the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle in 1999, the executive director of the nonprofit Rainforest Action Network waved a 3-foot long monkey wrench at the gathered protestors and shouted "Welcome to the revolution! If you do non-violent direct action you can be heroes too!" Hundreds of people chose window breaking and vandalism as their "direct action" method of communicating their anti-trade message.
• The recent spate of arsons against homes in several states has awakened the general public to the risk they face since we all take animal habitat when building our homes, the only private property most of us will ever own.
• 2001 opened with a letter bomb sent to a pesticide company in the UK (insects are animals too!) - the owner's six-year old daughter was injured when she helped Daddy open the mail.

The UK letter bomb campaign has continued this year with bombs mailed to farmers, physicians, researchers and others. When a letter bomb exploded at a crowded UK fish and chips shop, a "spokesperson" for the Animal Liberation Front stated, "Although fish and chip shops haven't been targeted before so far as I can remember, they would be considered legitimate targets."(1)

American Democracy Threatened

We humans, along with all life forms, are dependent on using the Earth, its plants and animals in order to live. Everyone and all property, including domesticated animals, are all "legitimate targets" to Earth and animal "liberators".

With these sorts of threats hanging over us, our democratic society is thwarted in its efforts to discuss and prioritize concerns, to make decisions based on fact, reason and science. Instead we are forced to respond to how many windows were broken at a trade meeting or what burned down or was blown up last week.

Norman Rockwell's series' "The Four Freedoms" includes a painting of a young farmer speaking out at a Town Hall meeting and embodies the American form of free speech that we so cherish, the common man freely expressing his opinion. What happens when that farmer is mocked, receives a pie in his face as he leaves the meeting, has his windows systematically broken, his livestock set loose, his barn burned or his family threatened with mail bombs? After being on the receiving end of such systematic terror tactics, how willing will this community be to stand up in public to add their opinions to the debates over how we feed and clothe 6 billion people on a finite planet? And if society is not willing to condemn tactics of terror and protect its people, why should anyone put themselves in danger by putting their opinion forward?

In time, we could all be threatened into silence and the only people willing to participate in such a distorted "discussion" will be those leading a masked rabble carrying spray paint, rocks for window breaking and incendiary devices. The many immigrants who fled this style of "debate" in other countries can warn America off this direction.

With a communications revolution available for anyone who wants to express themselves, opportunities for discussion are endless. Encouraging and training young people in how to break the law should not be rewarded with non-profit tax-exempt status. Non-profit groups promoting illegal actions should clean up their act or have their tax-exempt status pulled by the IRS. Judges should get serious about jail time for those who choose law breaking to make any point.

Ecoterrorism is a direct affront to a land that prides itself on liberty for all and open and free speech. What does ecoterrorism (arson, property destruction, masked intimidation and bombs) have to do with our civil liberties and free speech? Absolutely nothing but destruction.

What Government Can Do

There is overwhelming evidence that we are in the midst of an international green and fuzzy crime wave. For these reasons, we have joined the National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA), a non-profit educational animal welfare organization of people involved in animal-based enterprises, in their "Call for Action" against ecoterrorism. Organizations which have signed on include organizations representing hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of U.S. citizens who are concerned at the threat posed by ecoterrorism to our society. The Call for Action continues to gather support here and abroad and states:

"[W]e respectfully request that the United States Senate Judiciary Committee:

1.) Direct the Department of Justice to establish a National joint task force, which includes the FBI, B.A.T.F. and I.R.S. to investigate, apprehend and prosecute individuals and animal rights organizations involved in the following:

a.) Conspiracy to prohibit and disrupt interstate commerce;
b.) Intentionally interfering with, and disrupting interstate commerce;
c.) Arson;
d.) Destruction of government property;
e.) Violations under The Hobbs Act;
f.) Conspiracy to violate public policy;
g.) Violations of 501-C-3 tax code."

The Call to Action asks the government to study and report to Congress on the impact of "domestic and international terrorism on enterprises using animals for food or fiber production, agriculture, research or testing, exhibition, entertainment or sport, including animal breeders and animal shelters."

What Can This Committee Do?

This committee has made an excellent start in addressing the impact of ecoterrorism with its consideration of House Bill 1938, which we strongly support. We would add that the committee should consider asking governmental agencies to do an accounting of the response costs of ecoterrorism and report back within a reasonable time frame. We need to assess the scope of this problem and its impact on the citizens of Washington State in order to assist law enforcement as we all battle ecoterrorism. It is impossible to attack this issue without a clear, across the country analysis of the scope of the problem.

In Conclusion

Domestic terrorism has victimized small family farms, food producers, research scientists, loggers, miners, recreationists, and is now threatening all Americans. You, our elected representatives, must respond, investigate and prosecute ecoterrorists. The policy makers of this country must make an effort to understand why industrialized society is experiencing this negative symptom and society must address the cause and cure the disease. Political will and political action are what is needed.

Peaceful protest and civil discourse are welcome. But we must find out how we, as a society, can stop an international crime spree driven by a poorly conceived and fundamentally flawed philosophy – the sad and confused philosophy of animal and Earth "liberation".

NOTE:

(1) Quoted in "Animal protesters may target fish shops", The Independent, Jan. 12, 2001.