Turning Adversity Around
Eco-Terror Target Turns Political Activist

By Kate Roesler

In 2003, the Roesler family fur farm in Sultan, WA, was raided by the Animal Liberation Front, and more than 10,000 mink released and abandoned. But for Kate Roesler, the thought of being a "victim" never entered her mind; she was going to do something about it!

AT 4:30 ONE AUGUST MORNING we received a phone call that our mink had been let loose. We never dreamed the far-reaching effects this would make in our lives.

We went to the farm, after calling another mink farmer to start the phone tree. There were mink everywhere; the roads and highway were alive with a sea of gray, the yard looked as if it were moving. Already the mink were being caught by the family that lives at the farm, the neighbors and local police.

This was just the beginning of weeks of tremendous community support. There were over 100 people a day at the farm and surrounding neighborhood catching mink, and supplying food and water to the crews, along with many calls of support.

With the help of this group of concerned people of diverse political backgrounds, families, singles and senior citizens, we were able to recover most of the mink. We also received support from the local media, police and FBI.

We began to get an inkling of the political ramifications of this act when ALF claimed responsibility for this crime.

Suddenly this was not an isolated act of some local radical, but a well planned attack to take away the livelihood of four families.

It was later shown that this was just one stop on a terrorism road trip that started in California and wound its way up and back down the west ending in New Mexico. The targets included farmers, biotech companies, car dealerships, restaurateurs and construction sites. This resulted in tens of millions of dollars in damage. Some of the damage was, one could assume, covered by insurance. Ours was not.

Another clue as to what the future would hold was the phone call I received from the US Rep. from across the state. Rep. George Nethercutt called with his support and assurance that legislation was in the works for a new law making the penalties for eco-terrorism reflect the true severity of the crime. His call was a bright spot during the most hectic and dark couple of days.

During the next several weeks, as we continued to round up mink, the extent of the devastation was becoming evident. Hundreds of mink were dead on the highway, thousands of dollars of exotic birds killed and family pets attacked by the "freed" mink.

As more time passed, the mink that were being returned were in worse and worse condition, starving and dehydrated. So much for this act "helping" the animals and the eco-system in general.

The need for something to be done to stop this type of crime was very clear. The penalties needed to be increased and there had to be a better way to track these criminals.

In October, I was fortunate to be able to join with others, including trappers, retail and auction houses, in the fur industry's "Fur wRaps the Hill" political action program. We went to Washington, DC to talk with legislators to let them know our concerns over this growing crime wave. The amount of support we received, after doing a little education, was wonderful. There was support from both sides of the aisle and from many areas in the country. The fight is being led in our Congress by Rep. Nethercutt's national legislation, to be introduced this year, and Washington State Senator Stevens' budget allocation for a database to assess environmentally or politically motivated crimes against animal or natural resource facilities.

In the private sector the Fur Commission has done extensive research and is making its findings available to the law enforcement community at large. Also it is educating people, through the Internet, on the importance of farming in general and mink farming in particular.

As I write this, I am preparing to again go to Washington, DC to talk with more legislators and to speak to the National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA) Conference on the Destructive Impact of Junk Science and Animal and Environmental Extremism. This is another example of the broad base of support against these crimes, which end up costing all of us.

Finally, I would like to thank the unbelievable amount of people that have shown their support to our family; from the neighbors that helped with the "round-up" by catching mink and providing cold cuts and drinks on those hot August days, to the mink farmers that came from all over to lend a hand, to law enforcement who really have made an outstanding effort and to our lawmakers who are trying to stop these criminals.

As devastating as this was for us, we have discovered that this is a large issue that affects much more than just one mink farm. While the cost to our farm has been huge (the costs including the initial loss of the herd, extra labor costs, the loss of breeding records, the cost of a high-tech security system and a night watchman), the cost to our nation could be the loss of a way of life, the loss of medical breakthroughs, of dining in a restaurant or building a home, if these radicals are left unchecked.

Back to Perspectives / Home

© 1998-2008 Fur Commission USA