posted May 27, 2004 10:22 AM            

Pro-animal activist accused of terrorism
Indictment alleges conspiracy to shut down product testing
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The FBI's domestic terrorism squad arrested a Seattle animal-rights activist yesterday on charges that he conspired to use illegal and coercive tactics to shut down a company that tests products on animals.

Joshua Harper was one of seven people arrested by agents in Seattle, California, New York and New Jersey as part of an investigation into SHAC, which stands for Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.

In pursuit of its goal to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences -- a New Jersey product testing company that SHAC accuses of "horrendous animal cruelty" -- activists have torched Huntingdon employees' cars, vandalized shareholders' homes and made threats against their families, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday.
Harper, 29, faces a single felony count of conspiring to commit animal enterprise terrorism. If convicted, he could spend up to three years behind bars and be fined $250,000.

Released yesterday pending further court hearings, Harper said: "These charges weren't brought against me because I am a criminal or a terrorist. They have been brought against me because I have been very effective in my activism. As my activism has begun to affect the profit margins of companies that make their living by killing animals, they had to retaliate."

Among the small group of animal rights activists present in support of Harper was Rachel Bjork, outreach coordinator for the Northwest Animal Rights Network. Bjork said undercover activists have videotaped Huntingdon employees "punching beagle puppies in the face to make them stop whining. It would cause any living creature pain to have bleach poured on them."

When asked whether the tactics SHAC is accused of cross the line, Bjork said: "What SHAC does gets results, and it gets media attention."

Harper denied being a member of SHAC, but said he supports their goal of shutting down Huntingdon.

Huntingdon representatives could not be reached for comment yesterday.


Among the tactics SHAC promotes on its Web site is to encourage activists to target companies that have a business relationship with Huntingdon.

The indictment makes note of a July 2002 incident in which two Seattle office towers housing Marsh, an insurance company that did business with Huntingdon, were hit by smoke bomb attacks.

Harper yesterday denied involvement in the smoke bomb attacks.

Also arrested in New Jersey yesterday was Jacob Conroy, who joined Harper five years ago in Neah Bay in an attempt to keep the Makah Tribe from hunting whales.

Conroy and Harper pleaded guilty in Clallam County Superior Court to a charge of reckless endangerment for firing ignited smoke canisters and flares at a Makah whaling vessel that was carrying gasoline tanks. They served a brief time in jail and were order to perform community service.

As sheriff's deputies hauled Harper off to jail on the charge, he declared: "We did it for the whales!"

Harper, a self-proclaimed anarchist, says he sees "a spark of hope in every broken window, every torched police car and every mink running free as their hearts desire."
Such tactics, Harper said in an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer three years ago, are necessary to achieve his ultimate goal: "The complete collapse of industrial civilization."

He has been repeatedly called to testify before grand juries investigating eco-terrorism and animal rights terrorism. Harper will not cooperate and typically invokes his Fifth Amendment right, refusing to talk.

He has charged through police lines at a conference of bio-medical researchers and participated in dozens of demonstrations against the fur industry, factory farms and meat-processing plants.

He considers himself a soldier, defending the Earth in a war being waged against the wilderness and wildlife.

Harper reports being arrested more than a dozen times. For 36 days in 1998, while suffering from testicular cancer, Harper went on a hunger strike in a Santa Ana, Calif., jail where he was being held on charges that he assaulted officers at a demonstration. The 6-foot-3 vegan shed a pound a day because he wouldn't eat the bologna sandwiches proffered by his jailers.

"We see ourselves as trying to save the world and every being on it," said Harper. "It emboldens us to take extreme actions."

posted May 27, 2004 06:00 PM            

People just don't take these forms of terrorism seriously. They have no problem hurting people, burning homes and cars (thus polluting the environment) and vandalizing businesses.

posted June 01, 2004 11:08 AM              

I mean, I have to respect the desire to defend our critter friends, but it's just like anything else...take it to an extreme like that, and the cause is lost - the tactics steal the spotlight, and NOT in a good way. He's actually doing a great disservice to the cause he represents.

posted June 01, 2004 12:03 PM            

I am just amazed at how people like Harper can think that the destruction and violence can turn things around.

It is so much more constructive for them to get into the science market and make changes. Why can't they look into alternative research? If they know of better ways to cure diseases, then I would implore them to stop wasting time setting buildings on fire and setting free HIV infected rhesus monkey's and instead push for reform.

If they were able to accomplish these tasks in a more eco-friendly manner, companies would jump at the new technology.

But instead, they desire to excerbate the problem, not solve it.

Personally, it is hard to take the animal research. I have seen it, but there is also good research. I watched a group of older diabetic monkeys that lived very happy lives in the diabetic research ward. They had developed diabetes on their own and rather than have them euthanized the PI took them in and gave them a good life, meanwhile she would monitor the use of certain insulin products and diet compared to blood sugar levels.