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Members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which threatens, intimidates, vandalizes property, and terrorizes executives and employees of the research lab and of companies that do business with them (and their families), are facing law enforcement action and civil suits, as discussed in this article in the Southern Poverty Law Center “Intelligence Report.” Here is an example from the report of what law abiding people have been subjected to merely because they were somehow associated with medical testing involving animals.

“In the federal criminal case, SHAC USA’s “targets” suffered real-life, off-line consequences as a result of the online threats. Shortly after the Web site postings, the identified targets’ homes, cars and personal property were vandalized — rocks thrown through windows, the exterior of homes spray-painted with slogans, cars and boats vandalized, and, in one instance, a target’s car overturned in his driveway. HLS and its business associates’ facilities also experienced vandalism and smoke bombs, while online attacks shut down computer systems. To make matters worse, the SHAC USA Web site reported many of these harassing acts after they occurred, fueling the fire.”

Such behavior has no place in public policy activism. Yet PETA refuses to condemn SHAC or other lawbreakers such as ALF (Animal Liberation Front). Sometimes that which we don’t condemn, we implicitly condone.


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