Domestic Terrorism or Free Speech?

Six Philadelphia-based animal rights activists went on trial this week in a federal courthouse in Trenton, N.J. for their alleged direct harassment of a contract research company with animal-testing labs in the state of New Jersey, Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign is based in the United Kingdom and manages a local and global mission to end the operations of Huntingdon Life Sciences. The activists claim that their website and other efforts to shutdown the company are exercises in free speech and are therefore legal.

John E. Lewis, from the F.B.I., gave testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on October 26, 2005. He discussed the threat animal rights activists pose to legitimate business and what constitutes not advocacy, but criminal activity.

Posted by Toni Urquhart