Domestic terrorismFBI terrorism unit investigates animal rights group after pheasant farm attack

Published 5 August 2013

An FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has launched an investigating after an animal rights group announced on its Web site that its members cut open fencing around a and releasing more than a dozen pheasants from the aviary at Ash Grove Pheasant Farm and Orchard in Riverside, California. The incident took place 22 July.

ALF members following a successful liberation operation // Source: persianpet.org

An FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has launched an investigating after an animal rights group announced on its Web site that its members cut open fencing around a and releasing more than a dozen pheasants from the aviary at Ash Grove Pheasant Farm and Orchard in Riverside, California.

The Press-Enterprise reports that the incident took place 22 July. The Animal Liberation Front openly advocates breaking the law in order to help what the organization regards as exploited and mistreated animals.

It described on its Web site how members wearing masks entered the farm, located fifty-five miles east of Los Angeles, and used wire cutters to cut open fencing at four of the six pens on the property.

With basic tools and determination, anyone is capable of destroying the barrier that stands between an animal and their freedoms.
As the farmer slept just feet away, the fencing was torn open with wire cutters. Four of the six pens on the property were breached, giving these beautiful beings a chance at freedom.
This life saving action took no specialized skill, less than twenty-four hours of planning, and fifty dollars. With basic tools and determination, anyone is capable of destroying the barrier that stands between an animal and their freedoms.

Farm owners Don and Theresa Fitzgerald told the Press-Enterprise that the action of the ALF members probably doomed the released pheasants. A pile of bloody feathers was found right outside one of the pens, where a coyote ate one of the birds. Nine birds remained in the aviary, but some were so spooked and injured they had to be euthanized.

I cannot believe these people truly love animals if they’re just going to let these birds out to fend for themselves in the wild,” a crying Fitzgerald told the newspaper. “To me that’s cruelty. These birds don’t deserve what these people did to them.”

The incident was initially reported to police as grand theft, but was later referred to the FBI.

Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, said agents are investigating the burglary as a case of domestic terrorism.

The FBI notes that the ALF has a history of hundreds of acts of vandalism and violence, including setting fires and even placing car bombs in order to free animals or do damage to companies and organizations that keep animals in captivity for commercial use.

On its Web site, the ALF urged its members and supporters to target pheasant farms and other places where animals are kept in captivity.