Washington, DC – PETA’s Bruce Friedrich has no business lecturing Hibernia United Methodist Church on the Christian value of roasting a pig. During the “Animal Rights 2001” convention, the radical organization’s campaign director openly advocated acts of domestic terrorism against those who disagree with PETA’s fringe political beliefs. What would Bruce do? Friedrich delivered the following chilling message to his captive
audience: “It would be a great thing if all of these fast-food outlets, these slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow… Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it.”
PETA has put its money where its mouth is, with its long history of financial support to convicted arsonists and other domestic terrorists. Last year, PETA made a financial donation to the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a shadowy organization that the FBI has labeled “the largest and most active U.S.-based terror group.” Since 1996, ELF and its sister group, the Animal Liberation Front, have caused more than $43 million in property damage resulting from over 600 attacks including arson, assault and property destruction on a massive scale.
The Center for Consumer Freedom’s research into PETA’s 1995-2000 IRS tax filings found:
In April 2001, PETA gave a direct contribution of $1500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF) to “support their program activities.” Among its long list of crimes, ELF claimed credit for the 1998 firebombing of the Vail Ski Resort, resulting in $12 million in damages.
In January 1995, PETA gave a $45,200 contribution to the “support committee” of Rodney Coronado, a convicted arsonist who firebombed a research facility at Michigan State University. PETA also gave an unreturned $25,000 “loan” to Rodney Coronado’s father in 1994.
In January 2001, PETA gave $5000 to the “Josh Harper Support Committee.” Josh Harper is an ALF-affiliated criminal arrested numerous times and convicted for assaulting a police officer. In 1998, Harper told an Oregon newspaper “we’re going to continue to be confrontational, we’re going to continue to be militant. If people see that as extreme, then so be it.”
In August 1999, PETA gave $2,000 to David Wilson, a Utah-based animal-rights extremist who was then a national “spokesperson” for ALF. Wilson has bragged, “We started with animal rights, but we’ve expanded to wildlife actions like the [1998 arson] in Vail.”
Founded in 1996, the Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization devoted to promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choices. For more information, visit ConsumerFreedom.com.
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