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Animal rights activist faces murder charge (5/15/2002) Anyone who believes
that all animal rights supporters are merely peace-loving people who
pamper their dogs and cats should think again. Recently, an animal
rights activist has been accused of gunning down a Dutch politician. In
the Netherlands, Volkert van der Graaf, an animal rights and
environmental activist, has been charged with murder and illegal weapons
possession following the fatal shooting of populist leader Pim Fortuyn,
who was campaigning for a seat in parliament. He faces up to 20 years in
prison if convicted of the crime - the first political assassination in
the Netherlands in nearly 350 years. The
suspect has worked for various environmental and animal rights groups
since he was a teen. He founded the Zeeland Animal Liberation Front,
which committed acts of vandalism that primarily targeted restaurants,
and the Environmental Offensive, which opposes all animal agriculture. Initially,
police said they had no motive for the crime and could not draw
immediate links between Van der Graaf's activism and the shooting. Yet,
several Dutch newspapers reported that Fortuyn expressed disdain for the
environmental movement and had indicated that he would lift a ban on
breeding animals for fur if he became Prime Minister. There is also
speculation that Van der Graaf feared Fortuyn would ease regulations on
livestock farming. Van
der Graaf is now also a suspect in the 1996 murder of an environmental
officer, Chris Van de Werken, who Van der Graaf believed was too
accommodating to farmers. The Van de Werken killing closely resembles
the Fortuyn slaying - both men were shot multiple times at close range
and with the same type of ammunition, a type that is rare in the
Netherlands. The
Dutch interior intelligence service had recently issued warnings of the
serious dangers posed by Dutch-based, extremist animal rights groups and
eco-terrorists. In
an effort to thwart the actions of animal rights extremists in the
United States, the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance has created a model bill to
help law enforcement officials identify the animal rights organizations
that provide assistance to radical underground groups. The Animal and
Ecological Terrorism Act will protect individuals and companies engaging
in medical, biomedical and environmental research and penalize persons
supporting animal or ecological terrorist acts. For more information about The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act, please contact the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance at (614) 888-4868. CopyrightÓ U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance- www.ussportsmen.org
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