The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the January 18 release of a heard of deer at a California ranch owned by Gerd Konieczny.
While Konieczny was at a doctor’s appointment, activists cut the 8-foot-high metal fence used to enclose the herd.
In a letter claiming responsibility, the Animal Liberation Front said (emphasis added),
GNK Ranch – owned by former LAPD Sergant Gerd Konieczny – is one of the 3 largest deer farms in California and hosts an on-site deer slaughterhouse.
We believe this to be the first ever deer liberation in the US. Freedom for these creatures – for whom death is a certainty- was a simple and unskilled operation. Hundreds of deer farms operate in this country. We encourage
compassionate people everywhere to locate farms in their area and tear down their walls.The venison industry remains small. Our hearts go out to victims of the larger problem, the billions of lives we are unable to save – cows, chickens, pigs, mice, rats, and others – casualties of the meat, dairy, vivisection and other
industries of suffering and blood. Their pain is our own.
The part of the letter claming the ranch included a operation at the ranch is simply wrong. According according to the Capital Press, the slaughter operation was blocked in 2002 due to objections raised by animal rights activists and never built.
Nice to see the activists keeping well-informed as usual.
According to the Capital Press, the FBI is involved in the case and the Monterey County Cattleman’s Association has offered a $1,000 reward for information about the perpetrators of the crime.
Source:
Venison farm hit by animal rights group. Judy Bedell, Capital Press, 2005.