A regional chapter of Norwegian animal rights group Dyrebeskyttelsen recently published a calendar for fund raising purposes. The calendar featured photographs of celebrities and others, including a photograph of convicted murderer Kristin Kirkemo Haukeland posting with her three dogs.
Haukeland was convicted of being an accomplice in a 1999 triple homicide that stunned Norway. Anne Orderud Paust, 47, her father Kristian Orderud, 81, and Marie Orderud, 84, were found murdered in tier family home in May 1999. All three victims had been shot at close range in one room of the house.
Anne Orderud Paust’s deceased husband, Per Paust, had been a diplomat, and Anne was an adviser to the Norwegian defense minister. Both had been subject to numerous death threats. In 1998, a bomb was found under Anne’s car, so initial speculation was that there might be some political connection.
Instead the murder turned out to be a straightforward dispute over inheritance of the family home. Haukeland aided her ex-boyfriend and two other people in murdering his mother and grandparents.
So why is Haukeland now gracing the calendar of an animal rights group? Dyrebeskyttelsen member Lene Lotvedt, who took the picture of Haukeland that graces the calendar, seems to think that Haukeland’s criminal conviction is a relatively minor matter. According to Norwegian TV station Nettavisen,
You can’t just discriminate people just because they are in jail,” Løtvedt stated.
Løtvedt said that what Kirkemo Haukeland is convicted of has nothing to do with why she was chosen as a model. She assures that the choice was made independent of her current life situation.
“The people we selected for the calendar, we selected because they love animals,” Løtvedt explained.
Apparently they want people who love animals — just not the bipedal homo sapiens kind.
Sources:
Convicted triple murderess as calendar girl. Carin Pettersson, Nettavisen, January 9, 2004.
Advisor to Oslo defence minister and her parents found dead. Deutsche Press-Agentur, May 24, 1999.