Arson Attack Closes Utah Leather Store

Mysterious break-in and arson reported at Tandy Leather Factory store in Salt Lake City

Sometime last week, the Tandy Leather Factory in Salt Lake City was the target of an apparent arson attack. This mysterious, (so far) unclaimed arson comes just weeks after at a similar unclaimed arson at the Sheepskin Factory store in Denver. The arson appears to have at least temporarily shut down the store, located at 1107 South State Street in Salt Lake City. As of yet, neither the Animal Liberation Front nor other animal liberation group has taken credit.

According to a post on a gun-talk forum, an employee of another Tandy location stated that someone broke into the Salt Lake City store, spread an “accelerant”, and set the store on fire. The quote from the post:

I went to the Tandy store in West Valley, and the owner there said that someone had broken into the SLC store (his store was unharmed) and spread “an accelerant” up and down the aisles, especially over where they store their leather.

Local media have not yet picked up the story of the arson.

Local activists visited the location and confirmed the building was closed, boarded up, and had clearly sustained fire damage. A sign on the door read “Closed for fire clean up”.

The following are pictures taken of the burned building:

Sign reads: "closed for fire clean up"

This is the latest in a long line of actions at animal exploitation targets for which no claim of responsibility by activists is made. The true motive of this action can not be known, but a store selling the skins of animals would be a legitimate target for the A.L.F.

This is the second Tandy leather store to be targeted in an arson attack. In June 1995, the Animal Liberation Front set fire to the Tandy Leather in Murray, UT, causing $300,000 damages.

– Peter Young

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