New Allegations in Animal Liberation Front (ALF) Conspiracy Case
Grand jury implicates Scott DeMuth in 2006 mink farm raid
In a little-publicized move this week, a grand jury expanded the ndictment of Scott DeMuth to include a 2006 mink liberation in Minnesota. This third version of the original indictment adds yet another allegation to the original charge – an alleged role in the A.L.F. liberation of 401 animals from the University of Iowa psych labs in 2004.
The new superseding indictment alleges DeMuth’s unspecified role in a 2006 raid of Lakeside Ferrets, a former mink farm in Howard Lake, Minnesota.
On April 29th, 2006, anonymous activists cut holes in the fence, entered the breeder shed, and released hundreds of mink. In a communique issued soon after, the A.L.F. took credit. The communique read, in part:
Finally, to all fur farmers, furriers, and profiters of death, this
is the last warning: close down your buisnesses, or with
boltcutters, fire, and storm, we’ll do it for you. You can try to
scare us, you can try to imprison us, and you can even try to kill
us, but the day we stop will be the day that the last animal has
been freed from its cage.
The Fur Commission USA claimed after the raid that activists mistook ferrets for mink, and in fact the “mink farm” was actually a ferret farm. While there is evidence to suggest the farm is now a ferret farm, the location in Howard Lake was at one time called the Latzig Mink Ranch. The farm was the site of one of the first-ever mink releases in the U.S. in 1996, when 1,000 mink were liberated.
The first two versions of the indictment accused DeMuth only of an unspecified role in the rescue of 401 animals from the University of Iowa in 2004. The latest version adds an additional accusation of a role in the mink release.
As with the two preceding indictments, the new indictment fails to specify what exactly Scott DeMuth is charged with. The document alleges only that DeMuth caused or attempted to cause “physical disruption to the functioning of animal enterprises including but not limited to the Spence Laboratories at the University of Iowa and Lakeside Ferrets Inc. in Minnesota, and other animal enterprises elsewhere”. No more specific information is given.
This is the latest chapter in the Midwest A.L.F. investigation that continues to get more bizarre and desperate at each step. Eventually, the government will be forced to reveal specific allegations in the case, including what “other animal enterprises elsewhere” DeMuth (a non-vegetarian bow hunter) is alleged to have targeted.
– Peter Young
View legal documents in the case at the Davenport Grand Jury website.
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What’s the statute of limitations on this? I know they were running out of time to prosecute someone for the Iowa raid, so I would have assumed that fur farms had a similar 5 year limit.
Please ignore my previous comment….I was apparently only half awake and read it as “1996” instead of “2006”.