Document gives look inside fur farmer’s “Neighborhood Watch” program

Posted by Peter Young | 1 comment

Internal Fur Commission USA document details the anatomy of their “neighborhood watch program.”

Part two in a thirty-article series this month on the ALF’s fur farm campaign

In a poll, fur farmers ranked the animal rights movement as the single largest threat to their business. This is reflected in the priorities of their trade group, the Fur Commission USA.

Last year, the Fur Commission restructured and changed its function. It dropped its public relations focus (a tacit admission that they will never win on the public opinion front), and shifted focus to “farm security.” The only way to read this is that fur farmers consider the Animal Liberation Front to be the biggest threat to their industry.

“The Neighborhood Watch” program

An internal flier obtained by Animal Liberation Frontline details one component of the Fur Commission’s new “farm security” focus. The flier breaks down their “neighborhood watch” program, aimed “at securing the US mink farming industry.”

Fur Commission USA Neighborhood Watch flier

According the flier, the program has these components:

NETWATCH email list
This list includes frequent “security bulletins”, many of which I have been provided and will be posted here over the next month.
“Netwatch is an email listserve which distributes articles, security alerts and key information on conflict campaigns and eco-terrorism incidents (4-6 items daily). The list of recipients includes law enforcement, intelligence analysts, trade associations, media, and policy makers in several countries.”

FAX/EMAIL: Fur Farm Security List
“FCUSA runs a fax/email list for distributing occasional security alerts to its farmers.”

DATABASE: Database and Annual Actions Report
Here, the Fur Commission admits to compiling dossiers on animal rights activists. The database purports to include “selected articles and documents going back several decades.” In addition the Fur Commission boasts that “profiles and reports can be generated on individuals, organizations.” And an “Actions Report” of several reports is distributed annually on disk.

SPECIAL REPORTS: Red Flag Reports
“Red Flag Reports analyze the finances of organizations which have expressed support for eco-terrorism, and/or have employees with records for being arrested. These reports are useful in understanding the structure supporting coordinated crime sprees. All information is compiled from public sources.”

WEB RESOURCES: Private Section
This is the the password protected section of the Fur Commission site, “designed for quick use by law enforcement, media, and policy makers.” It includes “eco-terrorism and anarchy libraries, particularly relating to the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts”, “analytical reports on eco-terrorism”, an “extensive Unabomber section and writings by and about convicted eco-terrorists”, “eco-terrorism prisoners’ lists”, and tips on fur farm security.

This is the second of 30 articles I will be posting in December on the ALF’s fur farm campaign. Sign up for the email list to get every update sent to your inbox, or check back daily.

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