(UNEDITED) As one of the organizers of the mink farming protest ("Morgan council supports mink ranchers", September 25th, 2009), it is our intention on November 28th to expose the cruel business of fur farming. Morgan's amending of their ordinances to stifle this protest begs the question: what are the fur farmers hiding?
I was sent to prison for cutting fences and releasing animals at mink farms just like those we will be protesting in Morgan. When I carried out these raids in the middle of the night, I did so because legal means of affecting change had failed. While I no longer carry out such rescues, by attempting to keep activists from protesting outside the homes of fur farmers, Morgan officials are setting the stage for exactly the type of "protest" fur farmers fear most: clandestine raids of their farms, and overnight rescues of mink by the Animal Liberation Front.
Historically, the side effect of criminalizing lawful protest is not to keep activists away, but to give certain elements of the animal rights movement no other choice but to directly rescue these animals unlawfully. While the city council acted to "protect" mink farmers, this ordinance may well have the opposite effect.
Peter Young
Salt Lake City
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