Alf Claims Blame For Mink Release

Fri., June 6, 1997

Associated Press

The radical Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility Thursday for the release of thousands of minks last week from a Willamette Valley farm.

“This action took place not as an act of ‘eco-terrorism’ but as an act of love,” the ALF said in a communique released by the Liberation Collective, a Portland-based human and animal rights organization.

Craig Rosebraugh of the Liberation Collective said his roommate received a phone call from a person using a disguised voice this morning telling him to look on the porch, where they found the communique.

“I would assume it’s the real thing,” Rosebraugh said.

The ALF is an underground group, so the authenticity of the communique could not be independently confirmed. The ALF has claimed responsibility for many similar incidents around the country, including the 1986 raid on a research laboratory at the University of Oregon.

About 1,600 adult minks and 7,000 to 8,000 babies were released from the farm of Rick Arritola near Mount Angel last Friday in what the fur industry called the largest mink release in U.S. history.

The communique came as no surprise to the Fur Commission USA. The fur trade association has assumed all along that the ALF was responsible.

In the communique, the ALF said, “The call to action for a total revolution and elimination of all animal abuse industries is here. … For too long we have asked them to end their reign of blood. Now we will destroy the industries of torture.”

The statement added: “The pain caused by the consumption of meat, dairy, eggs, leather, and fur is undeniable. To spend one’s life taking and consuming at the expense of others is not a life worth living.”

The ALF disputed the fur commission’s contention that thousands of mink, most of them babies, were killed because they were separated from their mothers, were trampled by those who set them free or died from fighting each other.

“During any action designed to bring about an end to suffering, more suffering is not created,” the message said. “Contrary to the lies of the popular media, no animals are harmed in any act of liberation.

Marion County sheriff’s Sgt. Doug Garrett said he lives near the mink farm and has seen several dead mink along the roadway over the past few days.

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