Animal Rights Group Found Guilty of Inciting Violence

March 2, 2006 — -- Leaders of an animal-rights group believed they were preventing violence, but instead they were convicted of inciting it.

A federal jury convicted six leaders of an animal-rights group in New Jersey today for inciting violence and terror against people and institutions it identified as targets because of their affiliation with animal-testing labs.

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, which goes by SHAC, has spent five years trying to stop U.K.-based Huntingdon Life Sciences from using animals to conduct research for drugs and consumer products. Huntingdon also has in New Jersey.

The defendants claimed their actions were protected under the first amendment.

After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for 14 hours over three days before finding all six defendants guilty of animal-enterprise terrorism, stalking and other criminal offenses.

Among the six who were found guilty are Joshua Harper, Lauren Gazzola, Jacob Conroy, Andrew Stepanian and Darius Fullmer.

The defendants, along with about a dozen of their supporters in the courtroom, remained silent as the verdict was delivered, The Associated Press reported. The defendants are expected to have a bail hearing today.

This is believed to be the first court case to test the Animal Enterprise Protection Act since it was enacted in 1992, according to the prosecuting attorney, Charles B. McKenna.

SHAC's campaign against the company included posting personal information on its Web site about Huntingdon employees and employees whose firms do business with Huntingdon.

Early last year SHAC targeted one pharmaceutical company known to do business with Huntingdon Life Sciences by revealing the name and address of its CEO on the SHAC Web site, according to documents obtained by ABC News.

The document reads: "Please make it known to him -- and his family -- that living off of the blood of the animals inside Huntingdon will not be tolerated anymore. To this end, we now release information on the family of George Barrett. Use it as cleverly and consistently as you can. Remember the animals dying inside HLS this very second..."