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Lawyers for Lurlie Adams, who sold Valley View Farms to PETA
in August, later saying she wasn't aware the group was involved
in the transaction until the deal closed, filed the libel and
defamation lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court on Monday.
The purchase was financed by Sam Simon, co-creator of animated
television comedy The Simpsons. The Sam Simon foundation was
also named in the lawsuit.
"In the twilight of her life, Mrs. Adams' reputation has been
tarnished by this Hollywood fundraising machine," her attorney,
Michael Curran, said. "We have researched the allegations by
PETA and we know they are false - she is a very loving person
who was running a very humane operation."
PETA president Ingrid Newkirk defended the group's actions in a
written statement
"This complaint isn't good enough to line the floor of one of
the metal cages in which Lurlie Adams housed chinchillas for
decades - cages that stood next to a freezer containing pelts as
well as a crude device used to painfully electrocute the animals
and a chinchilla pelt–stretching drum, both of which PETA paid
for and removed," she said.
"Mr. Simon is an upstanding man, and thanks to him, more than
350 of the chinchillas have already been adopted into wonderful
homes, where they can finally be safe," Newkirk saidEarlier this
year PETA arranged through an intermediary to pay Adams $50,750
for her breeding operation, which included about 425
chinchillas, after making an undercover video of her explaining
the electrical device she used to euthanize animals.
Adams had been trying to sell the farm for months and said she
thought the buyer was taking over the business.
The San Diego Humane Society took the chinchillas and with a
$100,000 donation from the Sam Simon Foundation began finding
homes for them.
According to the lawsuit, PETA sent out press releases saying
Adams intended to slaughter the animals and use their pelts for
clothing and blankets.
Her attorney said a secretly taped video of Adams and her
assistant was spliced with 10-year-old footage from a different
breeder and shown to supporters and the media to bolster PETA's
claims.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Eric Walsh)
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