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Tyler Lang, 27,
was indicted in 2014 under the rarely used Animal Enterprise
Terrorism Act, a 2006 law making it a federal crime to cause
damages or disruptions at zoos, circuses, breeding farms and
other places.
"Lang was not engaging in lawful activism or peaceful protest,
but instead was committing a crime," Assistant U.S. Attorney
Bethany Biesenthal said in the government's sentencing
memorandum.
In addition to paying the $200,000 restitution to the farm's
owners, Lang was sentenced to six months of home confinement
followed by six months in a work-release facility, the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois said in
a statement.
"The use of illegal methods of activism – harassment, threats,
vandalism – does nothing more than taint the image of
law-abiding activists who are attempting to create change
through legal protest and lawful demonstration," Biesenthal
said.
Lang and his friend Kevin Johnson, 28, released the minks from
their cages in August 2013 on a farm in Morris, Illinois, and
spray-painted the barn with the words "Liberation is Love."
They also poured an acidic substance over two trucks that were
parked on the farm, prosecutors said. Both Lang and Johnson are
from Los Angeles.
Lang pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to travel in
interstate commerce with the purpose of damaging an animal
enterprise, prosecutors said.
Lang's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
On a website to raise funds for their defense, Lang and Johnson
are described as facing state repression under a law designed to
"conjure public fear of the animal liberation movement."
The two were arrested in 2013 and originally pleaded guilty to
state charges of possession of burglary tools, but were indicted
on federal charges in 2014.
Johnson pleaded guilty last year to the same charge as Lang.
Johnson was sentenced last month to three years in federal
prison for his involvement, prosecutors said.
About a dozen people have been charged under the Animal
Enterprise Terrorism Act, according to the Center for
Constitutional Rights. Two other California animal rights
activists were sentenced last month for violating the act, the
center said.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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