[Ppnews] Animal Rights Activist Jonathan Paul begins 4-year sentence

[Political Prisoner News]

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
EXCLUSIVE: Hours Before Beginning 4-Year Jail Sentence, Animal Rights 
Activist Jonathan Paul in First Interview Since Arrest
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/31/145201

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One of the best-known animal rights activists in the Pacific 
Northwest is heading to prison today to begin a 51-month sentence. 
Jonathan Paul was arrested almost two years ago as part of the 
so-called Green Scare, when federal agents detained ten activists 
connected to the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation 
Front. His sister Caroline Paul recently summarized his activism like 
this: "He crept into animal laboratories to free dogs. He dismantled 
corrals to release wild mustangs. He impersonated a fur buyer to film 
the treatment of minks. He put himself between whales and whalers 
despite warnings that his boat would be impounded and that he would 
be jailed." [includes rush transcript]

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One of the best-known animal rights activists in the Pacific 
Northwest is heading to prison today to begin a 51-month sentence. 
Jonathan Paul was arrested almost two years ago as part of the 
so-called Green Scare, when federal agents detained ten activists 
connected to the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front.

In November, Paul pled guilty to one court of conspiracy and one 
court of arson for his role in the 1997 fire at the Cavel West 
horsemeat slaughterhouse in Redmond, Oregon, that destroyed the plant 
and led to its permanent closure. Even though no one was injured in 
the fire, federal prosecutors described it as a "classic case of terrorism."

In court filings, Paul's attorneys said the objective of the fire was 
to end the "inhumane treatment of horses and the commercial 
trafficking in horse meat." For Jonathan Paul, the fire was just the 
latest in a string of direct actions taken in the name of saving animal lives.

His sister Caroline Paul recently summarized his activism like this: 
"He crept into animal laboratories to free dogs. He dismantled 
corrals to release wild mustangs. He impersonated a fur buyer to film 
the treatment of minks. He put himself between whales and whalers 
despite warnings that his boat would be impounded and that he would 
be jailed."

Paul has remained an animal rights activist but says he has since 
disavowed the use of arson as a tactic. In recent years he has worked 
as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in Oregon. Later 
today, Paul will begin his 51-month sentence at the medium security 
Federal Correctional Institute in Phoenix. He joins us now in Phoenix 
for his first broadcast interview since his arrest.

    * Jonathan Paul. Longtime animal rights activist. He is beginning 
a 51-month prison sentence today in Phoenix for his role in burning 
down a horsemeat slaughterhouse in Oregon in 1997.
AMY GOODMAN: One of the best-known animal rights activists in the 
Pacific Northwest is heading to prison today to begin a 
fifty-one-month sentence. Jonathan Paul was arrested almost two years 
ago as part of the so-called "Green Scare," when federal agents 
detained ten activists connected with the Animal Liberation Front and 
Earth Liberation Front.

In November, Paul pled guilty to one count of conspiracy and one 
count of arson for his role in the 1997 fire at the Cavel West 
horsemeat slaughterhouse in Redmond, Oregon, that destroyed the plant 
and led to its permanent closure. Even though no one was injured in 
the fire, federal prosecutors described it as a "classic case of terrorism."

In court filings, Paul's attorneys said the objective of the fire was 
to end the "inhumane treatment of horses and the commercial 
trafficking in horsemeat." For Jonathan Paul, the fire was just the 
latest in a string of direct actions taken in the name of saving animal lives.

His sister, [Caroline] Paul, recently summarized his activism like 
this. She said, "He crept into animal laboratories to free dogs. He 
dismantled corrals to release wild mustangs. He impersonated a fur 
buyer to film the treatment of minks. He put himself between whales 
and whalers despite warnings that his boat would be impounded and 
that he would be jailed."

Jonathan Paul has remained an animal rights activist but says he has 
since disavowed the use of arson as a tactic. In recent years he has 
worked as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in Oregon.

Later today, Jonathan Paul begins his fifty-one-month sentence at the 
medium security Federal Correctional Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. 
He joins us now from Phoenix for his first broadcast interview since 
his arrest.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jonathan Paul.

JONATHAN PAUL: Thank you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Your thoughts today as you head to jail?

JONATHAN PAUL: Well, you know, it's kind of relative, because my 
feelings have been so mixed over the last couple years, but, you 
know, I'm OK, and I'm ready to do my sentence, you know? It's a long 
time, but it could have been worse for me, so, you know, I'm going in 
for a reason, for a cause that I believe in. And, you know, I'm ready 
to go in and do my time.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about a quote that you made, you 
said in 1999. You said, "We compare ourselves to the Underground 
Railroad, to some guerrilla movements that are trying to free 
themselves from oppressive governments. The only thing that's 
different about us is that we expand our thinking to other species 
and to the planet as a whole." This is a quote that you made to the 
Oregonian. Do you still agree with that position?

JONATHAN PAUL: Well, yeah. I mean, we are a -- I mean, you know, 
groups like the Animal Liberation Front, we definitely feel like we 
are the Underground, because we're rescuing animals that are being 
tortured by humans. So, yeah, I still feel that way.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about your views of arson as a tactic? 
Since 1999, you've become a volunteer firefighter in Oregon. Your 
sister Catherine [sic] was the first female firefighter in San 
Francisco. Your other sister -- unrelated -- Alexandra Paul, star of 
Baywatch. But what about arson?

JONATHAN PAUL: Well, first, I'll correct you: her -- my sister's name 
is Caroline, it's not Catherine. But --

AMY GOODMAN: Sorry.

JONATHAN PAUL: Yeah, I mean, you know, arson is inherently dangerous 
on some level -- on a lot of levels, because it could hurt someone. 
And that was -- after the Cavel West incident, I chose -- I decided 
that I wouldn't do this kind of tactic anymore, because I was 
concerned about the -- that it could hurt a firefighter or a 
responder or anyone in the area, although in this particular incident 
the building was thoroughly checked to make sure there was no people 
around or animals in the building itself. So -- but after that, I -- 
you know, it just -- arson as a tactic, it just doesn't really sit 
with me very well.

I don't personally care about the structures or the building. The 
government seems to care more about property than anything else, it 
seems. But in the sense of the use of fire, although it was a 
successful tactic in this case especially, I walked away from that, 
just because I felt really uncomfortable, because I felt like if 
someone actually did get injured or killed in this, that that would 
go against everything that we believe. So that's kind of where I went 
with that.

And, you know, there's really nothing weird about the sense that I 
became a medic and a firefighter. It more became, because it -- to 
me, being a firefighter and an EMT was a way of being an activist on 
a daily basis and helping people who are in need. And that's why I 
chose to do it. It's not in any way that I have -- that I'm 
fascinated by fire, I'm a firebug or anything like that. So that was 
why I chose to go that way.

AMY GOODMAN: Jonathan, I wanted to go back to 1997, to the Cavel West 
horsemeat slaughterhouse. What exactly did you do? What was the 
slaughterhouse, and where was it?

JONATHAN PAUL: Well, it was in Redmond, Oregon, and this facility was 
owned by the Belgian Mafia. It was exporting its meat to Europe and 
Japan. And they were killing up to about 500 horses a week. And I've 
seen -- you know, I saw the videos and saw what was going on there, 
and it was really horrendous. It was a hell of an area. They were 
using any kind horse, whether it was a pet horse or a retired 
workhorse or wild horses that the BLM had been rounding up off -- you 
know, off the lands in the United States. So it was actually -- it 
was a very -- it was a horrible place. I mean, this place needed to go.

I mean, Redmond, Oregon, the people of Redmond, Oregon hated that 
place, because apparently, you know, it smelled bad. There was blood 
coming out of the sewers all the time. And people didn't want that 
place to be there. And it's not anymore.

But the company also has another horse facility over in Illinois, 
but, as far as I know, that place got shut down, because horse 
slaughter is now not allowed within the US. But the problem, what's 
happening now, is that all these horses are now being shipped to 
Canada or Mexico, which is a big concern for horse activists and 
animal activists. So that's kind of what happened. But at least 
there's been a move to stop this unnecessary slaughter of these 
animals within the United States. But, unfortunately, like I said, 
now they're just moving them to Mexico.

AMY GOODMAN: Jonathan Paul, if you had it to do again, would you set 
fire to the slaughterhouse in Oregon?

JONATHAN PAUL: Yeah, right now, I wouldn't. But I would do everything 
I could to shut the place down. Like I said --

AMY GOODMAN: How else do you think you could have done it?

JONATHAN PAUL: Well, legislation and doing that kind of stuff doesn't 
always necessarily work. So, you know, people have been trying to 
stop the horse slaughter in the United States for many, many, many 
years, and it just actually got some headway right now, where the 
House and, you know, the Congress has voted to pretty much stop it 
within the US.

But, you know, I think ultimately what I would prefer to have done is 
I wish I could have pulled up a trailer and taken every horse out of 
there and given them good homes, although, you know, that wouldn't 
have stopped the company itself from continuing its horse slaughter, 
but it would have directly saved those horses there. But, you know, 
this place -- at that time, I felt that this was the best tactic, 
because this was the best way to shut this facility down 100%, which 
we did. But if I had to do it again today, no, I wouldn't start a 
fire. It's just too dangerous.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you about Robert Jordan, the FBI special 
agent in charge for Oregon, and his quote. He said, "These people 
claim they did what they did to protect the environment. Along the 
way, they destroyed more than $30 million worth of resources. They 
spent year after year using violence to try to intimidate you and 
your government into their twisted way of thinking." Your response?

JONATHAN PAUL: Well, I mean, the governments -- you know, they need 
to kind of look in a mirror and look at themselves, because they, 
themselves, do that same thing, but when they do it, that's OK. For 
instance, Iraq or, you know, what they're doing there. But, you know, 
you have to understand that right now the planet is in peril. There 
are so many things that are going that it's a dire situation, and I 
think because the government is doing absolutely nothing about the 
issue of the environment, that people will want to tend to decide to 
take the next step, which is crossing the line to do what we call 
direct action. So in that sense, the government, themselves, by 
calling people like me a terrorist, which, just so you know, I did 
not get the terrorist enhancement -- I was one of the two people that 
did not get the terrorist enhancement -- but the government has to 
look at themselves and the corporations, too, because the 
corporations are the ones that rule the government. And, you know, 
these corporations are continuing to destroy the environment for 
their bottom line, which is profit. And it's really, really hard to 
get these corporations to change.

Now, if everyone in America stood up and told them we want change in 
this country, we want a Manhattan-style project to change our energy, 
to change how we treat the environment, to deal with population, to 
deal with all these issues, I don't think groups like the Animal 
Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front would exist, because 
they wouldn't need to.

I also just want to mention to you also that when I was in my 
sentencing, the prosecutor came up to my attorney -- and I was 
sitting right next to him -- and said that the reason why Daniel 
McGowan, who you had interviewed a few months ago -- said that the 
reason why he didn't get his extension so he could self-surrender to 
prison was because he was on Democracy Now! and because he had a 
website. And he was basically indirectly warning me or threatening 
me, that if I went on, they would not give me an extension so I could 
self-surrender into prison. But I am self-surrendering in today, and 
I'm during the interview with you, because I feel like it's my First 
Amendment right to talk about what my case is and what my side of the 
story is.

AMY GOODMAN: Jonathan Paul is just about to surrender today to 
prison. He will be serving a fifty-one-month prison sentence. 
Jonathan, I wanted to ask you, talking about the prosecutors and your 
defense attorneys, they squared off over the issue of whether you are 
a terrorist, whether you targeted the government. Looking at a piece 
now in the Mail Tribune, it says, "Federal prosecutors claim the 
arson was to intimidate the Bureau of Land Management into disbanding 
its program of rounding up and selling wild horses off BLM lands. And 
Cavel West was targeted as the largest purchasers of those horses, 
whose meat was sold for human consumption and pet food." The 
government says, "Although the government was not a direct victim, it 
was nonetheless a federal crime of terrorism because of the 
offenders' motivation." Your defense team, however, claimed you 
"joined three others in the $1.2 million arson solely to put the 
company out of the horse-slaughtering business, not as an attack on 
the BLM." What are your thoughts about the US government and its role?

JONATHAN PAUL: Are you talking about its role in the horse slaughter issue?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, and overall this issue of the definition of 
terrorism, that it would be terrorist if you were targeting the US government.

JONATHAN PAUL: Oh, well, you know, the government throws out the 
terrorist term like it's candy. I mean, to them, anyone who opposes 
them could be a terrorist, you know. I am not a terrorist, and 
legally I wasn't found to be a terrorist, because they could not find 
a connection between the Bureau of Land Management and Cavel West. 
But, you know, that doesn't mean that the horses that were being 
slaughtered there were wild horses. They were probably just brought 
there through middlemen through auctions. But it is an issue about 
what the BLM is doing with the wild horses, you know, all over the US 
and, you know, gathering up and selling them to -- they do have 
adoption programs. Many of them go to the slaughterhouses. So, you 
know, they weren't able to do that.

But, you know, it's offensive to me to be -- to calling me a 
terrorist, you know. You know, and like I said before, I mean, the 
government needs to look in the mirror. They need to look at how they 
terrorize people all over the world and they terrorize animals and 
the planet itself. So, you know, it's hard for me to take this 
government seriously at all, really. I mean, they're a joke, 
especially when it comes -- go ahead.

AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead. What were you going to say?

JONATHAN PAUL: Oh, I was just going to say, especially, you know, 
when it comes to the environment, I mean, our government is not doing 
a thing about it. They may have a -- you know, they may do some 
moderate changes or do their doublespeak on TV about how they're 
improving the environment, but they're really not, because these 
corporations -- like I said, bottom line is money, and the people in 
these corporations are going to continue doing what they're doing, 
you know, whether it's deforestation or fossil fuel extraction or 
chemicals and pollution and all that stuff. It's like it's all about 
bottom line, which is profits.

And, you know, I would really like people to really understand that, 
you know, these corporations that are raping this planet, I mean, 
maybe they should be looked at as the eco-terrorists. I mean, the 
government propaganda that went out against us was excessive, calling 
everyone who got arrested here "the Family," or whatever, which 
they're trying to refer us to be like the Manson family or something, 
you know. And all the -- I mean, that -- "the Family" was a term that 
was made up by the government, which they used broadly in order to 
make us look like a bunch of freaks, a bunch of -- but we're -- you 
know, I am not. You know, I'm pretty -- I see what's going on here, 
and I chose many times during my life to, you know, in other words, 
to break the law.

And arson is not something I -- you know, most of the stuff I did was 
like liberations, you know, liberating animals and freeing them, 
maybe some economic sabotage. Arson wasn't something that was at the 
top of my list of a tactic. But, you know, the government, if -- like 
I said before, if the government stopped doing this stuff and really 
like looked and saw that we need to improve our environment, because 
we are at the tipping point right now and -- I don't think I can 
express, you know, how dire the situation is. It's very concerning.

AMY GOODMAN: Jonathan Paul, what do you mean by "economic sabotage"?

JONATHAN PAUL: Well, economic sabotage is basically affecting their 
bottom line, which is affecting money. If you go into a lab and take 
their animals and you destroy all their equipment and computers, it 
costs them a lot of money, and that's what everything is all about in 
the industries that abuse animals, is money. So, by hitting them in 
the pocket, that's a tactic that has been used by dissident groups, 
underground groups, for generations.

AMY GOODMAN: Jonathan, I wanted to ask you about the role of 
informants in helping the federal government built its case. On 
Friday, Jacob Ferguson pled guilty in federal court to arson and 
attempted arson. He was the informant who helped convict you, as well 
as others. His sentencing is set for January 10.

JONATHAN PAUL: Mm-hmm. Well, Jacob Ferguson was -- you know, the 
government relies in all their cases on all levels on informants. And 
some of the worst of the worst come out and become informants, 
whether to save themselves or for whatever reason. Jacob Ferguson 
obviously chose to do that, to become an informant and to be paid 
$150,000 to tape everyone and eventually lead to a number of people's 
arrest. Now, most of the people in this case, Amy, I didn't know 
them. I mean, I overlapped in 1997 with a few of these people, but 
that was it. Most of these people -- in fact, I didn't even know who 
these people's names were or even some of the things that had 
happened by the time I got arrested.

The only person -- and I, like Daniel McGowan, who ended -- him and I 
became friends, because Daniel McGowan, Nathan Block and Joyanna 
Zacher and I were the only four people that took a plea deal, which 
was a non-cooperation plea deal, which basically we weren't snitches. 
But everyone else turned and turned on each other and became 
informants in order to get a better sentence. That was a little bit 
disconcerting to me, the attitude of some of these activists. But, 
you know, Jacob Ferguson is going to walk away from this. He's 
probably just going to get probation and no restitution, and he was 
involved with over fifteen arsons.

AMY GOODMAN: Jonathan, do you have word for people who are out there, 
perhaps underground, who still believe in arson as a strategy? What's 
your message to them?

JONATHAN PAUL: Well, my message to them is that you should -- when it 
comes -- if you're thinking about doing this kind of tactic, you 
should really think hard about it, because for -- number one, like I 
mentioned before, if someone got hurt in one of these things, that 
would be the downfall. I mean, that would be against everything that 
people like me believe in: the sanctity of life, you know, respecting 
life. And whether or not you dislike a person or not, someone being 
killed or hurt in an action like this would not be a good thing. And 
so, I think that people should probably stray away from that kind of 
action and turn to other things. Now, I'm not saying just protesting 
or legislation, but, you know, when it comes down to the use of 
arson, it's a risky thing.

And I think the problem was, in this case, with a number of the 
people -- I'm not talking about everyone; I'm actually excluding 
right now the people in the non-cooperation group, because -- but a 
lot of these people, they were just on a rampant rage, and it just -- 
I don't know if these -- I don't know these people, like I said, but 
I think that they -- I don't know if they were really think -- 
[connection cut off]

AMY GOODMAN: We'll have to leave it there. We only had the satellite 
'til thirty, but I want to thank Jonathan Paul for being with us, the 
longtime animal rights activist. He's in Phoenix now. He's about to 
turn himself in today to begin a fifty-one-month prison sentence for 
his role in the burning down of a horse slaughterhouse in Oregon in 1997.




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