Jake Conroy is an American

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

activist and

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

who was involved with

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) was an international animal rights campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest contract animal-testing laboratory. HLS tests medical and non-medical substances on around 75,000 ...

(SHAC),Vegetarians and Vegans in America Today, Karen Iacobbo, Michael Iacobbo, Praeger Publishers, 2006. The Animal Research War, P. Michael Conn, James V. Parker, Palgrave Macmillan, 12 May 2008. an international campaign to force the closure of

Huntingdon Life Sciences Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) was a contract research organisation (CRO) founded in 1951 in Cambridgeshire, England. It had two laboratories in the United Kingdom and one in the United States. With over 1,600 staff, it was until 2015 the largest ...

(HLS), an animal-testing company based in the UK and US, for which he designed and maintained the SHAC websites.American Law Reports Annotations and Cases. ALR federal 2d · Volume 50 2010 p.682Intelligence Report: A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Issues 105-108 2002. Klanwatch" Conroy had previously been a co-founder and activist for an anti-whaling group Ocean Defense International, formally called Sea Defence Alliance,Violence and Terrorism 04/05, Thomas J. Badey, 2003 McGraw-Hill/Dushkin p.105 and director of Northwest Animal Rights Network. He has been recognized as top 100 most influential vegans by Plant Based News.

Background

Conroy joined the

animal rights movement The animal rights (AR) movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...

in 1995 following an attack by the

Animal Liberation Front The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an international, leaderless, decentralized political and social resistance movement that engages in and promotes non-violent direct action in protest against incidents of animal cruelty. It originated in th ...

on a restaurant in Bellevue, Washington near to where he lived.This Country Must Change Essays on the Necessity of Revolution in the US

Craig Rosebraugh, Jalil A. Muntaqim, Jonathan Paul, Arissa Media Group 2009 He has been involved in a wide range of activism since graduating from art school volunteering with and organize various campaigns on local, regional, national and international levels.For the Wild: Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism, Sarah M. Pike, University of California Press, 2107 Rebel Music Resistance Through Hip Hop and Punk, Information Age Publishing, Incorporated 2015, Editors: Anthony J. Nocella, Martha Diaz, Priya Parmar, Scott Robertson He was influenced by both his mother's involvement with Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Anti-Vietnam War Protests and his early interests in Hip Hop,

Hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

and Punk rock.Total Liberation: The Power and Promise of Animal Rights and the Radical Earth Movement, David Naguib Pellow, University of Minnesota Press 2014, TEffective Activism & State Repression: An Interview with Jake Conroy on how the SHAC Campaign nearly bankrupt one of the largest animal testing labs in the worl

/ref> Conroy works for Rainforest Action Network, an international environmental organization whose pressure campaigns help enact responsible corporate policies. He was featured in

Joaquin Phoenix Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (; né Bottom; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for playing dark and unconventional characters in independent films. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Acad ...

's 'The Animal People' documentary'The Animal People' documentary
/ref> about the SHAC7, and ' What the Health', a follow-up to the award-winning documentary

Cowspiracy ''Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret'' is a 2014 American documentary film produced and directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn. The film explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment—examining such environmental concerns as ...

.What the Health 61:50 JAKE CONROY FORMERLY IMPRISONED ACTIVIST
/ref> He also co-founded

Bite Back ''Bite Back'' is a Malaysian-registered website and magazine that promotes the cause of the animal liberation movement, and specifically the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).animal liberation movement The animal rights (AR) movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...

and the

. He also helped create the popular food blog Plant Based on a Budget and has worked on justice campaign for people with

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...

/ AIDS, & anti-death penalty campaigns.

Ocean Defense International

Aged 22 years old, campaigning against the Makah whale hunt,WHALE HUNT UPDATE
By Josh Harper, September 08, 1999Makah Indians Celebrate Whale Hunt, Associated PressTuesday, May 18, 199

/ref> as co-founder and Vice President of Sea Defence Alliance/Ocean Defense International,Lethbridge Herald Newspaper Archives, May 18, 1999 Page 31Whale & Dolphin News Reports 1999
/ref> Conroy was arrested by

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

for obstructing it while piloting a 19 foot

RHIB A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are i ...

. It was the first ever disruption of a whale hunt in US coastal waters. By directly putting themselves between the hunted and hunter in various vessels, Jake and ODI reduced the anticipated kill of 20 Pacific Gray whales down to one.International Animal Rights Conference, 10-13 September 2015
/ref>Authenticity, p.68 Yolanda van Ede, Lit Verlag 2005,

SHAC campaign

On May 26, 2004, fifteen armed FBI agents broke small home in

Pinole Pinole, also called pinol or pinolillo, is roasted ground maize, which is then mixed with a combination of cocoa, agave, cinnamon, chia seeds, vanilla, or other spices. The resulting powder is then used as a nutrient-dense ingredient to make di ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

with Federal Air Marshals circling in helicopters.I Fought The Law: A Review Of Terrorists Or Freedom Fighters?: Reflections On The Liberation Of Animals, Edited By Steven Best & Anthony J. Nocella Ii, Matthew Liebman, Journal of Animal Law 151 (200

/ref> Described as "target ngthousands of individuals and hundreds of companies in attacks designed to shut down

(HLS)",Laville, Sandra
"Animal rights extremists still targeting lab"
, ''The Guardian'', 24 December 2008 of East Millstone near

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, Conroy was among seven animal rights advocates who were arrested in May 2004 (dubbed the SHAC7) and charged with trying to disrupt the work of the New Jersey

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and ...

company. In its drug testing, HLS, a British firm, used dogs, primates and rats in

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experimen ...

experiments. "The group liken dits activities to the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

and the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell ...

, and advocat ngprotests, letter-writing, and what it call dpublicity stunts to disrupt Huntingdon Life Sciences".Seven Animal Rights Advocates Arrested, Robert Hanley, May 27, 2004
/ref> In 2006, branded as a "domestic terrorist", Conroy was sentenced to 4 years in prison for his involvement in the campaign against

as a member of SHAC USA,Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice:Jake Conroy
/ref> one of the most successful animal rights campaigns in history leading to HLS's market value falling by 90%. It was the first use of the 1992

Animal Enterprise Protection Act Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

.Al-Qaeda Goes to College: Impact of the War on Terror on American Higher Education, James Castagnera. 2009 ABC-CLIO Battleground: Environment Volumes Robin Morris Collin, ABC-CLIO 2008. Press Guide to Radical Politics in the United States, Susan Burgess, Kate Leeman, SAGE Publications, 2016. Their appeal was denied.Animal Law: Welfare, Interests, and Rights Front Cover, David S. Favre. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 9 Dec 2014 SHAC introduced targeted strategy to direct action, including a knowledge of modern business organization which understood that businesses are sustained by a wide selection of secondary and tertiary businesses including insurers, investors, even cafeteria suppliers, and targeted its actions at them as well. Conroy's use of the internet was key to its success.Green Is the New Red, An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege (2011) by Will Potter p.1913 City Lights Publishers, The Animal Enterprise Protection Act had been signed into law by President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

to provide animal research facilities with federal protection against violent acts by "

extremists", defining “Animal Enterprise Terrorism" as "physical disruption to the functioning of an animal enterprise by intentionally stealing, damaging, or causing the loss of any property (including animals or records)."Radical Animal Rights Group Convicted of Inciting Violence, Stalking, March 9, 200

/ref>

References

External links

*
YouTube Channel: Are We Winning

The SHAC7Vegan Prisoners Support Group
(VPSG) {{DEFAULTSORT:Conrol, Jake 1976 births Living people American animal rights activists American veganism activists Anti-vivisectionists

Background

Ocean Defense International

SHAC campaign

See also

Further reading

References

External links