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<hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1"> FUR COMMISSION USA COMMENTARY, AUGUST 12, 2001
Careers in the Conflict Industry
HSUS and the Making of a Conflict Industrialist
By FCUSA Executive Director Teresa Platt
IN APRIL OF 2001, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Knudson of the Sacramento Bee wrote a ground-breaking five-part series analyzing the multi-billion-dollar conflict industry, and its impacts, both negative and positive, on science-based conservation efforts. Knudson’s series, entitled "Environment, Inc.",(1) has spurred calls for Congressional hearings and regulation of the US component of this multinational industry, which traffics in a continuous stream of conflict focusing on environmental or animal welfare issues.
Response costs include citizen misunderstanding of various production processes, myriad conflicting laws, "pollution" of the commons in the form of law-breaking "direct action" at organized, highly visible photo ops ("protests" and "convergences"), and even eco-terrorism, which the conflict industry refuses to condemn and even romanticizes. Currently, the industry operates with little regulation, no oversight, no codes of ethics or standards, and no commitment to funneling a percentage of the monies raised into legitimate hands-on conservation and humane work.
Unsurprisingly, many of the people who join this industry have backgrounds which are heavy on skills in public relations and the organizing of direct actions, and weak in the Earth or animal sciences. Lengthy arrest records are also commonplace.
A leader in the conflict industry stated in "Environment, Inc.", "As we become larger and more successful, I worry about the ethics of our movement. We need to think about self-regulation and standards. If not, the ones who make mistakes are going to hurt it for all of us."
An example of the relationship between the industry and its workers is demonstrated by the Humane Society of the United States’ (HSUS) recent hiring of John Paul "JP" Goodwin, previously of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT).(2) Goodwin, who dropped out of high school to pursue protests, and stated, "My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture", is now a full-fledged DC-based conflict industrialist.
Booming Business
According to "Environment, Inc.", the US-based conflict industry is estimated to generate over $3.2 billion in annual revenues. "Our business is booming," said Patrick Noonan, chairman of the Conservation Fund, which provides financial and educational assistance to conflict corporations. "This is a growth industry - a huge growth industry," added Daniel Beard, chief operating officer at the National Audubon Society. "There is a lot of wealth that has accumulated in this country over the last 20 years. And people are wanting to do good things with it."
With assets of almost $100 million, HSUS is among the wealthiest corporations in the industry.(3) In 1999, its revenues were a staggering $63 million, up from $17 million in 1990. Even Goodwin (whose CAFT reports annual revenue under $25,000) has railed against HSUS salaries, stating, "some people at HSUS make obscene amounts of money."(4)
Goodwin’s CAFT and HSUS have worked profitably in generating conflict in concert before. In response to pressure from CAFT/HSUS, a major clothing store allegedly caught selling fraudulently labeled products incorporating domesticated dog fur, donated at least $100,000 to an HSUS campaign to criminalize the unlikely sale of dog and cat fur.(5) After HSUS pocketed the check, CAFT kept the pressure on, pushing for the company to abandon all animal-based natural fibers and limit its product line to plant-based and synthetic clothing. Ironically, it appears that while Goodwin organized CAFT protests against this clothing company, he may also have been taking HSUS-sponsored junkets.
In an Apr. 30, 2000 email, Goodwin stated, "Over the last week I had the honor of being a part of the Texas China tour ... I represented HSUS on the tour."(6) In July of 2000, Goodwin announced CAFT was moving from Dallas, Texas to DC but that CAFT would remain in the family. Goodwin’s companion, Lydia Nichols, would become the "full time director of operations" for CAFT. HSUS never put out a formal press release on Goodwin’s hiring but in April 2001, it was official: "J.P. Goodwin of the Humane Society of the United States" gave a speech in New York on "Political Action for Animals".(7) In June 2001, Goodwin dropped the "J.P." from his name and used a new one: "JGoodwin@hsus.org (John Goodwin)".
Follower of Coronado School
According to an interview in the animal rights newsletter Animal People, Goodwin "grew up with the animal rights movement, dropping out of Germantown High School in Memphis in the 11th grade to focus on activism, doing janitorial work for a living because the flexible hours allowed him time to protest. When protests didn’t bring quick results, Goodwin took up direct action, influenced by convicted fur farm and laboratory arsonist Rod Coronado." Coronado is a believer in animal "liberation", stating, "There isn’t a hierarchy of life, but one in which all life is equal." His dream: "If ALF was to get an above-ground voice, a political lobby, that is the next challenge."(9)
Goodwin embraced Coronado’s philosophy with a vengeance, attacking the human animal and its property, often with juveniles in tow. In the early ’90s, he coordinated street theater in Tennessee(10) and issued succinct instructions: "If the feed barn, and processing barns are away from the animals, and downwind, then they could be burned down. Otherwise mink releases are the only way to go."(11)
Predictably, Goodwin was arrested multiple times in various states, culminating in his being charged as the alleged ringleader of a gang that vandalized fur stores. In April 1993, he and two juveniles pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years in prison, they spent the next 30 months under house arrest, but the prison term was overturned for six months probation. Animal People reported, "By the time Goodwin completed the probation, he had already become - at 22 - a nationally recognized animal rights movement leader, forming CAFT and organizing anti-fur civil disobedience demonstrations throughout the South and Midwest." However, Goodwin’s tactics "seemed mainly to get lots of young activists arrested, photographed, fingerprinted, jailed, and fined."(12)
Animal People continued, "In 1996 - 1997 Goodwin gleefully announced a string of Animal Liberation Front (ALF) mink releases and arsons against furriers and fur farms." Goodwin acted as ALF spokesman for a Petaluma, California slaughterhouse arson in February 1997, and shocked the public with his comments on the March 1997 arson at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah. "We’re ecstatic," said Goodwin of the fire that did almost a million dollars of damage and could have killed a caretaker family sleeping on the premises. "We have no problem with inanimate objects being destroyed so animate objects can survive," he continued. "We believe life is more valuable than property."(12)
In May 1997, ALF attacked a mink farm in Mt. Angel, Oregon, releasing and abandoning 10,000 farm-raised animals. Over 4,000, primarily kits not yet weaned from their mothers, died miserable deaths in the days following the attack, while the survivors were severely stressed by the experience. But Goodwin was unmoved by the carnage, and callously demanded body counts. "They claim thousands of minks have died," he said. "Let’s see thousands of bodies."(13) The farming family, police, reporters and insurance adjusters dutifully counted the bodies while Goodwin gave interviews and furthered his career.
Training Kids for a Living
As one of the "All-Star" speakers at the 1997 Animal Rights Conference in DC, Goodwin participated in panels on "Gaining public attention (Developing tactics to gain public attention for our cause without damaging our public image)" with Elliot Katz of In Defense of Animals and Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Goodwin discussed training the next generation of conflict industry workers with: "The intergenerational connection (Improving relations between student groups and the rest of the movement)".(14) He held "education and strategy training sessions" for young people, featuring Breaking Free!, a video glorifying crimes commited by ALF and the Earth Liberation Front.(15)
A pattern of juvenile arrests emerged at protests organized by Goodwin/CAFT and another conflict group, the Animal Defense League (ADL). Sometimes the juveniles were from out of state, sometimes the arrests were during school hours.(16) Goodwin praised the Straight Edge faction of young vegans, who turned intolerant and militant, for "breathing new life into the movement."(17) To thwart attempts at identification, Goodwin and his cohorts took to donning ski masks. Now you see them, now you don’t.
Peter Schnell of New Jersey was 17 when arrested in New York in 1998 at a Goodwin/CAFT/ADL protest. Matt Whyte of California was only 16 when arrested in 1999 at a protest in Seattle, during school hours on a school day. Goodwin, who was also present at that protest, told the Associated Press he did not know why Whyte was not in school. Hours later, three more out-of-state juveniles were arrested after they donned masks, climbed a tall fence at a nearby fur farm and vandalized animal pens, scattering the terrified mink. In January 2001, Goodwin/CAFT/ADL protégés Whyte, now 18, and Schnell, now 20, were arrested in the middle of the night behind the Capitola (California) City Hall with materials for making bombs.
Careers in the Conflict Industry
HSUS and the Making of a Conflict Industrialist
By FCUSA Executive Director Teresa Platt
IN APRIL OF 2001, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Knudson of the Sacramento Bee wrote a ground-breaking five-part series analyzing the multi-billion-dollar conflict industry, and its impacts, both negative and positive, on science-based conservation efforts. Knudson’s series, entitled "Environment, Inc.",(1) has spurred calls for Congressional hearings and regulation of the US component of this multinational industry, which traffics in a continuous stream of conflict focusing on environmental or animal welfare issues.
Response costs include citizen misunderstanding of various production processes, myriad conflicting laws, "pollution" of the commons in the form of law-breaking "direct action" at organized, highly visible photo ops ("protests" and "convergences"), and even eco-terrorism, which the conflict industry refuses to condemn and even romanticizes. Currently, the industry operates with little regulation, no oversight, no codes of ethics or standards, and no commitment to funneling a percentage of the monies raised into legitimate hands-on conservation and humane work.
Unsurprisingly, many of the people who join this industry have backgrounds which are heavy on skills in public relations and the organizing of direct actions, and weak in the Earth or animal sciences. Lengthy arrest records are also commonplace.
A leader in the conflict industry stated in "Environment, Inc.", "As we become larger and more successful, I worry about the ethics of our movement. We need to think about self-regulation and standards. If not, the ones who make mistakes are going to hurt it for all of us."
An example of the relationship between the industry and its workers is demonstrated by the Humane Society of the United States’ (HSUS) recent hiring of John Paul "JP" Goodwin, previously of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT).(2) Goodwin, who dropped out of high school to pursue protests, and stated, "My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture", is now a full-fledged DC-based conflict industrialist.
Booming Business
According to "Environment, Inc.", the US-based conflict industry is estimated to generate over $3.2 billion in annual revenues. "Our business is booming," said Patrick Noonan, chairman of the Conservation Fund, which provides financial and educational assistance to conflict corporations. "This is a growth industry - a huge growth industry," added Daniel Beard, chief operating officer at the National Audubon Society. "There is a lot of wealth that has accumulated in this country over the last 20 years. And people are wanting to do good things with it."
With assets of almost $100 million, HSUS is among the wealthiest corporations in the industry.(3) In 1999, its revenues were a staggering $63 million, up from $17 million in 1990. Even Goodwin (whose CAFT reports annual revenue under $25,000) has railed against HSUS salaries, stating, "some people at HSUS make obscene amounts of money."(4)
Goodwin’s CAFT and HSUS have worked profitably in generating conflict in concert before. In response to pressure from CAFT/HSUS, a major clothing store allegedly caught selling fraudulently labeled products incorporating domesticated dog fur, donated at least $100,000 to an HSUS campaign to criminalize the unlikely sale of dog and cat fur.(5) After HSUS pocketed the check, CAFT kept the pressure on, pushing for the company to abandon all animal-based natural fibers and limit its product line to plant-based and synthetic clothing. Ironically, it appears that while Goodwin organized CAFT protests against this clothing company, he may also have been taking HSUS-sponsored junkets.
In an Apr. 30, 2000 email, Goodwin stated, "Over the last week I had the honor of being a part of the Texas China tour ... I represented HSUS on the tour."(6) In July of 2000, Goodwin announced CAFT was moving from Dallas, Texas to DC but that CAFT would remain in the family. Goodwin’s companion, Lydia Nichols, would become the "full time director of operations" for CAFT. HSUS never put out a formal press release on Goodwin’s hiring but in April 2001, it was official: "J.P. Goodwin of the Humane Society of the United States" gave a speech in New York on "Political Action for Animals".(7) In June 2001, Goodwin dropped the "J.P." from his name and used a new one: "JGoodwin@hsus.org (John Goodwin)".
Follower of Coronado School
According to an interview in the animal rights newsletter Animal People, Goodwin "grew up with the animal rights movement, dropping out of Germantown High School in Memphis in the 11th grade to focus on activism, doing janitorial work for a living because the flexible hours allowed him time to protest. When protests didn’t bring quick results, Goodwin took up direct action, influenced by convicted fur farm and laboratory arsonist Rod Coronado." Coronado is a believer in animal "liberation", stating, "There isn’t a hierarchy of life, but one in which all life is equal." His dream: "If ALF was to get an above-ground voice, a political lobby, that is the next challenge."(9)
Goodwin embraced Coronado’s philosophy with a vengeance, attacking the human animal and its property, often with juveniles in tow. In the early ’90s, he coordinated street theater in Tennessee(10) and issued succinct instructions: "If the feed barn, and processing barns are away from the animals, and downwind, then they could be burned down. Otherwise mink releases are the only way to go."(11)
Predictably, Goodwin was arrested multiple times in various states, culminating in his being charged as the alleged ringleader of a gang that vandalized fur stores. In April 1993, he and two juveniles pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years in prison, they spent the next 30 months under house arrest, but the prison term was overturned for six months probation. Animal People reported, "By the time Goodwin completed the probation, he had already become - at 22 - a nationally recognized animal rights movement leader, forming CAFT and organizing anti-fur civil disobedience demonstrations throughout the South and Midwest." However, Goodwin’s tactics "seemed mainly to get lots of young activists arrested, photographed, fingerprinted, jailed, and fined."(12)
Animal People continued, "In 1996 - 1997 Goodwin gleefully announced a string of Animal Liberation Front (ALF) mink releases and arsons against furriers and fur farms." Goodwin acted as ALF spokesman for a Petaluma, California slaughterhouse arson in February 1997, and shocked the public with his comments on the March 1997 arson at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah. "We’re ecstatic," said Goodwin of the fire that did almost a million dollars of damage and could have killed a caretaker family sleeping on the premises. "We have no problem with inanimate objects being destroyed so animate objects can survive," he continued. "We believe life is more valuable than property."(12)
In May 1997, ALF attacked a mink farm in Mt. Angel, Oregon, releasing and abandoning 10,000 farm-raised animals. Over 4,000, primarily kits not yet weaned from their mothers, died miserable deaths in the days following the attack, while the survivors were severely stressed by the experience. But Goodwin was unmoved by the carnage, and callously demanded body counts. "They claim thousands of minks have died," he said. "Let’s see thousands of bodies."(13) The farming family, police, reporters and insurance adjusters dutifully counted the bodies while Goodwin gave interviews and furthered his career.
Training Kids for a Living
As one of the "All-Star" speakers at the 1997 Animal Rights Conference in DC, Goodwin participated in panels on "Gaining public attention (Developing tactics to gain public attention for our cause without damaging our public image)" with Elliot Katz of In Defense of Animals and Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Goodwin discussed training the next generation of conflict industry workers with: "The intergenerational connection (Improving relations between student groups and the rest of the movement)".(14) He held "education and strategy training sessions" for young people, featuring Breaking Free!, a video glorifying crimes commited by ALF and the Earth Liberation Front.(15)
A pattern of juvenile arrests emerged at protests organized by Goodwin/CAFT and another conflict group, the Animal Defense League (ADL). Sometimes the juveniles were from out of state, sometimes the arrests were during school hours.(16) Goodwin praised the Straight Edge faction of young vegans, who turned intolerant and militant, for "breathing new life into the movement."(17) To thwart attempts at identification, Goodwin and his cohorts took to donning ski masks. Now you see them, now you don’t.
Peter Schnell of New Jersey was 17 when arrested in New York in 1998 at a Goodwin/CAFT/ADL protest. Matt Whyte of California was only 16 when arrested in 1999 at a protest in Seattle, during school hours on a school day. Goodwin, who was also present at that protest, told the Associated Press he did not know why Whyte was not in school. Hours later, three more out-of-state juveniles were arrested after they donned masks, climbed a tall fence at a nearby fur farm and vandalized animal pens, scattering the terrified mink. In January 2001, Goodwin/CAFT/ADL protégés Whyte, now 18, and Schnell, now 20, were arrested in the middle of the night behind the Capitola (California) City Hall with materials for making bombs.