"Animal Activists Who Freed 2,000 Minks Lose U.S. Appeal"

"A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday rejected a challenge by two animal rights activists to the constitutionality of a federal law used to prosecute them for breaking into an Illinois farm and releasing more than 2,000 minks into the wild.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago refused to dismiss the indictment and conditional guilty pleas of Kevin Johnson and Tyler Lang for violating the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act in connection with the August 2013 incident.

Prosecutors said Johnson and Lang, both from California, broke into a Morris, Illinois farm that raised minks for sale to fur makers, removed fencing to help them escape, destroyed cards to identify their breed, and spray-painted “Liberation is Love” on a barn, causing between $120,000 and $200,000 of damage."

Jonathan Stempel reports for Reuters November 8, 2017.