WHAT IS THE ANIMAL ENTERPRISE TERRORISM ACT (AETA)?
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) is a bill which seeks to amend the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA – PL 102-346), a section under Title 18 of the criminal code which protects animal enterprises from illegal acts comitted by animal activists. The AETA bill (S 3880) recently passed in the Senate on Sept. 30th, 2006, was introduced by Mr. Inhofe (R-OK), Mrs. Feinstein (D-CA), Mr. Thune (R-SD), and Mr. Isakson (R-GA). It’s counter-part is currently pending in the House (H.R. 4239). They add new language: • potentially equating lawful activist activities with terrorism. • protecting ‘tertiary targets’, those indirectly related to animal enterprises from threat, vandalism and bodily harm. • strengthening penalties for violations above those of AEPA (penalties of which are far greater than that of non-AR activist violations for similar offenses). • increasing the scope of the term “animal enterprise”.
