Center commentary on Associated Press story
The Associated Press ran a story
on March 4, 2002, Monday, concerning the Center's
IRS complaint against PETA. The Center's commentary appears in bold, while
quotes from the story appear in normal type face.
The story, by SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press Writer, was headlined:
Group asks IRS to revoke PETA's
tax-exempt status
Newspapers that ran the story created their
own headline. The AP's story opened:
NORFOLK, Va. -- A group that tracks criminal acts against businesses wants
the federal
government to revoke the tax-exempt status of People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals.
The AP story noted that the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise said in
a complaint to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rossotti that
"publicly available information strongly suggests that PETA induces or
encourages the commission of unlawful acts."
Further, the AP quoted from the Center's 12-page complaint: the
Norfolk-based animal-rights group or its members have been accused of supporting
the Animal Liberation Front, which the FBI has declared a domestic terrorist
group, by acting as a media conduit and providing legal defense funds for an ALF
member; stealing trade secrets from laboratories; advocating arson; and
assaulting business executives.
AP reporter BARISIC quoted Center Executive
Vice President Ron Arnold as saying that PETA "encourages the breaking of
the law. It's been linked to the breaking of the law. Its own people have
extensive arrest records. Any kind of law-breaking to us does not deserve
tax-exempt status."
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk responded by saying that the Center is
"preying on people's fears of terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks and trying to
paint with a very broad brush all agitators for social change, no matter how
peaceful. It's an opportunity that they're seizing on. It's very false and wrong
and McCarthyish."
Glib words can't deflect the Center's complaint: The complaint is extremely
detailed, not broad brush; it was filed against PETA's unlawful acts, not
against its agitation for social change (we absolutely defend PETA's right to
lawfully agitate for whatever they want, whether we agree with it or not); and
people don't get arrest records as long as PETA's for being peaceful. Moreover,
if any facts in the complaint are false or wrong -- and we have no reason to
believe any of them are -- tell us and we'll correct them. And "McCarthyish?"
Get real. Nobody believes that bluff any more.
AP reporter BARISIC quoted Newkirk further: "Everything they have is
grasping at straws, if you ask me. We're on the up and up," Newkirk said. She
said the IRS "came through here with a fine-toothed comb about 10 years ago and
they were completely happy."
That was before Rod Coronado did a $2.5
million arson at the Michigan State University animal research laboratory and
sent a package containing criminal evidence from the arson to Newkirk through
her friend Maria Blanton. The prosecutor in Coronado's case wrote in the
Government's
Sentencing Memorandum, "Newkirk
had arranged to have the package delivered to her days before the MSU arson occurred.”
We doubt the IRS will be completely happy with that.
The AP story stated: The center said PETA paid legal fees when a man was
arrested in an Animal
Liberation Front raid at the University of Oregon and when another ALF
member was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for the torching of a
Michigan State University animal laboratory.
PETA also gave $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front, another
group classified by the FBI as domestic terrorists, the center said.
Newkirk said PETA may have paid legal fees in the Oregon case, which she
said involved a school teacher who took care of two rabbits that were left
on his doorstep in the middle of the night after the raid. She also said
PETA loaned $25,000 for legal fees to the parents of the defendant in the
latter case, and they repaid the money.
That's very cuddly about the rabbits, but
the part about PETA loaning $25,000 for legal fees to the parents of Rod
Coronado sounds like hogwash. On February 5, 2002, Ron Arnold contacted Mr. Ray
Coronado, Rodney's father, and asked about this alleged loan from PETA, which appears on
PETA's 1995 Form 990 IRS tax report. Ray Coronado replied that he had never
received a loan from PETA, and had not paid back anything. When pressed on the
point, Mr. Coronado said he knew about some money, but he thought that it went
directly to his son's lawyers and he certainly never received a loan from
PETA. And he repeated that he never paid back anything. Is Ray Coronado's
memory faulty? Is somebody cooking the books? What's going on here?
The AP story went on...
Newkirk said ALF used to send PETA videotapes documenting animal cruelty so
PETA could make them public but that ALF no longer does. She said older ALF
members have been replaced by younger people who think PETA is "too old and
stodgy for them."
Then why does "old stodgy" Ingrid Newkirk attract the "younger people" who swarm to a group she's connected to called No Compromise? No Compromise supports "underground" groups that engage in "direct action." Ingrid Newkirk and PETA acknowledge financial support for No Compromise. Former Earth Liberation Front spokesperson Craig Rosebraugh is affiliated with No Compromise. Convicted ALF arsonist Rodney Coronado was required to withdraw from participation in No Compromise by federal agents who told him that his participation was a violation of the terms of his parole that could send him back to prison.
The AP story concluded:
She [Newkirk] also said the money PETA gave to the North American Earth
Liberation
Front was in response to a request for funds for educational materials. "We
never gave anybody any money to do anything illegal," she said.
The IRS should tell us about that.