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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2007

ADL-LA fined $49,600 for demos

 

LOS ANGELES--A Los Angeles Superior Court judgment on May 3, 2007 fined the Animal Defense League of Los Angeles $49,600, after representatives pleaded "no contest" to seven criminal charges, including trespassing and conspiracy, arising out of a series of demonstrations held outside the homes of Los Angeles Animal Services employees in 2004 and 2005.

"Seven other charges were dropped by city prosecutors," Associated Press reported.

The court placed all members of the Animal Defense League of Los Angeles under three years of probation, including a prohibition on "annoying, harassing, threatening, stalking or committing any act of force or violence" against L.A. Animal Services staff.

"The group is barred from demonstrating within 100 feet of the homes of previously targeted workers," said Associated Press, "and the league must remove their photos and personal information from its web site."

The two most prominent members of Animal Defense League of Los Angeles in recent years have been actress Pamela Ferdin and Jerry Vlasak, M.D.

Ferdin and volunteer Natalie Norcross were acquitted in 2005 of illegally demonstrating outside the home of former Los Angeles mayor James Hahn. Ferdin and Vlasek reportedly sued the City of Los Angeles for $3 million in damages for allegedly violating their civil rights.

Ferdin has also headed the U.S. branch of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, while Vlasak has represented the "North American Animal Liberation Press Office."

In 2004 Vlasak was barred from visiting England to address an animal rights conference over remarks he made in 2003 that seemed to endorse killing vivisectors. In April 2005 Vlasak was removed from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society board of directors after allegedly posting personal information about a sealer and his wife on the Sea Shepherd web site that according to the CBC brought their family "a torrent of death threats."

Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson deleted the material.