On Thursday, February 1st, Peter Young walked through the doors of the Victorville FCI II facility and into the free world. He was greeted by a small crowd and immediately taken to a celebration dinner in Los Angeles. To quote Peter’s toast (of coffee) that afternoon: “Here’s to being liberated”.

In early 2005, animal rights activist Peter Young was captured in San Jose by Federal officials who accused him of freeing some 8,000 mink from fur farms in Wisconsin, South Dakota and Iowa. Young had been a federal fugitive for six years when he was arrested. He was charged with engaging in animal enterprise terrorism and unlawfully interfering with interstate commerce. Peter's alleged accomplice in the mink farm raids, Justin Samuel, was caught by authorities in 1999. After agreeing to implicate Peter Young in a plea agreement, Samuel served two years in prison and was released well before Peter Young was even captured. Peter Young later signed a plea agreement implicating no one but himself and now has spent the better part of two years behind bars.

Peter Youngs' capture in the Bay Area, along with the disappearance of Daniel Andreas San Diego (an alleged suspect in the 2003 bombings of two East Bay companies), coincided with a major effort by Federal authorities to target Bay Area animal activists with house raids and grand juries that continues today, as well as numerous arrests of environmental activists nationwide in what has become known as the Green Scare.

Reports: Animal Liberator Peter Young Is Free! | Thank You from the Peter Young Support Committee

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