Hours Before Beginning 4-Year Jail Sentence, Animal Rights Activist Jonathan Paul in First Interview Since Arrest

In November Paul pled guilty to one court of conspiracy and one court of arson for his role in the 1997 fire at the Cavel West horse meat slaughterhouse in Redmond, Oregon. The destroyed the plant and led to its permanent closure. Even though no one was injured in the fire, federal prosecutors described it as a “classic case of terrorism.”

In court filings Paul's attorneys said the objective of the fire was to end the “inhumane treatment of horses and the commercial trafficking in horse meat.” For Jonathan Paul the fire was just the latest in a string of direct actions taken in the name of saving animal lives.

His sister Catherine Paul recently summarized his activism like this: “He crept into animal laboratories to free dogs. He dismantled corrals to release wild mustangs. He impersonated a fur buyer to film the treatment of minks. He put himself between whales and whalers despite warnings that his boat would be impounded and that he would be jailed.”

Paul has remained an animal rights activist but says he has since disavowed the use of arson as a tactic. In recent years he has worked as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in Oregon. Later today Paul will begin his 51-month sentence at the medium security Federal Correctional Institute in Phoenix. He joins us now in Phoenix for his first broadcast interview since his arrest.

• Jonathan Paul. Longtime animal rights activist based. He is beginning a 51-month prison sentence today in Phoenix for his role in burning down a horse-meat slaughterhouse in Oregon in 1997.