Editor’s note: In the original version of this story, the characterization of Chiron’s relationship with Huntingdon was inaccurate. Chiron currently does not do business with Huntingdon, but may do so in the future. The FBI says eco-terrorism — acts of violence in protest of harm to animals or to the environment — is the United States’ No. 1 terrorism threat from inside its own borders. In the early 1990s, biotech executives and scientists were inundated by harassment and violence in the United Kingdom and Europe. In 1996, the violence began spreading to the United States when demonstrators burned a U.S. Forest Service truck in the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. In August 2003, two pipe bombs exploded at Chiron, a pharmaceutical company in Emeryville, California, followed by another explosion in September 2003 at Shaklee, a health and beauty products company in Pleasanton, California. The FBI has linked much of the harassment and violence to groups including SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty), the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front. But the groups have largely evaded authorities by operating in cells and using aliases. Full Story
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