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FUR COMMISSION USA COMMENTARY, AUGUST 12, 2001
Careers in the Conflict Industry
HSUS and the Making of a Conflict Industrialist
By FCUSA Executive Director Teresa Platt
IN APRIL OF 2001, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Knudson of the Sacramento Bee wrote a ground-breaking five-part series analyzing the multi-billion-dollar conflict industry, and its impacts, both negative and positive, on science-based conservation efforts. Knudson’s series, entitled "Environment, Inc.",(1) has spurred calls for Congressional hearings and regulation of the US component of this multinational industry, which traffics in a continuous stream of conflict focusing on environmental or animal welfare issues.
Response costs include citizen misunderstanding of various production processes, myriad conflicting laws, "pollution" of the commons in the form of law-breaking "direct action" at organized, highly visible photo ops ("protests" and "convergences"), and even eco-terrorism, which the conflict industry refuses to condemn and even romanticizes. Currently, the industry operates with little regulation, no oversight, no codes of ethics or standards, and no commitment to funneling a percentage of the monies raised into legitimate hands-on conservation and humane work.
(As was mentioned in another thread, H$U$ came out $27,000,000 ahead on their campaign to "save" animals in the aftermath of the hurricanes a few years ago. Where did the money go???? Who does H$U$ answer to??? No one.)gs
Unsurprisingly, many of the people who join this industry have backgrounds which are heavy on skills in public relations and the organizing of direct actions, and weak in the Earth or animal sciences. Lengthy arrest records are also commonplace.
A leader in the conflict industry stated in "Environment, Inc.", "As we become larger and more successful, I worry about the ethics of our movement. We need to think about self-regulation and standards. If not, the ones who make mistakes are going to hurt it for all of us."
An example of the relationship between the industry and its workers is demonstrated by the Humane Society of the United States’ (H$U$) recent hiring of John Paul "JP" Goodwin, previously of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT).(2) Goodwin, who dropped out of high school to pursue protests, and stated, "My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture", is now a full-fledged DC-based conflict industrialist.
Booming Business
According to "Environment, Inc.", the US-based conflict industry is estimated to generate over $3.2 billion in annual revenues. "Our business is booming," said Patrick Noonan, chairman of the Conservation Fund, which provides financial and educational assistance to conflict corporations. "This is a growth industry - a huge growth industry," added Daniel Beard, chief operating officer at the National Audubon Society. "There is a lot of wealth that has accumulated in this country over the last 20 years. And people are wanting to do good things with it."
With assets of almost $100 million, H$U$ is among the wealthiest corporations in the industry.(3) In 1999, its revenues were a staggering $63 million, up from $17 million in 1990. Even Goodwin (whose CAFT reports annual revenue under $25,000) has railed against H$U$ salaries, stating, "some people at H$U$ make obscene amounts of money."(4)
Goodwin’s CAFT and H$U$ have worked profitably in generating conflict in concert before. In response to pressure from CAFT/H$U$, a major clothing store allegedly caught selling fraudulently labeled products incorporating domesticated dog fur, donated at least $100,000 to an H$U$ campaign to criminalize the unlikely sale of dog and cat fur.(5)
After H$U$ pocketed the check, CAFT kept the pressure on, pushing for the company to abandon all animal-based natural fibers and limit its product line to plant-based and synthetic clothing. Ironically, it appears that while Goodwin organized CAFT protests against this clothing company, he may also have been taking H$U$-sponsored junkets.
In an Apr. 30, 2000 email, Goodwin stated, "Over the last week I had the honor of being a part of the Texas China tour ... I represented H$U$ on the tour."(6) In July of 2000, Goodwin announced CAFT was moving from Dallas, Texas to DC but that CAFT would remain in the family. Goodwin’s companion, Lydia Nichols, would become the "full time director of operations" for CAFT.
H$U$ never put out a formal press release on Goodwin’s hiring but in April 2001, it was official: "J.P. Goodwin of the Humane $ociety of the United $tates" gave a speech in New York on "Political Action for Animals".(7) In June 2001, Goodwin dropped the "J.P." from his name and used a new one: "JGoodwin@hsus.org (John Goodwin)".
Follower of Coronado School
According to an interview in the animal rights newsletter Animal People, Goodwin "grew up with the animal rights movement, dropping out of Germantown High School in Memphis in the 11th grade to focus on activism, doing janitorial work for a living because the flexible hours allowed him time to protest. When protests didn’t bring quick results, Goodwin took up direct action, influenced by convicted fur farm and laboratory arsonist Rod Coronado."( Coronado is a believer in animal "liberation", stating, "There isn’t a hierarchy of life, but one in which all life is equal." His dream: "If ALF was to get an above-ground voice, a political lobby, that is the next challenge."(9)
Goodwin embraced Coronado’s philosophy with a vengeance, attacking the human animal and its property, often with juveniles in tow. In the early ’90s, he coordinated street theater in Tennessee(10) and issued succinct instructions: "If the feed barn, and processing barns are away from the animals, and downwind, then they could be burned down. Otherwise mink releases are the only way to go."(11)
Predictably, Goodwin was arrested multiple times in various states, culminating in his being charged as the alleged ringleader of a gang that vandalized fur stores. In April 1993, he and two juveniles pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years in prison, they spent the next 30 months under house arrest, but the prison term was overturned for six months probation.
Animal People reported, "By the time Goodwin completed the probation, he had already become - at 22 - a nationally recognized animal rights movement leader, forming CAFT and organizing anti-fur civil disobedience demonstrations throughout the South and Midwest." However, Goodwin’s tactics "seemed mainly to get lots of young activists arrested, photographed, fingerprinted, jailed, and fined."(12)
Animal People continued, "In 1996 - 1997 Goodwin gleefully announced a string of Animal Liberation Front (ALF) mink releases and arsons against furriers and fur farms." Goodwin acted as ALF spokesman for a Petaluma, California slaughterhouse arson in February 1997, and shocked the public with his comments on the March 1997 arson at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah. "We’re ecstatic," said Goodwin of the fire that did almost a million dollars of damage and could have killed a caretaker family sleeping on the premises. "We have no problem with inanimate objects being destroyed so animate objects can survive," he continued. "We believe life is more valuable than property."(12)
In May 1997, ALF attacked a mink farm in Mt. Angel, Oregon, releasing and abandoning 10,000 farm-raised animals. Over 4,000, primarily kits not yet weaned from their mothers, died miserable deaths in the days following the attack, while the survivors were severely stressed by the experience. But Goodwin was unmoved by the carnage, and callously demanded body counts. "They claim thousands of minks have died," he said. "Let’s see thousands of bodies."(13) The farming family, police, reporters and insurance adjusters dutifully counted the bodies while Goodwin gave interviews and furthered his career.
Training Kids for a Living
As one of the "All-Star" speakers at the 1997 Animal Rights Conference in DC, Goodwin participated in panels on "Gaining public attention (Developing tactics to gain public attention for our cause without damaging our public image)" with Elliot Katz of In Defense of Animals and Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Goodwin discussed training the next generation of conflict industry workers with: "The intergenerational connection (Improving relations between student groups and the rest of the movement)".(14) He held "education and strategy training sessions" for young people, featuring Breaking Free!, a video glorifying crimes commited by ALF and the Earth Liberation Front.(15)
A pattern of juvenile arrests emerged at protests organized by Goodwin/CAFT and another conflict group, the Animal Defense League (ADL). Sometimes the juveniles were from out of state, sometimes the arrests were during school hours.(16) Goodwin praised the Straight Edge faction of young vegans, who turned intolerant and militant, for "breathing new life into the movement."(17) To thwart attempts at identification, Goodwin and his cohorts took to donning ski masks. Now you see them, now you don’t.
Peter Schnell of New Jersey was 17 when arrested in New York in 1998 at a Goodwin/CAFT/ADL protest. Matt Whyte of California was only 16 when arrested in 1999 at a protest in Seattle, during school hours on a school day. Goodwin, who was also present at that protest, told the Associated Press he did not know why Whyte was not in school. Hours later, three more out-of-state juveniles were arrested after they donned masks, climbed a tall fence at a nearby fur farm and vandalized animal pens, scattering the terrified mink. In January 2001, Goodwin/CAFT/ADL protégés Whyte, now 18, and Schnell, now 20, were arrested in the middle of the night behind the Capitola (California) City Hall with materials for making bombs.
Going Global
In the late ’90s, CAFT went global with its conflict product, hanging out website shingles in the UK and Sweden. CAFT-UK’s website states that the British arm was established to "regenerate the grass-roots campaign against the fur trade in Britain." It also brags of "pickets outside [shops] on a daily basis" along with "mass arrests", "smashed" windows and protests at shop owners’ homes.
"We have found that civil disobedience and direct action has been powerful in generating massive attention in our communities ... and has been very effective in traumatizing our targets," noted Goodwin.(19)
By 1998, at just 25 years old, Goodwin was describing himself as a "former member of ALF".(7) His busy schedule was filled with interviews, arrests, ALF p.r., addressing kids at conferences, protests, a presence in several countries and, in the summer of 1999, the filing of a lawsuit against CAFT under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by a Philadelphia furrier tired of incessant protests and attacks on his property and staff.(20)
Despite all this effort, US retail fur sales hit $1.69 billion in 2000, up a whopping 54% from $1.1 billion in 1994, when Goodwin started CAFT.
Cleaning Up His Act
By August of 2000, Goodwin was trying to clean up his act, or at least his public image. Following the lead of other industry execs before him, he realized that society’s patience with his lawbreaking ways was running thin. "I do not plan to ever do civil disobedience again," he told Animal People. "I’m convinced that politics is the way to go, and to that end I am taking classes in political campaign management. Targeting bad lawmakers, and helping good lawmakers, is what I feel this movement has failed to do, miserably."
Now that he’s an established conflict industrialist backed by H$U$’s huge financial reserves of almost $100 million, Goodwin will be in a stronger position to realize two goals: Rodney Coronado’s dream of "an above-ground voice, a political lobby" for ALF, and his personal dream, "the abolition of all animal agriculture".(19)
And yes, the hard-working citizenry supports all this as "public benefit" with tax-free status and our law enforcement response costs. Tax-free conflict, tax-free trauma, H$U$ and Goodwin, together, making a living in the conflict industry.
In the meantime, the Environment, Inc. juggernaut will continue charging forward without codes of ethics or standards, filling its pockets to the detriment of genuine conservation and humane work.
John Goodwin, convicted felon.
Careers in the Conflict Industry
HSUS and the Making of a Conflict Industrialist
By FCUSA Executive Director Teresa Platt
IN APRIL OF 2001, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Knudson of the Sacramento Bee wrote a ground-breaking five-part series analyzing the multi-billion-dollar conflict industry, and its impacts, both negative and positive, on science-based conservation efforts. Knudson’s series, entitled "Environment, Inc.",(1) has spurred calls for Congressional hearings and regulation of the US component of this multinational industry, which traffics in a continuous stream of conflict focusing on environmental or animal welfare issues.
Response costs include citizen misunderstanding of various production processes, myriad conflicting laws, "pollution" of the commons in the form of law-breaking "direct action" at organized, highly visible photo ops ("protests" and "convergences"), and even eco-terrorism, which the conflict industry refuses to condemn and even romanticizes. Currently, the industry operates with little regulation, no oversight, no codes of ethics or standards, and no commitment to funneling a percentage of the monies raised into legitimate hands-on conservation and humane work.
(As was mentioned in another thread, H$U$ came out $27,000,000 ahead on their campaign to "save" animals in the aftermath of the hurricanes a few years ago. Where did the money go???? Who does H$U$ answer to??? No one.)gs
Unsurprisingly, many of the people who join this industry have backgrounds which are heavy on skills in public relations and the organizing of direct actions, and weak in the Earth or animal sciences. Lengthy arrest records are also commonplace.
A leader in the conflict industry stated in "Environment, Inc.", "As we become larger and more successful, I worry about the ethics of our movement. We need to think about self-regulation and standards. If not, the ones who make mistakes are going to hurt it for all of us."
An example of the relationship between the industry and its workers is demonstrated by the Humane Society of the United States’ (H$U$) recent hiring of John Paul "JP" Goodwin, previously of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT).(2) Goodwin, who dropped out of high school to pursue protests, and stated, "My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture", is now a full-fledged DC-based conflict industrialist.
Booming Business
According to "Environment, Inc.", the US-based conflict industry is estimated to generate over $3.2 billion in annual revenues. "Our business is booming," said Patrick Noonan, chairman of the Conservation Fund, which provides financial and educational assistance to conflict corporations. "This is a growth industry - a huge growth industry," added Daniel Beard, chief operating officer at the National Audubon Society. "There is a lot of wealth that has accumulated in this country over the last 20 years. And people are wanting to do good things with it."
With assets of almost $100 million, H$U$ is among the wealthiest corporations in the industry.(3) In 1999, its revenues were a staggering $63 million, up from $17 million in 1990. Even Goodwin (whose CAFT reports annual revenue under $25,000) has railed against H$U$ salaries, stating, "some people at H$U$ make obscene amounts of money."(4)
Goodwin’s CAFT and H$U$ have worked profitably in generating conflict in concert before. In response to pressure from CAFT/H$U$, a major clothing store allegedly caught selling fraudulently labeled products incorporating domesticated dog fur, donated at least $100,000 to an H$U$ campaign to criminalize the unlikely sale of dog and cat fur.(5)
After H$U$ pocketed the check, CAFT kept the pressure on, pushing for the company to abandon all animal-based natural fibers and limit its product line to plant-based and synthetic clothing. Ironically, it appears that while Goodwin organized CAFT protests against this clothing company, he may also have been taking H$U$-sponsored junkets.
In an Apr. 30, 2000 email, Goodwin stated, "Over the last week I had the honor of being a part of the Texas China tour ... I represented H$U$ on the tour."(6) In July of 2000, Goodwin announced CAFT was moving from Dallas, Texas to DC but that CAFT would remain in the family. Goodwin’s companion, Lydia Nichols, would become the "full time director of operations" for CAFT.
H$U$ never put out a formal press release on Goodwin’s hiring but in April 2001, it was official: "J.P. Goodwin of the Humane $ociety of the United $tates" gave a speech in New York on "Political Action for Animals".(7) In June 2001, Goodwin dropped the "J.P." from his name and used a new one: "JGoodwin@hsus.org (John Goodwin)".
Follower of Coronado School
According to an interview in the animal rights newsletter Animal People, Goodwin "grew up with the animal rights movement, dropping out of Germantown High School in Memphis in the 11th grade to focus on activism, doing janitorial work for a living because the flexible hours allowed him time to protest. When protests didn’t bring quick results, Goodwin took up direct action, influenced by convicted fur farm and laboratory arsonist Rod Coronado."( Coronado is a believer in animal "liberation", stating, "There isn’t a hierarchy of life, but one in which all life is equal." His dream: "If ALF was to get an above-ground voice, a political lobby, that is the next challenge."(9)
Goodwin embraced Coronado’s philosophy with a vengeance, attacking the human animal and its property, often with juveniles in tow. In the early ’90s, he coordinated street theater in Tennessee(10) and issued succinct instructions: "If the feed barn, and processing barns are away from the animals, and downwind, then they could be burned down. Otherwise mink releases are the only way to go."(11)
Predictably, Goodwin was arrested multiple times in various states, culminating in his being charged as the alleged ringleader of a gang that vandalized fur stores. In April 1993, he and two juveniles pleaded guilty. Sentenced to three years in prison, they spent the next 30 months under house arrest, but the prison term was overturned for six months probation.
Animal People reported, "By the time Goodwin completed the probation, he had already become - at 22 - a nationally recognized animal rights movement leader, forming CAFT and organizing anti-fur civil disobedience demonstrations throughout the South and Midwest." However, Goodwin’s tactics "seemed mainly to get lots of young activists arrested, photographed, fingerprinted, jailed, and fined."(12)
Animal People continued, "In 1996 - 1997 Goodwin gleefully announced a string of Animal Liberation Front (ALF) mink releases and arsons against furriers and fur farms." Goodwin acted as ALF spokesman for a Petaluma, California slaughterhouse arson in February 1997, and shocked the public with his comments on the March 1997 arson at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah. "We’re ecstatic," said Goodwin of the fire that did almost a million dollars of damage and could have killed a caretaker family sleeping on the premises. "We have no problem with inanimate objects being destroyed so animate objects can survive," he continued. "We believe life is more valuable than property."(12)
In May 1997, ALF attacked a mink farm in Mt. Angel, Oregon, releasing and abandoning 10,000 farm-raised animals. Over 4,000, primarily kits not yet weaned from their mothers, died miserable deaths in the days following the attack, while the survivors were severely stressed by the experience. But Goodwin was unmoved by the carnage, and callously demanded body counts. "They claim thousands of minks have died," he said. "Let’s see thousands of bodies."(13) The farming family, police, reporters and insurance adjusters dutifully counted the bodies while Goodwin gave interviews and furthered his career.
Training Kids for a Living
As one of the "All-Star" speakers at the 1997 Animal Rights Conference in DC, Goodwin participated in panels on "Gaining public attention (Developing tactics to gain public attention for our cause without damaging our public image)" with Elliot Katz of In Defense of Animals and Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Goodwin discussed training the next generation of conflict industry workers with: "The intergenerational connection (Improving relations between student groups and the rest of the movement)".(14) He held "education and strategy training sessions" for young people, featuring Breaking Free!, a video glorifying crimes commited by ALF and the Earth Liberation Front.(15)
A pattern of juvenile arrests emerged at protests organized by Goodwin/CAFT and another conflict group, the Animal Defense League (ADL). Sometimes the juveniles were from out of state, sometimes the arrests were during school hours.(16) Goodwin praised the Straight Edge faction of young vegans, who turned intolerant and militant, for "breathing new life into the movement."(17) To thwart attempts at identification, Goodwin and his cohorts took to donning ski masks. Now you see them, now you don’t.
Peter Schnell of New Jersey was 17 when arrested in New York in 1998 at a Goodwin/CAFT/ADL protest. Matt Whyte of California was only 16 when arrested in 1999 at a protest in Seattle, during school hours on a school day. Goodwin, who was also present at that protest, told the Associated Press he did not know why Whyte was not in school. Hours later, three more out-of-state juveniles were arrested after they donned masks, climbed a tall fence at a nearby fur farm and vandalized animal pens, scattering the terrified mink. In January 2001, Goodwin/CAFT/ADL protégés Whyte, now 18, and Schnell, now 20, were arrested in the middle of the night behind the Capitola (California) City Hall with materials for making bombs.
Going Global
In the late ’90s, CAFT went global with its conflict product, hanging out website shingles in the UK and Sweden. CAFT-UK’s website states that the British arm was established to "regenerate the grass-roots campaign against the fur trade in Britain." It also brags of "pickets outside [shops] on a daily basis" along with "mass arrests", "smashed" windows and protests at shop owners’ homes.
"We have found that civil disobedience and direct action has been powerful in generating massive attention in our communities ... and has been very effective in traumatizing our targets," noted Goodwin.(19)
By 1998, at just 25 years old, Goodwin was describing himself as a "former member of ALF".(7) His busy schedule was filled with interviews, arrests, ALF p.r., addressing kids at conferences, protests, a presence in several countries and, in the summer of 1999, the filing of a lawsuit against CAFT under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by a Philadelphia furrier tired of incessant protests and attacks on his property and staff.(20)
Despite all this effort, US retail fur sales hit $1.69 billion in 2000, up a whopping 54% from $1.1 billion in 1994, when Goodwin started CAFT.
Cleaning Up His Act
By August of 2000, Goodwin was trying to clean up his act, or at least his public image. Following the lead of other industry execs before him, he realized that society’s patience with his lawbreaking ways was running thin. "I do not plan to ever do civil disobedience again," he told Animal People. "I’m convinced that politics is the way to go, and to that end I am taking classes in political campaign management. Targeting bad lawmakers, and helping good lawmakers, is what I feel this movement has failed to do, miserably."
Now that he’s an established conflict industrialist backed by H$U$’s huge financial reserves of almost $100 million, Goodwin will be in a stronger position to realize two goals: Rodney Coronado’s dream of "an above-ground voice, a political lobby" for ALF, and his personal dream, "the abolition of all animal agriculture".(19)
And yes, the hard-working citizenry supports all this as "public benefit" with tax-free status and our law enforcement response costs. Tax-free conflict, tax-free trauma, H$U$ and Goodwin, together, making a living in the conflict industry.
In the meantime, the Environment, Inc. juggernaut will continue charging forward without codes of ethics or standards, filling its pockets to the detriment of genuine conservation and humane work.
John Goodwin, convicted felon.
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