Summary
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Documents obtained via public records requests reveal America’s agricultural industry led a sustained effort, collaborating with the FBI’s WMDD, to surveil, discredit and suppress animal rights organisations.
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Information from the Animal Agriculture Alliance was used to persuade the FBI to view protests as a bioterrorism threat, creating a national security issue and enabling the FBI to obtain greater resources.
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In some cases, state authorities used this justification to avoid public disclosure of information concerning disease outbreaks in farmed animals.
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The Alliance’s “ACTIVIST ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION FORM” can be used to report animal rights activists to the FBI.
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An undercover operative for Property of the People attended a conference aimed at strengthening ties between the government and the agriculture industry and obtained documents concerning the collaboration between the FBI and the Animal Agriculture Alliance.
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In addition, hundreds of documents obtained via public records requests were reviewed by Wired to provide additional evidence of the cooperation between industry reps and the FBI.