Pictures of dead animals flashed on the projector screen, but the young man at the podium seemed used to the audience's disgusted reactions.
Peter Young, 30, an animal rights activist, has devoted himself to helping animals at almost any cost. His actions have even led him to be incarcerated for two years after spending seven years in hiding after he and a friend took and released thousands of minks from farms across the Midwest, Young said.
"What makes a good activist is being haunted," Young said. "It's not loading yourself up with a lot of data. It's being emotionally haunted by what you've seen or what you know, and sometimes, in my experience, the only thing that can make those images go away is to go out between sunset and sunrise and do what has to be done."
Young spoke Wednesday night in the Student Union's Key West Ballroom, in an event hosted by the Body of Animal Rights Campaigners and Eco-Advocates. The activist spoke about his prison experience, political persecution and going underground to release animals from fur farms, research facilities and factory farms.
"I have many messages," Young said. "I want people to hopefully learn from my experiences. I want people to realize they have a lot more options in terms of their activism than they might think. I want people to understand historically the benefits of direct action. I want to de-mystify the prison experience, and ultimately, through my story, I want people to think about the effects of their choices when it comes to eating meat."
Young was arrested in 2005 at a Starbucks in San Jose, Calif. He was released this February. After much negotiation, he decided to enter into a plea bargain and plead guilty to two counts of animal enterprise terrorism, a law enacted in 2006 to help shield businesses that handle animals from threats, thefts or violence from protesters. A federal grand jury originally indicted Young on charges of animal enterprise terrorism and unlawful interference with interstate commerce.
"In the end, my lawyer pulled a kind of very brilliant legal power-move and he was successful at having all my felony charges dismissed," Young said. "And I plead guilty to the remaining two charges."
Young recounted to the audience the events that led to up to his indictment at age 21, his seven years in hiding and finally his arrest two years ago. He passionately, yet sadly, told of the day when he and his childhood friend found a chicken slaughterhouse just a few miles from their home in Seattle.
"We went in the alley behind the slaughterhouse, stood on a crate and looked in a window," Young said. "And within a matter of three or four minutes, we saw several hundred chickens being grabbed by the feet, hung up on a conveyer belt and whisked away to the knife that would end their life. By far, at that point in my life, that was the most traumatic thing I had ever laid eyes on."
From that day forward, Young knew that he would devote his life to releasing animals used for experimentation or to harvest fur or meat.
"More than anything I've been motivated by what I've seen with my own eyes," Young said. "That will always be the point of no return - when you see what you're fighting for with your own eyes."
After months of scattered activism that didn't seem to make any tangible changes, Young and a friend hit the road with a purpose to raid as many fur farms as possible.
In a matter of two weeks during October of 1997, the duo raided six mink farms in the Midwest and released as many as 12,000 minks back into their native habitat, Young said.
On Oct. 28, 1997, police pulled over Young and his friend in Sheboygan County, Wis., after local fur farmers alerted the police that they suspected the men to be watching their mink sheds. Young and his friend had their car impounded and were instructed to return the next day for more information. Young was not seen again for seven years.
"Do you guys want to know where I was during those seven years?" Young asked the audience. "Yeah, I'm not going to tell you."
Of his years in hiding, Young said he regrets that he wasn't able to save more animal's lives.
"As a result of these actions, at least two of those farms had to shut down forever and I regret it was only two," Young said. "I think that anyone who's ever carried out those kinds of actions will tell you that those are the kind of results that writing letters will never accomplish."
Although labeled a terrorist by police, Young said that he only acted to protect animals. During his speech, Young told about stopping to tie his shoe during a raid. Young went on to speculate on how many more minks he could have released if he had not stopped.
"I had to make a decision: Do I give the next five seconds to tying my shoe and possibly save myself from falling on my face, or do I give those five seconds to opening cages?" Young said. "In the end I decided to tie my shoe, and that's a burden I've had to carry for 10 years now."
Young also recounted his prison experience where, he said, society seemed to be persecuting his beliefs more than punishing him for his crimes.
"I realized right away that they weren't prosecuting me - they weren't prosecuting Peter Young - they were prosecuting an entire movement," Young said.
The turnout at the event consisted of a diverse group of students and groups, including members from Students for a Democratic Society and Project: Darfur.
"SDS is an organization who is anti-oppression of all kinds, and we view animal rights to be very important because violence against animals is violence against humanity," said SDS member Chris Walker.
Students attending came for many reasons, ranging from an interest in animal rights to meeting the man whom they have heard stories of.
"I took a class a couple semesters ago, professor [Stephen] Sloan's kind of anti-terrorism course, and I wrote a paper on environmental terrorism, and it dealt with the animal liberation front," said Rachel Rubinski, a political science major. "And I actually wound up quoting this guy in my paper, so when I heard he was coming to speak, I was really interested."
Now that Young has been out of prison for a few months, he reflects on his time spent behind bars and has begun working on getting his life back in order. Young plans on moving away from his current home in California and finding a job. He hopes to be able to find a place in society where he can pursue his passion in the animal rights movement.
"In the end, when I was sitting in my cell on one of my last days in the jail in Madison, I did some math," Young said. "I took every animal that they say I released in the initial form of my indictment, and I subtracted all the animals they say got recaptured in the wake of these raids, and as it turns out, I was serving about 10 hours per animal. I think all of us should be honored to be able to give up so little to give so much - 10 hours to save one life."
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