2/4/09

Animal rights activists in the Netherlands are becoming more violent but are not involved in actual terrorism, the state security service AIVD said in a report on Thursday. The number of violent incidents involving animal rights activists has gone up over the past two years but there is no evidence that the aim is to damage society or terrify the public at large, the AIVD said.

Right-wing MPs have urged the government to brand animal rights activism as terrorism, which would allow police to crack down more strongly.

The AIVD report said that the animal rights movement is highly splintered but that there is a blurring between the members of organisations which do not break the law and those which set fire to cars and spray houses with graffiti.

In February, home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst pledged to look at ways of protecting drugs companies from animal rights activists.

And in December Ter Horst announced the setting up of a special police squad to focus on animal rights protesters.

© DutchNews.nl
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2009/04/animal_rights_extremism_not_te.php