In the summer and fall of 2013, two California animal rights extremists traveled over 40,000 miles across the country attacking mink farms. By the end of their crime spree, over 5,000 domesticated mink had been removed from their pens to suffer and die by starvation and dehydration; by predators or on roadways.
Today Joseph Buddenberg, who admitted committing these crimes, was sentenced in U.S. District Court Southern California to 24 months imprisonment followed by 24 months of probation.
Fur Commission USA representatives attended the hearing where Judge Larry A. Burns told the courtroom that he felt Buddenberg should have received a far stiffer penalty, but that he understood that in order to avoid a drawn out jury trial (with no guarantee of a conviction), the sentence would have to suffice.
Buddenberg and his co-conspirator Nicole Kissane (who will be sentenced in June) plead guilty to attacks on mink farms in Idaho, Iowa, Wisconsin, Montana, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. They also admitted guilt in attacks on retail operators in California.
