Animal Rights Activists Convicted of Harassment

An animal rights group and six of its members were convicted in Trenton of using their website to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against a company that tests drugs and household products on animals. The defendants face as much as five years in prison.

The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, maintained its actions were protected under the 1st Amendment.

The federal government said the group waged a five-year campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, posting on its website information about the lab's employees and those who do business with Huntingdon, including home phone numbers, addresses and where their children attended school.