September 2003: Animal Rights Activists Bomb Offices of California Firm, Threaten More Violence

Shaklee logo. [Source: IAm4Kids (.com)]The “Animal Liberation Brigade” and “Revolutionary Cells,” two offshoots of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC—see 1998 and 2002 and After) animal rights organization, bomb the offices of Shaklee Inc. in Pleasanton, California. No one is injured in the blast. SHAC has targeted Shaklee because its parent company, Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., does business with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), long accused of abusing and torturing animals in its research practices. (Apparently the fact that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), another animal rights organization, lists Shaklee as one of its “Caring Consumers” on its Web site does not affect the decision to bomb Shaklee’s offices.) The FBI offers a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the prime suspect in both the Shaklee and Chiron (see April - August 2003) bombings, Daniel Andreas San Diego of Sonoma, California. An anonymous email claiming responsibility for the bombing says that activists used a 10-pound ammonium nitrate bomb “strapped with nails.” Although the building sustains little damage, the email warns that “we will now be doubling the size of every device we make” and that “customers and their families are considered legitimate targets.… We gave all the customers the chance, the choice, to withdraw their business from HLS.” The email says: “Now you all will have to reap what you have sown.… You never know when your house, your car even, might go boom.… Or maybe it will be a shot in the dark.” [Anti-Defamation League, 2005]