Animal Rights Hall of Shame: Nick Cooney

Criminals, Sex Predators and Drug Addicts. Welcome to the World of Animal Rights.

Meet convicted criminal and predator Nicholas Cooney.

Like all animal rights extremists, Nicholas Cooney has no demonstrated knowledge of animals.  Get this... he has a bachelors degree in "non-violence" studies.  Maybe he should go back to school and study underwater basket weaving this time as he doesn't seem to have learned much the first time.  

He first surfaced as one of the members of the Philadelphia chapter of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC). Activists like Cooney and his pals are opposed to all medical research.   Instead of just having an opinion on the subject like the rest of us, these domestic terrorists took things to extremes. For example, on September 7, 2005, the New York Stock Exchange temporarily suspending trading Huntingdon’s stock because animal rights activists sent out over 10,000 emails threatening employees of the stock exchange and publishing the direct dial numbers and personal email addresses of dozens of stock exchange employees. Three days earlier, activists poured paint stripper all over the car of an employee of a company linked to Huntingdon.  Numerous other suspicious fires and acts of vandalism occurred at various employees’ homes. Non-violence indeed. 

As part of these long vandalism sprees, Nicholas Cooney was arrested in July 2005 in New Jersey with paint on his hands that matched graffiti sprayed on a fence at the Hoffman-LaRoche Pharmaceuticals plant accusing employees of being “puppy killers.” When the police detained him along with activist Janice Angelillo, they gave fake names. Items found in their car linked them to a case of vandalizing a home and car in Long Branch by spray-painting graffiti and gluing the locks shut. The innocent victims living in the home had no connection to Huntingdon or the medical research field. SHAC is famous for six of its leaders being convicted of domestic terrorism charges. Like a chip off daddy’s shoulder, the Philadelphia chapter was just as violent as the main group. In an effort to cover their backgrounds they renamed themselves “Hugs For Puppies” in 2002. Sounds so cute.   So non-violent...

At the same time, Cooney founded another front group called “The Humane League” in 2005 to mask his activities. In 2006, Cooney was convicted of making terroristic threats, criminal conspiracy and harassment in a Pennsylvania court. According to court documents, Cooney threatened to kill the children of an employee of a drug company. 

During the sentencing hearing the prosecutor noted that Cooney had the audacity to wear a shirt with the message “I believe in the use of violence to achieve animal liberation” at protests and that Cooney also had “disorderly conduct” and “criminal trespass” convictions.

Since that time, Cooney has attempted to go after anyone who tries to reveal his true identity.  His Wikipedia page is sparkling clean.  He even tried to sue the Center for Consumer Freedom, a watchdog group that publishes dirt on animal rights terrorists. They ran an ad in 2008 revealing his background. Cooney sued. He lost. Courts have long ruled that leaders of non-profits are ‘public figures’ which raises that libel bar as high as the law allows.

The ad was captioned, “Why is [HSUS] Helping a Terrorist Group Raise Money?” Plaintiff alleges libel based on the ad’s statements that plaintiff, in its purported prior incarnation as SHAC Philly and Hugs For Puppies, had ties to SHAC USA (an animal rights organization whose leaders undisputedly were convicted of, among other things, conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Protection Act); that plaintiff’s organizers have been involved in violence; and that the media had reported that plaintiff’s leader, Nicholas Cooney, threatened to kill the child of a pharmaceutical company that works with Huntingdon Life Sciences, an animal research lab targeted by SHAC USA for its animal testing practices. 

Cooney next surfaced working for five years at Mercy for Animals before he was forced to resign as executive vice president after multiple employees came forward to accuse him of workplace bullying and harassment.

“Nick Cooney’s history of abuse is an open secret, and sadly, a history with which I have firsthand experience.

Throughout the majority of last year, I experienced Nick’s gender-based bullying on a near-daily basis….His actions have dehumanized me, degraded my confidence, devastated my mental health, and made me question my sanity, worth, and competence for the better part of a year.” Christina Wilson. 

There there’s this testimony from ex-staffer Jaya Bhumitra, “He made me question my worth, ability, and sanity–an experience I have since learned is a pattern among numerous other women who have worked closely with Nick.  

Krista Hiddema, vice president at Mercy for Animals had this to say, “Sadly Christina and Jaya are in good company – there are many other women who have similar experiences with Nick.” 

In the years since his criminal convictions in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Cooney has done a good job of scrubbing the Internet of his past.  The Humane League still exists and continues to get millions of dollars given to it by the Open Philanthropy Project. In August of 2018, The Humane League was given another ten-million-dollar grant.

These days Cooney promotes himself as a venture capitalist investing in plant based alternatives to real food when he's not lecturing at Harvard, Yale and other top educational conferences.   Just the man America needs educating their impressionable college kids.  

Sex, Violence, and Animal Rights

In the eight months since President Trump entered the White House the radical left has engulfed America in one long protest after another.   Like a two year old melting down in an epic temper tantrum, the left is unable to grasp the fact that they lost the 2016 elections.   From Pussy Marches, to accusations of Russia hiding behind every door, panic stories about Junior Zippersuit over in North Korea; to black shirted Antifa protesters attacking inert stone statutes and conservative speakers, the left seems determined to sink America into a second civil war.    These mask wearing street brawlers are attacking American citizens with clubs, baseball bats, knives, bricks, urine, feces, mace, and bottles filled with concrete and rocks.

After all, everyone knows the best way to make your point about racism is to throw bottles of urine at people.   Right?   Boston has the right start, publicly name and shame every single one of these violent extremists.   Portland and other cities should follow Boston’s example. 

“Portland, Oregon Police Chief Michael Marshman revealed on Friday that riot cops forced Antifa protesters out of local parks during a Jun. 4 protest after the anti-fascist group began launching balloons filled with feces, urine and chemicals at law enforcement.”

In San Francisco residents are outraged that some American’s have been granted a permit to pray in public.   To protest against this horrific activity they threatened to layer a public beach in dog poop and celebrate with a parade of drag queens.   Nothing says ‘save the earth’ like deliberately infecting a beach with feces while perverts dance in the streets.   Meanwhile city authorities degenerating into a hysterical quivering mass at the thought of mass prayer have asked law enforcement to deploy every available cop in the city and leftist propaganda masters like The Southern Poverty Law Center are screaming that a permit for public prayer will attract ‘hate groups.’    Don’t worry, San Francisco police are promising “over-whelming” force at this rally. 

“Hundreds of San Franciscans plan to prepare Crissy Field, the picturesque beach in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge where rightwing protest group Patriot Prayer will gather, with a generous carpeting of excrement.”

Violence from the left is nothing new.   You need look no further than at the violent extremists from the environmental and animal rights movement that the mainstream media has constantly white washed.    In the past 40 years, animal rights activists have stolen dead bodies and held them hostage, murdered animals and framed their owners for false charges of animal abuse, stolen little girl's dogs and killed them, burglarized and vandalized homes, conducted cyber-attacks, liberated and murdered tens of thousands of animals, fire bombed research labs, and on the list of crimes goes.  

Yet in 2017 just like their fellow alt-left Antifa cousins, animal rights activists are now saying their past crimes are not enough!   At this year's annual Animal Rights Conference attendees were repeatedly encouraged to commit more violent crimes.   This year’s conference was a who’s who of convicted criminals and violence supporting agitators hosted by the Farm Animal Rights Movement, Compassion over Killing, Mercy for Animals and the dog killers of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).   Joining in the fun were the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act violators of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and other offshoots all gathered together to discuss their campaigns to rid America of hamburgers and the farmers who produce them, household pets, and fun family entertainment like zoos. 

“Activists in attendance were encouraged to be as extreme as possible to advance their goals, including breaking the law when necessary.  Attendees were also told to pressure restaurants, retail and foodservice brands to adopt certain policies with the end goal of forcing them to stop selling animal products.”

During the conference, these agitators made it crystal clear that their targets are all American farms.   For the first time activists openly boasted that organic farms and free-range farms are now all open targets for destruction.   Every animal business is a target to be shut down.   Every zoo, every pet breeder, every research lab.  They are all targets until these fanatics get their way and remove all animals from human lives and to achieve their goal of ‘total animal liberation.’  

“Jeffrey Cohan, Jewish Veg, stated that “we know animal agriculture is the leading cause of pollution on our planet.” Lisa Kemmerer, author, Sister Species and Eating Earth, said “eating hamburgers is like driving a bulldozer over the rainforest” and “being an environmentalist who is not vegan is nonsense on stilts.”

Another conference speaker was convicted criminal Nick Cooney, founder of The Humane League, a conference sponsor, who in the past threatened to kill the children of a drug company’s employees.   At last year’s conference, one of his employees stated, “When it is time to launch the campaign, find a vulnerable target, prepare everything for at least a few weeks and then assemble an overwhelming force to utilize from day one. The crueler it is, the quicker the fight is over.””   If anything Cooney and company are tame compared to fellow speaker and former PETA alumnae Bruce Friedrich, who has remarked that “blowing things up and smashing windows” is “a great way to bring about animal liberation.”

“Krista Hiddema, Mercy for Animals (Canada), hinted at no animal products being sold as the end goal, stating “we’re never going away.” Hiddema also stated that “we [the animal rights movement] are winning against the largest organizations in the world,” and “they are terrified of us.”

 “Breaking the law can often be a good thing to do,” said Zach Groff with the Animal Liberation Collective. He talked about “confrontational activism” such protests, vigils and open animal rescues from farms without permission. “This is a type of activism that can often upset people, it can rile people up.” 

At last year’s conference, Groff advocated, ““All of these events [agricultural fairs, eating contests, political rallies] need to be interrupted and shut down.” – Zach Groff of Direct Action Everywhere (a group that has seen run-ins with the Secret Service).”    Another one of the players at the conference was a front group calling itself the Beagle Freedom Project (BFP) run by convicted felon Kevin Kjonass aka Kevin Chase who has bamboozled the daughter-in-law of President Trump.   Lara Trump, wife of Eric, appeared via video at a fundraiser for this felon shocking everyone since HSUS’s legislative arm spent $200,000 attacking President Trump.    These extremists think they’ve trumped Trump by co-opting his daughter-in-law. 

“Kjonaas got a six-year sentence in federal prison for a sustained campaign terrorizing employees of a medical research company.  BFP’s president, meanwhile, has also produced a propaganda film trying to boost the reputation of an FBI-designed terrorist group, the Animal Liberation Front.   The FBI has estimated that the Animal Liberation Front and associated groups are behind 1,100 criminal acts causing over $100 million in damage.”

You can look no further than the plight of a small business owner in Berkeley, California who had to deal with terrorists from the newly reincarnated Animal Liberation Front, now calling themselves “Direct Action Everywhere” picketing his shop for four months in a row.

“The animal rights group, Direct Action Everywhere, held protests in front of the Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley, Calif., for four months. The Washington Post reports that protesters would be “dripping with fake blood, tightly bound in plastic wrap as if they were cuts of meat. Singing, shouting, lecturing customers.””

 Local law enforcement did nothing to protect this small business owner from a sustained terrorist attack, ultimately forcing the shop owner to give in to the extremist’s demands.  Just as was shown in the recent Charlottesville, Virginia protests, law enforcement today routinely stands by and allows these violent thugs to get away with destroying American lives. 

In Part 2 of this continuing series I will uncover the sordid history of rapists and pedophiles that fill the upper leadership of animal rights organizations and your local rescues and animal shelters.