BiographyJohn “J.P.” Goodwin is the grassroots coordinator at the Humane Society of the United States, the world’s richest animal-rights organization. Goodwin, who previously co-founded the Texas-based Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, is clear about his intentions, writing in one Internet activist listserv: “My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture.” He’s developed a lengthy arrest record in pursuit of that goal. He was arrested and convicted for being the ringleader of a crew that vandalized fur retailers in multiple states during the 1990s. The animal-rights watchdog newspaper Animal People News profiled Goodwin in 2000, noting that he “gleefully announced a string of Animal Liberation Front mink releases and arsons against furriers and fur farms” while a “spokesman” for the underground terrorist group.
Goodwin also handled the media after a Petaluma, California, slaughterhouse arson in February 1997. But he really shocked the public with his comments on the March 1997 arson at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah. Referring to a fire that caused almost $1 million in damage and could easily have killed a family sleeping on the premises, Goodwin told the Deseret News, “We’re ecstatic.”
Background
Grassroots Coordinator, Humane Society of the United States; co-founder, Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade; former Animal Liberation Front member
Associated Organizations and Foundations
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