Cleveland animal rights activist plotted murder

Meredith Lowell allegedly shunned the usual form of fur protest, opting for murder.

A WOMAN who compared animal welfare work to the liberation of World War II concentration camps has been charged in the US with soliciting a hit man to fatally shoot or slit the throat of a random fur-wearer.

Meredith Lowell, 27, appeared in the US District Court in Cleveland, where a magistrate ordered her held by the US Marshals Service pending a hearing, court records show.

Investigators say the FBI was notified in November of a Facebook page Lowell created under the alias Anne Lowery offering $780-800 for the hit and saying the ideal candidate would live in Ohio, according to an FBI affidavit filed with the court.

The affidavit says an FBI employee posing as a possible hit man later began email correspondence with Ms Lowell, and she offered him $686 in jewellery or cash for the killing of a victim of at least 12 years but "preferably 14 years old or older" outside a library near a playground in her hometown.

"You need to bring a gun that has a silencer on it and that can be easily concealed in your pants pocket or coat," says an email reprinted in the affidavit.

"If you do not want to risk the possibility of getting caught with a gun before the job, bring a sharp knife that is (at least) 4 inches long (10cm), it should be sharp enough to stab someone and/or slit their throat to kill them.

"I want the person to be dead in less than two minutes."

She told the undercover employee she wanted to be on site when the slaying took place so she could distribute "papers" afterward, the affidavit says...

...Reprinted emails also say Ms Lowell wrote that she sees nothing wrong with "liberating" animals from fur factory farms and laboratories since "soldiers liberated people from Nazi camps in World War II"....

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/the-other-side/cleveland-animal-rights-activist-plotted-murder/story-e6frfhk6-1226278373489