Biography
Kevin Kjonaas is an animal rights activist imprisoned as part of the SHAC 7, animal rights activists of the organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA (SHAC USA) who were convicted on March 2, 2006, under the controversial Federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act. The charges stem from these activists’ alleged participation in an international campaign to close the notorious animal product testing lab Huntingdon Life Sciences. Huntingdon Life Sciences was notorious for its abuses against animals, getting fined $50,000 by the Department of Agriculture in 1998. It kills around 75,000 animals every year. Kevin started his six year sentence on November 16, 2006 and
Kevin Kjonaas (also known as Kevin Jonas) is an American animal rights activist and former president of SHAC USA. He was a central figure in the SHAC 7 prosecution — a landmark federal case in which activists were charged under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act for conspiracy, interstate stalking, and related offenses stemming from their campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences. In 2006, a federal jury convicted Kjonaas and his co-defendants. He received one of the longer prison sentences in the group — approximately 72 months — and was also ordered to pay restitution as part of the judgement. Kjonaas’s case has been widely referenced in discussions about the criminalisation of dissent and the reach of terrorism-related laws against animal rights activists.
March2006 verdict and pre-sentencing status
Page7 names Kevin Kjonaas among the six individual SHAC defendants convicted on March2,2006. It explains that the original group also included JohnMcGee, whose case was dropped, and SHACUSA as an organizational defendant. The article says the six were under house arrest awaiting sentencing at publication. House arrest is not converted to prison time. The expected June sentencing and possible sentence ranges were future projections, not the actual later sentencing or jail-admission dates. The May26,2004 date is described as indictment, not individually proved physical arrest or intake.
The Warrior Wind, issue2, mid-April2006, an advocacy newsletter; source claims and completed custody events are distinguished.
The prosecution’s May 22, 2006 post-trial memorandum dates the superseding SHAC indictment to September 16, 2004 and the jury verdict to March 2, 2006. It records an initial trial opening on June 6, 2005, followed by a defense-requested mistrial after counsel Isabel McGinty became ill, and a new trial beginning February 6, 2006. The brief was signed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles B. McKenna and Ricardo Solano Jr. Its arguments that the evidence was sufficient and that the trial was fair are the prosecution’s position, not a judicial ruling on the defendants’ post-trial motions. It identifies McGinty as Kjonaas’s first trial attorney and Eric Schneider as his later retained attorney.
On October 14, 2009, the Third Circuit affirmed the SHAC convictions and sentences, remanding only to establish a restitution payment schedule.
