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Fur vandal gets 2 years in prison

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An animal rights activist who was accused last year of a cross-country fur-industry vandalism and mink-liberation campaign was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday.

Joseph Buddenberg had pleaded guilty in February to a charge of conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a federal law passed in 2006 that criminalizes “damaging or interfering with the operations of an animal enterprise.”

A co-defendant, Nicole Kissane, also pleaded guilty to the same charge.

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The pair were arrested in July 2014, charged with a concerted campaign against the fur industry in the summer and fall of 2013 that totaled some 40,000 miles in covert travel before it was over.

One of the early targets: Furs by Graf in Kearny Mesa.

The store was spray-painted with the words “killer” and “murder,” its windows etched and acid sprayed into the shop, according to court records. It caused an estimated $30,000 in damage, court records say.

The homes of the store’s owners in La Mesa and Spring Valley were also vandalized.

Subsequent to that incident, the pair were accused of releasing 1,800 mink from a mink ranch in Idaho, 2,000 mink from a ranch in Wisconsin, 500 from a ranch in Iowa and 1,000 from a ranch in Pennsylvania.

They were also accused of gluing the locks of animal-related businesses in the Bay Area, slashing the tires on several trucks of a meat distributor and breaking windows of a market there.

Prosecutors said the two carefully planned their actions and worked to avoid detection by using cash only, avoiding using phones while on the road and using encrypted emails. It’s unclear how the authorities zeroed in on the pair.

In all, prosecutors said the pair caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and losses.

At sentencing Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns ordered Buddenberg to pay restitution of $398,272 to be shared with Kissane.

Kissane, who sued to live in Escondido, is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

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