[skip navigation]
In June, Timothy Andrew Ray, 35, of Norfolk, Va., was charged with first-degree arson for allegedly starting a fire on the steps of the Iowa capitol to protest the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. Ray could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
The Iowa fire was one of two fires set at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protests this year -- in January twelve people were arrested at a protest at the U.S. capitol after someone set fire to bales of hay set up as part of a PETA protest.
PETA spokeswoman Dawn Carr said the Iowa fire was not a planned part of the protest and tried to distance PETA from Ray, saying "We were just out doing our thing with the dancing pig when this guy ran up and tried to set the hay on fire."
As Americans for Medical Progress noted in its newsletter, however, the Des Moines Register reported that none other than Carr herself put up $6,500 to bail Ray out of jail on June 15. Pretty generous for someone Carr claimed not to have met before the Iowa protest. (PETA’s spokesperson bails out a suspected arsonist she claims she didn’t even know and yet IDA’s Roy and Kleiman insist Americans for Medical Progress and others unfairly portray the animal rights movement as full of extremists!)