I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4239 
To provide the Department of Justice the necessary authority to apprehend, 
prosecute, and convict individuals committing animal enterprise terror. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 4, 2005 
Mr. PETRI (for himself, Mr. ISSA, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. CANNON, Mr. 
BONILLA, Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. OTTER, Mr. BOREN, 
Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. DOOLITTLE, and Mr. SENSENBRENNER) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary 
A BILL 
To provide the Department of Justice the necessary authority 
to apprehend, prosecute, and convict individuals commit-
ting animal enterprise terror. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Animal Enterprise 
Terrorism Act’’.
SEC. 2. INCLUSION OF ECONOMIC DISRUPTION TO ANIMAL 
ENTERPRISES AND THREATS OF DEATH AND 
SERIOUS BODILY INJURY TO ASSOCIATED 
PERSONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 43 of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘§ 43. Force, violence, and threats involving animal 
enterprises 
‘‘(a) OFFENSE.—Whoever travels in interstate or for-
eign commerce, or uses or causes to be used the mail or 
any facility of interstate or foreign commerce 
‘‘(1) for the purpose of damaging or disrupting 
an animal enterprise; and 
‘‘(2) in connection with such purpose— 
‘‘(A) intentionally damages, disrupts, or 
causes the loss of any property (including ani-
mals or records) used by the animal enterprise, 
or any property of a person or entity having a 
connection to, relationship with, or transactions 
with the animal enterprise; 
‘‘(B) intentionally places a person in rea-
sonable fear of the death of, or serious bodily 
injury to that person, a member of the imme-
diate family (as defined in section 115) of that 
person, or a spouse or intimate partner of that 
person by a course of conduct involving threats,
acts of vandalism, property damage, trespass, 
harassment, or intimidation; or 
‘‘(C) conspires or attempts to do so; 
shall be punished as provided for in subsection (b). 
‘‘(b) PENALTIES.— 
‘‘(1) ECONOMIC DAMAGE.—Any person who, in 
the course of a violation of subsection (a) causes 
economic damage not exceeding $10,000 shall be 
fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 
1 year, or both. 
‘‘(2) SIGNIFICANT ECONOMIC DAMAGE OR ECO-
NOMIC DISRUPTION.—Any person who, in the course 
of a violation of subsection (a), causes economic 
damage or economic disruption exceeding $10,000 
but not exceeding $100,000 shall be fined under this 
title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both. 
‘‘(3) MAJOR ECONOMIC DAMAGE OR ECONOMIC 
DISRUPTION.—Any person who, in the course of a 
violation of subsection (a), causes economic damage 
or economic disruption exceeding $100,000 shall be 
fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 
10 years, or both. 
‘‘(4) 
SIGNIFICANT
BODILY
INJURY
OR 
THREATS.—Any person who, in the course of a vio-
lation of subsection (a), causes significant bodily in-
jury to another individual or intentionally instills in 
another the reasonable fear of death or serious bod-
ily injury shall be fined under this title or impris-
oned not more than 5 years, or both. 
‘‘(5) SERIOUS
BODILY
INJURY.—Any person 
who, in the course of a violation of subsection (a), 
causes serious bodily injury to another individual 
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not 
more than 20 years, or both. 
‘‘(6) DEATH.—Any person who, in the course of 
a violation of subsection (a), causes the death of an 
individual shall be fined under this title and shall be 
imprisoned for life or for any term of years. 
‘‘(7) CONSPIRACY AND ATTEMPT.—Any person 
who conspires or attempts to commit an offense 
under subsection (a) shall be subject to the same 
penalties as those prescribed for the substantive of-
fense. 
‘‘(c) RESTITUTION.—An order of restitution under 
section 3663 or 3663A of this title with respect to a viola-
tion of this section may also include restitution— 
‘‘(1) for the reasonable cost of repeating any 
experimentation that was interrupted or invalidated 
as a result of the offense;
‘‘(2) the loss of food production or farm income 
reasonably attributable to the offense; and 
‘‘(3) for any other economic damage, including 
any losses or costs caused by economic disruption, 
resulting from the offense. 
‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section— 
‘‘(1) the term ‘animal enterprise’ means— 
‘‘(A) a commercial or academic enterprise 
that uses or sells animals or animal products 
for profit, food or fiber production, agriculture, 
research, or testing; 
‘‘(B) a zoo, aquarium, animal shelter, pet 
store, breeder, furrier, circus, or rodeo, or other 
lawful competitive animal event; or 
‘‘(C) any fair or similar event intended to 
advance agricultural arts and sciences; 
‘‘(2) the term ‘course of conduct’ means a pat-
tern of conduct composed of 2 or more acts, evidenc-
ing a continuity of purpose; 
‘‘(3) the term ‘economic damage’ means the re-
placement costs of lost or damaged property or 
records, the costs of repeating an interrupted or in-
validated experiment, or the loss of profits; 
‘‘(4) the term ‘economic disruption’—
‘‘(A) means losses and increased costs that 
individually or collectively exceed $10,000, in-
cluding losses and increased costs resulting 
from threats, acts or vandalism, property dam-
age, trespass, harassment or intimidation taken 
against a person or entity on account of that 
person’s or entity’s connection to, relationship 
with, or transactions with the animal enter-
prise; and 
‘‘(B) does not include any lawful economic 
disruption that results from lawful public, gov-
ernmental, or business reaction to the disclo-
sure of information about an animal enterprise; 
‘‘(5) the term ‘serious bodily injury’ means— 
‘‘(A) injury posing a substantial risk of 
death; 
‘‘(B) extreme physical pain; 
‘‘(C) protracted and obvious disfigurement; 
or 
‘‘(D) protracted loss or impairment of the 
function of a bodily member, organ, or mental 
faculty; and 
‘‘(6) 
the 
term 
‘significant 
bodily 
injury’ 
means—
‘‘(A) deep cuts and serious burns or abra-
sions; 
‘‘(B) short-term or nonobvious disfigure-
ment; 
‘‘(C) fractured or dislocated bones, or torn 
members of the body; 
‘‘(D) significant physical pain; 
‘‘(E) illness; 
‘‘(F) short-term loss or impairment of the 
function of a bodily member, organ, or mental 
faculty; or 
‘‘(G) any other significant injury to the 
body. 
‘‘(e) NON-PREEMPTION.—Nothing in this section 
preempts any State law.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 2516(1)(c) 
of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting 
‘‘section 43 (force, violence and threats involving animal 
enterprises),’’ before ‘‘section 201 (bribery of public offi-
cials and witnesses)’’. 
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