I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4454
To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect and promote the public 
safety and interstate commerce by establishing Federal criminal penalties 
and civil remedies for certain violent, threatening, obstructive, and de-
structive conduct that is intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere 
with plant or animal enterprises, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 20, 2004
Mr. NETHERCUTT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Ways 
and Means, and Science, for a period to be subsequently determined by 
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect and pro-
mote the public safety and interstate commerce by estab-
lishing Federal criminal penalties and civil remedies for 
certain violent, threatening, obstructive, and destructive 
conduct that is intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere 
with plant or animal enterprises, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Ecoterrorism Prevention 
Act of 2004’’. 
SEC. 2. PLANT ENTERPRISE TERRORISM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 43 of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended—
(1) in the heading, by striking ‘‘Animal en-
terprise terrorism’’ and inserting ‘‘Animal 
and plant enterprise terrorism’’; 
(2) by striking ‘‘animal enterprise’’ each place 
it appears (other than in subsection (d)(1)) and in-
serting ‘‘animal or plant enterprise’’; 
(3) in subsection (a)(2)—
(A) by inserting ‘‘plants,’’ after ‘‘includ-
ing’’; and 
(B) by inserting a comma after ‘‘animals’’; 
and 
(4) in subsection (d)—
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘the 
term’’ and all that follows through the end of 
such paragraph and inserting the following: 
‘‘the term ‘animal or plant enterprise’ means—
‘‘(A) a commercial or academic enterprise 
that uses animals or plants for food or fiber 
production, agriculture, breeding, processing, 
research, or testing, or any commercial retail,
wholesale or distribution enterprise that uses, 
purchases, or offers for sale a product that con-
tains animal or plant material; 
‘‘(B) a zoo, aquarium, circus, rodeo or 
other entity that exhibits or uses animals or 
plants for educational or entertainment pur-
poses; 
‘‘(C) any fair or similar event intended to 
advance agricultural arts and sciences; or 
‘‘(D) a facility managed or occupied by an 
association, federation, foundation, council, or 
other group or entity of food or fiber producers, 
processors, or agricultural or biomedical re-
searchers intended to advance agricultural or 
biomedical arts and sciences, or the offices or 
facilities of any other enterprise or event de-
scribed in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C);’’; 
(B) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘the loss 
of profits’’ and inserting ‘‘the loss of revenue 
(including costs related to business recovery) di-
rectly related to the disruption of a plant or 
animal enterprise, and the cost of the tuition 
and expenses of any student to complete an 
academic program that was disrupted, or to 
complete a replacement program, when the tui-
tion and expenses are incurred as a result of 
the damage or loss of the property of an animal 
or plant enterprise’’; 
(C) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para-
graph (3); 
(D) by striking the period at the end of 
paragraph (4) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(E) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(5) the term ‘plant’ means any plant (includ-
ing any plant part) used for, or that is capable of, 
propagation, including a tree, a tissue culture, pol-
len, a shrub, a vine, a cutting, a graft, a scion, a 
bud, a bulb, a root, a seed, or any plant genetic ma-
terial contained in bacteria, plasmids, viruses, 
viroids, or any vector of biological origin that has 
been modified for, or is capable of carrying genes 
into plant cells using transgenic processes, or other 
biological materials.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The item in the table 
of sections at the beginning of chapter 3 of title 18, United 
States Code, that relates to section 43 is amended to read 
as follows:
‘‘43. Animal and plant enterprise terrorism.’’.