Feds crack down on animal liberation activists

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The feds are biting back on organized efforts by activists to release animals destined for coat racks, opening cages on farms from coast to coast the past few years and setting free thousands of minks and foxes.

Two so-called animal liberators have pleaded guilty in Chicago while two new suspects have been arrested for allegedly freeing minks in Wisconsin.

They strike in the dark of night, unlatching mink cages and liberating these valuable mammals before they can be processed into luxury topcoats.

Two California men who were featured in an I-Team report last summer have now pleaded guilty in Chicago to Federal Animal Terrorism Act violations.

Tyler Lang and Kevin Johnson admitted that they cut loose thousands of minks and foxes from their cages to save them from the wardrobe closet.

In August 2013 at a farm in Morris, Ill., they freed 2,000 mink and spray-painted a message that read: "liberation is love."

Unfortunately, authorities believe most of the animals they liberated died in the wild.

Perhaps not coincidentally, two new suspects who allegedly freed 6,000 animals have been arrested and charged by the FBI for "terrorizing the fur industry."

Activists Joseph Buddenberg and Nicole Kissane were charged with freeing animals and vandalizing property in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and several other states during multiple trips in 2013.

While the four aren't charged together, the I-Team has learned their cross-country odysseys occurred at the same time in 2013 and targeted similar fur farms. The recently arrested Buddenberg and the recently guilty Johnson are also seen together in photographs on social media.

As American authorities crack down on animal liberators here, attackers are moving north of the border. Ontario Provincial Police report 300 mink were freed from cages at a fur farm in late July; it is the third fur farm raid in southern Ontario in recent months.

Sentencings are scheduled in November and December for the two Chicago defendants who pleaded guilty. In addition to several hundred thousand dollars restitution they must pay, Johnson has an extensive psychological history and multiple hospitalizations. He may try for supervised release instead of prison time - a sentence that could be five years.