The Iowa mink farmer got the first phone call from his wife about 4:45 a.m., reporting that mink were running all over the highway.

Keith Conrad got into his truck and couldn’t comprehend the carnage he found, dozens of mink turned into road kill, some with their backs broken but still alive. Hundreds more were running amok.

The 500 mink hadn’t merely escaped but had been freed by a pair of animal-rights activists during a months-long, multistate campaign against the fur industry. By the day’s end, about 130 died either on the highway or from heat stroke. Other farms have similar stories of the death and loss caused by the scheme in 2013.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns sentenced one of the vandals, former Escondido resident Nicole Kissane, to 21 months in prison — a sentence that was three months longer than what prosecutors had recommended.


The San Diego federal judge had months earlier rejected a plea deal that would have obligated him to sentence her to six months, a term he said was unjust considering the crime was a “calculated, premeditated campaign of terror.”

Her boyfriend and co-defendant, Joseph Buddenberg, was sentenced last year to 24 months in a plea deal.

The spree began July 15, 2013, when the Oakland pair vandalized Furs by Graf, a longtime family-owned fur store in Kearny Mesa. They painted words like “murderer” on the store, destroyed the windows with etching chemicals, sprayed acid into the shop and put glue in the door locks.

They also went to the Graf family homes in La Mesa and Spring Valley, spraying similar phrases on their houses and vehicles and damaging their properties with paint stripper and acid.


From there Kissane and Buddenberg went to several states: releasing a bobcat from a farm and vandalizing a Montana police chief’s vehicle; releasing mink from farms in Idaho, Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; and vandalizing animal-related businesses in the Bay Area, according to the complaint. In all, the pair is accused of releasing some 5,700 mink — many of which were killed as they ran toward nearby roads, apparently drawn to the vehicle lights and traffic sounds because of similarities to how mink are fed in captivity.

“They didn’t have a chance,” Cindy Moyle of the Moyle Mink Ranch in Burley, Idaho, wrote in a letter to the judge. She said her family’s farm has been on the forefront of raising mink in a humane way.

The pair also were accused of shoplifting items from stores, including REI and Michaels, to fund their crimes by selling the stolen items on eBay.

They publicized their exploits on animal extremist websites, using public computers so as not to leave a trace. They also took care to avoid using phones and to use only cash to make it harder for law enforcement to track them, authorities said.


Kissane and Buddenberg pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act in February.

Burns first sentenced Buddenberg in May, agreeing to the 24-month sentence in the binding plea agreement. As attorneys prepared for Kissane’s sentence, they argued that Buddenberg was the mastermind behind the scheme and that his abusive, dominating presence in the relationship exploited her love of animals and led her into committing the crimes.

Federal defender Reuben Cahn said Buddenberg had told Kissane that if she truly cared for animals, she needed to take direct action.

“This offense wouldn’t have happened had she not met Mr. Buddenberg,” Cahn said at the sentencing.


Burns agreed that Buddenberg was likely the moving force behind the scheme and dominated Kissan but also noted that she had a great deal of responsibility for her own actions. Her sentence should also make a statement to any other animal extremists considering illegal actions, Burns said.

He added that the new information about Buddenberg’s role in the scheme had him regretting the sentence he handed down months earlier.

“I don’t think Buddenberg got an appropriate sentence now,” Burns said.

The judge added: “He got a screaming deal.”


Burns said he shared Kissane’s concern for animal treatment — just not with the same passion. He said the 2015 story that went viral of a Minnesota dentist who hunted Cecil the lion, a famous predator in one of Zimbabwe’s national parks, was an example that “made me sick to my stomach.”

“Such a magnificent animal. It was so unnecessary. Why would you do that?” the judge said of the lion’s killing.

Kissane declined to make a statement at the hearing.

She has agreed to pay $423,477 in restitution, to be shared by Buddenberg. The Grafs, who are owed $30,000, are first in line for payment, Burns ordered.


Kimberley Graf, whose fur store and home was vandalized, sat in the front row of the sentencing with her parents — both she and her mother wearing black fur vests. She declined to speak at this hearing, having done so at a previous one, but brought with her two large binders documenting the damage done in this case as well as other similar incidents endured over the past 30 years.

“We maintain our right to a legal, legitimate business,” Graf said outside the courtroom, adding that activists have a right to not agree with it. “Don’t impose your beliefs on us because we don’t impose our beliefs on them.”

Other victims owed restitution include Moyle Mink Farm at $108,000 and Bonland Farms at about $141,000.


kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis