“Fur is murder,” the old PETA slogan goes. But now anti-fur activism can be a killer too. A Cleveland, Ohio woman was arrested Tuesday for conspiracy to commit murder after she posted a Facebook message offering to pay a hit man $730 to kill someone wearing fur.
New York’s Daily News reported that Meredith Lowell had compared animal rights activism to the liberation of World War II concentration camps, and decided to take her beliefs to the next level.
Lowell created a Facebook account under an alias to promote her plan.
“I would like to create an online community on Facebook which would allow me to find someone who is willing to kill someone who is wearing fur toward the end of October 2011 or early November 2011 or possibly in January 2012 or February 2012 at the latest,” her posting read.
When police discovered the post in November, an undercover operation was set up to correspond with Lowell and agree to do the job. Authorities say that the undercover officer was offered $730 in jewelry or cash.
‘I am paying you $730 to kill one person wearing fur who is 12 or older – hopefully at least 14 years, however 12 years old or older is fine,” she reportedly wrote an undercover FBI agent in an email.
Lowell told the hit man to kill the first person he saw wearing fur outside of a library in Cleveland Heights.
After the two had conversations for several months, Lowell started opening up to the officer on Facebook and eventually through email. She revealed that she had been posting to Facebook under an alias, and discussed the details of her murder plan.
In one of those emails, she offered shocking details.
“You need to bring a gun that has a silencer on it and that can be easily concealed in your pants pocket or coat,” she wrote.
“If you do not want to risk the possibility of getting caught with a gun before the job, bring a sharp knife that is (at least) 4 inches long,” Lowell continued. “[I]t should be sharp enough to stab someone and/or slit their throat to kill them. I want the person to be dead in less than 2 minutes.”
The Ohio animal activist extremist remains in custody, awaiting a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.