Animal Rights Activist Who Promotes Violence Arrested in Detroit

Camille Marino, a radical animal liberation activist who advocates violence against scientists who use animals in their research, was arrested yesterday at Detroit’s Wayne State University after chaining herself to the school library in defiance of an order banning her from campus.

Marino heads Negotiation is Over (NIO), a Florida-based group that specializes in harassing vivisectionists, publishing on its website names, addresses and other personal information about its targets. “If you spill blood, your blood should be spilled as well,” she wrote in a 2010 message on the site. “We will print your information. And we’ll be at your homes. We’ll be at your work. We’ll be at your country clubs and golf courses. We’ll see you at your manicurist and we’ll be kneeling next to you when you take that next holy communion wafer on Sunday. If I have my way, you’ll be praying to us for mercy.”

The Wayne State ban stems from her attacks on Donal O’Leary, a cardiovascular researcher who obtained a protective order against her after she targeted him in last fall.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Marino, who had scheduled a protest for 1 p.m., arrived on campus at noon and chained herself to the front door of the undergraduate library with a bicycle lock, placing a gag over her mouth. Campus police cut the lock with bolt cutters and arrested her.

This was not Marino’s first trip to Michigan. In February, she was arrested in Florida and extradited to Detroit to face contempt of court charges after she violated a judge’s order that she remove all references to O’Leary from her site and refrain from discussing him on social media. She was released on bond in early March and had been due in court yesterday morning for a hearing, which was postponed after she and her attorney parted ways (according to court papers, they were “unable to communicate concerning strategy”).

Steve Best, a philosophy professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and close ally of NIO whose motto, proclaimed on his blog, is, “When the law is wrong, the right thing to do is break it,” says on his website that Marino’s trial is set for June 18. Her new lawyers, Matt Savich and Michael Cafferty, specialize in personal injury and drunk driving.