Man gets 3 years for releasing mink

CHICAGO, IL (AP)

A California man has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for vandalizing an Illinois fur farm and releasing more than 2,000 mink from their cages.

Twenty-eight-year-old Kevin Johnson of Los Angeles pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to travel in interstate commerce with the purpose of damaging an animal enterprise. He was sentenced on the charge Monday, Feb. 29 in federal court in Chicago.

An accomplice, Tyler Lang of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty last year to the same charge as Johnson. He's scheduled to be sentenced March 23.

Johnson and Lang are accused of spray painting a barn, pouring an acidic substance over two trucks and releasing mink at a farm in Morris, IL, in August 2013.

About 1,600 of the mink were recovered, but the rest died or were never found.