FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Protesters Seek to Save the Tiger

The endangered Siberian tiger may live thousands of miles away, but Thursday morning the animal was the subject of a protest here by 15 environmental activists opposed to Hyundai Corp.’s logging in the Siberian Forest in Russia.

Protesters claimed that another subsidiary of the parent company of Hyundai Motor America is stripping the tiger’s habitat and creating access roads that poachers use to hunt the tigers.

Most of the activists sat atop a huge concrete Hyundai sign and held a banner calling for a boycott of Hyundai. Two men managed to make their way to the roof of Hyundai’s four-story building at 10550 Talbert Ave. to display their message. That drew the attention of morning commuters on the San Diego Freeway as well as Hyundai executives, who called police.

Jake Kreilick, regional coordinator of the Nature Forest Network, said the protest was calculated to force a meeting with Hyundai executives. Earth First! and the Rainforest Action Network were also represented at the protest.

“This was a fact-finding mission,” he said after a 40-minute meeting with three company executives. “We know they are practicing unsustainable forestry but we want to know from them the extent of their logging activities.”

Bill Wolf, a spokesman for Hyundai Motor America, said the company is a wholly owned subsidiary and is totally financially independent from its parent company and its outside ventures.

“We have no involvement at all with any of the other companies,” he said, “so we have no idea what this logging operation is all about.”

Kreilick said he asked Keith Duckworth, vice president of administration, to submit a letter containing questions from his group and a book titled “Clearcut, the Tragedy of Industrial Foresting,” to the company’s chief executive officer, who was not present.

Protesters disbanded at about 10:30 a.m., two hours after it began. There were no arrests.