Control in New York City. In August 2004, Ferdin accepted the presidency of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), according to statements filed under oath in U.S. District Court in New Jersey. The incumbent, Kevin Kjonaas, resigned after being indicted on charges of conspiracy and interstate stalking. When Kjonaas and six other SHAC activists were jailed in 2006, Ferdin vowed to continue the campaign. According to salon.com, she defined her role as "a squeaky-clean representative for SHAC USA," but warned that if the SHAC seven were convicted, "[P]eople, I think, are going to get hurt. There's going to be a lot of violence." In 2004, she accused the parents of Kelly Keen, a three-year-old child killed in a coyote attack, of murdering their daughter and using the story of an animal attack to cover up the crime. This was part of her protest against public efforts to control the coyote population near suburban homes. On June 22, 2006, Ferdin was sentenced to 90 days in jail for trespassing and "targeted demonstration" outside the home of an employee of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services. She stated that the conviction "is not going to affect my speaking out and exposing the atrocities occurring at our six city shelters". She served 36 hours and was released before serving the full sentence due to prison overcrowding. In December 2006, Ferdin's group, the Animal Defense League, Los Angeles (ADLLA), announced that it had been awarded $75,000 against the city of Los Angeles for an anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation motion. Her ex-husband, Jerry Vlasak, "sits on a precarious perch within the animal rights movement," according to a profile in The Los Angeles Times in 2006. "Through his Animal Liberation Press Office, he is the spokesman for shadowy groups that sabotage labs, vandalize homes, firebomb properties and make death threats via late-night phone calls. But he works in the wide open, operating a website, issuing press releases, talking to journalists." In 2008, Ferdin was found in contempt of court, after allegedly violating an injunction. The conviction was overturned and she filed a federal lawsuit against UCLA for harassment. Personal life She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at the University of Southern California in 1978. She graduated from the Los Angeles County Medical Center School of Nursing in the spring of 1981 and got her first nursing job on the medical ward at